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B2B ecommerce portals for manufacturers and distributors
Your buyers expect to order supplies the way they order everything else: on their phone, at 10 p.m., with their contract pricing already applied. Instead, they email a PO, call a rep to check stock, and wait for an order confirmation someone keyed in by hand.
We’re a B2B ecommerce agency that builds self-service ordering portals for US manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. Buyers see customer-specific pricing and live inventory, request quotes, reorder in seconds and pay on net terms, with every order flowing straight into your ERP.
Replace manual ordering with a portal buyers use
A B2B portal isn’t a replacement for your sales team. It removes the order entry, stock checks, price lookups and “where’s my order?” calls that keep reps from selling.
Well-implemented portals aim to:
- cut manual order entry and the keying errors that cause returns and credits
- give buyers 24/7 access to pricing, inventory, order history, invoices and tracking
- speed up reorders for your highest-volume accounts
- give sales teams visibility into account activity and buying patterns
- PLACEHOLDER: verified client outcomes only, e.g. share of orders moved online, order-processing time saved.
B2B features
Customer-specific pricing and catalogs
Contract pricing, tiered and volume pricing, customer-group price lists and restricted catalogs, all driven by your ERP as the single source of truth.
Quotes, net terms and reorders
RFQ and quote workflows with rep approval and quote-to-order conversion
Net 30/60 terms and credit limits alongside card and ACH payments
Quick order by SKU, CSV upload and one-click reorder from history
Company accounts with multiple buyers, roles, spending limits and approval rules
Punchout catalogs (cXML/OCI) for customers buying through procurement systems such as Coupa or SAP Ariba, where required
Comparing B2B platforms
Adobe Commerce: the most flexible for complex B2B, with native company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes, requisition lists and deep customization.
Shopify B2B: increasingly capable, with company profiles, catalogs, payment terms and quantity rules, and lower total cost of ownership. A strong fit for brands that already run Shopify and Shopify Plus stores.
BigCommerce B2B Edition: a mid-market option with robust native B2B features.
Headless or composable architecture: for the most complex catalogs, multiple storefronts or unique buying experiences.
We evaluate platforms against your real pricing rules, catalog, integrations and team, not a generic feature grid. As a starting point:
Requirement
Adobe Commerce
Shopify B2B
BigCommerce B2B Edition
Company accounts and buyer roles
Native, highly configurable
Native
Native
Customer-specific pricing
Native shared catalogs + custom logic
Catalogs / price lists
Price lists
Native
Via apps or draft orders
Native
Native + extensions
Payment terms natively; credit limits via apps/ERP
Native
Native + extensions
Payment terms natively; credit limits via apps/ERP
Native
Strong
Good, with limits on variants and options
Good
Highest
Moderate (apps, Functions)
Moderate–high
Highest
Lowest (SaaS)
Low (SaaS)
Typical fit
Complex manufacturers/ distributors
Lowest (Brands adding wholesale; simpler B2B)
Mid-market distributors
Platform capabilities change frequently; we verify current features during discovery.
ERP and PIM integration
Integration determines whether a portal saves time or creates it. Our ecommerce development team integrates ERPs such as NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP Business One, Epicor, Infor and Acumatica, plus PIMs such as Akeneo and Salsify. That covers pricing, inventory, customers, orders, invoices and shipment tracking. We map data flows, frequency and failure handling before we build.
B2B ordering portal
Customer pricing
Price lists, contract and volume pricing per account
Into the portal
Inventory
Stock by warehouse, with lead times
Into the portal
Orders
Placed online, sent straight to the ERP
Out of the portal
Credit and terms
Net terms, credit limits and account holds
Into the portal
Invoices and statements
Visible to buyers in their account
Into the portal
Tax exemptions
Exemption certificates per account and state
Two-way
What a B2B portal keeps in sync with your ERP. The portal only works if buyers trust the price and the stock they see, so ERP sync comes first..
