The Best B2B Ecommerce Platform: How to Choose the Right Solution for Manufacturers And Wholesalers

More and more reports are showing a sudden dip in ecommerce sales after the pandemic. But not B2B.

B2B (business-to-business) ecommerce essentially means that your company is selling wholesale to other companies. And McKinsey & Company research shows that 65% of B2B companies are exclusively selling online this year. 

For the first time in years, their preferred sales channel is online rather than in-person. Seeing ecommerce as a major source of revenue, companies invest heavily in B2B ecommerce platforms to offer excellence in product or service availability, performance guarantees, and personalized recommendations.

But with so many B2B ecommerce solutions in the market, how do you choose the right one?

In the past 13+ years of B2B ecommerce development, Elogic has helped manufacturers, suppliers, and distributors choose the right platform for their needs and build a top-notch customized website for their needs. 

In this article, you’ll find the list of the best B2B ecommerce platforms and their features that will make your business processes more efficient.

B2B Ecommerce Platform Comparison: Features, Benefits, and Pricing

A B2B ecommerce platform enables online transactions between companies and, unlike B2C solutions, have a set of distinct features tailored to the needs of sellers. They usually provide higher levels of automation, advanced inventory management and order fulfillment options, and a whole new set of sales and marketing tools for B2B ecommerce. 

Here are the best B2B ecommerce platforms that live up to retailers’ expectations.

Adobe Commerce

According to The Forrester Wave™ 2022, Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento) is one of the few B2B and B2C ecommerce platforms with unified solutions for both manufacturers and retailers in their core products. 

Their commerce solution is now a part of Adobe Experience Cloud, which gives B2B merchants more opportunities to access other solutions, like AI in ecommerce or personalization engines. But these are not the only things that have crowned Magento on top of our list.

Top benefits of Adobe Commerce for B2B merchants:

• Open-source platform. You can fully customize your code and have all the flexibility and control over your store look and feel. Even though it will mean hiring certified Magento developers, you’ll be able to build anything you imagine and more.
• Multistore functionality. Launch and manage multiple storefronts from a single admin panel. Sell internationally, do wholesale and retail at the same time, or store multiple brands under a single hood of your website — Adobe Commerce will handle it all.
• Complex product types. Besides simple physical products, you can sell virtual, downloadable, grouped, and bundled products. As a manufacturer, you’ll be able to configure any kind of product out of the box with Magento.
• Roles and permissions. You can have managers who approve large orders, employees who request approvals, or sales reps who get commission off their sales. Magento certainly allows for better management with assigned roles.

Read more: 9 Magento B2B Features to Scale and Boost Corporate Shopping | Elogic 

Magento Commerce is scalable B2B ecommerce software providing a great variety of out-of-the-box features for suppliers and manufacturers. With Magento 2 B2B, you can scale from B2B merchants with a limited product line to a company that manages millions of products.

Best B2B ecommerce websites built with Magento/Adobe Commerce: Cisco Systems, Coca Cola, Wexon, Benum.

Pricing: Magento pricing depends on the solution you choose and the developers you hire. The license fee for Magento Open Source is free, and while for Adobe Commerce it starts at $22,000/year. As for the Magento developer hourly rates, see a related article.

Salesforce Commerce Cloud

Salesforce Commerce Cloud (SFCC) is a part of the unified Salesforce offering with an extensive out-of-the-box feature set for wholesalers and distributors.

The major benefits you get as a B2B business owner opting for Salesforce Commerce Cloud are:

• Price management. You can assign multiple price books to a buyer group depending on your customer segmentation rules (like guest browsing, pre-negotiated pricing, and authenticated logins).
• Automated reordering with AI. Your registered customers can reorder items in a single click, take advantage of smart product search, and see personalized product recommendations.
• Enhanced inventory visibility. You get an accurate, up-to-the-second picture of how much inventory is available to sell, which is especially useful during peak seasons.
• Customer success and support. Deploying a B2B ecommerce strategy is never easy, so Salesforce offers a connected ecosystem of implementation partners to build your B2B store.

SFCC architecture may get quite complex at times, so you might need to hire Salesforce Commerce Cloud consultants.

Famous B2B ecommerce companies using Salesforce: Ford, Kellog’s, Ovation Medical, Carrier.

