Magento B2B features: complete guide for merchants (2026)
14.04.2026
Business buyers operate within organizational hierarchies, negotiate prices, reorder the same products weekly, route purchases through approval chains, and expect their online experience to mirror the terms they've negotiated offline.
TL;DR
Adobe Commerce ships with a native B2B module that covers company accounts, shared catalogs, quote negotiation, requisition lists, purchase orders with approval workflows, and restricted payment and shipping per account. Magento Open Source doesn't include this module, but third-party extension suites like Amasty or MageWorx can replicate most of these features at a fraction of the Commerce license cost. This guide walks through every feature, explains which third-party modules fill the Open Source gap and where the gaps remain, and covers how Hyvä transforms the B2B buyer experience.
B2B eCommerce isn't B2C with bigger orders. Business buyers operate within organizational hierarchies, negotiate prices, reorder the same products weekly, route purchases through approval chains, and expect their online experience to mirror the terms they've negotiated offline. Most eCommerce platforms treat these requirements as edge cases. Magento treats them as core functionality.
Adobe Commerce includes a dedicated B2B module: a set of features purpose-built for business-to-business commerce. These aren't third-party plugins. They're maintained by Adobe and integrated with the rest of the commerce stack: catalog, checkout, pricing, customer management, and the API layer.
Magento Open Source, the free community edition, doesn't include the B2B module. But its extension ecosystem and open architecture mean you can add B2B capabilities through third-party modules. The result is a spectrum — from lightweight B2B on Open Source to full enterprise procurement on Adobe Commerce.
Choosing the wrong edition means either overpaying for features you don't need or hitting a wall when your operations outgrow what extensions can handle. This guide gives you the information to make that decision clearly — and to understand exactly what each Magento B2B feature does, why it matters, and when you actually need it.
What is the Magento B2B module and what does it include?
The Magento B2B module is a collection of native features bundled exclusively with Adobe Commerce. It was designed around a specific insight: business buyers don't just place orders — they operate within procurement processes. Adobe Commerce B2B features have budgets, approval hierarchies, negotiated pricing, recurring order lists, and internal governance rules that have nothing to do with browsing a product catalog.
It covers six core functional areas: company accounts and hierarchies, shared and custom catalogs, quote management and negotiation, requisition lists, quick order, and purchase orders with approval workflows. It also extends payment and shipping configuration to the account level — so checkout reflects the actual commercial relationship with each buyer.
Each feature is described in full below, with a practical scenario so you can immediately assess whether it applies to your operation.
Core Adobe Commerce (Magento) B2B features explained
Company accounts and multi-level hierarchies
Company accounts let you model real organizational structures inside Magento. A company account can include a parent company, multiple divisions, and individual buyer accounts — each with their own roles, permissions, and spending limits. Account admins manage their own users without involving your support team.
Why it matters: Without company accounts, every buyer is just another customer record. With them, you can assign a procurement manager who sees all orders placed by their team, set an approver who must authorize purchases above a threshold, and restrict a junior buyer to a specific catalog. When a buyer leaves the company, the account admin disables access without a call to your support desk.
Real scenario: A construction materials distributor has 200 contractor accounts. Each contractor has a site manager who orders, a project lead who approves orders above a threshold, and a finance contact who handles invoicing. Company accounts let each contractor self-manage this structure entirely.
Availability: Adobe Commerce — native. Magento Open Source — available through extensions, but flat structures are the norm. Amasty's B2B Company Account module adds multi-user company accounts with role-based permissions and company credit management to Open Source, though multi-level hierarchies remain shallower than the native Adobe Commerce implementation.
Shared catalogs and customer-specific pricing
Shared catalogs let you create product assortments that are visible only to specific companies or customer groups. You can assign unique pricing to each catalog — so Company A sees different products at different prices than Company B, even though your backend manages a single product database.
B2B pricing is rarely one-size-fits-all. You have negotiated rates, volume discounts, contract pricing, and product lines that are only relevant to certain customer segments. Shared catalogs eliminate the need for clunky workarounds like duplicate products or manual price overrides. Your sales team configures the catalog once; every buyer sees their world every time they log in.
