The global B2B market is booming these days. Therefore, finding the best B2B e-commerce platforms has been a rethinking task for many online marketers.
Let’s take a look at what makes each eCommerce platform different for a B2B business and find out what might be the right B2B solution for your business.
What is B2B eCommerce?
B2B is business-to-business e-commerce, which is an online transaction where both parties involved are businesses.
In other words, a company that sells its products or services to another company. For example, Amazon Business, Alibaba, AliExpress, Rakuten and TradeKey are some popular B2B e-commerce sites.
What are the best B2B eCommerce platforms?
#1. Shopify Plus
This is the enterprise edition of Shopify, one of the most powerful online shopping systems in the e-commerce market. Shopify Plus offers the same basic dashboard and features as Shopify, but this platform provides more tools and B2B functionality. You can refer to our “ Shopify vs Shopify Plus – The Best Comparison ” for an in-depth look at the main differences between the two plans offered by Shopify.
Do you want to learn more about managing and Shopify store development? Check out the blog posts specially created for you to benefit you.
Talking about the best B2B e-commerce platforms, I have to say that Shopify Plus wins universal recognition for this one. There are more than 12,000 B2B e-commerce brands that choose Shopify as their B2B platform.
They include the world’s best brands such as Nestle, Unilever, Kylie Jenner, Hawkers, etc.
What makes the platform the most preferred after traders?
Security
As one of the best B2B e-commerce platforms, Shopify Plus is a 100% secure solution.
- For credit card processing, Shopify Plus is PCI DSS level 1 compliant. You don’t have to do anything or pay any costs.
- Customer data is protected thanks to the implementation of GDPR, the strictest privacy and security law in the world.
- Shopify Plus has an excellent fraud prevention system – a built-in SSL certificate and a secure backend to keep your store and customer data safe.
Omni-channel
There are 23 sales channels available from your dashboard. You can sync inventory, orders and customer information across all channels from one central location. This platform enables B2B businesses to sell online and in-store with Shopify’s POS (Point Of Sale) system.
Integrations
Shopify Plus offers Shopify Payments, which makes selling in multiple currencies a seamless and easy task. Automatically selects the appropriate currency for your customers based on their IP addresses.
When it comes to multilingual stores, Shopify Plus allows merchants to translate into 20 different languages.
To achieve international scaling, country-specific tax calculations must be considered. Regarding Shopify‘s sales tax, the platform integrates with Alavara AvaTax, which is a paid service that helps you calculate tax automatically.
Wholesale
B2B buyers have the ability to purchase, track and reorder products. They can also review bulk orders before billing.
This B2B sales platform offers a wholesale channel that allows store owners to:
- create a wholesale store that has a different storefront than their current online store
- customize the prices they offer their wholesale customers and process order placement
With the pages and goods in the wholesale store, they are not indexed by Bing or Google, so they cannot appear on the search engine results pages, which is also a big advantage of the platform as an automated solution.
Bonus Resource: How to Sell More on Shopify
Personalization
Shopify is a hosted platform, so when it comes to customization, it can’t compare to open-source solutions like Magento, to be honest. However, it allows merchants to customize the design of their online store for a pleasant customer experience using the script editor. This is one of Shopify’s huge innovations for their Plus plan over the standard plans.
Want to migrate to Shopify Plus?
#2. BigCommerce B2B Edition
When looking at the best B2B eCommerce platforms, you’ll want to check out BigCommerce B2B Edition. We personally think it’s one of the leading Open SaaS eCommerce platforms for mid-sized and enterprise brands.
This B2B platform is known for its low cost and the ability to easily integrate with systems (ERP, PIM, CRM, etc.) through flexible APIs. It also offers a variety of e-commerce features that support the complexity of a B2B business, whether you’re a wholesaler, manufacturer, distributor — or selling to both B2B and B2C.
Here are a few big brands that use BigCommerce for B2B: Avery Dennison, Tectran, and Black Diamond
Security
With the move to the Google Cloud Platform, the security benefits of BigCommerce have increased significantly. In addition, BigCommerce offers merchants a reliable, secure and scalable platform through:
- ISO/IEC 27001:2013 Compliant Certificate for Information Security Management
- Certified as a PCI DSS 3.2 Level 1 Service Provider
- Secure coding and business practices from OWASP and CIS
- An SSL certificate is provided
Integrations
BigCommerce supports many of the core functionalities that enable selling on a new marketplace, including currency, payment methods, taxes, and language integration. For example:
- BigCommerce supports over 100 currencies and even allows store owners to set specific prices per product, for each currency, giving store owners complete control over their pricing and promotional strategies when selling internationally.
- Through big commerce’s extensive network of payment providers, merchants can choose the provider that offers the payment methods most appropriate for their target markets.
- BigCommerce B2B merchants can either set them manually in the control panel or automate their sales tax calculations.