Pricing: Salesforce has tiered pricing which varies based on your revenues. The Starter and the Growth B2B Commerce plans will cost you 1% and 2% of your GMV rate respectively.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus provides all the necessary features to start selling and shipping your products online to other businesses. Being a SaaS platform, Shopify Plus is often a top choice among wholesalers for its ease of use.

Here are a few advantages of the Shopify B2B solution:

• Price lists. You can create customer-specific pricing with percentage-off or fixed-price discounts for B2B clients.
• Assigned payment terms. The process of adding payment terms to B2B orders is automated, so you can track, sort, and collect payments before they’re due.
• Streamlined checkout. With Shopify Plus B2B wholesale platform, your clients will automatically see their assigned payment terms and get a feeling of shopping B2C.
• Self-service. Your customers will be able to manage their accounts easily, see their order history and payment terms, as well as make payments.

Obviously, all Shopify B2B features add up to those in regular Shopify plans.

Read more: The Guide to Shopify Plus: Benefits and Core Features

One thing to remember is that some functionalities in Shopify Plus are still locked in. For instance, if you wish to customize your checkout or customer account area, you’ll need to hire a Shopify Plus development company to work around the platform’s limitations. 

B2B ecommerce brands using Shopify Plus: Heinz, Van Compass, Safariland, Morgan Sports.

Pricing: Shopify Plus pricing starts at 2,000/year and follows a tier model growing depending on your sales volume. 

BigCommerce Enterprise

BigCommerce offers an advanced set of out-of-the-box tools for B2B businesses aimed to start selling fast. This ecommerce platform for B2B provides merchants with responsive website design, advanced shipping options, third-party integrations, and easy checkouts.

Here are the main benefits of BigCommerce B2B Edition offers businesses:

• Price lists and customer groups. You can assign a specific price per SKU considering your customer group and offer them bulk buying discounts and promotions.
• Invoice portal and multiple payment options. Your customers can easily view, manage, and pay their invoices online. 
• Buy again. Your customers can manage and reorder the previously purchased items.
• Buyer roles and permissions. Each store may have multiple users with different permission levels assisting in your daily business operations.

You’ll find all BigCommerce features from their regular plans integrated in the B2B Edition too. 

Read more: 10 Best BigCommerce Themes to Improve UX and Get More Happy Customers 

The set of BigCommerce B2B features might be similar to that of Shopify Plus. The main difference between the two is that BigCommerce B2B Edition is rather new and lacks a strong track record in high-complexity B2B scenarios. Still, given its strength in ecommerce architecture, it might be a good fit for brand manufacturers who experiment with DTC (direct-to-consumer) channels and don’t want to replatform as their business grows.

Famous B2B ecommerce companies using BigCommerce Enterprise: Sony, Vodafone, USCutter, Tradelink.

Pricing: BigCommerce pricing is available only upon request.

commercetools

commercetools is one of the best ecommerce platforms for B2B according to The Forrester Wave™ 2022 report. Designed with MACH (Microservices-based, API-first, Cloud-native and Headless) principles, the solution promotes headless approach to ecommerce with microservice, composable architecture that scales seamlessly and provides consumer-centric experiences.

B2B businesses will find commercetools useful for the following capabilities:

• Microservice architecture. B2B businesses can deploy, modify, and manage different commerce services independently, which boosts website response speed, improves system reliability, and reduces maintenance costs.
• Extensibility and integration. With robust, extensible APIs, you can connect any third-party software and create outstanding B2B customer experiences just like in B2C.
• Front-end management. Because your front- and back-ends will be decoupled, you can experiment with user interfaces and easily connect multiple customer touchpoints (mobile apps, marketplaces, IoT etc.) without actually rebuilding their ecommerce website.
• Complex product data processing. The platform processes and consolidates all your product data automatically even if it comes from various sources at high levels of complexity.

The MACH approach to B2B ecommerce is new; yet, it’s already won the hearts and minds of hundreds of B2B businesses with cloud-native tech strategy and unapologetically modern development team..

Famous B2B ecommerce companies using commercetools: Audi, Danone, BMW, Volkswagen Group.

Pricing: commercetools pricing is available only upon request. Rumors have it that the license fee varies between $200,000/year and $500,000/year plus the cost of B2B commerce platform implementation, but we encourage you to request a quote for a more specific budget estimate.

OpenCart

OpenCart is one more popular B2B solution we want to mention. OpenCart provides customers with an appealing design and comes with basic features to build a B2B store straight away.

