From a supply chain perspective, at the minimum omnichannel impacts fulfillment, inventory policies, pricing, promotions and product offerings by channel and payment terms for suppliers. They should consider omnichannel in the broadest sense possible and think through all the "what-ifs" so they are prepared for and understand the implications of different retailer or OEM strategies. And better yet, a supplier, understanding certain approaches to be more advantageous, should proactively engage the retailer/customer in a discussion, rather than being in a reactive mode.

Obviously a manufacturer may be a brand company, too. As such, they sell direct and through channels. Their B2B customers are also changing in the same way that retail/consumers are.

B2B sellers are investing as much in their ecommerce as in B2C. Key issues for them are complex pricing and discount structures for a large variety of customer categories and dealing with more complex agreements and contracts in a web context vs. manually.

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