Why B2B e-commerce isn’t just B2C with a login – and how Shopware 6 helps get it right

Let’s get one thing straight: B2B e-commerce is not just a B2C shop hiding behind a login screen.

Yes, both sell online. Yes, both have shopping carts. But that’s where the similarities end. B2B selling is a different beast entirely.

In this article, we’ll show why B2B e-commerce demands more than a password-protected storefront and explore how Shopware 6 rises to the challenge with purpose-built features.

B2C vs B2B e-commerce: Fundamental differences

At a high level, B2C (business-to-consumer) and B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce serve very different audiences, and it shows in their requirements. 

B2C online stores target individual consumers buying products for personal use, typically in small quantities.

B2B stores target business customers purchasing in bulk for their company’s needs, often on a recurring basis. 

These differing audiences drive several key distinctions in how the e-commerce experience must be designed.

Order size and frequency

B2C shoppers usually buy single items or small orders sporadically. B2B buyers place large, repeated orders (e.g., for inventory or raw materials) and often reorder the same items regularly.

Purchase process complexity

A B2C purchase is typically straightforward – browse, add to cart, checkout – optimized for speed and simplicity. 

B2B purchases tend to be more complex, often requiring custom quotes for large quantities or special configurations. The ordering process may involve multiple steps like quote requests, negotiation, or internal approval, before an order is finalized.

Decision makers

In B2C, one consumer is the decision maker. In B2B, multiple stakeholders are often involved – e.g., a procurement officer, a department manager, and a finance approver may all play a role in one order. The e-commerce platform must accommodate these multi-user, multi-approval workflows rather than a single shopper journey.

Pricing models

B2C pricing is usually transparent and uniform – the same price for all shoppers. B2B pricing is typically individualized. Companies negotiate their own rates, volume discounts, or contract pricing. 

A B2B storefront must support showing different prices to different customers and applying discounts based on quantity or customer group. It’s not unusual for B2B sellers to have tiered pricing or special terms for each major client.

Payment and terms

Consumer shops offer many immediate payment methods (credit cards, PayPal, etc.). B2B transactions often rely on invoicing, purchase orders, or bank transfers with net payment terms. The checkout needs to handle these offline or deferred payment options securely (for example, letting a buyer place an order on account).

Integration needs

Unlike a standalone consumer web shop, a B2B e-commerce site usually must plug into the business’s existing systems. That means integrating with ERP systems, CRM databases, inventory management, and other enterprise software to sync products, pricing, and orders in real time. 

We’ll dive deeper into this, but suffice it to say data consistency and system integration are critical in B2B environments.

In short, B2B e-commerce has to mirror the way businesses actually buy and sell, which is often a far cry from a one-and-done retail purchase. Buyers expect efficiency, negotiated pricing, and workflows that match their internal processes, not just a flashy storefront. 

Simply adding a login to a B2C site falls short of these needs. 

Requirements of B2B commerce

Now, let’s examine the most common (and challenging) requirements of B2B commerce and see how Shopware 6 addresses each one.

Customer-specific pricing 

One major thing that sets B2B apart is the expectation of personalized pricing. While a B2C shop might have a single price for an item, a B2B shop often shows client-specific prices, discounts, or contract rates depending on who’s logged in. 

For example, you may want to give your top-tier distributor a better price per unit than a smaller reseller, or offer volume-based discounts that kick in for large orders. 

Shopware 6 was built with this in mind. Using its rule-based pricing engine, merchants can assign different prices or discounts to specific customer groups or even individual companies. 

The Shopware Rule Builder makes it straightforward to create rules like “Customer Group X gets a 10% discount on Category Y” or “Buyer Z sees a negotiated price of $5 per unit on Product A” – no custom code needed.

Personalized catalogs

Moreover, pricing is just one part of personalization. B2B buyers often should only see the products relevant to them, especially if you serve distinct business segments. Shopware’s platform supports customized catalogs and dynamic assortments per customer or group.

You can define which categories or products each client segment can view. 

For instance, a manufacturer using Shopware can set up their store such that bulk wholesale SKUs and pallet quantities are visible only to distributor accounts, while retail-pack items are visible to smaller retailers. All of this is managed in one backend, leveraging dynamic product groups and visibility rules. 

When a B2B customer logs in, Shopware automatically tailors the catalog and pricing they see based on their account’s rules. This ensures each business customer gets a personalized experience – the right products at the right price – without accidentally exposing consumer pricing or irrelevant items.

Multi-user accounts

B2B commerce isn’t one person with one account – it’s many people working under one company umbrella. A single corporate customer might have dozens of employees who need to access your store: buyers, procurement managers, department heads, etc. 

They may also have a hierarchy (junior buyers, senior approvers, finance officers) with different roles in the purchasing process. Shopware addresses this through robust corporate account management features built into its B2B Suite and new B2B Components. You can essentially model an entire client organization within your e-commerce platform. 