When you decide to integrate into the B2B sector, you should install the OpenCart B2B module that is aimed to transform your website into a powerful B2B marketplace.

Among the few B2B ecommerce capabilities of OpenCart are:

• Open source nature. The platform is highly customizable, which can make it easy to tailor the platform to meet the specific needs of B2B businesses.
• Customizability. OpenCart provides a great variety of responsive themes and integrates smoothly with third-party systems. 
• Customer segmentation. Open Cart allows you to assign different customer groups and appoint unique permissions to each of them. 
• Extra B2B features extended with modules. Requests for quotations, catalog module configuration, separate dashboards for handling B2B orders, and more can be found as a part of OpenCart B2B module.

Read more: OpenCart vs. Magento: Guide with Comparison Table

Famous B2B ecommerce companies using OpenCart: Shorelines, Everbuild, Chapeaux.

Pricing: OpenCart is free of charge. You’ll just need to count in the costs of development unless you’re familiar with programming yourself.

Prestashop

PrestaShop is primarily a B2C solution which turns into a wholesale ecommerce platform with the help of the B2B mode. Merchants get access to a great collection of premium templates, multiple payment solutions, unlimited listings, integrated customer service tools and more.

Here’s what PrestaShop B2B mode offers to wholesalers and distributors:

• Open source nature. Since the core code of PrestaShop is available online and free of charge, the merchant will be able to customize the store to their business needs and customer likings. 
• Extensibility. The platform offers many free and paid extensions to add more features to your B2B store, such as invoicing, tax management, and product quotes, among others.
• Extra B2B features extended with add-ons. Customer relationship tracking, powerful catalog and site management, and payments by a credit check are only a few features that can be added to your store with PrestaShop modules.

It’s worth mentioning that, being an open-source B2B ecommerce platform, PrestaShop will give you the chance to personalize your store only if you’re familiar with PHP. It might also not be the most scalable solution; so if you plan to grow into an enterprise, better look into other solutions in this B2B ecommerce comparison guide. Still, it is widely chosen by the European mid-sized retailers and wholesalers for its cost and customization features.

Read more: Magento vs PrestaShop: Platform Comparison for Business Owners – Elogic 

Examples of B2B ecommerce websites using PrestaShop: Pikolinos Group, Weld Wheels, Decathlon.

Pricing: since PrestaShop is open-source, you can download the core code for free. To calculate the price of the PrestaShop website, you’ll have to consider the costs of hiring developers, paid themes, and extensions. 

SAP Commerce Cloud

SAP Commerce is a cloud-hosted solution that offers B2B ecommerce integration even with B2C stores.This solution provides smooth integration with third-party systems and offers multiple currencies and languages for global coverage.

Some of the top features that make B2B companies trust SAP Hybris are:

• Backoffice integration. Site administrators can control the merchant approvals, manage customer groups, define minimum order and credit limits for purchases, and many more, thus bridging the gap between a commerce system, customer accounts, and SKU databases.
• B2B checkout and order process. A registered customer can make a one-time purchase, schedule a replenishment order, or request a quote.
• Customer-specific pricing. You can leverage the data from logged-in buyers and like the pricing and product catalogs to specific units.
• Self-service account management. Each customer manages their own store sales through your B2B site.

The biggest limitation of SAP is its monolithic architecture, though. Because the system is hard to extend and customize, SAP will be the best fit for complex B2B enterprises which already rely on other SAP products, like CRMs and ERPs. 

Examples of B2B ecommerce websites using SAP: Bosch, Kodak, Top Glove, Wago.

Pricing: SAP pricing is less transparent than that of Adobe Commerce or Shopify Plus, so you’ll need to request a quote from the official site to get a specific budget estimate for this platform.

Oracle NetSuite

Despite the recent scandal with Oracle Commerce Cloud (OCC) layoffs, the platform (formerly known as NetSuite) still leads the list of the world’s best B2B marketplace software. OCC enables enterprises to automate operations, reduce IT costs, and improve real-time visibility by providing a one-stop solution. Store owners also get built-in business intelligence, reporting, and real-time transparency.

