B2B eCommerce Platform Comparison: Review 6 Top Solutions

Choosing the right B2B eCommerce platform requires a careful analysis of your business needs in terms of functionalities, integrations, and budget. 

In this post, we help you compare top-rated B2B eCommerce platforms by: 

• Discussing the core B2B categories and considerations for B2B business owners.
• Identifying the best practices to consider before choosing a platform (and explaining the risks of choosing the wrong solution).
• Reviewing six of the most popular eCommerce platforms for B2B businesses, including:

             1. Magento Open Source
             2. Adobe Commerce
             3. BigCommerce
             4. Shopify Plus
             5. SAP Commerce Cloud (formerly SAP hybris)
             6. Salesforce B2B Commerce Cloud

You can also schedule a call with our development agency, IronPlane, to discuss the platforms you’re considering in-depth. We specialize in Adobe Commerce, Magento Open Source, and BigCommerce development, but we have enough experience with other platforms to help you weigh your options and find the best solution. 

Types of B2B Businesses: Criteria & Best Practices to Consider 

B2B organizations approach eCommerce differently. Pure-play B2B organizations (those that sell exclusively to other businesses) have unique eCommerce requirements, such as the ability to conduct business internationally, the need for more advanced customized features, and stronger security requirements (as they’re more sensitive to compliances like GDPR).

Some of the business types that fall into this category include: 

• Manufacturers: Manufacturers use raw materials, parts, and manual labor to produce finished goods on a large scale. A pure-play B2B model involves selling finished goods to other manufacturers, suppliers, or wholesalers. 
• Wholesalers/Distributors: Wholesale eCommerce is a B2B eCommerce model where products are sold on a large scale to other businesses at a discounted rate. 
• Service providers: Service providers create services for other businesses and organizations. This includes software as a service (SaaS), marketing agencies, and businesses that create and sell various supplies. 
• Business software or platform developers: These types of B2B businesses typically design and build customized commercial applications including web and mobile applications for other organizations. For example, accounting software, customer relationship management (CRM), payroll software, database software, etc. 
• Business marketplaces: Business marketplaces are virtual spaces where buyers connect with other businesses who want to purchase their products or services. For example, Amazon, eBay, and Craigslist. 

Read more: B2B Magento Developer: IronPlane’s Approach

Criteria for B2B eCommerce Platform Comparison

When comparing B2B eCommerce platforms, the first step is to select the right criteria. Check out this quick list of B2B eCommerce functionalities and considerations to make sure you choose the platform that works best for your business.  

1. Customization and Flexibility

One of the key considerations when comparing B2B eCommerce platforms is flexibility. If you want the freedom to make extensive customizations to your site, it’s important to factor in B2B platform agility. 

For instance, can you customize the online product catalog based on user interaction? Or can you create customized pricing and billing options for different user groups? Can you implement multiple sites for different customer groups or for international clients?

A fully customizable B2B eCommerce solution lets you build out custom modules and integrations to better support buying experiences and backend operations.

2. Hosting

Some B2B eCommerce platform solutions include cloud hosting (like Adobe Commerce Cloud, or SaaS eCommerce engines like Shopify), while others let you choose your ideal hosting provider. Self-hosted options such as Magento Open Source offer more personalized flexibility for unique infrastructure needs. 

For example, consider companies that conduct business in the EU: while the most popular SaaS platforms satisfy the broad GDPR requirements, there may be industry- or product-specific requirements for privacy and security that only a customized hosting environment can provide. 

3. Resource Requirements

Each B2B eCommerce platform requires varying levels of developer knowledge to build and maintain. Assess whether your in-house team can build out your online storefront and keep up with the latest updates of your eCommerce platform. 

If you want to implement advanced customizations without worrying about knowledge transfer sessions to your team, consider hiring a certified eCommerce agency that has a team of experienced developers who can help you.

4. B2B eCommerce Features and Functionality

The right B2B eCommerce platform should have all the essential features you need to best represent your business offerings and support your customers’ buying journey. 

