The Best B2B Ecommerce Platforms & Why

Since selling to businesses online requires a different approach than selling to an end user, B2B ecommerce companies need a platform that offers critical features and tailored solutions to meet their unique needs. Find out why the platforms in this article are voted the best for B2B ecommerce.

The value of B2B ecommerce is much larger than B2C sales online; in fact, it’s nearly five times the size of B2C ecommerce! As more and more B2B sellers pivot to online sales, ecommerce platforms are offering more B2B-oriented built-in features to support the complex sales process involved in enterprise products & solutions. While there are many ecommerce platforms out there that claim to be a solution for B2B business, there are only a few that offer a tailored solution for B2B ecommerce that we think you should consider. Let’s go over the differences between them and what we like best about each.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce, formerly known as Magento Commerce, is an ecommerce platform with a SaaS and a PaaS model and is widely known for its limitless freedom in customization and configuration. The Adobe community is one of the largest in the ecommerce space and filled with engineers and developers dedicated to building innovative feature and applications for the platform. There are nearly 200,000 live sites built on Adobe and Magento Commerce, including big names like 3M and Procter & Gamble. Although Adobe Commerce offers a rich set of features for B2B functionalities already, you can extend capabilities further with thousands of applications and integrations available. Because Adobe allows for nearly unlimited freedom in configuration, the platform is complex, so it is most suitable for large-scale businesses with access to developers and engineers.

Adobe Commerce offers a solution perfect for B2B ecommerce with complete functions for engaging with multiple channel partners and key accounts online. It’s packed with features that give B2B buyers today an easy online buying and account management experience. Like most ecommerce platforms on the market today, Adobe Commerce offers essential features like a page builder, customer segmentation, inventory management, and an order management system in place for a centralized command center.  Some other features include:

• Account management: Manage company buyer accounts and configure teams of buyers, roles, permissions, etc. 

• Create requisition lists of frequently purchased items for order placement

• Quick orders with SKU list or CSV file

• Shared Catalogs: Make curated product selection with custom pricing available for specific companies while also offering a general catalog

• Quoting: Give company buyers the ability to negotiate prices and set MOQ for quote requests, the quote lifetime, and the supported file formats for attached files.

• Applicable payment methods: Set a default payment method or accept a variety of other options like financing on credit

• Payment on account with set credit limits

• Applicable shipping methods: Set a default shipping method or accept alternative  shipping options

• Purchase orders to track and control spending

• Centralized inventory management and order processing system

• Broad support of integrations for systems like ERP, CRM, PIM, etc.

• Responsive design themes

• Mobile progressive web applications

• Multi-channel integrations

• Headless Commerce architecture

• Reliable AWS based environment and fast performance delivered by a CDN 

• High security with built-in tools like Web Application Firewall, DDos Protection, and encryption

• PCI compliance

• Fully managed service offerings

• 24/7 technical and account support

These general features that come with Adobe Commerce are just the tip of the iceberg; there are thousands of extensions out there to add any sort of functionality you could possibly need for B2B ecommerce.

BigCommerce B2B Edition

BigCommerce is one of the industry leaders of SaaS ecommerce platforms for B2B companies. Currently, BigCommerce is powering over 51,000 live sites, including big names like Toyota, Klayvio, and Flydubai. Bigcommerce is an out-of-the-box solution that includes all of your ecommerce needs, like hosting, store-front builder, order processing, and payment processing. BigCommerce is well known for its low total cost of ownership and flexible APIs, with several features and options for businesses of all sizes. BigCommerce B2B edition is their top tier package which includes perks from the enterprise license with BundleB2B app, a technology partner that delivers advanced B2B functionalities.

Some of the BigCommerce features perfect for B2B ecommerce include:

• Price lists to offer different price points, discounts, and promotions for different customers and groups

• Purchase orders

• Corporate account management to set multiple tiers of buyers with specific roles and permissions

• Multiple storefronts with restricted access to separate the types of visitors

• Related product recommendations

• Abandoned cart saver that saves shopping cart for when visitors return

• Flexible payment methods and credit authorizations

• Dynamic product filtering to help buyers quickly find what they want

• Real-time shipping quotes for transparency in shipping costs

The new BigCommerce B2B Edition adds six pre-configured themes with advanced B2B functionalities that include:

• Sales rep management: Sales reps can log in on behalf of their enterprise customers and manage their orders

• List quotes: Buyers exploring the online catalog can add products to a list for quoting and have them delivered to sales reps to manage, streamlining the quoting process

• Shared list: Buyers can create multiple buying lists for repeat purchases

• Order pad: Buyers can upload a list of SKUs and quantities they want to purchase via CSV file or spreadsheet

• Invoice portal: Buyer can manage their invoices online arrange payments

The BigCommerce platform also comes with performance features that include:

• Fast site speed with Global CDN and Google Cloud Platform Infrastructure  

• 24/7 support 

• Unlimited API calls for integrations with 3rd party systems like ERPs and PIMs

• Hundreds of 3rd party apps through the app marketplace

• ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified and PCI DSS 3.1, Level 1 certified as both a Merchant and Service Provider

• High Availability infrastructure for 99.99% uptime

Shopify Plus

Shopify is a top-rated SaaS ecommerce platform that has powered over 1,700,000 businesses across the globe from startup to fortune 500. Shopify’s enterprise platform, Shopify Plus is their top-of-the-line enterprise-level solution perfect for B2B companies. Over 17,000 companies currently use Shopify Plus, and their largest customer has over a million SKUs; just those numbers alone should tell you what Shopify Plus delivers. One of the reasons why Shopify is a popular ecommerce platform is its ease of use. You don’t need to have much technical knowledge since there are several beautiful free and paid themes to choose from with simple editing tools for customization. Shopify also has an App Store that lets you extend your business capabilities with thousands of 3rd party applications and plugins you can use.    

Shopify Plus automates the sales process for B2B and wholesales customers, or direct-to-consumer websites with omnichannel support that integrates with over 20 channels and the Shopify POS. Whether you want to sell B2B, DTC, or both, Shopify Plus gives you the option to create multiple storefronts. You might have a main store for DTC sales and a password protected B2B wholesale site that caters to that type of buyers needs. B2B sellers can use a wholesale or B2B storefront to:

• Offer custom pricing, discounts, volume-based pricing for groups or customers, and set MOQs

• Deliver invoices and customize payment options

• Automate and review wholesale customer signups

• Allow B2B customer to manage their orders

• Sync inventory, orders, and customers with 3rd-party integrations

• Review wholesale orders 

• Tailor landing pages to returning customers by displaying relevant products with Shopify Flow

• Schedule sales events and introduce new products with Launchpad

Some of the performance strengths with Shopify Plus’s platform include:

• Highly descriptive, insightful data and reporting

• Unlimited bandwidth with high-speed servers and 99.99% uptime

• Level 1 web security to ensure the maximum level of security

• 24/7 support by phone, email, and chat

• Flexible integrations with ERPs and PIMs

• Unlimited staff accounts

• A vast array of third-party app developers with over 6,600 apps in the Shopify App Store

• Strong partner base of over 195 Shopify Plus Partners

• Automatic speed optimizations with global dual CDNs, Storefront Renderer, WebP image conversion, SCSS.liquid minification, and Shop Pay speed checkout. 

• Over 100 payment methods, including PayPal, Authorize.net, and Shopify Payments

Ensuring You Choose The Right B2B Ecommerce Platform

With so many options available, you want to ensure the ecommerce platform you choose will deliver all of the capabilities you need. We are partners with some of the top ecommerce platforms out there and can help you choose the best B2B ecommerce solution for your business. Let’s talk!