How a B2B integration works in practice
Most B2B integrations involve the same core data flows, each with its own frequency and owner:
Data
Typical direction
Typical frequency
Net terms and credit limits(RFQ)
Native + extensions
Scheduled + on change
ERP → store
Scheduled; real-time lookup for complex pricing
ERP/WMS → store
Near real time
ERP ↔ store
On change
Store → ERP
Real time
ERP → store
On change
The details that make or break a project are rarely the happy path. They’re the exceptions: what happens when a price is missing, an order fails validation, inventory goes negative, or the ERP is offline during a sync. We design and test error handling and alerts for each flow, so problems surface to your team before buyers notice them
A typical B2B project
Step 1 of 5
Discovery (2–4 weeks)
Buyer journeys, pricing rules, catalog structure, integration inventory and platform recommendation
Step 2 of 5
Design (3–6 weeks)
Account dashboard, quick order, quote flow and catalog UX, tested with real buyers
Step 3 of 5
Build and integrate
Platform configuration, custom features and ERP/PIM integrations in sprints, with weekly demos
Step 4 of 5
Pilot
Launch to a small group of friendly accounts, then fix and refine
Step 5 of 5
Rollout
Phased onboarding of accounts, rep training and adoption tracking
Durations are indicative and depend on scope.
Designing for B2B buyers
B2B buyers don’t browse like consumers. They know what they want, often by SKU, and they order the same things repeatedly in large quantities, frequently on behalf of someone else who has to approve the spend. Good B2B UX reflects that:
Search that understands part numbers, partial SKUs, cross-references and specifications, not just product names
Quick order pads where buyers paste or type SKUs and quantities in one go
Saved lists and requisition lists for recurring orders by site, project or department
Account dashboards showing open orders, invoices, credit available and shipment tracking
Clear unit-of-measure and pack-size handling (each, case, pallet) with quantity rules enforced
Spec sheets, SDS documents and certifications downloadable from the product page
Approval workflows so buyers can submit orders that a manager approves before release
We test these flows with real buyers from your top accounts before launch. Their feedback consistently matters more than internal opinions about what buyers want.
Making the business case
B2B portals are capital projects, and leadership will ask what they return. We help you build the case from your own data: current order volumes by channel, the time your team spends keying orders and answering status queries, the cost of order errors (credits, returns, re-shipments), and realistic adoption targets by account tier. The benefits usually come from lower cost-to-serve and higher reorder frequency more than from new revenue, though search-driven new accounts can be significant in fragmented categories.
B2B and DTC on one platform
Many manufacturers now sell direct to consumers too. You can run both from one platform: logged-in buyers see contract pricing and terms, consumers see retail pricing. Or you can run separate storefronts on a shared back end. We’ll recommend the model that fits your channel strategy and avoids conflict with distributors.
Driving buyer adoption
Portals succeed or fail on adoption. Our rollout plans include:
- onboarding your top accounts first, with pre-loaded order lists
- equipping reps to place orders through the portal on buyers' behalf
- making reorders faster online than by phone or email
- buyer communications and simple training materials
B2B marketing
Buyers research suppliers online: part numbers, specs, “distributor” and “wholesale” searches. SEO for online stores built around your catalog attracts new accounts, and targeted PPC management reaches buyers in-market for your product categories.
Unsure about platform choice or business case? Get independent advice before you commit.
Measuring B2B portal success
We agree business measures up front and report on them through rollout:
- Share of orders placed online, overall and for top accounts
- Active online accounts as a share of all trading accounts
- Order-processing time and keying errors versus phone and email orders
- Reorder frequency and average order value online
- Sales rep time freed from order entry and status calls
- New accounts acquired through search
Watching adoption account by account shows where reps need to step in, and which customers need a different onboarding approach.
Sales tax, exemptions and compliance
B2B selling in the US adds tax complexity: resale and exemption certificates, different rules by state, and buyers who purchase both taxable and exempt items. We configure tax engines such as Avalara or TaxJar to store and apply exemption certificates by account, so wholesale buyers aren’t charged tax incorrectly and your team isn’t fixing invoices by hand.
Results
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[Industry, platform]. [Challenge, work done, verified result with timeframe]
[Client name]
[Industry, platform]. [Challenge, work done, verified result with timeframe]
[Client name]
[Industry, platform]. [Challenge, work done, verified result with timeframe]
B2B ecommerce FAQs
Something else? Ask us directly.
What's the best platform for B2B ecommerce?
Can you integrate NetSuite, SAP or Dynamics?
Can we run B2B and DTC together?
How do we get buyers to order online?
How long does a B2B portal take to build?
Will our sales reps resist the portal?
Can buyers see their own invoices and pay online?
Do you support punchout?
Where buyers require it, we implement cXML/OCI punchout integration with common procurement platforms.