This may include: 

• Multi-site capability
• Fully dynamic open RESTful API
• Contract pricing and catalog management
• Bulk ordering
• Omnichannel experience
• Integrated CRM/ERP
• Restricted access control
• Quote management
• International business support
• Digital payment options
• Product information management (PIM)

5. Scalability

You should also consider your plans for future growth as some platforms will offer greater scalability over time.

6. Security

Robust security protocols protect your eCommerce site’s sensitive data, encrypt transactions, eliminate cross-site forgery, and provide control over user access and permissions.

Some key security features to look for while comparing B2B eCommerce platforms include:

• Multi-factor authentication method (MFA)
• PCI DSS payment gateways
• Server Security
• Role-based ACL security
• SOC 2 Type 2 Certification
• Built-in Secure Socket Layer (SSL) certificates
• Access control, users, and permissions management
• Separate login for retailers and distributors

7. Internationalization

If you operate multiple brands, websites, or storefronts, it’s critical to integrate localization features to drive higher conversions. This means your B2B platform should adapt to multiple languages, various currencies, taxation, and locations without deploying major changes to the source code.  

8. Total Cost of Ownership

There are multiple costs associated with a B2B eCommerce platform, such as license fees, hosting, themes, development, extensions, and maintenance. Additionally, some eCommerce platforms work on revenue- or transaction-based fee structures, so you’ll need to pay a certain percentage of your monthly revenue to your eCommerce platform. 

With each of these factors in mind, it is essential for you to build a total cost of ownership (TCO) model for your business. To do this, we recommend a 6-year future view with your anticipated business growth and all anticipated costs for each eCommerce platform under consideration. 

Schedule a call with us to discuss the platforms you’re considering for your online store. Our team of experienced developers and Solution Specialists can assess your business needs and TCO to match you with the right platform.  

Best B2B eCommerce Platforms: 6 Popular Solutions 

After working extensively with dozens of eCommerce businesses, we’ve narrowed down the six best eCommerce platforms on the market. We’ll review each of these tools, but if you’d like to dive deeper into any of them, feel free to chat with us.  

1. Magento Open Source

Magento Open Source is the free version of Adobe’s commerce platforms. It’s a robust platform with a vast range of eCommerce features, making it suitable for eCommerce businesses that demand extensive customizability and prefer to avoid ongoing licensing and revenue-linked fees. 

• Customization: Magento Open Source provides opportunities for substantial customization. This means businesses can create truly unique frontend designs and compelling customer-facing functionality. Furthermore, internal teams can improve operational efficiencies with customized backend elements for systems integrations, quote and order processing functions, as well as order fulfillment, and customer support.
• Hosting: Magento Open Source requires some form of hosting that you choose. You can compare hosting providers and choose the one that best fits your business needs. 
• Security: Adobe regularly releases security updates to address vulnerabilities impacting Magento Open Source. Several third-party software companies offer technologies that integrate with Magento Open Source to support various security needs.
• Internationalization: Magento Open Source allows you to sell internationally with multi-language, multi-currency, and multi-inventory source capabilities. The platform allows you to build out individual sites based on geography with localized content and functionality as your business demands.
• Budget: Magento Open Source is free of license fees but requires a skilled development team for design, development, and maintenance. Magento Open Source also requires you to arrange for your own hosting which will add a monthly cost.

Magento Open Source has been on the eCommerce market since 2008. It has a global community of developers who have built a marketplace of extensions and tools to help other developers working with the Magento Open Source platform.

Some of the key features Magento Open Source provides include: 

• A great feature set including catalog management, integrated checkout and payment, instant purchase, global selling, and drag and drop page builder. 
• A wide range of customizable templates and design options, enabling businesses to create visually appealing eCommerce websites. 
• Ready-to-use integrations and integrated shipping APIs. 

