In fact, people using B-to-B sites accomplish what they set out to do only 58 percent of the time, compared to a significantly higher 66 percent success rate for consumer e-commerce sites, according to a report by the research firm.

"Most of the B-to-B sites we tested have an attitude toward users [that] is medieval, which is not how the Web has been evolving last two years, which is much more responsive and much more research oriented," said Jakob Nielsen, one of the authors of the report. "B-to-B sites have a very old-fashioned sense of marketing, which is we are the high priests of our product and we will carefully dole out the information we want you to have. They have vaporous slogans and almost no product information ' they don't give you prices. Their Web sites are based on their view of the world, not what customers want."

B-to-B firms haven't yet realized that the Web has reversed the relationship between companies and their customers, where most interactions are demand-driven and you either give people what they want or see them abandon your site for the competition, Nielsen said.

Nielsen Norman Group said it used a variety of research methods to understand the complex issues involved in B-to-B Web sites, including conducting 12 focus groups to understand the range of purchase processes that businesses use and what they want from B-to-B sites. Nielsen also observed 55 business professionals using nearly 200 B-to-B sites to see what users did on the sites and what they expected to find.

The report found that: