business-to-business

noun

busi·​ness-to-busi·​ness ˈbiz-nəs-tə-ˈbiz-nəs 

: a sector of business activity that focuses on commerce performed between businesses rather than between a business and a consumer

a company that specializes in business-to-business

Business-to-business, the sale of goods and services to other companies rather than to the public, has flourished for centuries.

—Joanne Legomsky

—usually used before another noun

Business-to-business sales rose 4.4% from a year earlier, but retail sales increased less than 1%.

—The Wall Street Journal

business-to-business companies

the business-to-business market

—abbreviation B2B

Examples of business-to-business in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Paugh also noted how Williams has gone beyond traditional logo placement with its business-to-business partnerships and deepened those relationships. —Justin Birnbaum, Sportico.com, 7 Mar. 2026

Focusing specifically on Bridge (the stablecoin branch of Stripe) the volume of stablecoin transactions more than quadrupled in 2025, reinforcing the findings from McKinsey and Artemis, which documented that approximately 60% of those transactions were on a business-to-business basis. —Sean Stein Smith, Forbes.com, 27 Feb. 2026

With Anthropic's business-to-business model (B2B), anything is magically possible. —Jim Cramer, CNBC, 8 Feb. 2026

Fil Maresca, who has been working with the San Jose 26 team to launch San Pedro SuperFest, has been going business-to-business in San Pedro Square to make sure all the bars and restaurants are properly signed up and understand the do’s and don’ts. —Sal Pizarro, Mercury News, 5 Feb. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1979, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for business-to-business

• agribusiness
• business
• nonbusiness