While the platform is free, it requires an experienced Magento developer to build out the site, add custom modules and integrations, implement updates, and maintain the site. If you don’t have an in-house developer or the resources to hire an agency, this option is not your best fit. 

Read more: How to Choose a Dedicated Magento Developer | Best Practices

2. Adobe Commerce

Next, is the Adobe Commerce platform — the “upgraded” version of Magento — that includes the same unlimited customization options and scalability. It also includes the latest and greatest platform functionality and core code support from Adobe.  

Note: Adobe offers Adobe Commerce and Adobe Commerce Cloud — the difference between the two is that Adobe Commerce Cloud includes cloud hosting. 

• Customization: Adobe Commerce is similar to Magento Open Source in its capacity to be fully customized with custom themes, modules, and integrations to best reflect your brand and business offerings. One area worth considering with Adobe Commerce Cloud is that it may offer more comprehensive integrations with other Adobe Cloud platforms such as Adobe Experience Manager.
• Hosting: Adobe Commerce is similar to Magento Open Source because you’ll need a separate hosting company. Adobe Commerce Cloud is Adobe’s cloud-hosted version of the platform that puts more control and support for your business in the hands of the Adobe team.
• Security: Adobe Commerce has the same core security framework as Magento Open Source and gets all of the security updates from Adobe’s development team. Adobe Commerce Cloud has additional infrastructure (such as Fastly CDN) in place to bring additional security and performance capabilities to Adobe Commerce Cloud customers. If your Adobe Commerce platform is not hosted by Adobe, these infrastructure security features would depend on your selected host company.
• Internationalization: With Adobe Commerce, you can manage multiple stores, process transactions in multiple countries, languages, and currencies, and use several worldwide shipping providers — all within a single instance of the platform.
• Budget: Adobe Commerce and Adobe Commerce Cloud require a monthly license fee, however, Adobe Commerce Cloud is typically a bit more expensive due to Adobe’s hosting service. Adobe customizes pricing for each client based on several factors, but, generally, the monthly fees will start around $2,000 and can reach into the tens of thousands per month for large enterprise implementations. Businesses on Adobe Commerce will still need the support of a skilled development team to manage maintenance and customizations outside the scope of Adobe’s support.

Adobe Commerce is a versatile, all-in-one B2B eCommerce platform that allows you to build and manage advanced, complex eCommerce stores efficiently. 

Here are a few other key features that make Adobe Commerce worth considering:

• Adobe Commerce supports currency from more than 200 countries and automatically calculates tax for transactions in the EU.
• It can handle multiple stores (eliminating the need for multiple storefronts) through different admin panels. 
• It offers easy-to-build rewards and loyalty programs, so businesses can run referral programs and drive better user acquisition. 
• It allows you to build reusable, dynamic blocks, so you can quickly build custom pages without sacrificing quality. 
• It offers unified reports with granular visibility into your eCommerce website’s performance, including business intelligence data. 
• It offers extensive integration opportunities with other Adobe products, such as Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Business Intelligence, and Adobe Sensei.

Overall, Adobe Commerce is built for eCommerce businesses that need robust B2B features, scalability, and peace of mind with Adobe’s support. It’s important to understand that even with Adobe’s support, your site will still need development work that will require your business to partner with an experienced Adobe Commerce agency to manage your custom code. 

Read more: Adobe Commerce Agency: IronPlane’s Process, Projects, and Results

3. BigCommerce

BigCommerce is a popular SaaS-based eCommerce platform that offers a B2B version at the enterprise license level. This platform offers similar functionality to the Adobe platforms described above, but with limited multi-site and international capabilities and substantially fewer customization opportunities. The primary advantages of BigCommerce are its robust native functionality, its high degree of usability, and its flexibility for integrations. 