- BigCommerce also helps localize content and conversion tools using Stencil
Personalization
BigCommerce is designed to allow users to easily make changes to their sites while giving technical staff the freedom for greater customization.
For example, using Page Builder, you can seamlessly create and edit pages on your site and customize attributes of your store, such as colours and fonts, with no coding required.
For further customization, the B2B Edition allows you to adjust app element placement, text, styling, and payment configurations. You also have access to many modules to inject your own JavaScript functions.
Additionally, you can use the REST API to create, read, update, and delete items such as orders, companies, addresses, payments, sales representatives, and users. This API allows you to create your own services or integrate systems such as ERP and CRM.
BigCommerce
BigCommerce B2B Edition also offers features and functionality to support wholesale trade, such as:
- Payment method visibility control
- Assign buyer roles
- Invoice portal
- Restricted entry
- Offers
- Customer groups
Omnichannel
Through Channel Manager, BigCommerce offers integrations with many of the top social platforms, including:
- Amazon & Amazon Multi-channel Fulfillment (MCF)
- eBay
- Google Shopping
In addition, BigCommerce recently announced its acquisition of Feedonomics, which will provide the ability to connect its back-end operations and their sales, marketing and advertising channels to drive higher ROAS, higher conversion and ultimately high GMV.
#3. Adobe Commerce (formerly known as Magento Commerce)
In e-commerce, Magento emerged and created a boom due to its high customization and scalability. Therefore, in our humble opinion, it is a sensational option for those looking for the best B2B e-commerce platforms.
After the acquisition by Adobe, Magento currently has two editions. The first is Magento Open Source (formerly Magento Community) – a free version that requires Magento hosting. The other is Adobe Commerce, formerly Magento Enterprise, which is the premium version of Magento.
In comparison between Magento Commerce and Magento Open Source, Magento Commerce offers a better commerce experience to customers. This enterprise-grade e-commerce platform offers a richer set of out-of-the-box features including B2B data, functionalities, security, customized solution, etc.
Some of the popular brands using Adobe Commerce are Rural King, JCB, Bulk Powders, etc.
Integrations
Adobe Commerce has comprehensive internationalization features to support high-volume merchants.
- The B2B e-commerce platform supports currency from more than 200 countries. Exchange rates can be manually updated or imported into your store if needed.
- Merchants can customize and localize the store for multiple regions and markets with localization.
- Adobe Commerce also automatically calculates EU transaction tax with VAT ID validation and supports fixed product taxes such as EU WEEE/DEEE.
Personalization
With open access to its source code, Adobe Commerce gives you endless opportunities to modify your online store.
- The Adobe Commerce front end is designed to optimize store customization.
- This B2B e-commerce platform provides tools to help you improve your store’s personalization process more efficiently.
- Traders can modify the control screens to speed up their daily tasks.
You can also take advantage of third-party extensions from the Magento Marketplace to make your online store stand out from the competition. There are more than 1,700 third-party extensions that support both Enterprise Edition and Cloud Edition that you can choose from.
Wholesale
Adobe Commerce includes everything you need to manage B2B e-commerce sites.
Your B2B customers can manage their company accounts themselves and set up multiple tiers of buyers with specific roles and accessibility. They can also track order history and more.
Additionally, Adobe Commerce helps your B2B buyers maximize their sales by accepting payments on account. This offline payment method allows them to make purchases up to the credit limit that is listed on their profile.
Security
Adobe Commerce certainly provides high security. This platform offers you the Magento Security Scan Tool and a dedicated Security Center to get the latest patches, security updates and best practices for your sites. Adobe Commerce is also PCI certified as a Tier 1 Solution Provider.
Here are some elements of the Adobe Commerce security environment:
- SSL certificate
- Content Delivery Network (CDN) and DDoS protection
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Virtual private cloud
- Penetration testing
- Payment login
Omnichannel
Adobe Commerce helps merchants meet customer needs by creating a world-class omnichannel experience.
Our impression is that Adobe Commerce offers an order management system from which you can sell and fulfil from anywhere. Merchants can consolidate global inventory, intelligently find fulfilment items and improve customer service. For example, it brings together multiple e-commerce channels, handling complex ordering and fulfilment needs such as reverse order and BOPIS (buy online pick up in-store).
What’s more, store owners can use Magento Business Intelligent (BI) to find the most profitable customers. You sell through many channels, for example, BI can query your entire data warehouse, analyze your products, etc. to identify new growth opportunities.
#4. eWorldTrade
It is a global B2B marketplace serving millions of businesses. I must say that it is the fastest-growing B2B platform that has made an impression in the B2B industry.
In eWorldTrade they have integrated a directory of manufacturers and suppliers. They connect buyers and sellers through digital platforms from all over the world, welcoming and encouraging businesses to join eWordTrade to connect with genuine and reliable buyers and sellers. eWorldTrade aims to shape trading strategies and improve the overall vision.