Real scenario: A wholesale electronics distributor sells to both large retail chains and small independent shops. The retail chain gets access to a full catalog of 15,000 SKUs at negotiated prices. The independent shop sees a curated catalog of 2,000 best-sellers at standard wholesale rates. Both use the same storefront — they see different products and prices.
Availability: Adobe Commerce — native. Magento Open Source — available via third-party extensions, and this is one area where the gap has narrowed considerably:
- MageWorx Customer Prices Suite (Adobe Marketplace) — a bundle of three modules (Prices per Customer, Customer Group Prices, Personal Customer Discount) that handles per-customer and group pricing with CSV bulk management and REST API support. Covers the pricing dimension of shared catalogs on Open Source. Starting from around $99 per component; the full suite is priced separately.
- Amasty B2B Suite — covers shared catalog visibility restrictions and custom pricing per customer group alongside company accounts, requisition lists, quick order, and quote management. The Premium tier is priced at $1,399 and is Hyvä-compatible. This is the closest Open Source equivalent to the full Adobe Commerce B2B experience.
The distinction worth noting: MageWorx is the right choice if you specifically need per-customer pricing without the overhead of a full B2B suite. Amasty's suite is the better fit when you need the complete feature set — catalog visibility plus pricing plus company accounts — without upgrading to Adobe Commerce.
Quote management and negotiation
Quote management allows buyers to request a price quote directly from the storefront. Your sales team reviews the request, adjusts pricing, adds line-item comments or discounts, and sends a counteroffer. The buyer can accept, negotiate further, or decline. When a quote is accepted, it converts to an order with a single click — with the full negotiation trail recorded inside Magento.
Why it matters: B2B transactions frequently involve negotiation, especially for large orders, custom configurations, or new accounts. Without a quoting system, negotiation happens over email, phone, or spreadsheets, disconnected from your platform. Native quote management means the entire history lives in one place — visible to sales reps and buyers alike.
Real scenario: A manufacturer of industrial packaging receives a request for 50,000 custom-printed cartons. The buyer submits a quote request through the portal. The sales rep adjusts unit pricing based on volume, adds a note about lead time, and sends a counteroffer. Two rounds later, the quote is accepted and becomes a purchase order — with a full audit trail.
From the Eltrino portfolio: On the Engels Group storefront, the "Request a quote" button sits directly alongside "Add to cart" on every product tile — a design decision that reflects the reality of their B2B business: most large orders start with a negotiation, not an immediate checkout. For Engels' wholesale buyers, the quote workflow is as central to the purchase journey as the cart itself.
Availability: Adobe Commerce — native. Magento Open Source — available via third-party extensions. Amasty's Request a Quote module (included in the B2B Suite) handles quote requests and negotiation on Open Source; Cart2Quote is another established option. Neither integrates as tightly with shared catalogs and company accounts as the native Adobe Commerce workflow does.
Requisition lists
Requisition lists let buyers save named lists of products they order regularly. Unlike wishlists — designed for B2C "maybe later" browsing — requisition lists are built for repeated B2B purchasing. Buyers can maintain multiple lists: one per project, one per department, one for routine restocking. Adding an entire list to cart takes a single action.
B2B buyers reorder. A lot. If your storefront forces them to browse the catalog and search for the same 40 products every week, they'll use the phone instead. Requisition lists make the online store faster than calling your sales desk — which is the bar you need to clear to drive genuine adoption.
Real scenario: A facilities management company orders cleaning supplies, safety equipment, and office consumables every Monday. They maintain three requisition lists: "Weekly cleaning," "Monthly safety," and "Office restocking." The procurement coordinator opens the Monday list, adjusts quantities, and submits the order in under two minutes.
Availability: Adobe Commerce — native. Magento Open Source — available through extensions. Amasty's B2B Suite includes unlimited requisition lists for Open Source, with the same single-action "add list to cart" workflow.
Quick order
Quick order provides an interface where buyers can enter SKUs and quantities directly — bypassing catalog browsing entirely. It supports manual entry, CSV upload, and copy-paste from spreadsheets. For professional buyers who already have a parts list or internal requisition, it is considerably faster than searching the catalog one item at a time.
