B2B E-commerce: What Actually Works
Selling to businesses online, where pricing, approval, payment terms and ordering patterns differ from consumer retail.
Marcus Adeyemi
Why does it matter?
B2B requirements break most consumer platform assumptions — negotiated pricing, purchase orders, multiple approvers — and retrofitting them is expensive.
What are the numbers?
- Pricing customer-specific price lists rather than a single public price
- Payment terms invoicing and credit rather than card at checkout
- Approval orders may require internal authorization
- Accounts multiple users under one organization, with roles
- Reordering repeat ordering is the dominant pattern
What should I do?
- Support customer-specific pricing as a first-class requirement
- Allow multiple users per account with appropriate permissions
- Support purchase orders and invoicing alongside card payment
- Make reordering from history fast
- Handle tax display correctly for business customers
What should I avoid?
Avoid:
- Consumer checkout patterns imposed on business buyers
- One login per organization shared between people
- No route to order without a card
- Treating reordering as a secondary flow
When should I get help?
Short answer Bring in help when a consumer platform is being stretched to serve business customers, when account structures cannot represent real organizations, or when pricing complexity exceeds the platform.
Where this comes from
- Shopify Developers — B2B commerce documentation
- Baymard Institute — B2B e-commerce research
- European Commission — Business-to-business trading rules
The figures and practices above come from the sources listed.
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Where to go next
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