• Customization: BigCommerce has a lot of out-of-the-box functionality so teams without an experienced developer can build out a basic site. It allows eCommerce businesses to create product catalogs, purchase orders, and user roles, use automated pricing segmentation, and integrate with major ERP and CRM systems. You can customize some of BigCommerce’s features, but you are mostly restricted to what BigCommerce provides. Businesses that need design customization or integrations will need to hire a skilled developer with BigCommerce experience. While the scale of customization is much more limited than what is possible on the Adobe platforms, there is still room to make your site stand out from the crowd.
• Hosting: As a SaaS platform, BigCommerce hosts its solution for all of its clients. This means that BigCommerce users are subscribing to a service that allows them to build and manage their websites without having to worry about infrastructure, hosting, security, or platform updates.
• Security: BigCommerce is a PCI DSS compliant provider, which means it meets the requirements of the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard to protect your website against credit card data breaches.
• Internationalization: BigCommerce allows businesses to use various languages on their website but offers a much more limited multi-site capability than Adobe products. BigCommerce stores can process transactions in more than 100 currencies. Complex international tax capabilities are managed with a third-party application connected to your BigCommerce store.
• Budget: For B2B businesses, the BigCommerce Enterprise for B2B plan is going to be the way to go. Those plans start at around $2,000 per month and vary based on the number of transactions in a given period. There are no additional costs associated with hosting, security, or infrastructure. If you decide to implement custom designs or integrations beyond what is available in the BigCommerce app store, you can expect to pay a developer for their time.

Some stand-out features on BigCommerce’s platform include: 

• Built-in, user-centric site administration that helps you build and optimize your eCommerce store efficiently, and without requiring developer support.
• Strong native SEO capabilities to support organic growth and drive users to your eCommerce website.
• BigCommerce takes an open-SaaS approach which allows for greater access to API connections compared to other SaaS providers such as Shopify, helping you integrate with your existing or chosen third-party platforms.
• The BigCommerce app store offers a wide range of pre-built integrations and provides intuitive tools to set up your storefront, manage orders, and market your online business.  
• B2B edition offers extensive functionality, including price lists and customer groups, corporate account management, restricted log-in, invoice portals, sales rep-supported purchasing, shared shopping lists, quick reorder, and client payment method control.

Read more: BigCommerce vs Magento: Which Is Right for Your Business?

4. Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus is another SaaS-based eCommerce solution designed to support enterprise businesses. It comes with an easy-to-use website builder and native flow software so you can automate repetitive and high-performing workflows. 

• Customization: Similar to BigCommerce, Shopify offers pre-designed themes that you can customize without needing HTML or CSS knowledge (some themes are free, but most require a payment). Custom design is possible to an extent but, again, it will require a skilled developer with Shopify experience.
• Hosting: As a SaaS platform, Shopify hosts its solution for all of its clients. This means that Shopify users are subscribing to use a service that allows them to build and manage their website without having to worry about infrastructure, hosting, security, or platform updates.
• Security: Shopify is a PCI DSS compliant provider and has free SSL certificates on all plans.
• Internationalization: Shopify Plus relies on third-party apps for multi-currency support, so it’s not the best for international scalability.
• Budget: Shopify Plus starts at $29/mo with its Basic plan and ranges to $299/mo for its Pro plan with more extensive features. You can also receive a custom quote for their Advanced plan. 

Here are a few other important notes on Shopify Plus: 

• It has an intuitive user interface that makes navigating between modules easier and faster. 
• It has powerful point-of-sale (POS) software with unified analytics, inventory management, and staff management capabilities. This allows eCommerce business owners to create smooth omnichannel processes and complete orders efficiently. 
• It provides detailed reporting and analytics on sales, products, cash flow, inventory, and finance. 
• It offers B2B features such as flexible payment options, order management, re-ordering, custom pricing, tiered pricing options, catalogs for individuals and customer groups, and integrations with ERP, CRM, and OMS. 

Overall, Shopify Plus is a great B2B platform for stores that are looking to build out their site quickly and don’t require a lot of customization. But if you need more flexibility regarding product variations, integrations, multilingualism, and multi-store support, this might not be the best option for you. 