Real scenario: An automotive parts distributor receives repair orders from a dealership network. The dealer's service manager exports a parts list from their DMS, pastes the SKU list into the quick order form, and the entire order lands in the cart in seconds — not the 30 minutes it would take to search each part individually.
Availability: Adobe Commerce — native. Magento Open Source — available through extensions including Amasty's B2B Suite, which supports SKU entry, CSV upload, and ordering directly from requisition lists.
Purchase orders with approval workflows
Purchase orders with approval workflows add a governance step between the cart and the actual order. Buyers submit a purchase order that routes through an approval chain based on rules you define: order value thresholds, buyer role, product category, or department. Approvers receive notifications and can approve or reject from their dashboard or email.
In most B2B organizations, not everyone who places orders has authority to authorize spending. Purchase orders with approval workflows bring internal procurement governance into the platform. Without it, companies enforce approvals through email chains, paper forms, or phone calls — all of which slow down purchasing and create no audit trail. With it, the entire chain is logged and visible to both parties.
Real scenario: A medical supplies distributor sets a rule: any purchase order above €2,000 requires approval from a department head. A lab technician adds supplies to the cart and submits a purchase order for €3,500. The department head receives a notification, reviews the order, approves it, and the order processes automatically — with the complete approval chain recorded for compliance.
From the Eltrino portfolio: BuyerQuest (now VARIS), the enterprise procurement platform Eltrino built on Magento, took approval workflows well beyond what the native module provides — with custom multi-tier approval chains, delegation rules, budget tracking, and supplier management. When approval logic needs to reflect complex organizational procurement policies, the native Adobe Commerce module is a starting point, not a ceiling.
Availability: Three paths exist, each solving a different version of the problem:
Adobe Commerce — native buyer-company-side approval. The buyer's own company hierarchy handles the full approval chain — a junior buyer submits a PO, their procurement manager gets notified, reviews and approves from their account dashboard, and the order processes automatically. The merchant isn't involved in the approval at all. This is the right model when your buyers need to enforce their own internal spending governance through your storefront.
Magento Open Source + Webkul Order Approval (Adobe Marketplace). A rule-based approval workflow where the merchant admin reviews and approves orders before they process, based on configurable conditions: order value, customer group, product attributes, or shipping method. Hyvä-compatible. The right fit when you — the merchant — need to review certain orders before they proceed, not when buyers need internal governance within their own organization.
Magento Open Source + custom development. You can build a full buyer-side PO approval module from scratch on Open Source — but understanding why it's expensive clarifies when it's worth it. A proper buyer-side approval implementation requires: a purchase order entity with its own status machine that intercepts checkout before an order is placed; an approval rule engine that company admins can configure per role and value threshold; company hierarchy awareness so approvals route to the right user within the buyer's organization (not the merchant); a buyer-facing approver dashboard with line-item review, comment threads, and approve/reject actions; an email and on-site notification system for all parties; and a full audit trail for compliance. Each of these is a non-trivial engineering effort, and they all need to work together. A clean implementation runs 250–400 hours of senior Magento development — typically €25,000–€50,000+ before QA, frontend work, and integration with any company accounts layer. The Adobe Commerce license for a mid-market merchant starts around $22,000/year and includes this feature maintained by Adobe. Custom development makes sense when your approval logic genuinely can't be expressed in the native module: multi-currency thresholds, delegation chains, budget tracking across POs, or deep integration with an external ERP approval workflow. That's the BuyerQuest scenario — the procurement logic that McDonald's or GE requires bears little resemblance to what any off-the-shelf module provides, and building custom on Magento was the only path that gave the platform the control it needed.
Restricted payment and shipping methods per account
This feature lets you assign specific payment methods and shipping options per company account. A wholesaler with established trade credit sees "Purchase Order — Net 30" and "Net 60" at checkout. A new account without credit approval sees only credit card and bank transfer.
