What is Approval Workflow?

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An approval workflow is a defined sequence of reviews or permissions required before an action can proceed. In B2B ecommerce, approvals can control orders, quotes, spend, new users, pricing exceptions, returns, or other account-level activities.

Approvals are common in B2B because the person who prepares a purchase is not always allowed to commit the company to it. A workflow can route a cart, quote, requisition, discount, or order to one or more reviewers before the next step is allowed. The route may depend on value, department, cost center, product category, margin, or other business rules.

An approval workflow typically defines:

• Which event requires approval and which user or role can initiate it.

• Thresholds and conditions that determine one-step, multi-step, or exception routing.

• What approvers can change, reject, comment on, or delegate.

• Notifications, timeouts, audit history, and fallback behavior if an approver is unavailable.

Digitizing approvals removes email chains and gives both buyer and seller a clear status, but the workflow should mirror real governance rather than add bureaucracy. For enterprise B2B, approval data may also need to synchronize with procurement or ERP systems so the online channel does not create an order that the organization’s internal controls would reject.

Example: A buyer can prepare a €20,000 cart but the system routes it to a procurement manager because the user’s autonomous approval limit is €5,000.