10 Best E-Commerce Platforms for B2B
B2B eCommerce is the latest buzz in the eCommerce industry, and it’s not without reason. With a global market value estimated at US$12.2 trillion, the B2B eCommerce market is over six times more valuable than the B2C market.
If you want to expand your existing B2C store to a B2B/B2C hybrid or scale your current eCommerce B2B business, you’ll need a reliable B2B eCommerce platform.
So, what is a B2B eCommerce platform?
In simple terms, it’s an eCommerce platform that facilitates wholesale eCommerce between business customers, as opposed to transactions between a business and a private customer (B2C).
The benefits of using a B2B eCommerce platform are vast. It enables sellers to reach new customers (businesses), streamline sales processes to increase efficiency and profitability, and leverage big data.
We’ve reviewed the best options available today to help you choose the right B2B eCommerce platform. Below are the top 16 platforms that cut.
1. Shopify Plus
Who: Plus is a dedicated B2B eCommerce platform offering from Shopify, one of the world’s most prominent eCommerce platforms, with over 1 million eCommerce websites.
What: With Shopify Plus, merchants can manage both B2B and B2C sales from the same platform. Standout features include ERP and CRM integrations, over 100 payment providers, and conversion optimization and personalization capabilities.
When: 2014
Where: Shopify Plus is available worldwide and supports all international currencies and languages.
How much: Pricing ranges from $2,000 to $40,000 monthly, depending on your revenue. Once merchants start making $800,000, pricing changes from a subscription fee to revenue-based fee of 0.25% of monthly revenue.
Customer profile: Over 7,000 B2B eCommerce brands use Shopify Plus, including Nestle, Leese, Pepsi, and Bombas.
Recent updates: In May, Pinterest launched an updated version of its Shopify app , which allows Shopify merchants to upload their product catalogs to Pinterest as shoppable Pins.
FAQ: Is Shopify a B2B?
2. BigCommerce
Who: B2B eCommerce platform is popular among sellers who want an integration-friendly solution. That’s one of BigCommerce’s key selling points, with integrations with ShipperHQ, BrightPearl, and others.
What: Merchants can create custom shipping rates for B2B buyers, and sync data across their CRM, ERP, OMS, and other platforms. Shoppers can replicate the one-click ease of Amazon with immediate reordering and quote generation tools.
When: 2019
Where: Available worldwide
How much: Pricing available upon request.
Customer profile: The B2B offering is relatively new, so customer numbers aren’t available yet. However, over 60,000 brands use BigCommerce for their B2C eCommerce websites, including Avery Dennison, Toyota, and The Real Yellow Pages.
Recent updates: The B2B eCommerce platform just came out last year, so no major upgrades have been released at the time of writing.
3. Oracle SuiteCommerce
Who: Part of the Oracle NetSuite family, SuiteCommerce has been recognized by Forrester as a leading B2B eCommerce platform for mid-size organizations.
What: SuiteCommerce offers a comprehensive suite of tools to streamline purchasing, billing, and support for B2B customers. Merchants can manage both B2B and B2C from the same cloud-based eCommerce platform.
When: 2015
Where: While most popular among U.S. merchants, SuiteCommerce is available worldwide.
How much: Starts at $2,500/month.
Customer profile: 3,000 brands use SuiteCommerce, including Lovesac and The Noerr Programs.
Recent updates: New SuiteCommerce extensions support integrations with Google Analytics, live chat software, Google Shopping, and Facebook Dynamic Ads.
4. WooCommerce B2B
Who: WooCommerce is the official eCommerce plugin for WordPress-based websites.
What: This open-source eCommerce plugin designed for merchants of all sizes. It offers an extensive plugin library that allows store owners to customize their online shop.
When: 2011
Where: Available worldwide
How much: WooCommerce is free. Additional plugins may have their own costs.
Customer profile: WooCommerce powers 26% of all eCommerce sites, with clients like Weber, Ghostbed, and AeroPRess.
Recent updates: Instead of installing separate plugins from WooCommerce, B2B merchants can get all the functionality they need in one plugin, like the WooCommerce B2B plugin pictured above. B2B WooCommerce plugins include essential features, such as the ability to hide prices and/or products from non-members, provide discounts by customer group, and exclude taxes.
5. Pepperi
Who: Pepperi was designed from the ground up as a B2B eCommerce platform that you can manage anywhere, whether on your desktop computer or their eCommerce mobile app.
What: The highlight of Pepperi is its user-friendliness for your B2B customers. They can shop from your website or a mobile app, using a storefront personalized for their client profile. Pepperi also integrates with a massive number of third-party vendors for shipping, payment, email marketing, and more.
When: 2012
Where: Available worldwide
How much: Starts at $500/month.
