Introduction: In our article series “The Regionalisation of B2B Commerce is Here,” Ludvig Bergander, Strategic Account Advisor at Columbus Sweden, and his colleagues discuss five areas where regionalisation is changing how B2B businesses must think, build, and operate. Scaling B2B Commerce in Times of Regionalisation is the first article in the series.

As global manufacturing strategies start to meet regional realities, it’s time for B2B companies to re-evaluate how they scale their digital commerce.  

For years, the push has been towards centralisation - shared platforms, standardised offerings, and unified go-to-market models. But the market has changed. Customer expectations are shifting. Regulations differ by region. And local market needs are becoming too important to ignore.  

One thing is clear: your business logic and offerings still need to scale—but they must scale with regional differences in mind. 

The end of one-size-fits-all 

In recent decades, manufacturers have pushed for global alignment – including in their digital commerce strategies. The goal was to gain more efficiencies through shared platforms, centralised processes and uniform strategies. But this often came at the cost of regional flexibility. 

We’re seeing that:  

• Distributor relationships and fulfilment capabilities vary by region, which means pricing, product availability, and customer service all need to be adjusted—even in the same digital infrastructure. 

• Global pricing models might look efficient on paper, but they can quickly fall apart when local tax rules, cost structures, or market expectations aren’t taken into account. 

• Value propositions that once scaled easily are becoming more misaligned in certain markets—especially where buying behaviours, sales channels, or regulations differ. In some cases, digital adoption stalls completely. 

From centralised to modular business logic 

This isn’t about duplicating systems or fragmenting operations. It’s about modularising your approach - enabling regional differentiation in a unified structure. We’re seeing the shift from rigid, centralised setups to a hybrid model: a strong global core with a flexible local layer. This applies to both your commercial offering and your technical architecture. And it requires a shift in mindset just as much as it does in systems. 

Where a global-first approach prioritises uniformity, scale, and cost-efficiency, a regionalised model focuses on relevance, compliance, and customer proximity - without sacrificing control. 

A global core typically includes: 

• Shared platforms (e.g. ERP, PIM, CMS) 

• Core product data and master assortments 

• Brand values and policies 

• Centralised analytics and reporting 

• Reusable assets like templates, components and APIs  

A local layer enables: 

• Market-specific assortments and fulfilment capabilities 

• Local pricing, discounts and campaigns 

• Adapted messaging and content 

• Country-specific compliance, tax or payment options 

• Tailored collaboration with distributors or agents 

This modular approach gives you the best of both worlds: the consistency to scale globally and the flexibility to stay relevant locally. 

Systems must reflect this shift 

This change in business logic needs to be supported by the right systems – specifically, alignment between ERP, PIM and e-commerce platforms. Too often, digital channels are built on fixed assumptions, and ERP systems aren’t configured to support dynamic business rules per region.  

 To support a more regionalised approach, systems need to offer: 

• Granular control of business rules by region, without relying on heavy custom code 

• Clear boundaries between global master data and local market data 

• Headless or composable architectures that allow regional front-end flexibility 

Three strategic steps for manufacturers to shift from globalised to regionalised 

Here’s how you can start adapting your digital business logic for a more regionalised approach: 

1. Audit your current offering: Identify what must remain consistent, and where variation adds value—whether that’s in the customer journey, product range, pricing, or marketing message.
2. Enable structured variation: Work with flexible systems and processes that make controlled variation part of the model. Flexibility doesn’t have to mean fragmentation.
3. Support local champions: Involve your regional sales, marketing and customer service in refining the offer to ensure market fit. Regional sales teams often have the clearest view of what needs to change. But digital teams must give them the tools to act without creating uncertainty. 

Ready to rethink your regional model? 

For manufacturers today, the ability to scale depends just as much on flexibility as it does on efficiency. A modular, regionalised approach allows you to stay consistent and adaptable where it matters. With the right business logic and supporting systems, you don’t have to choose between global efficiency and local relevance. 

In our next article, we look at how technology choices can support regional go-to-market strategies—and whether flexibility can truly come without sacrificing control. Alternatively, if you’d like to talk more about anything we’ve covered here, or want help applying it to your business, feel free to reach out to us directly. 

Don’t miss the next article:
Using customer journeys to stand out in B2B commerce

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