B2B payment terms are a core part of the commercial relationship. Showing a credit card form to a buyer who has had Net 60 terms for five years signals that your platform doesn't know who they are. Restricted payment and shipping methods ensure checkout reflects the actual agreement — not a generic consumer experience layered on top.
Real scenario: An industrial tools distributor works with three customer tiers. Tier 1 (established wholesale accounts): Net 60, free freight above €1,000. Tier 2 (new wholesale accounts): Net 30, flat-rate shipping. Tier 3 (small business): credit card only, standard rates. Each tier sees only their applicable options at checkout.
Availability: Adobe Commerce — native through B2B module configuration. Magento Open Source — partially achievable through extensions, but not tied to company account structures.
Magento Open Source vs Adobe Commerce for B2B: how to decide
This is the decision that costs B2B merchants the most money when answered wrong. Choosing Adobe Commerce when Open Source would have sufficed means paying license fees for features you don't use. Choosing Open Source when you need Commerce means spending more on extensions and custom development than the license would have cost — and getting a worse result.
Here is a practical comparison across the features that matter most:
| Capability | Magento Open Source | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Customer-group pricing | Native | Native |
| Customer-specific pricing | Via MageWorx / Amasty | Native (shared catalogs) |
| Company accounts | Via Amasty (flat–mid hierarchy) | Native (full multi-level) |
| Shared catalogs | Via Amasty B2B Suite | Native |
| Quote negotiation | Via Amasty / Cart2Quote | Native |
| Requisition lists | Via Amasty B2B Suite | Native |
| Quick order | Via Amasty B2B Suite | Native |
| Purchase order approvals | Via Webkul (merchant-side) | Native (buyer-company-side) |
| Payment/shipping per company | Via extensions (limited) | Native |
| B2B + B2C on one instance | Manual setup required | Native dual-storefront |
Choose Open Source when you sell to fewer than 50 business accounts, pricing is tiered by customer group rather than per-account negotiated, buyers don't need multi-level purchase order approvals, your sales process doesn't require in-platform quote negotiation, and budget constraints make the Adobe Commerce license impractical for your current stage.
Choose Adobe Commerce when you have hundreds of business accounts with unique pricing and catalogs, buyers need multi-level purchase order approvals routed by rules, your sales team negotiates quotes through the platform, you run B2B and B2C on the same instance, or compliance requires a full audit trail for procurement decisions.
Building B2B on Magento Open Source: extension stack recommendations
If you've decided Open Source is the right starting point, how you assemble the extension stack matters as much as which extensions you choose.
The most important principle: use a single vendor's suite wherever possible. B2B features are deeply interdependent. Company accounts need to interact with pricing rules, which need to interact with catalog visibility, which need to interact with quote workflows. When you assemble these features from five different extension vendors, you're betting that all five modules play nicely together — and that when they don't, you can figure out which one is causing the conflict.
In practice, the safest path for a full-featured Open Source B2B build is to start with Amasty's B2B Suite. It covers company accounts, shared catalog behavior, quote management, requisition lists, and quick order in a single, internally consistent package. It's actively maintained, Hyvä-compatible, and the Premium tier at $1,399 represents a fraction of the Adobe Commerce license cost. You'll still need custom development for anything specific to your business logic — but your extension foundation is solid.
For pricing-only needs without the full suite overhead, MageWorx Customer Prices Suite is a focused, well-supported option covering per-customer pricing, customer group pricing, and personal discounts. It's better suited to stores that have a simpler B2B model but need granular pricing control — and it integrates cleanly with the rest of the Magento pricing layer.
For approval workflows, add Webkul's Order Approval if you need the merchant to review and approve orders based on configurable rules (order value, customer group, product type, shipping method). It's Hyvä-compatible and covers merchant-side governance well. What it doesn't cover — and what you'll need Adobe Commerce or custom development for — is buyer-company-side approval chains, where the buyer's own procurement hierarchy approves internally before the order reaches you.
Beyond that, you'll still need custom development for: advanced ERP pricing sync, and any business logic that maps to your specific procurement policies. Extensions get you to 70–80% of the Adobe Commerce B2B feature set; the remaining 20–30% is always custom.
