As we move into 2026, several shifts that started quietly over the past few years are now gaining real momentum. Across the Nomad customer base (and the broader manufacturing and distribution space) these trends are no longer emerging early signals. They’re now clear patterns shaping how B2B companies sell online. Below is a look at the five I believe will matter most next year, along with how it all will be felt across operations, revenue, and the customers’ experience.
1. Large Online Orders Are Becoming the Norm
One of the clearest trends we are seeing is the steady increase in high-value online orders. In other words, customers now place one big order in lieu of five or six smaller ones.. In fact, across typical Nomad implementations, average order size is up more than 30 percent during this last year, and we are seeing more single-ticket orders above $50,000 than ever before. I expect 2026 to bring many more orders approaching six figures, with fewer of the smaller semi-monthly or semi-weekly orders that used to be common.
And the implications are clear. Larger online orders are more complex operationally speaking. They require accurate shipping estimates (without all the back and forth), stronger lead-time visibility, and clear rules for when a sales team needs to step in with (for example) a formal quote. They also depend on precise inventory allocation and support for customer payment terms, because no one is putting $50,000+ on a credit card. Backorder reporting and shipment notifications become essential as well, since orders of this size rarely ship complete. Platforms not built for this level of complexity will struggle.
2. The Shift Towards Selling Reconditioned and Refurbished Inventory Online
A second trend revolves around online support for the selling of non-standard inventory, i.e. reconditioned, remanufactured, refurbished, and similar one-off items. More companies are now looking at the possibility of selling these items online instead of having them just sit in a warehouse or trying to sell them informally through phone calls, emails, or behind-the-scenes discounting.
We’ve seen a noticeable uptick in requests to support these workflows needed for non-standard inventory sales, and have already built several sites that help our customers extract value from inventory that would otherwise remain dormant.
Where This Shows Up in the Real World
One of our customers handles a steady volume of returns in various states—open-box units, scratch-and-dent items, and remanufactured components. Before Nomad, they tracked these items through a mix of spreadsheets and internal notes, meaning most of this inventory never made it online. With Nomad, they can now push these units through an internal review workflow and publish them online as individual SKUs tied to a single warehouse and a single available quantity.
Another example involves a customer who refurbishes heavy equipment engines. They may only have one reconditioned engine available at any given time, stored in a specific warehouse. Nomad supports the exact workflow they need. They can publish a single unit, prevent global quantity inheritance (i.e. keep it tied only to that specific location), and ensure that the engine is not shown as “in stock” anywhere else.
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Why Most eCommerce Platforms Struggle to Support Reconditioned and Refurbished Inventory Online
This is where most broad-market platforms fall short. Supporting these workflows often requires SKU duplication, complex API scripting, or custom logic to suppress global inventory rules. Many systems will show the wrong available quantity, treat the item as if it is available in all warehouses, subtract stock from the wrong warehouse, or let buyers purchase more units than actually exist.
As margins tighten and companies look for ways to extract more value from diminished goods, the capability to sell reconditioned and refurbished inventory becomes a strategic advantage.
3. Burnout on AI-Generated Product Content
A third shift is happening on the content side. After a wave of enthusiasm (to put it lightly) for generative AI, there is now a noticeable level of burnout when it comes to AI-written product descriptions, specs, and upsell copy. Many companies used AI tools to quickly produce thousands of SKUs’ worth of content, but the results often felt redundant, repetitive, and generic. Additionally, companies that generated tens of thousands of descriptions through ChatGPT or API scripts often published that content with no review, and the results are plainly (and painfully) obvious..
Buyers are signaling (and will continue to signal) that they want the exact opposite. They want concise content, simple layouts, and a stripped-down display of relevant specs that doesn’t feel flattened by automation. Here at Nomad, our view is that generative AI is best used for work customers never read—metadata, image alt phrasing, etc.—not for customer-facing descriptions. When content is meant for human consumption, it deserves a human hand. As more companies realize the limits of bulk AI content creation, expect a return to simpler, we expect to see a return to more intentional product pages.
4. Marketplace Models Are Moving Into the Mainstream
We’re also seeing a rapid rise in marketplace-style business models, especially among manufacturers and master distributors. In this approach, a company launches a direct ordering site but gives distributors or wholesalers/resellers an easy way to receive credit or commissions when their customers place orders.
In many of our site implementations, end users can register, place an order at an established price point, and the system automatically attributes the sale to the correct distributor based on territory or account assignment. We can also set it up so that resellers can direct phone orders to the website by using a unique code at checkout to ensure they receive credit. Some businesses take this further by offering white-labeled reseller storefronts, where a distributor’s customers shop under the distributor’s logo, branding, and pricing while the manufacturer fulfills the order.
One of the major advantages for distributors is that they do not have to build or maintain their own eCommerce site. They can leverage the manufacturer’s or master distributor’s infrastructure, including product data, pricing, inventory visibility, and order routing, without investing in a platform, managing data, or maintaining system integrations. They gain a modern digital presence without the operational and financial burden of running it themselves.
The impact is meaningful for the manufacturers and master distributors. Selling at retail boosts top-line revenue, and in many cases it increases profit. And with the right automation in place, retail orders can be far less operationally burdensome than wholesale orders. It’s a model that strengthens relationships while improving financial performance—a rare combination.
5. Agentic Commerce Is Taking Shape
This fifth and final trend is still emerging, but it’s one I believe will define the next era of B2B buying: agentic commerce. This involves AI agents purchasing on behalf of other AI agents—true bot-to-bot buying. With agentic commerce, a buyer could ask a system, “Buy me 3,000 meters of copper pipe,” and receive pricing options, availability, and supplier comparisons instantly. Companies that want to stay relevant will need to support these workflows sooner rather than later.
Nomad is already laying the groundwork for this future. Conversations with manufacturers and distributors have made it clear that automated purchasing will become a “must-have” requirement, not a novelty. To that end, we are actively shaping our architectural approach, identifying where AI-driven buying intersects with ERP-connected eCommerce, and mapping the scenarios that matter most for B2B. So stay tuned, more details will come as this work progresses.
If you're evaluating how to adapt your eCommerce strategy for 2026, our team is happy to share what we’re learning across the industry and discuss how our platform and services can support your goals. Reach out anytime through any of the methods below.
Written by: Michael Bates, President, Nomad eCommerce