Only recently has B2B commerce begun its digital transition. The gross merchandise volume of Amazon Business reached $10 billion in 2019, up from $1 billion in 2015, its first year. Still, that pales in comparison to Amazon’s B2C business, which generated over $300 billion of gross merchandise volume in 2019

The window of opportunity has largely closed, however, this is far from being the case for B2B marketplaces. Whilst consumers are able to order just about anything online, most businesses have not even started transacting online... That being said, I suspect that this category is where the next generation of outliers will be built.

Digital has led to market fragmentation in nearly everything. Reduced opportunity costs have spawned a plethora of Direct to Consumer (DTC) brands which will continue for the foreseeable future. Small niche startups will continue to build followings and “tribes” in ways that couldn’t have been imagined in the pre-internet era.