B2B Logistics: Challenges and key Solutions [2025]

Introduction

B2B commerce is no longer what it was a decade ago, stymied by traditional retail distribution, fragmented vendor technology, and poor technology adoption.  Today, B2B is growing at a CAGR of 14.4% with consumer electronics, fashion, biotech, furniture, toys, and FMCG emerging as the leading segments. 

Many factors contribute to its burgeoning expansion, the most significant being- the rapid proliferation of B2B marketplaces and omnichannel commerce. 90% of companies have adopted a digital channel, and most brands are blending retail with eCommerce. 

The increasing intra-brand movement and converging distribution systems has made it imperative to master logistics in order to serve customers and scale. This article will give you an in-depth understanding of B2B logistics, its challenges, and automated solutions to grow your business and fulfillment needs.

How Does B2B Logistics Work?

In simple terms, B2B logistics facilitate the movement of goods between businesses. In reality, it involves a complex web of planning, organization, and technology for distributing and shipping merchandise in bulk. The efficiency in B2B logistics is dependent upon the coordination among suppliers, distributors, transporters, freight forwarders, wholesalers, and retailers. 

B2B logistics handle multi-piece shipments unlike smaller parcels generally found in D2C or B2C logistics. Moreover, B2B shipping predominantly comprises larger, heavier packages that have a higher invoice value. This necessitates rigorous tracking and monitoring to ensure merchandise reaches its intended warehouse or stores on time. 

Managing the sheer volume and tallying with the growing demand for faster shipping cycles makes timely deliveries in B2B logistics a herculean task. B2B logistics works with the precise collaboration between the brands and their warehouses, carriers, and other logistics service providers. 

What Activities Are Involved in B2B Logistics?

As pure-play retailers are increasingly opting for an omnichannel model, maintaining transparency and the timely flow of inventory has become the cornerstone of B2B logistics. 

Top 6 Challenges in B2B Logistics that Retailers Encounter

Companies that sell across multiple channels – from Amazon marketplaces,  physical retail and quick-commerce platforms – face complex logistics hurdles. Below we explore six key challenges that B2B merchants face the most-

1. Lack of Consignment Visibility

Having end-to-end visibility of shipments (consignments) in transit is critical but often lacking in the B2B supply chain. Many brands struggle to track orders moving through different carriers and channels in real time. 

The lack of live updates increases instances of cargo theft, delivery delays, stockouts, and poor customer relations. 

A survey of industry professionals highlights this issue. It found that though 77% of professionals consider real-time shipment visibility a must-have, only half of them had the right technology to implement it.  

2. Missed Quick Commerce Appointments

As customers are demonstrating growing interest in the ultra-fast fulfillment models promising deliveries within hours—timing is everything. 

Many B2B companies, especially in FMCG and omnichannel brands supplying inventory to rapid delivery services must hit very tight delivery slots. A missed delivery appointment can mean empty shelves in a 15-minute delivery window, lost sales, or even financial penalties. Leading marketplaces enforce strict on-time requirements. 

For instance, Walmart charges vendors a penalty of 3% of the shipment’s value for late deliveries. These chargebacks underscore the importance of On-Time In-Full (OTIF) delivery and not leaving any chance to miss appointments. 

3. Manual Management of Proof of Deliveries

Many B2B logistics operations still rely on paper based POD, signed delivery slips and physical documents to confirm delivery status. This exacerbates the problem of a manual approach—it's labor intensive and error-prone. 

Furthermore, since a paper POD does not provide real-time updates to brands, only once the paper is returned can the delivery be confirmed. Handwritten PODs can be lost or illegible, while paperwork processing delays can slow down invoicing, and dispute resolution. 

4. Discrepancies in Invoice Reconciliation

Reconciling the carrier invoice against the actual shipment is a tedious but a crucial task— and one that’s often fraught with discrepancies. B2B retailers ship across multiple carriers, so it’s difficult to keep track of bills with incorrect rates, duplicate charges, and missing credits. 

A report on industry audit revealed how pervasive this issue is. In its analysis of nearly 250,000 freight invoices, about 4.5% contained billing errors. This included wrongly applied accessorial fees to fuel surcharge mistakes. Manually detecting data-mismatch increases the risk of errors and creates enormous hurdles in dispute resolution.

5. Lack of Operational Efficiency in Store Management

Physical retail stores remain a key node in omnichannel logistics – whether as destinations for B2B deliveries or as fulfillment points for online orders. Yet many brands struggle with inefficient store-level operations, especially around inventory management and replenishment. 

One major pain point is inventory inaccuracy. Retailers’ stock records can often be unreliable; on average, inventory data is only 60% accurate in stores​. 

This creates the issue of ‘phantom inventory’, where items shown in stock aren’t actually on the shelf. This can be a nightmare for omnichannel retailers as maintaining inventory in their physical stores. Such gaps not only hurt sales but also erode customer trust. 

6. Ineffective Transporters Management

Managing transportation partners (carriers, 3PLs, trucking companies) is a complex challenge, as businesses use dozens of different transporters. The absence of a centralized oversight or control system can lead to inconsistent service level, higher costs, and capacity shortfalls. 