Shopware’s B2B Suite allows a company to register an account and then create multiple user logins under that company, each with assigned roles. 

Shopware 6’s B2B features let you replicate a client’s organizational structure. In the admin interface, businesses can have a main company account with multiple employees, each assigned a role with specific rights (e.g. Buyer, Manager, Administrator). This multi-user account management ensures that every person in the customer’s team has appropriate access and permissions in the store.

Approval workflows and budget control

Along with multi-level user hierarchies comes the need for approval workflows. In B2B settings, a junior employee might place an order that needs managerial approval if it exceeds a certain value or falls outside a budget. 

Traditional B2C platforms don’t handle that, but Shopware 6 builds in approval processes to align with corporate procurement policies. 

You can define spend limits and rules such that if an order is above, say, $5,000, it automatically gets flagged for approval by a higher-up before it’s finalized.

The manager can approve or reject the request, and only upon approval does the order proceed to fulfillment.

The newer Shopware B2B Order Approvals component takes this further by letting customers themselves configure their internal limits and approvers. It “allows customers to establish budgetary limits for their orders” and triggers an automatic approval process if the limit is exceeded. 

From the merchant’s perspective, this automation reduces the back-and-forth with customers’ finance teams and keeps everything auditable in one place.

Bulk ordering and procurement efficiency

B2B business buyers often know exactly what SKU they need, and they might need a lot of it. They’re not browsing in the same way a casual shopper might; instead, they value speed and convenience to replenish stock or place large orders with minimal clicks. 

Shopware 6 addresses this through features like Quick Order and Reorder lists, which drastically simplify the purchasing process for bulk buyers.

The Quick Order feature is a perfect example of B2B optimization. It lets buyers add multiple products to the cart by entering product identifiers (SKUs or part numbers) and quantities in a simple form.

In practice, this means if a customer already has an internal list of item codes they need, they can just paste or upload that list, and Shopware will automatically find the matching products and fill the cart.

Similarly, Shopware supports Shopping Lists.  Buyers can save frequently purchased items and their quantities into named lists. They might have a “Monthly Supplies Order” list, for example.

The checkout process can accommodate B2B needs like multiple shipping addresses (e.g., splitting an order to different branch locations) and adding purchase order numbers or other reference fields at checkout. Payment on account (invoice) can be offered alongside standard methods, and even those can be controlled via the aforementioned permissions (maybe only certain buyers can choose invoice terms). All these little touches add up to a platform that makes large, complex orders just as smooth as small ones. 

Shopware orders: Case study

As one case study, the chemical supplier BÜFA was able to shift from phone/fax orders to an online self-service portal with Shopware, resulting in faster order processing and scalable ordering for B2B clients, freeing up their sales team from manual order entry altogether. 

Integration with enterprise systems and API-first readiness

Complex B2B operations don’t run on an island – your e-commerce platform must play nicely with the rest of your business infrastructure. Shopware 6 was architected as an API-first, headless-ready platform, which makes it highly adaptable in enterprise IT landscapes. 

It’s designed so that data can flow between Shopware and external systems like ERPs, CRMs, and PIMs, or even completely custom frontends.

Being API-first also means Shopware 6 is naturally headless commerce-capable. This is important for B2B, where you might want to deliver your catalog and ordering functionality across multiple channels – not just a web storefront, but perhaps a mobile app, a client-specific ordering portal, or even IoT devices in an industrial setting. 

You can therefore use Shopware as the engine while building a custom front-end tailored to your users or integrating into other interfaces. For instance, if you need a special purchasing portal for a key account that is separate from your main site, you can build it using whatever front-end technology you prefer (React, Angular, etc.) and connect to Shopware via API. 

Shopware API: Case study

Companies like Thyssenkrupp, a large industrial group, appreciated this flexibility – they had “complex digital commerce needs” including multiple distinct frontends for different business units, and Shopware’s headless, modular architecture was a perfect fit to provide a robust API layer for all those use cases.

With Shopware, you have the confidence that your e-commerce front-end is always in sync with back-office reality, and you have the freedom to extend it in any direction thanks to its open APIs and modular architecture.

Conclusion

It should be clear by now that B2B e-commerce is a different beast than B2C. It’s not enough to simply lock down your website and call it a day. Business buyers expect an online experience that caters to their complex needs: negotiated pricing, quick reorders, flexible payment and delivery, and a system that meshes with how their company operates. 

The good news is that platforms like Shopware 6 have recognized these needs and built solutions that hit the mark. Shopware’s combination of a dedicated B2B Suite, modular B2B Components, and core platform features (like Rule Builder, Flow Builder for automation, and an API-first approach) provides a comprehensive toolkit for B2B success.