B2B is dead, but the patient refuses to acknowledge it. Time and again, mitigating circumstances are sought to justify not delivering to the end customer. The product would not lend itself to it. The intermediary could boycott the brand that delivers directly to the consumer. The intermediary adds a great deal of value in finding and serving the customer. The intermediary knows the customer like no other. These are all fallacies; we have come to believe in our own stories.
Misnomer
Business to business, business to consumer, the mistake is in the name. It suggests control over a direction. From a to b. From business to consumer. In the new world, the other starting point has become much more important: that of the customer. The store does not deliver to the customer, but the customer collects from a store. CfromB. If the store does not have it or is not allowed to deliver it, the customer goes to another store. Or the customer collects from another customer. CfromC. A consumer has become a potential supplier of products or services.
Airbnb
Look at the success of Airbnb, where a consumer new zealand phone data searches for a room or apartment that a fellow consumer offers. Look at the many services that exist to share each other's car. Each other's tools. Each other's washing machine. Look at Parkatmyhouse where consumers offer parking spaces to each other (in collaboration with BMW!). A variety of connections are offered. Buying, renting, swapping, borrowing, it's all possible.
The big mistake in the B2B model is that the letter c is not in it. Let there be no misunderstanding; any model that does not structurally make room for the consumer has the same future prospects as a goose near Schiphol.
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