5. SAP Commerce Cloud (formerly SAP hybris)

SAP Commerce Cloud is the eCommerce engine for the enterprise-grade offerings from SAP. SAP acquired hybris in 2013 to be its primary eCommerce platform, and has since rebranded it as SAP Commerce Cloud. It’s one of the more complicated eCommerce solutions and is mostly recommended for enterprise organizations that, a) demand a highly custom solution for the online business, and b) have extensive internal developer resources for ongoing management and maintenance of the platform.  

• Customization: SAP Commerce Cloud is popular for its “accelerators,” which are modern web implementation templates that businesses can use to easily build and maintain their eCommerce stores. Because this solution is based on open APIs, you can make unlimited customizations to the site code and integrate the platform with other software.
• Hosting: SAP offers three hosting options for their Commerce technology:
  
  
  • SAP Commerce Cloud in the Public Cloud (SaaS option)
  • SAP Commerce (self-hosted option)
  • SAP Commerce Cloud on SAP Infrastructure (PaaS option)
    
    This solution is hosted on SAP’s cloud infrastructure and is generally referred to as a “Platform as a Service” (PaaS). In this sense, it is similar to Adobe Commerce Cloud, but with greater complexity of infrastructure.
• Security: It’s a PCI DSS compliant provider, and SAP uses LDAP and robust encryption to keep your site secure. 
• Internationalization: SAP Commerce Cloud supports fully international functionality including multi-site capabilities and support for different languages, currencies, and localization needs.
• Budget: Custom pricing. 

SAP Commerce Cloud can integrate with various other SAP components to offer a comprehensive omnichannel eCommerce solution including sales, marketing, and customer service, making it an ideal solution for enterprise businesses with the necessary internal resources for managing complex technology.

Here are some key features that SAP Commerce Cloud offers: 

• With the SAP open-source Spartacus frontend, Commerce Cloud offers a headless option out of the box, allowing for custom frontend development and greater flexibility without impacting the core commerce functionality.
• SAP Commerce Cloud allows for extensive customization to meet specific business needs for even the most complex catalogs, products, and operational configurations.
• The solution comes with powerful and comprehensive B2B commerce capabilities out of the box.
• SAP Commerce Cloud comes with a fully embedded product information management tool, PIM, for efficient product data management.
• It consolidates the management of multiple markets, channels, and business models in a unified system. 
• It has the ability to integrate with other SAP products including ERP, CRM, and service management. 
• It provides native reporting and insights to help you learn more about user engagement and what visitors do on your website. 

With its heavy focus on sales and customer-centric features, SAP Commerce Cloud is well-suited for large B2B brands looking to run huge marketplaces, sell across multiple channels, attract new customers, and drive sales. 

6. Salesforce B2B Commerce Cloud

Salesforce B2B Commerce is an enterprise B2B eCommerce platform that provides ready-to-use services for business buyers such as distributors, manufacturers, and dealers across different verticals. Similar to SAP Commerce Cloud, which was previously hybris, Salesforce Commerce Cloud was previously Demandware.

One of the key differentiators for Salesforce Commerce Cloud is that it is built as the commerce arm of the industry-leading sales enablement and CRM technology platform, Salesforce. 

• Customization: It offers a flexible headless commerce solution with scalable APIs that separate the frontend presentation layer from the back-end functionality. This results in increased security, site speed, flexibility for developers, customization options and easier omnichannel selling and update and optimization deployments. 
• Hosting: It comes with fully managed hosting, so there’s no need to worry about selecting, setting up, or maintaining a hosting service. 
• Security: Salesforce is a natively hosted solution with strong security provisions including PCI compliance for eCommerce stores. 
• Internationalization: As with Adobe Commerce and SAP Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers extensive internationalization and localization functionality.
• Budget: Salesforce B2B Commerce Cloud pricing is based on a percentage of your gross merchandise volume or GMV sold through the platform. At the basic levels, this ranges from 1% GMV to 2% GMV, but custom pricing is also available.