In the Indian market, this challenge is magnified by fragmentation—over 70% of truck owners operate fleets of fewer than five trucks. This compels shippers to often coordinate with many small operators. Without a unified technology platform—one that enables seamless carrier integrations and allocation, the operational and shipping efficiencies suffer. 

6 Key Solutions to Gain An Effective B2B Logistics

Though the challenges may seem daunting at the first glance there are solutions for each of them. We’ve mentioned six strategies to eliminate TAT, poor visibility, and inefficiencies in the system. 

1. Automated Visibility for Integrated Tracking

As mentioned above, the B2B logistics is less digitized and has fragmented visibility. To improve tracking accuracy, carriers and brands must invest in technology—adoption of IoT tracking devices, GPS updates, RFID tags, etc. Businesses employing IoT-enabled visibility have reported up to a 30% reduction in supply chain disruptions. 

Moreover, advanced logistics platforms offer APIs and webhook integrations, a unified dashboard, and alerts systems to detect delays. They help ensure retailers can proactively manage delays or risks, minimize cargo losses, and ensure on-time deliveries. 

2. Complying with the Demands of B2B Marketplaces

To achieve OTIF delivery rate, businesses must start with automating dock scheduling with the help of intelligent B2B shipping management systems. These systems help brands meet stringent quick-commerce timelines and marketplace appointments. 

They coordinate carrier availability, route optimization, and appointment reminders, to significantly reduce missed delivery windows. Companies utilizing automated dock scheduling tools experience improved appointment adherence rates. 

Many exceed 95% on-time delivery performance which is critical for maintaining retailer satisfaction in omnichannel models.

3. Digitized POD Collection and Verification 

Since, many times, businesses give their materials on credit to the buyer, receiving PODs on time serves as evidence that the shipment was delivered. Therefore, replacing manual paperwork with electronic PODs significantly streamlines logistics operations. 

Electronic POD (ePOD) provides immediate electronic signatures, photographic records, GPS verification, and instant cloud storage. Businesses adopting ePOD solutions reduce delivery confirmation delays by up to 80%. ePODs speed up invoicing cycles and significantly enhance transparency. 

Though using ePOD is the best practice,  many retailers have to grapple with paper-based ones.  The best solution is to digitize and systematize POD collection via APIs. 

4. Eliminating Invoicing Roadblocks and Cost Control

Automated freight auditing and invoicing systems minimize invoice discrepancies through real-time shipment data reconciliation. AI-driven invoice reconciliation solutions typically identify and rectify errors at a rate of over 90%.  

For instance, ClickPost automatically reconciles the invoice received from the carrier at a granular level. It takes into account not just the base freight rates, taxes, and surcharges but also additional often overlooked details—insurance, floor charge, annual increment, etc.

Thus, automated systems like ClickPost are best at reducing administrative costs and enabling finance teams to refocus efforts on strategic initiatives. A Gartner study highlights that businesses using automated reconciliation software achieve 20-25% savings on logistics-related overheads.

5. Enhanced Inventory Management for Optimized Store-Level Logistics 

Advanced inventory management software ensures accurate, real-time visibility of stock levels across omnichannel operations. These solutions facilitate automated replenishment and optimize inventory positioning. 

But, to effectively manage and reduce phantom inventory, it’s also important to have a bird’s eye view of distribution. A B2B logistics management software solution can help in this regard. How?

Take the case of ClickPost here. It helps omnichannel businesses to conduct store-to-store movement. It enables area managers and store-owners to send the items anywhere it’s needed, alongside allocating carriers and tracking the movement precisely. This drastically lowered the chances of stock-outs and faster replenishment.

6. Strategic Partnerships for Multi-Carrier Management

Advanced multi-carrier management platforms allow businesses to strategically consolidate and manage transportation partners. Companies that leverage these platforms witness improvements in transportation cost. The reason for this is rather simple—optimized carrier selection and data-driven performance analytics. 

In regions like India, logistics networks are filled with legacy carriers and manual recordkeeping. However, with technology-enabled platforms, retailers can streamline carrier management, ensure SLA adherence. They can witness immediate benefits with significantly improved delivery consistency and capacity utilization. 

How ClickPost Optimizes B2B Logistics?

ClickPost is a multi-carrier shipping software that takes an API-first approach to solve complex B2B challenges. It is a unified logistics intelligence platform for real-time visibility, automated carrier allocation, and optimized multi-carrier management. ClickPost is pre-integrated with 50+ carriers specializing in B2B shipping, 10+ storefronts, 6+ OMS/WMS, and 45+ communication gateways. 

Retailers and omnichannel brands using its solutions— ePOd, automated invoice reconciliation, performance-based carrier allocation, substantially lowers operational costs and significantly improves logistics performance.

Discover how ClickPost helped Agrim reduce 60% order processing time, B2B and logistics related queries. Try our free demo today and experience what you can achieve with a simple click!

Conclusion

Creating a streamlined B2B logistics should not be a challenge plaguing retailers. Though the current situation is less than ideal owing to the prevalence of manual dependencies, automated solutions like ClickPost can help brands recover cost, speed, and customer satisfaction.