Customer profile: Pepperi’s 1,000+ customers include Kimberly-Clark, Sodastream, Dermalogica, and Hallmark.
Recent updates: Pepperi has received numerous awards for its B2B eCommerce solution, most recently having been selected for the 2020 Gartner Digital Commerce Vendor Guide.
6. CS-Cart
Who: CS-Cart is a multi-vendor eCommerce platform built to make things easy for sellers, whether you’re B2C, B2B, or both.
What: CS-Cart boasts over 500 features, including drag-and-drop design templates and fully-customizable source code, so you can make your store truly your own.
When: 2005
Where: Available worldwide
How much: Pricing starts at $2,450 for B2B businesses, with a 15-day free demo.
Customer profile: CS-Cart is the eCommerce platform bethind 35,000+ stores, including over 1,300 virtual malls like ShopClues.com.
Recent updates: The CS-Cart B2B&B2C plan now offers the ability to manage multiple storefronts.
7. OpenCart
Who: As you may guess from its name, OpenCart’s B2B eCommerce platform is open-source and completely free to use, making it a popular alternative to Shopify Plus.
What: OpenCart includes built-in SEO, product management, promo codes, and more. Merchants can expand their store functionality by choosing among 13,000+ modules and themes.
When: 2010
Where: Available to sellers worldwide
How much: OpenCart is completely free to use, with zero monthly fees. Extensions and themes may include fees.
Customer profile: 342,000 eCommerce brands use OpenCart, including the British Red Cross, Ace, Volvo, and FX Creations.
Recent updates: OpenCart 3.0 saw the release of multilingual SEO URLs, improved reporting, and a new admin panel.
8. Magento Commerce for B2B
Who: B2B Commerce is another popular open-source B2B eCommerce platform which offers countless integrations and a large extensions library.
What: Magento B2B Commerce includes all the key functionalities of Magento’s B2C commerce platform, with additional features for B2B sellers managing multiple brands and partner accounts. For example, B2B buyers can enter SKUs or upload CSVs to quickly place orders with your store.
When: 2008
Where: Available worldwide
How much: Pricing starts at $3,000.
Customer profile: 260,000 merchants use MAgento B2B Commerce, including 3M and Procter & Gamble.
Recent updates: With the release of Magento 2.2, B2B buyers can submit quote requests directly to merchants from their shopping carts, and merchants can respond with discount offers, price changes, and upsells—all within the platform.
9. PrestaShop
Who: PrestaShop is a 100% free eCommerce platform that makes building an online store affordable for small to mid-sized merchants.
What: PrestaShop is a B2C eCommerce platform first and foremost, offering robust capabilities for online stores. To turn your store from B2C to B2B, you must turn on B2B mode, which adjusts your customer profiles to include company information, manually generate invoices, and only show prices to customers when logged in.
When: 2008
Where: PrestaShop merchants can sell worldwide, thanks to over 195 free language translations and 60 payment modules.
How much: PrestaShop is completely free, with no fees or commissions. However, themes and modules may include fees.
Customer profile: 300,000 global customers, with a majority of customers based in Spain, France, and the U.S.
Recent updates: Because it’s free, there’s a lot more DIY involved with PrestaShop Fortunately, the PrestaShop community includes over 1,000 contributors and 250 agency partners who are available to answer questions and help you with your store. The community recently reached 1 million members total.
10. LogiCommerce
Who: LogiCommerce is a Headless eCommerce software for medium to large companies with a fully B2B & B2C unified solution.
What: LogiCommerce is a Headless platform with a JAVA Core and an open source front-end. The most amazing feature above any other solution, is its BackOffice, which is very intuitive, fast, and very easy to use. Being Headless, it has several APIs where it allows seamless integrations with ERPs, CRMs or any other application. Moreover, it comes with 200+ native features for B2B and B2C. Multi-currency, multi-invoicing company, multi-pricing policy, targeted pricing, repetitive order processing, sales agent management, targeted customer catalogs, Inventory and warehouse management and a real-time business dashboard, are only a few high-end functionalities among many others for B2B eCommerce websites.
When: 1999
Where: Available worldwide thanks to the Headless architecture and the several hostings they offer.
How much: Starting at €99 per month and it allows you to add advanced features at a very affordable price. They are democratizing the eCommerce software industry through their transparent pricing policy; no hidden costs or transaction fees.
Customer profile: World renowned brands like VW, GAP, Audi, eseOese, Munich, Nestlé, IMC Toys use LogiCommerce.
Recent updates: LogiCommerce is constantly improving and releasing new features and integrating with new external plug-ins. They have recently launched the Omni-Channel and Multi-Channel integration for real-time management with all channels, both online (marketplaces) and offline (brick-and-mortar stores).