Salesforce B2B Commerce provides some out-of-the-box features such as: 

• “Salesforce Einstein”, a proprietary AI model built by Salesforce. The AI tool delivers tailored product sorting, personalized product recommendations, and intelligent search results at every touchpoint. This helps eCommerce businesses deliver tailored shopping experiences for end-users, including:
  
  
  • Deep insights into merchandising strategy by showcasing the products customers buy together most frequently.

• • Advanced site search capabilities that offer suggestions for completing search terms or showing trending keywords to users. 
    
    
• B2B buying and selling with approval workflows, contract management, and integrated EDI.
• Custom product catalogs with features for rules-based merchandising. 
• Seamless integration with mobile and offline stores, enabling strong omnichannel operations. 

The range of features and B2B capabilities that Salesforce B2B Commerce offers is extensive and impressive. It’s a solid platform for businesses that have large cart sizes, process large volume orders, and want to maintain a high-quality customer shopping experience for their users. 

Best Practices to Compare B2B eCommerce Platforms

Once you’ve shortlisted two to three eCommerce platforms, it’s time to see how well they align with your business goals. 

To continue comparing B2B eCommerce platforms, we recommend you follow these best practices:

• Conduct thorough research, read reviews and case studies, and chat with customer support. Start your research by reading reviews online. Check out reliable third-party review platforms such as Gartner, G2, and Capterra to find reviews from verified buyers. Do a keyword search and look for the specific technology/skill you want in your future eCommerce platform. Also, be sure to filter reviews so you’re looking at feedback from B2B businesses (as most reviews will be relevant to B2C buyers). Make sure you factor in both pros and cons while evaluating a platform.
  
  In addition, go through case studies and read customer testimonials to further assess each platform. Once you’ve narrowed down a few options, schedule consultation calls or chat with their customer support to understand their features and pricing. 
  
  
• Define your must-haves (now and in the future). Many businesses end up choosing a B2B platform that fits their current needs, but later down the road, experience issues with customizations, integrations, and scalability. This often leads to re-platforming. For example, if a platform is too complex to use, lacks flexibility, requires extensive resource allocation, or has expensive costs in the long term, you may need to switch platforms.
  
  To avoid re-platforming, it’s critical to assess your current needs and anticipate your future goals. Think about how your team size, target market, budget, and security compliances might impact your online store in the long run. Then, assess which B2B eCommerce platform is flexible enough to scale well with your business needs. 
  
  
• Partner with an experienced eCommerce development agency. Agencies that have worked with a variety of B2B businesses and eCommerce solutions have the experience to help you assess the eCommerce platforms you’re considering.
  
  For example, at IronPlane, we provide free consultations for customers who are interested in establishing an online presence so we can guide them toward the right solutions from the start.
  
  
• Ensure it integrates with your existing business software. As eCommerce platforms evolve, compatibility with multiple systems is becoming less of an issue, but you still want to ensure that the platform you’re considering can interface with other applications you already have in place. Remember, your business needs should drive the technology (not the other way around).
  
  
• Evaluate the Total Cost of Ownership. In the B2B eCommerce platform space, the total cost of ownership can vary dramatically from platform to platform in terms of:
  
  • License costs
  • Internal resource requirements
  • Implementation costs
  • Ongoing maintenance and optimization costs
  • Annual updates and patches
  • Agency partner retainer/hourly fees for ongoing support

IronPlane’s Free Consultation & Site Audit 

Still need help comparing B2B eCommerce platforms? IronPlane’s team of experienced Magento, Adobe Commerce, and BigCommerce developers have worked with B2B eCommerce businesses across different verticals. Schedule a free consultation call to talk about what you’re looking for in an eCommerce solution, define big-picture goals, and outline must-have features to fulfill your short and long-term requirements. 

Note: If you already have an eCommerce site, we can conduct a free audit to learn more about the challenges you’re experiencing and help you determine if you need to re-platform or optimize your existing site. 

