A Framework For Choosing the Best B2B Ecommerce Platform

Choosing the right B2B ecommerce platform is one of the more consequential technology decisions a distributor, manufacturer, or wholesaler will make. The wrong choice can slow your team down, create friction in the sales process, and cost significantly more to maintain than you planned. The right one can streamline operations, support your existing customer relationships, and scale with your business.

This guide covers the main types of platforms available, what to look for in each, key features B2B companies should evaluate, and a framework to help your team land on the right fit.

Types of Ecommerce Platforms

Shopping Carts

A shopping cart isn’t a full ecommerce website. It’s a layer that hooks into your existing site to add buy buttons, product pages, and checkout functionality. Tools like Snipcart, Ecwid, and Shopify’s Buy Button fall into this category.

These platforms work well if you already have a website you like and want to test selling online without rebuilding an entirely new website. A good fit example: a manufacturer that wants existing customers to reorder a limited SKU set without committing to a full platform build. The major downside is that they’re limited by design. You’ll outgrow them quickly once you need real inventory management, customer accounts, or complex shipping rules.

SaaS Ecommerce Platforms

Dedicated ecommerce SaaS platforms like Shopify and BigCommerce are purpose-built for online selling. They handle hosting, security, and software updates for you, and they come with a large ecosystem of apps and developer resources.

Shopify has traditionally been seen as a consumer commerce platform, but that’s shifted recently. Shopify has been rolling out more native B2B features, including company profiles, custom catalogs, bulk ordering and pricing, net payment terms, and vaulted credit cards. For brands running B2B alongside DTC, both channels can run from a single admin, and the Shopify Plus tier offers unlimited catalogs and deeper checkout customization. Pure-play B2B companies with complex tiered pricing, deep ERP dependencies, or large account hierarchies will likely hit its ceiling and should evaluate more purpose-built options.

BigCommerce has been the leading SaaS option for B2B for years, and its B2B Edition is more mature. It includes a dedicated buyer portal to manage customer relationships, account hierarchies with approval workflows, quote management (RFQ), SKU-level custom pricing, net terms, purchase order checkout, and tight ERP system integrations. One practical note: B2B Edition is a paid add-on on top of standard BigCommerce plans, so factor that into your cost comparison.

While both platforms allow you to design a store to meet your needs, you don’t own the underlying codebase or infrastructure. You own your content and data, but your site runs within their system. That’s fine for most stores, but if you need full control over hosting, caching, or custom checkout logic, you’d need to extend the platform via API.

A note on website builders like Wix, Squarespace, and Webflow: These offer ecommerce features, but they aren’t dedicated ecommerce platforms. They can work for simple catalogs or low-volume stores, but lack the depth that Shopify or BigCommerce provides out of the box.

Open Source Ecommerce Platforms

Open-source platforms allow you to download and install the core ecommerce website software on an environment you choose and modify it to your liking. They give you full ownership and control, but this means you’re responsible for hosting, security, updates, and most of the configuration. While the software is “free” to use, the real costs come from hosting, security maintenance, developer time, plugin licensing, and ongoing updates. Total cost of ownership for a mature open-source B2B store often rivals or exceeds a SaaS platform once you factor in the full picture.

The field is primarily dominated by WooCommerce and Magento. Drupal Commerce exists as a third option but is significantly more niche, typically chosen only by organizations already running Drupal as their CMS.

WooCommerce (a WordPress plugin) and Drupal Commerce (a Drupal module) turn general-purpose CMS platforms into ecommerce stores. The base installs are bare bones. You’ll be building or configuring most of the shopping experience yourself through plugins, themes, and custom development.

Magento Open Source is a dedicated ecommerce platform built for more complex online stores. Compared with WooCommerce, it is generally more capable out of the box, but also significantly more complex to build, host, maintain, and update. While serious WooCommerce and Magento stores often require developer support, Magento’s learning curve and infrastructure requirements are in a different weight class.

Adobe Commerce is the enterprise version of the Magento ecosystem. It builds on Magento’s ecommerce foundation, but adds commercial features, Adobe support, cloud infrastructure options, and enterprise capabilities for larger commerce operations. It is not the same as Magento Open Source, and it is not a pure open-source option, but it is relevant for B2B companies that need a platform with stronger support for enterprise business growth. At that scale, Adobe Commerce competes directly with platforms like Salesforce B2B Commerce and OroCommerce rather than sitting in a category of its own.

