B2B Customer Groups

Who buys through the B2B store, how they buy, and which decisions depend on them. The store is the self-service channel for the long tail of small and mid-size business customers; key accounts stay with key account management and EDI (Sen at the kickoff). BLACKROLL plans and forecasts by customer group, not by shop (Martin Loer at the kickoff), so the groups matter more than the three legacy shops.

Rows marked to confirm come from one mention only. The full list of the 40+ segment tags is still being collected (see the end of this page).

Overview

Blue groups buy to resell, green groups buy for their own business, purple groups get access through their organisation. Grey is outside this project or this phase.

flowchart LR
  hub(("BLACKROLL<br/>B2B customers")):::hub

  subgraph STORE["New B2B store: self-service for the long tail"]
    direction TB
    subgraph RES["Buy to resell"]
      direction TB
      r1["Retail dealers<br/>Independent sports shops,<br/>smaller Intersport and<br/>Sport 2000 members<br/>Lead: Martin Loer"]:::resell
      r2["Medical supply stores<br/>On the application form<br/>Lead: to confirm"]:::resell
      r3["Wholesale<br/>Segment in Sen's list<br/>Who exactly: to confirm"]:::resell
    end
    subgraph OWN["Buy for their own business"]
      direction TB
      o1["Physios and medical practices<br/>Most of the CH store<br/>Lead: Robert Kruschke"]:::own
      o2["Gyms and fitness studios<br/>Growing with HYROX<br/>Lead: Robert Kruschke"]:::own
      o3["Trainers and Pros<br/>One-person businesses (S2)<br/>Lead: Robert Kruschke"]:::own
      o4["Rehab centres and clinics<br/>Segments Reha, Medical<br/>Lead: to confirm"]:::own
      o5["Sports clubs<br/>Segment Club<br/>Lead: to confirm"]:::own
    end
    subgraph ORG["Access through their organisation"]
      direction TB
      g1["Members recognised by<br/>email domain, for example<br/>Bundeswehr, university clinics<br/>B2B2C in Sen's list"]:::org
    end
  end

  subgraph KA["Key accounts: not in this project"]
    direction TB
    k1["Central organisations of<br/>Intersport and Sport 2000,<br/>large retailers<br/>Key account management, EDI"]:::out
  end

  subgraph LATER["Not in this phase"]
    direction TB
    l1["Affiliates (B2B2C)<br/>Proposed out (S1)"]:::out
    l2["Pro community on D2C<br/>Robert's long-term idea (S2)"]:::out
  end

  hub --> STORE
  hub --> KA
  hub -.-> LATER

  classDef hub fill:#08427b,stroke:#052e56,color:#ffffff
  classDef resell fill:#438dd5,stroke:#2e6295,color:#ffffff
  classDef own fill:#3a9a6b,stroke:#2a7350,color:#ffffff
  classDef org fill:#8e6bbf,stroke:#6a4f91,color:#ffffff
  classDef out fill:#8c8c8c,stroke:#6b6b6b,color:#ffffff
  style STORE fill:#f4f8fd,stroke:#438dd5,stroke-dasharray:5 5
  style RES fill:#ffffff,stroke:#438dd5
  style OWN fill:#ffffff,stroke:#3a9a6b
  style ORG fill:#ffffff,stroke:#8e6bbf
  style KA fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#8c8c8c,stroke-dasharray:5 5
  style LATER fill:#f5f5f5,stroke:#8c8c8c,stroke-dasharray:5 5

The groups in the B2B store

Outside the B2B store

Where the groups order today

Sen (2026-10-23) also names France next to Benelux. Which shop French customers order in, and whether France belongs to a wave, is open (question 25 in the decisions page). Country contacts at BLACKROLL: Thomas Mullis for Switzerland and Patrick Stegemann for Benelux.

In the new store a group no longer lives in a tag. Native B2B gives each company a catalog, a price list and payment terms (BLAC-6173), so every group needs a rule for which catalog, price list and terms it gets. The 33 assortment restriction combinations (P4) and the 12 price groups (P1) sit on top of the groups. Sen wants the segmentation and tagging rules to come from the ERP (E4).

What the groups mean for the decisions

• S2 (Pros: D2C or B2B). Physios, gyms and trainers are the Pro groups. They buy for their own use, so the D2C option is plausible for them in a way it is not for retail dealers.

• CI3 (wave 1 cohort). The cohort is easier to set per group than per shop: which groups move in which wave, and which inactive accounts stay behind.

• CI1 (signup). The application form already asks for the type of business. Email domain access would add a second way in. Pipedrive stays the central system for lead management and approval (Sen, 2026-10-23).

• P1, P4 (prices and catalogs). Resellers and own-use buyers probably need different price logic. Each group needs a default catalog and price list.

• PC8 (central billing). Only for retail dealers who belong to a buying group.

• T2, T3 (look and features). Retail dealers need ordering speed and marketing material; physios and trainers expect content and training material, which is part of why the B2B team wants a look closer to D2C.

• T5 (analytics). BLACKROLL forecasts by customer group, so the group should be a dimension in tracking and reporting, and an attribute of the company in Shopify.

• S8 (market strategy). The groups are the same in every country, but which countries come next decides currencies, payment providers and languages per group.

Still to collect

• The full list of the 40+ segment tags with customer counts per tag and per store. Part of the tag and metafield inventory (22Bits, kickoff action); Sen maps each tag to a group in this page.

• Which groups the Pro BNL store serves, and how Benelux customers are created and priced (Sen with Patrick Stegemann).

• Whether France is a B2B market today and which shop French customers use (question 25).

• The lead at BLACKROLL for rehab centres and clinics, sports clubs, wholesale, medical supply stores and members of partner organisations.

• Whether medical supply stores and wholesale customers resell, and who the wholesale customers are.

• Whether hotels are a group of their own (mentioned once at the kickoff).

• How many retail dealers are buying-group members and how many are independent.