After some upfront research, our team of experts can work with you to determine the best eCommerce solution for your business needs by: 

• Evaluating if your existing eCommerce platform is right for you. 
• Identifying the right eCommerce platform based on your requirements (in terms of features, team size, and business goals). 
• Building an action plan that includes optimizing your existing website and planning future upgrades based on expected business growth and needs. 

For example, we recently partnered with Omni International, a global manufacturer and distributor of laboratory homogenizers, consumables, and accessories, to migrate their eCommerce store and prepare their site for future builds. 

When Omni International approached our agency, their site was built on Magento 1, so their first big goal was to migrate their online store to Magento 2. However, they also wanted to: 

• Improve the customer experience by optimizing their UI, enhancing their UX, and scaling up bundling and shipping features. 
• Cater to their global audience by ensuring their products and resources could be displayed in a clear, searchable way. 
• Provide both cart and custom quote options for their different customer groups (individual labs and enterprise businesses). 

To kick off our work together, we conducted a thorough analysis of their existing website and helped Omni International determine that Magento 2 fulfilled all of their criteria. After confirming it was the best choice to achieve Omni International’s goals, we mapped out a process to complete the migration. We also implemented Magento’s B2B Commerce edition to support both add-to-cart and add-to-quote functionality, so different customer groups could get a tailored shopping experience. 

With the new website, customers can:

• Easily navigate to Omni International’s different products and resources. 
• Explore accessories and product bundles. 
• Read related SKUs and research publications for each product.
• Request formal quotes. 

In addition, IronPlane's team implemented a distributor locator feature to automatically select the correct distributor based on the customer’s IP address and streamline the checkout flow. Further, our team also helped:

• Perform a complete site theme overhaul. 
• Implement Pardot to deliver sales intelligence. 
• Integrate ShipperHQ for higher visibility in shipments. 

All of these changes helped Omni International drive the following results: 

• A 107.4% increase in revenue.
• A 67.5% increase in transactions.
• A 48.8% increase in average order value (AOV).

You can read the full Omni International case study here. 

FAQs 

1. What Are the Benefits of an eCommerce Platform for B2B?

Here are the three main benefits of an eCommerce platform for B2B: 

• Improved efficiency: An online platform can streamline B2B business processes, reduce manual labor, and increase productivity by automating tasks. This is particularly true for order submission, order processing, order shipping, and order payment.
• Enhanced customer experience: A well-designed online platform can provide customers with a more convenient, efficient, and personalized experience, leading to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Better data and insights: By tracking customer behavior and interactions online, B2B businesses can gain valuable insights into customer needs and preferences, helping both the business and the customer make better-informed decisions.

2. What are the risks of eCommerce for B2B businesses?

The biggest risks of eCommerce for B2B businesses are: 

• Not selecting the right platform which will result in having to re-platform. This adds cost, business disruption, and time-to-market delays.
• eCommerce for B2B can be expensive to implement and maintain. It is important to consider not only the upfront costs, but also the long-term maintenance, upgrade, and optimization costs.
• Stakeholder buy-in and user adoption are essential components of success. This applies to both internal teams and your B2B customers.
• For eCommerce to succeed, high-quality data is critical. Comprehensive, timely, and accurate product data in particular can improve product findability, ordering efficiency, and overall customer satisfaction. Putting the focus on this aspect of the business may require investment, but it is essential if a B2B business is committed to digital transformation.

3. Is Shopify Suitable for B2B?  

Shopify Plus can be used for B2B businesses without extensive customization requirements, but it’s not suitable for businesses requiring efficient interaction between the eCommerce platform and their internal systems. Also, Shopify Plus is tied to a company’s online revenue, so it’s important to compare different B2B eCommerce platforms to find the one that best fits your needs. 

You can also schedule a free consultation call with our development agency, IronPlane, to discuss the platforms you’re considering. We specialize in Adobe Commerce, Magento Open Source, and BigCommerce development, but we have experience with other platforms to help you weigh your options and find the best solution.