Out of the box, these solutions can work, but they’re pretty vanilla, and you’ll likely need developer resources to get up and running. If your store needs highly customized features, such as integrations with an ERP, flexible payment options, or 3PL providers, an open-source platform gives you the flexibility to build a site that meets your exact requirements.

B2B-First Ecommerce Platforms

Some ecommerce platforms are built purposefully for B2B companies rather than consumer retail. These platforms are designed with manufacturers, distributors, wholesalers, suppliers, and other businesses with complex purchasing requirements in mind.

Common features include tiered pricing, account hierarchies, quote requests, purchase approvals, invoice payments, net terms, sales rep ordering, buyer portals, and ERP integration. Platforms like OroCommerce, Sana Commerce, Optimizely Configured Commerce, and Salesforce Commerce Cloud fit into this category.

These platforms vary significantly in scope. OroCommerce is a flexible open-source-core option well suited to mid-market and enterprise B2B companies. Sana Commerce is built specifically around ERP integration, with deep native connectors for SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. Optimizely Configured Commerce targets more complex, catalog-heavy operations. Salesforce B2B Commerce is worth separating from the others: it originated as a B2C platform (Demandware) and its B2B capabilities run through the Salesforce CRM ecosystem, making it a natural fit for companies already deeply invested in Salesforce.

ERP integration is especially important in B2B ecommerce because pricing, inventory, customer accounts, credit terms, order history, invoices, and fulfillment data often live inside the ERP. For many companies, the ecommerce platform is not just a store. It needs to function as a self-service customer portal connected to the systems already running the business.

The advantage of a B2B-first platform is that many of these workflows are built into the system rather than assembled from apps, plugins, or custom development. This can make them a better fit for companies with negotiated pricing, complex accounts, approval chains, or ERP-driven operations.

The trade-off is cost and implementation complexity. B2B-first platforms usually make the most sense when your ecommerce site needs to support existing business relationships, not just process simple online transactions.

Industry-Specific Ecommerce Platforms

Some ecommerce platforms are built for the workflows of a specific industry. Buyers may need contractor accounts, quote requests, customer-specific pricing, invoice payments, job-based ordering, delivery coordination, and ERP integration. General platforms can support these functions with customization, but industry-specific platforms come with these workflows built in. That can be a significant advantage for B2B companies looking for tailored solutions.

TOOLBX is one example in the building materials space. It provides a contractor-facing storefront, customer portal, quotes, orders, payments, messaging, and ERP integration for lumber and building supply dealers. Epicor Commerce is another industry-connected option, powered by Magento but designed for companies already using Epicor’s ERP. Other industries have their own vertical platforms worth evaluating: foodservice, electrical distribution, industrial supply, and healthcare distribution all have specialist tools that may get you closer to the right workflow faster than a general-purpose platform.

The trade-off with industry-specific solutions is flexibility. These platforms get you closer to the right workflow faster, but they don’t offer the adaptability of broader platforms like Shopify, BigCommerce, Magento, or a custom headless stack. They make sense when your business fits the exact operating model they were built for.

Headless Commerce

Headless commerce gives you the most control over how your storefront looks and behaves. Headless platforms separate the backend (products, orders, pricing, inventory) from the frontend website your customers see. For example, a company could build and host its front-end website on WordPress while connecting it to BigCommerce through APIs.

Some companies take headless commerce even further. Their ecommerce stack is broken into separate tools for the CMS, product information management, site search, frontend, checkout, personalization, and order management.

Adoption of this newer category has grown rapidly over the last several years, with platforms like Shopify Hydrogen, BigCommerce Catalyst, Commercetools, and Medusa picking up steam, thanks to the flexibility they offer ecommerce managers in choosing their exact tech stack.

The platforms in this space vary widely. Commercetools is an enterprise-grade, API-first platform built for large organizations with significant engineering resources. Medusa is an open-source alternative best for developers who want a lighter, more customizable headless foundation, typically at smaller scale. Shopify Hydrogen and BigCommerce Catalyst are framework-level tools for building headless storefronts on top of those existing platforms. The trade-off is cost, complexity, and long-term ownership. Stitching together services that a traditional platform would bundle for you requires experienced developers to build and maintain the frontend. More importantly, you take on ongoing responsibility for that custom frontend indefinitely. For most B2B companies, especially those without a dedicated engineering team, headless adds more complexity than it solves.

