B2B ecommerce that trade customers actually use

How B2B ecommerce differs from a consumer shop

A consumer shop has to persuade a stranger to buy once. A trade portal has to help a known customer order correctly, quickly and repeatedly. The buyer at a facilities company, a salon group or an engineering firm usually knows exactly what they need. They want their negotiated price, the right pack size, a fast way to reorder and an honest delivery date.

That moves the centre of gravity. Consumer ecommerce leans on brand, imagery and a short checkout. B2B ecommerce leans on data: price agreements, credit terms, stock, lead times and account details, most of which live in your ERP or accounting system. In essence, a B2B website is an integration project with a well-designed front end.

Many UK wholesalers and manufacturers combine both: a public catalogue that helps new customers find them, and a logged-in ordering area with customer-specific terms. How B2B marketing and websites fit together more broadly is covered on our page for B2B companies.

The features a trade portal needs

Not every business needs everything below, but this is the list we work through at the start so nothing surfaces halfway through the build.

Pricing and range

• Customer-specific price lists and discounts, calculated in the ERP or in the store.
• Tiered prices by quantity and order minimums by pack, case or pallet.
• Restricted ranges, so some customers see only their contract lines.
• Prices shown excluding VAT by default for trade accounts, with clear VAT totals.

Accounts and ordering

• Company accounts with several users and roles, for example a buyer who orders and a manager who approves.
• Quick order by SKU, or by uploading a spreadsheet.
• Saved lists and repeat orders for regular consumables.
• Quote requests for large or unusual orders.
• Payment on account with agreed terms and credit limits, alongside card payment.
• Self-service order history, invoices, delivery status and documents such as safety data sheets.

For larger customers

Some corporate and public-sector buyers order from their own procurement systems. Punch-out connections let them build a basket on your site and return it to their system for approval. It is worth asking key accounts early whether they need this.

ERP, PIM and which system holds the truth

If the website shows a different price or stock level from the one your sales office quotes, trust disappears fast. So before any code is written, we map which system is authoritative for each type of data.

• ERP or accounting system: usually the source for customers, price agreements, stock, orders and invoices. In the UK we often meet Sage, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, SAP Business One and NetSuite, with Xero or QuickBooks in smaller operations.
• PIM: the source for product content such as attributes, images, documents and translations. With large ranges, a dedicated PIM is often wiser than maintaining everything in the store.
• The store: where ordering happens, and sometimes the source for content and buyer preferences.

Next comes timing. Price and stock at checkout may need a live check; product descriptions can sync overnight. Where several systems are involved, a middleware layer keeps connections manageable. An integration that breaks with every ERP update costs more over its life than one designed properly at the outset.

Choosing a B2B ecommerce platform

There is no single best B2B platform. There is the platform that suits your customer groups, range, ERP and appetite for ongoing development. We have no commercial tie to any of them.

Shopify now includes native B2B features such as company profiles, catalogues with their own prices, payment terms and quantity rules. According to Shopify's B2B documentation, these are no longer limited to Shopify Plus, but which features you get depends on your plan, so check this against your requirements. Our Shopify agency page covers how we build on the platform.

Adobe Commerce has a mature B2B module for company hierarchies, shared catalogues, requisition lists, quotes and approvals; on Magento Open Source the same is achieved with extensions. See our Magento agency page.

WooCommerce relies on wholesale plugins and custom code, which works well for a manageable number of customer groups and content-heavy sites. See WooCommerce developer.

Public catalogue or login only: the search question

One decision is often made too late: what can the public see? Pages behind a login are not indexed by Google. If your entire catalogue is hidden, new trade buyers will never find you through search.

We usually recommend a middle route: a public catalogue with categories, specifications, documents and application guidance; customer prices, stock and ordering after login; and a clear route to open a trade account, with the application flowing into your CRM or ERP. Buyers search by part number, specification and application, so well-structured category and product pages turn the portal into a source of new accounts. That organic work is part of ecommerce SEO.

Designing for buyers who order every week

Good B2B website design is efficient rather than inspirational. Someone who reorders ten times a month wants the shortest path to their items.

• Search that understands SKUs, manufacturer codes, the customer's own codes and common synonyms.
• A dashboard with recent orders, saved lists and open invoices.
• Product lists with quantity fields, so several lines can be added without opening each product.
• Honest stock and lead-time information.
• Layouts that work on a tablet in a warehouse or a phone on site.

Before the full build, we prefer to put early designs in front of a handful of real customers. Half an hour with a buyer reveals more than weeks of internal debate.

UK trade selling: VAT, terms and exports in general terms

Trade portals need their own commercial set-up. Prices are usually shown excluding VAT for business accounts, invoices must carry the details your accountant requires, and customers' VAT numbers may need to be captured. Business-to-business terms of sale differ from consumer terms, because consumer cancellation rights generally do not apply to trade buyers; our guide to ecommerce terms and conditions explains the difference.

Selling to business customers in the EU after Brexit adds customs declarations, commodity codes and decisions about who acts as importer. HMRC's guidance on exporting goods is the starting point. This is general information, not tax or legal advice; your accountant and solicitor should confirm the treatment for your products and customers.

Rollout, adoption and the mistakes to avoid

A portal nobody uses is an expensive brochure. Adoption is planned, not hoped for: pilot with a few loyal customers, create or migrate accounts, send clear invitations, and brief your sales office, because they will field the first questions and can champion the change.

Common mistakes

• Starting with the platform rather than the order flow and data.
• Rebuilding all pricing logic in the store while the ERP stays the real source, so the two drift apart.
• Hiding the whole catalogue behind a login.
• Leaving the sales team out of the project, though they know every exception.
• Forgetting trade terms, VAT handling and invoice requirements until just before launch.

Our process and what drives the cost

Every project begins with a paid 50-minute strategy session with the founder about your business, market and whether we fit. Afterwards we decide whether to take the work on; if so, you receive a proposal with a fixed scope and a fixed price. Then we analyse the order flow, choose the platform and design the integrations, design and build the ordering experience first, test with real data and a pilot group, and roll out.

The main cost drivers are the platform and any licence, the number and complexity of integrations, how many customer groups and pricing exceptions exist, the state of your product data, multiple currencies or countries, and migration from an existing portal. We do not publish starting prices; our guide to ecommerce website costs explains how to compare quotes.