Security
They maintain an updated security system on their platform to ensure customer protection. eWolrdTrade is PCI certified as a Level 1 Solution Provider. eWorldTrade uses cookies to store information and track the website. They have some protective features which include:
- SSL certificate
- Payment login
- Web Application Firewall (WAF)
- Admin protection
- Fraud protection
- Security of transactions
- Data validation
Integrations
eWorldtrade is an e-commerce platform that serves customers on a global level. They support their platform in 2 languages English and Chinese.
The platform allows trading in multiple currencies for the wholesale product. B2B buyers can use a local shipping method that drives more business and engages more customers.
Personalization
eWorldTrade does not restrict its customers from expanding their business. Customization offers are built around business needs. Merchants can freely customize their online stores, can change banners, show the latest promotions, and ads or update other important sections.
Omnichannel
eWordTrade expands its business horizon and opens its platform to market with other B2B platforms. They allow their customers to sell their products to more people and open up new business avenues. eWorldTrade has an inventory that takes care of and simplifies selling in other channels.
Wholesale
eWorldTrade is a B2B wholesale trading platform enabling businesses to transact in wholesale business operations with features such as automated wholesale management. We are impressed with their intelligent analytical tools for analyzing and tracking business decisions.
#5. Salesforce Commerce Cloud
Salesforce Commerce Cloud is another excellent solution among the listed best B2B e-commerce platforms.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud, formerly Demandware, is a cloud-based platform aimed at large enterprises. Multi-tenancy refers to a software architecture where one copy of the software runs on a server and serves many clients.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud offers users exceptional features and functionality to create online stores that are specifically designed for businesses that make bulk purchases.
Security
This platform provides a robust security and privacy program that is heavily focused on protecting customer data. There are some outstanding security services:
- Processing Control: Ensure that customer data is only processed by customers throughout the chain of processing activities by Salesforce and its sub-processors.
- Security and Privacy Audits and Certifications: This platform undergoes security assessments, including infrastructure vulnerability assessments and application security assessments. Information about audits and certifications is available from the AWS Security website and the AWS Compliance website.
- Security policies and procedures: enhancing security related to user passwords.
Integrations
Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s international feature is pretty equivalent to what Magento Commerce offers in our opinion. There are 3 internationalization strategies for marketers to choose from. Each option offers different internationalization practices with a different number of sites, customizability, complexity in Business Manager, etc.
Salesforce Commerce Cloud enables multiple currencies and multiple languages. This platform offers Translation Workbench, a tool that allows you to translate Salesforce texts into different languages.
As for taxation, you can use the Tax Provider to easily configure the charging of sales tax on orders. You can set a flat rate or use a third-party tax rate table and configure a different tax rate for different regions.
Personalization
The design of your Salesforce store is quite easy to customize.
While Salesforce Commerce Cloud’s customization capabilities aren’t as strong as Adobe Commerce offers, they’re still more extensible than other SaaS solutions like Shopify Plus or BigCommerce Enterprise.
This platform provides marketers with the Page Designer tool that helps them design, plan and publish pages. Store owners can use the Commerce Cloud Partner Marketplace to get support and value-added services for their stores.
Wholesale
From our perspective, Salesforce Commerce Cloud maximizes your online growth with easy-to-use e-commerce features tailored for B2B customers. It helps wholesalers engage more customers by making every B2B e-commerce interaction seamless, relevant and connected.
Here are some important features of Salesforce Commerce Cloud B2B regarding wholesale:
- Ability to freely adapt to many SKUs per order
- Double-click to reorder easily, regardless of the number of products in the purchase
- Advanced shipping functionality, including multiple delivery dates and locations
And here’s a short video that covers some of the key features of the Salesforce B2B commerce solution:
Salesforce Commerce Cloud also supports 59 payment methods to facilitate group purchases.
Omnichannel is a strong feature that helps Salesforce Commerce Cloud eclipse other solutions in the list of best B2B e-commerce platforms.
Choosing the best B2B e-commerce platforms
Now that you know the criteria for B2B e-commerce platforms and which are the best B2B e-commerce platforms, it’s time to make your choice.
Among Shopify Plus, Magento Commerce, BigCommerce B2B, Salesforce Commerce Cloud and NuORDER, it is not easy to make the right decision quickly
- Shopify Plus covers a bunch of exclusive B2B functionalities. However, the customization options are still inferior to what Magento Commerce provides.
- Magento Commerce is not easy to use and is expensive for some companies. Accordingly, others also have their pros and cons when it comes to B2B functionalities.
These B2B e-commerce platforms are constantly improving to meet the needs of customers and their businesses. Choosing the best B2B platform means choosing the most suitable one for your online business.
If you need further advice on such a complex task, do not hesitate to contact us!