The major features of Oracle are the following:

• API-first extensibility. Third-party software integration is simplified thanks to robust, flexible APIs, so you can connect any system to automate your business operations and improve UX.
• Product catalogs and merchandising. You can manage independent catalogs for different brand sites that have unique catalog hierarchies. OCC advanced intelligence will also help you leverage your customer data throughout the purchasing transaction and use it in your marketing and merchandising efforts.
• Product configuration and quoting. Your sellers will be able to configure their products and create accurate quotes to quickly meet their customers’ needs.
• Omnichannel fulfillment. You can implement the modern practices your customers crave, such as buy online and pick up in-store (BOPIS) or click-and-collect.

OCC handles the most complex business models, which take time to design for and operationally digitalize. For instance, if a supplier or a manufacturer plans to try a direct to consumer (DTC) business model, they might create new pages or reuse the components of their existing B2B website.

Examples of B2B ecommerce websites using Oracle Commerce: Motorola Solutions, Construction Specialties, Zema Group.

Pricing: The cost of the platform implementation starts at $125,000 and depends on the technical complexity of your store. For more specific info, please, request a quote on the official website.

Pepperi

Pepperi is a globally recognized B2B sales platform built specifically for suppliers and distributors. This platform is built for large enterprises and consumer goods companies and offers a comprehensive commerce platform to consistently manage all aspects of the omnichannel B2B sales.

The advantages of Pepperi are:

• Seamless two-way integration. Pepperi connects with any back office system, ERP, or CRM using a variety of APIs and plugins, which even opens the possibility of going headless.
• Mobile-first solution. Your B2B customers will enjoy the platform’s user-friendliness allowing them to shop from your website or a mobile app.
• Simple navigation and order taking. Smart search and business filters enable quick product selection, and your customers can effortlessly place orders using an integrated B2C-like shopping cart. 
• Buyer-specific features. You can adjust your product catalogs, price lists, payment options, shipping methods and more based on your customer groups.

Examples of B2B ecommerce websites using Pepperi: Heineken, Davidoff, Cresco, Monolith, Beauté Star.

Pricing: Pepperi pricing is available only upon request.

B2B Ecommerce Platform Cost

As you can see, implementing a B2B ecommerce platform gives you access to multiple features that can help you to improve operational efficiency, deliver better customer service, and grow sales. It is a very profitable solution. 

Let’s check the B2B ecommerce platform cost. The table below gives you a general idea of the license cost.

How to Choose a B2B Ecommerce Platform: Look for These Features 

B2B purchasing is much more complicated than B2C as customers have particular requirements and high expectations. Before choosing the best B2B eCommerce platform, it’s worth taking a look at the features. 

Read more: B2B Ecommerce Marketplace: How It Works and Why Choose Magento for Development  

Let’s check out the essential features a B2B ecommerce store should have to attract new customers and keep loyal shoppers happy.

Access options, roles, and permissions

In a B2C sale, the customer searches for a certain product, finds it online, decides to purchase and pay with a credit card to fulfill the order. B2B transactions aren’t that easy.

In a B2B sale, transactions include numerous decision-makers with various levels of purchasing authority. Taking into account the specific factors related to selling items to other businesses, it is crucial to guarantee that B2B customers have access to the data required to perform intended tasks effectively.

The platform should give the possibility for B2B store owners to define the roles, permissions, and responsibilities and allow/limit access to particular sections of your website on a case-by-case basis.

Customer pricing

Unlike B2C, a B2B ecommerce solution should offer a personalized pricing model based on the different customers or a number of orders for particular products. Your platform should give a possibility to determine a list of individual prices to handle the complex cost structure.

B2B customers expect a pricing model to be negotiated according to your business relationships or the number of their orders. Moreover, most parts of B2B sales depend on relationship and loyalty, so regular customers expect special pricing for their loyalty to your services.

Multiple payment options

B2B shoppers purchase in large quantities and on a periodic basis. The platform should provide multiple payment options such as paying one or several invoices, subscription payment model, partial payment, or payment in debt.

With a flexible payment model, you can offer your customers the possibility to divide the costs for their orders into small sums of money that could be paid with different credit cards. With the B2B platform, you also need to offer credit lines to high-value customers and set credit limits for each account.

Systems integrations

The next factor to consider is how your platform will integrate with your resource planning systems, logistics programs, inventory management systems, marketing, analytics, and marketing tools.

Opt for the platform that integrates smoothly with your CRM (customer relationship management), PIM (product information management), ERP (enterprise resource planning), accounting and tax management, and more.

Personalized experience

More and more B2B companies move towards a personalized UX (user experience). Your B2B ecommerce solution should allow you to develop an ecommerce store that’s mobile-optimized, has easy navigation, simple to customize, and is SEO-friendly.

