Mar 31, 2026 | 8 minute read
written by Elastic Path
Summary: More brands than ever are running B2B, D2C, and B2B2C commerce simultaneously — but most platforms weren't built to support more than one model well. The result is usually two systems, two teams, and twice the complexity. In this post, we explore why multi-model commerce is becoming the norm, where platforms tend to fall short, and how brands like Orgill and Johnstone Supply are making it work on a single platform.
More and more brands are waking up to the same realization: their commerce strategy no longer fits neatly into a single box. Whether you're a B2B distributor exploring direct-to-consumer, a D2C brand building out a dealer network, or an enterprise juggling multiple routes-to-market simultaneously, the pressure to support several business models on one platform has never been greater.
At Elastic Path, this is something we see every day. Brands that previously ran a single digital channel are now asking how to expand, and they don't want to do it by adding another platform to an already complex tech stack. In this post, we'll break down why this trend is accelerating, where legacy platforms fall short, and how a composable, AI-ready approach makes it actually manageable.
This isn't a niche challenge. Industry research consistently shows that the majority of brands now operate across both B2B commerce and B2C channels in some capacity. The old idea of a brand belonging exclusively to one model is increasingly rare.
A few forces are driving this:
Revenue expansion: Running multiple business models increases your total addressable market. A manufacturer that only sold through distributors can now capture margin directly via D2C. A distributor that served retailers can now offer branded storefronts to those same retailers' end customers. Done right, expanding your digital routes-to-market grows both your top and bottom line.
B2B buyers expect better: The next generation of B2B buyers has grown up shopping online and expects the same speed, self-service, and personalization from their work purchases. That bar keeps rising, and brands that ignore it feel it in their conversion rates.
Your existing infrastructure is an asset: Adding a new business model doesn't necessarily mean starting from scratch. Your supply chain, product data, pricing logic, and technology investments can often be extended rather than replaced, if you're on the right platform.
The most common pitfall we see is brands trying to solve a multi-model problem with an ecommerce platform that was designed for a single one. Sometimes that means using two separate products from the same vendor. Sometimes it means bolting on a second platform entirely. Either way, the challenges are predictable.
Separate commerce platforms mean separate teams, separate implementations, and separate vendor relationships. That creates organizational friction and often leads to inconsistent customer experiences across channels. It also means paying twice for a lot of things: customizations, integrations, ongoing maintenance. And even when a vendor tells you their platform can technically handle both B2B and B2C, the compromises tend to show up quickly. Lite B2B support often means missing things like true account-based pricing. A basic B2C storefront bolted onto a B2B system rarely meets the bar buyers expect. "Technically possible" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in those conversations.
The core idea behind Elastic Path is that brands shouldn't have to choose between supporting B2B complexity and delivering great consumer-grade experiences, and they shouldn't need two platforms to do it.
In practice, this comes down to how product data, pricing, and catalogs are managed. Rather than building separate systems for different business models, Elastic Path lets you manage everything from one place. You can create distinct pricebooks for different audiences: a B2C customer sees one price, a B2B account sees their negotiated rate, a dealer sees their own catalog. Account hierarchies, quoting, and buyer portals are built in natively, not bolted on, which matters when you're dealing with the kind of org complexity that's standard in B2B.
AI is increasingly part of this picture too. As B2B buyers start using AI tools to discover and evaluate products before they ever reach a storefront, having structured, AI-ready catalog data becomes a real competitive advantage. Johnstone Supply has already built a private LLM-powered assistant into their buying experience to help field technicians find the right parts faster. That kind of capability is a lot easier to build when your commerce foundation is designed for it from the start.
The other piece is integrations. One of the less glamorous but genuinely painful parts of running multiple business models is connecting everything: ERPs, CRMs, PIMs, pricing engines. Elastic Path's built-in integration platform gives teams one place to manage those connections, which cuts down on the custom middleware that tends to become a maintenance burden over time.
Orgill, the fastest-growing independent hardlines distributor in the industry, had been thinking about a B2B2C initiative for over a decade. The challenge wasn't just launching online commerce. It was doing it for more than 13,000 retail hardware stores across 50 countries, each with different brands, product assortments, pricing requirements, and POS systems.
With Elastic Path, Orgill built their Impact eCommerce™ program, which lets them centrally manage product data and integrations while giving individual dealers the flexibility to customize their own storefronts. Dealers can launch a full shoppable website in weeks, or a product catalog in days. The platform supports everything from catalog-only experiences to fully POS-integrated commerce, all within a single environment that Orgill controls centrally.
"Our B2B2C ambitions go beyond what a typical provider could support. The only way to bring this program to life was with Elastic Path," said Grant Morrow, Director of eCommerce at Orgill.
What makes this a genuine multi-model story is the structure: Orgill is the B2B layer, their dealers are the intermediary, and end consumers are the final buyer. Each layer needs something different from the platform, and the whole thing has to work together seamlessly.
Johnstone Supply, the largest HVAC/R wholesale distributor in the U.S., uses Elastic Path to power digital commerce across more than 450 stores and over a million SKUs. Their buyer isn't a consumer browsing for deals. It's a field technician who needs the right part, at the right price, without a lot of friction.
Their previous setup was fragmented: over 100 independent store groups, each tied to its own ERP, with inconsistent experiences and limited ability to innovate. With Elastic Path, they unified 75 catalogs in one platform, built a mobile app for technicians, embedded an AI-powered assistant for product guidance, and created selector tools that help contractors order complete component sets in a single transaction.
The results are measurable: online orders carry a $300 higher average order value than counter sales, and digital channels now account for 18% of revenue across a $4B+ business.
Together, Orgill and Johnstone show the range of what multi-model commerce actually looks like in the real world, from layered B2B2C distribution networks to field-facing B2B experiences with account-level pricing and AI-assisted purchasing.
If you're currently running multiple business models on separate platforms, or if you know an expansion is on the horizon, the platform decision you make now will determine how painful or manageable that growth is.
The real question isn't whether a platform can technically support B2B and B2C. Most will say yes. The better questions are whether it can handle real B2B complexity without compromise, whether your teams can manage everything from one environment, and whether the foundation is ready for the way commerce is evolving, including AI-driven discovery and buying. Getting those answers right upfront saves a lot of replatforming conversations later.
If you're working through this and want a second opinion on your approach, we're happy to dig in.
Running multiple digital business models is increasingly the norm, not the exception. But most legacy platforms weren't designed for it. Platforms built around a single model often push brands onto two separate systems, creating cost and complexity that compounds over time. A composable, API-first approach lets brands manage every model from one platform, with the B2B depth, catalog flexibility, and AI-readiness to support how commerce is actually evolving. Orgill and Johnstone Supply are two examples of what that looks like in practice.
Key Takeaways
Most brands now operate across multiple commerce models. The question isn't whether to support B2B and B2C, but how to do it without doubling your infrastructure.
B2B buyers increasingly expect consumer-quality digital experiences, raising the bar for what good looks like on the B2B side.
Platforms built for a single model create real cost and complexity when you try to stretch them across multiple ones — separate systems, separate teams, and compromises that compound over time.
A composable platform lets you manage products, pricing, and catalogs for any business model from one place, including account-based pricing, rule-based catalogs, and account hierarchies built in natively.
AI is changing how B2B buyers discover and purchase. Structured, AI-ready catalog data is becoming a competitive advantage, not just a technical consideration.
Schedule a demo to see how Elastic Path delivers unified commerce for leading global brands.