B2B ecommerce platform features

Choose a B2B ecommerce platform by tracing an order from buyer sign-in through pricing, approval and payment to the document the customer receives. The key question: do the right rules apply to the right company, location and person throughout that journey?

Prioritise capabilities in purchasing-workflow order: company and buyer access first, then catalogue and pricing, purchasing authority and approvals, quotes and payment terms, repeat buying, and finally invoicing. Treat mandatory access, approval and Australian tax-invoice requirements as pass-or-fail checks.

Map the buying relationship

List the organisations you sell to, their locations and the people who buy for each one. Decide who may view prices, place orders, approve requests, change addresses and see order history.

Define which products each customer can buy, where negotiated prices apply and when payment is due. Keep a purchase order number, an order confirmation and a tax invoice distinct in the requirements.

Check account structure and onboarding

BigCommerce B2B Edition treats the company as the customer and its authorised buyers as company users. Registration can collect company information, and settings can require manual approval before new company accounts place orders or see products and pricing.

Company address books can hold multiple billing and shipping addresses, with default addresses and optional labels to help identify them. BigCommerce company accounts are separate from customer groups: customer groups can be used to set pricing and viewable catalogues, but assigning a company to a group is optional.

Shortlist against the workflow

Shopify B2B names company accounts, custom price lists, net payment terms, quantity rules and a self-serve buyer portal. Its B2B features are listed by plan, so check the proposed plan against requirements for company structure and buyer access before treating it as a match.

BigCommerce B2B Edition documents company accounts, user roles, sales quotes and invoice management, and includes a Buyer Portal for company users. Its documentation describes invoice management for purchase orders paid on net terms; the Buyer Portal can request sales quotes or pay outstanding invoices. Customer groups can optionally be used to set pricing and viewable catalogues.

Confirm whether the proposed store uses B2B Edition and its default or customised Buyer Portal.

Adobe Commerce B2B documents company roles, customer-specific catalogues and pricing, negotiable quotes and requisition lists. These capabilities depend on the B2B extension being installed and enabled; configuration determines which are available.

Compare account access first: Shopify names company accounts; BigCommerce organises accounts by companies and calls authorised buyers company users; Adobe company accounts can join multiple buyers. Adobe also names company hierarchies, while BigCommerce documents company address books and user roles.

For catalogue access and pricing, Shopify names custom price lists. BigCommerce customer groups can optionally set pricing and viewable catalogues, while Adobe Commerce B2B names customer-specific catalogues and pricing.

For quotes, BigCommerce names sales quotes and lets company users request them through the Buyer Portal; Adobe Commerce B2B names negotiable quotes. Shopify’s named capabilities do not specify a quote workflow, so verify quote support on the proposed plan.

Distinguish company-registration approval from purchasing approval. BigCommerce can require manual approval of new company accounts before they place orders or see products and pricing; Adobe company roles can govern ordering, quoting and purchasing, but these capabilities do not establish a buyer order routed to a manager. Shopify’s named capabilities do not specify that workflow either, so ask each vendor to demonstrate it.

For payment terms, Shopify names net payment terms, and BigCommerce invoice management supports purchase orders paid on net terms. Adobe configuration determines available payment methods, and its Pay on Account option lets companies buy on a company credit line.

For repeat buying, Adobe names requisition lists. The named Shopify and BigCommerce capabilities do not specify copying a past order into a new cart, so keep the repeat-buying demonstration in the evaluation.

Ask who will maintain roles, catalogue assignments and quote states in the proposed implementation.

Prioritise organisational fit

For a business with several entities under one enterprise, Adobe Commerce B2B can represent a company hierarchy, including parent companies and subsidiaries. A company administrator can also build divisions, subdivisions and users within a company account, then assign roles and permissions governing activities such as ordering, quoting and purchasing. Assess whether buyers can maintain a structure that reflects how purchasing authority is organised.

Weight company and location access first, then catalogue access and contracted pricing, then purchasing controls and approval, followed by quotes and payment terms. Repeat buying, invoicing and the accounting handoff come later in the workflow, but any mandatory requirement should remain a pass-or-fail check.

Treat account structure, catalogue access and purchasing controls as separate selection criteria. Adobe Commerce B2B makes other features dependent on the company account, while its enabled configuration determines available capabilities such as payment methods, pricing levels and quotes.

Check exceptions before deciding

Use the same company, buyer, contracted item, one-off price and repeat order for each demonstration. Check which price applies after a quote, what happens to an unavailable item on reorder, and what the buyer sees before submitting.

For Australian operations, inspect the issued tax invoice and accounting handoff as well as checkout. Check that the document generated by the proposed workflow meets Australian Taxation Office requirements; an email requesting payment does not establish that it does.

Record what the proposed configuration supports, what requires an app or integration, and who owns each exception.

For GST-registered businesses, Australian Taxation Office (ATO) guidance says a tax invoice must be issued for a taxable sale over $82.50 including GST, or within 28 days when a customer requests one, regardless of the amount.

The invoice must include the words “tax invoice”, the business name and ABN, issue date, a description including quantity and price, and GST payable if any. For sales over $1,000, it must also include the buyer’s identity or ABN.