Moreover, the platform should provide advanced tools such as personalization plug-ins, cross-sells, up-sells, reward, and loyalty programs. If you want your B2B brand to become popular among customers, your store should make interaction with your brand more enjoyable.

Inventory management

Usually, inventory information is restricted to basic “in stock” or “out of stock” options. The B2B ecommerce platform should offer powerful inventory data. B2B customers need to have access to order tracking, shipping information, one-click reordering, quote approvals, and any other features that help to handle their accounts on their own.

Self-service inventory management gives B2B customers an opportunity not only to place their orders in a fast and efficient way but also helps to avoid expensive backorders.

Product catalog management

Product catalog management is the key business performance driver for B2B store owners. Your product content can be messed up if you’re managing a great number of product catalogs in various formats from your suppliers. Sometimes, it can be quite problematic to organize this information and get it prepared for product listings.

Ensure how the chosen platform deals with complex product catalogs. On certain occasions, you might need to integrate a PIM (product information management) system. With PIM systems, ecommerce companies can run, organize, enrich, and distribute product data from various sources and in various formats across multiple channels.

Advanced SEO tools

Being on the first page of search engines has a direct impact on the purchasing decision, regardless of the business model you’re using. The best marketing investment you can make is in search engine optimization (SEO).

Typically, all B2B ecommerce platforms have an SEO system. However, it’s crucial that you select a package with tools that can enhance the SEO of your website.

What Is the Best B2B platform? Consider Your Business Needs

There are many wonderful B2B ecommerce platforms available on the market, all with their own unique advantages for business owners.

Shopify Plus is a great solution for those who need high-level features combined with an easy-to-use back-end.

OpenCart is a good choice if you need flexibility and full control over the platform to meet your business requirements. If proprietary design, usability, and custom selection of functionalities are top priorities for your business opt for PrestaShop.

BigCommerce and Salesforce Commerce are good options for those businesses that are looking for SaaS (software as a service) solutions. If you’re looking for an ecommerce platform with scalable merchandising and the ability to automate even the most complex B2B processes choose – SAP Hybris.

B2B businesses searching for an industry-leading B2B ecommerce solution should choose Adobe Commerce. Magento for B2B provides a rich set of out-of-the-box B2B ecommerce features, easy customization, and backend integration in less time, and with a lower total cost of ownership (TCO), versus any other solution.

When choosing a B2B solution for your company, it’s significant to make sure that the platform has all the functionalities to manage the versatility of your sales processes.

FAQs about B2B ecommerce platforms

What is B2B ecommerce?

In comparison to B2C “business to customer” ecommerce where an individual customer purchases a product from an online store, B2B “business to business” ecommerce is an online business model that relates to sales transactions between different companies through online channels.

B2B ecommerce facilitates sales transactions between wholesalers manufacturers and retailers and is typically a more complex process. A B2C sales transaction is when a customer buys a dress or orders food from your website. An example of B2B sales would be an online retailer that sells computers to companies as its main objective is another business.

B2B businesses have many stakeholders, unique compliance requirements, and longer sales cycles that make the sales processes more complex.

Is there a free B2B platform available on the market?

No, there are no free of charge ecommerce solutions available on the market. Open source B2B ecommerce platforms are free to download. However, there is a high cost in terms of development, design, extensions, integrations, hosting, support, maintenance, and more. Most of the B2B platforms charge monthly license fees.

How much does it cost to build a B2B store?

The B2B website quote estimation is typically a tricky thing. There are many things to take into account when evaluating the cost of a platform, such as business goals, platform license, project scope, the method of development, hosting, design complexity, setup, integrations, maintenance, features, and support. If you wonder how much it might cost to develop a B2B online store, send us a request with the description of your project. We will provide you with a free cost estimate.

What is better: a SaaS solution or open-source for the B2B store?

SaaS (software as a service) provides your B2B company with great flexibility with regard to fast deployment. Hosting, security, and support are taken care of by the service hosting provider. Furthermore, any tech issues, such as server failure or system crash, will be quickly solved by the provider.

Should the B2B store be optimized for mobile devices?

With the Open Source platform, the B2B store owner is in charge of installation, maintenance, and hosting of an ecommerce website. While you have the entire control of the configuration of your system, the costs related to hosting, maintenance, support, security, and development can be quite high.