What is B2B Ecommerce?

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B2B ecommerce is the online sale of products or services between businesses through digital storefronts, portals, marketplaces, or integrated procurement channels. It typically involves account-specific pricing, company roles, quotes, purchase orders, approvals, and ERP-connected data.

B2B ecommerce differs from consumer ecommerce because the buyer usually represents an organization rather than an individual. The storefront therefore needs to understand company accounts, negotiated contracts, multiple users and locations, approval chains, credit terms, purchase orders, and sometimes procurement-system integrations. The same catalog can look different to two logged-in companies because their permissions and commercial agreements are different.

Common B2B ecommerce capabilities include:

• Company accounts with roles, locations, permissions, and buyer hierarchies.

• Customer-specific catalogs, contract pricing, volume rules, and payment terms.

• RFQs, quotes, approvals, requisition lists, quick order, and reorder workflows.

• ERP, PIM, CRM, OMS, and procurement integrations that keep operational data current.

For manufacturers, distributors, and wholesalers, the goal is usually to replace phone, email, spreadsheet, and sales-rep workflows with self-service without losing business controls. That makes B2B projects integration-heavy: if account pricing, stock, credit, or order status is wrong, buyers quickly return to manual channels. Successful B2B ecommerce digitizes the rules the business already operates by rather than forcing every buyer into a consumer checkout model.

Example: A distributor may let each customer log in to see negotiated prices, approved products, live inventory, Net 30 terms, quick order, and order history while the ERP remains authoritative for commercial data.