Research Question
What role does the supplier website now play in a B2B buying journey, and what information and functionality should companies prioritise as buyers become more self-directed?
Executive Finding
The evidence does not support the idea that B2B buying is simply becoming “digital instead of human”.
It points to something more interesting.
Buyers increasingly want to perform a substantial part of discovery, research and evaluation independently. Gartner reported in 2026 that 67% of surveyed B2B buyers preferred a rep-free experience and 70% preferred a completely digital self-service buying experience. Yet 69% also said they turned to sales representatives to validate AI-generated insights. Buyers in the same survey used an average of seven information sources during a recent purchase.
The implication is not:
Replace sales with the website.
It is:
Move more of the buyer’s early decision work into the digital environment, then make human expertise available when confidence, complexity or risk requires it.
That changes what a B2B website is for.
Method
This research is a synthesis of current published evidence rather than a primary MAXPRIMACY survey.
We reviewed recent studies and published findings relating to:
- B2B channel preferences;
- digital self-service;
- supplier websites;
- high-value digital purchases;
- buyer trust;
- seller involvement;
- website experience.
Priority was given to research with disclosed samples or established research programmes, including Gartner and McKinsey.
The purpose was not to calculate a new universal benchmark. It was to identify recurring implications across independent research.
Finding 1. B2B buyers increasingly want to investigate before they engage
Gartner’s 2026 survey of 646 B2B buyers found 67% preferred a rep-free experience. A related Gartner survey found 70% preferred a completely digital self-service experience.
This does not necessarily mean buyers want to complete every complex purchase without another human.
It means forcing human interaction too early can conflict with how many buyers want to progress.
The initial buyer may want to:
- understand the offer;
- determine relevance;
- compare options;
- assess implementation;
- understand limitations;
- examine evidence;
- estimate cost;
- explore the product;
before identifying themselves to the supplier.
This makes a website more than a corporate presentation.
It becomes part of the buying infrastructure.
Finding 2. The preference is not simply digital versus human
McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse surveyed almost 4,000 B2B decision-makers across 13 countries and found a persistent “rule of thirds”: depending on the buying stage, roughly one-third preferred in-person engagement, one-third remote interaction and one-third digital self-service.
The pattern held across geography, company size and purchase type. McKinsey also found growing willingness to make high-value purchases remotely, including transactions worth $500,000 or more among some buyer groups.
That makes a binary strategy problematic.
A company designed entirely around:
Book a call
may introduce friction for buyers who want independent investigation.
But a company designed around:
Never talk to us
can fail when uncertainty becomes significant.
The better architecture allows the buyer to move between modes.
Finding 3. Human interaction becomes more valuable when the buyer needs confidence
The same Gartner research that found strong demand for self-service also found 69% of B2B buyers preferred to validate AI-generated insights with sales representatives. Gartner describes the role of the seller increasingly around reassurance, context and decision support rather than simply providing information that buyers cannot obtain elsewhere.
This distinction matters.
Much of the information historically controlled by sales can now be researched through:
- supplier websites;
- search;
- review platforms;
- industry publications;
- AI systems;
- communities;
- competitors.
The seller’s comparative value therefore moves toward questions such as:
- Is this suitable for our particular situation?
- What are we overlooking?
- What will implementation actually require?
- Which option would you recommend and why?
- How does this affect our existing environment?
- What risks should we consider?
A generic brochure and an aggressive sales form do not support that journey particularly well.
Finding 4. Poor website experience is now commercially consequential
Gartner reported in 2025 that 76% of B2B buyers said they would avoid doing business with suppliers providing a bad website experience. Its research specifically highlighted capabilities such as product comparison and implementation support as website features buyers value.
Earlier Gartner research also found that buyers interacted with supplier websites more than other supplier digital interactions and warned that digital self-service without adequate decision support can increase purchase regret.
This gives website architecture a larger role than visual presentation.
A site must help a buyer answer:
What is this?
Basic category and proposition clarity.
Is it relevant to us?
Segments, situations, applications and use cases.
How is it different?
Positioning and comparison.
Can it work in our situation?
Requirements, compatibility, implementation and limitations.
Can we trust this company?
Cases, evidence, expertise, reputation and transparent information.
What happens next?
A clear commercial path that does not demand unnecessary commitment prematurely.
Finding 5. “More content” is not the same as greater buyer enablement
A company can have hundreds of pages and still provide weak decision support.
The relevant question is not how much information exists.
It is whether the information helps complete important buying tasks.
A product feature page may describe everything the product can do while leaving unanswered:
- who should choose it;
- who should not;
- how implementation works;
- how alternatives compare;
- what internal resources are required;
- what evidence supports the claims.
Likewise, an impressive corporate homepage can communicate brand personality without helping the buyer understand the actual offer.
The gap is often architectural rather than editorial.
Interpretation
Current evidence suggests the B2B website is moving toward a self-directed decision environment.
That means the architecture should increasingly support a sequence such as:
Discover
↓
Understand
↓
Evaluate
↓
Compare
↓
Validate
↓
Engage
Not every buyer will travel through every stage digitally.
But requiring:
Discover -> Contact Sales
leaves a substantial part of the buying journey unsupported.
Commercial Implications
1. Make relevance discoverable without requiring contact
A visitor should be able to understand:
- what the company solves;
- for whom;
- in which situations;
- with what approach;
without completing a form.
2. Build pages around buyer decisions
Architecture should represent meaningful differences in:
- problems;
- applications;
- customer groups;
- products;
- buying situations.
Not merely departments.
3. Give complex buyers enough evidence to continue
Strong B2B pages may need:
- comparison;
- methodology;
- implementation information;
- limitations;
- cases;
- evidence;
- technical details.
4. Use sales where sales creates additional value
The salesperson should not merely repeat the website.
The digital experience should prepare the question.
The human interaction should improve the decision.
Limitations
This research does not prove that every B2B company should create a fully self-service buying process.
The cited studies span different industries, company sizes and buying situations.
Channel preference also changes with:
- product familiarity;
- transaction complexity;
- perceived risk;
- account value;
- customer type.
McKinsey’s evidence itself demonstrates continued demand for in-person and remote human interaction alongside digital self-service.
Therefore the conclusion is not “remove sales”.
It is:
design the digital and human parts of the journey around the decision the buyer is trying to make.
Research Conclusion
The B2B website is no longer adequately described as a digital brochure.
For many buyers it is part of the evaluation system.
And the stronger question is no longer:
Does the website describe the company?
It is:
Can a buyer make meaningful progress toward a confident decision before asking the company for help?