That said, the rise of AI coding tools like Claude Code and Codex lowers this barrier. Tasks that used to require a senior frontend developer can now be tackled faster with AI assistance. Headless still isn’t a starter option, but it’s becoming more accessible than it was even a year ago.

Key Features of Business to Business Platforms

B2B companies usually need more than a standard product catalog and checkout. Business buyers often have negotiated pricing, purchase orders, payment terms, approval processes, account-specific catalogs, and repeat ordering needs. A strong B2B ecommerce platform should support those workflows while making it easy for customers to find products, request quotes, place orders, and manage their accounts.

This is different from most B2C ecommerce, where customer behavior is often driven by individual purchases, simple pricing, and fast checkout. In B2B, the platform may need to support customer-specific pricing, bulk ordering, saved lists, invoice payments, quote requests, user roles, and ERP or CRM integrations.
That said, most B2B teams already know the workflows they need to support. The more useful question is whether a platform handles them well at your scale, and whether it fits into how your business already operates. Here’s what to look for when evaluating your options.

Pricing Complexity

Complex pricing is one of the most common pain points in B2B ecommerce. Unlike B2C, a single price rarely applies across all customers. Rates vary by contract, account volume, geography, or relationship history. Look for a platform that supports customer-specific pricing, tiered pricing, contract pricing, and the ability to restrict or hide pricing by customer segment. The less you rely on workarounds or third-party apps to manage this, the fewer errors will surface in your sales process.

Account Management and Buyer Portals

Strong account management capabilities are central to the B2B customer experience. Buyers should be able to log in, review order history, manage account details, track shipments, access invoices, and reorder without needing to contact your sales teams. For companies with multiple buyers within a single account, corporate account management features, including multi-user access, approval workflows, spending limits, and role-based permissions, are equally important. A well-designed buyer portal reduces friction for existing customers and frees up your sales reps to focus on higher-value work.

Order Management

B2B order management is more involved than in consumer retail. Orders may come in through sales reps, EDI feeds, the web, or multiple channels at once, and often need to be routed or fulfilled across multiple warehouses. Look for a platform that handles purchase order numbers, net payment terms, partial shipments, backorders, and split fulfillment, and one that integrates cleanly with your logistics and 3PL systems.

ERP and CRM Integration

For most B2B companies, the ecommerce platform is not the system of record. The ERP is. Pricing, inventory, customer accounts, credit terms, and order history often live in systems like SAP, Microsoft Dynamics, or NetSuite. A platform that enables real time data flow between your storefront and your ERP and CRM systems eliminates duplicate data entry and gives your sales teams accurate, up-to-date information. Poor integration with legacy systems is one of the most common sources of operational inefficiency in B2B ecommerce, so it’s worth pressure-testing before you commit to a platform.

Inventory Management

B2B buyers expect accurate stock visibility, especially when placing large orders. Platforms that sync inventory in real time, across multiple warehouses or supplier locations, can show honest availability, set accurate expectations, and streamline operations across the supply chain. Inventory errors that are minor inconveniences in B2C can damage customer relationships and customer satisfaction in B2B, where buyers are often on tight production or procurement schedules.

Which Platform is Right for Your Business?

Each business and situation is unique, so we offer this framework for your team to use as a starting point for your decision:

What if I’m not ready?

If you’ve never really sold online before, you’re looking at 12-18 months of work before you can turn on a store and reliably sell products profitably online. We recommend starting simple. Getting a basic WordPress or Shopify store up and running is a good bet for companies without dedicated website teams, whether internal or through an agency. But don’t wait. The longer you wait, the more it will cost. The companies we’ve worked with that invest in ecommerce early consistently see strong returns, and those who move first tend to capture the most advantage.

The most common mistake we see is companies choosing a platform based on where they want to be in three years instead of where they are today. Start with what fits now. Migration is always an option, and it’s easier in the long run than wrestling with a platform that’s too much for your current team to manage.