The third option: custom-build on Magento
Magento's flexibility means you're not limited to what the native B2B module provides. The platform is powerful enough to serve as the foundation for a full eProcurement system — with custom workflows, vendor management, catalog orchestration, and complex approval chains that go beyond what any off-the-shelf module offers.
This isn't theoretical. Eltrino helped build BuyerQuest (now VARIS), a procurement marketplace trusted by McDonald's, GE, and Saudi Aramco, on Magento Enterprise. It scaled into a top-rated solution in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay.
The question is always cost. For standard B2B needs, Adobe Commerce with the native B2B module is the most efficient path. For highly custom procurement platforms, building on Magento gives you more control over every workflow — but the development investment is proportionally larger.
For a deeper comparison of the two editions beyond B2B, see our guide to Magento vs Adobe Commerce explained.
How Hyvä theme transforms the B2B buyer experience
Most discussions about Magento B2B features focus entirely on backend functionality. The frontend gets ignored. That's a mistake — especially for B2B.
B2B buyers work in conditions that punish slow frontends: office networks shared by 50 people, warehouse tablets on mobile connections, field teams ordering from job sites with poor coverage. If your product catalog takes 6 seconds to load, a buyer with 40 items to reorder will pick up the phone instead of using your store. And once buyers default to phone ordering, the ROI of your entire platform investment degrades.
What is Hyvä and how does it affect performance?
Hyvä is a modern Magento frontend theme that replaces the legacy Luma architecture. The difference is not incremental — it's structural. In Eltrino's own benchmark testing, Hyvä reduced average page size from 0.9 MB to 0.15 MB and cut load times from 6.1 seconds to 1.6 seconds. That is an 83% reduction in page weight and a roughly 4× improvement in load time — on the same server infrastructure, same product catalog, same custom functionality.
For B2B buyers on shared office networks or mobile devices in the field, those numbers are the difference between a storefront that gets used and one that gets bypassed in favor of the phone.
Is Hyvä compatible with the Magento B2B module?
Yes — but with an important caveat that catches many merchants by surprise.
The Adobe Commerce B2B module's backend logic is entirely independent of the frontend theme: company accounts, shared catalogs, pricing rules, quotes, purchase orders, and approval workflows all function correctly regardless of which theme you're running. In that sense, Hyvä is fully compatible.
The caveat is on the frontend. Adobe Commerce B2B has its own set of account-management pages: the company account dashboard, requisition list management, quote workflow screens, purchase order approval UI, and quick order form. These pages are not covered by the base Hyvä Theme — they require Hyvä Enterprise to render in Hyvä rather than Luma. Without Hyvä Enterprise, those B2B pages fall back silently to the Luma frontend. The result is a split experience: fast Hyvä on all standard catalog and checkout pages, and slow Luma on every B2B account management page your buyers spend the most time in.
For any Adobe Commerce store using the B2B module on a Hyvä frontend, Hyvä Enterprise is not optional — it is a requirement. This affects your budget and needs to be factored in at the planning stage, not discovered mid-build.
As a Hyvä Silver Partner, Eltrino has built B2B storefronts on Hyvä Enterprise that integrate with ERP systems, support customer-specific pricing, and handle multi-warehouse inventory — with a consistent, fully Hyvä-native experience across every page, including all B2B account management flows.
Which Hyvä tier do you need for B2B?
Hyvä now has multiple tiers, and the right choice depends on your build scope — with one non-negotiable rule for Adobe Commerce B2B builds.
Hyvä Theme (free, open source) — the core frontend replacement. Covers all standard catalog, search, and checkout pages. Does not cover Adobe Commerce B2B module pages.
Hyvä UI Components (€250 one-time) — pre-built, accessible UI elements that accelerate frontend development. Recommended for any B2B project regardless of tier.
Hyvä Commerce (€3,000/year) — additional pre-built modules for complex storefront features. Useful where you want to minimize custom frontend development time.
Hyvä Enterprise (€2,500/year) — required for any Adobe Commerce store using the native B2B module. This is the tier that provides Hyvä-native frontend coverage for all B2B module pages: company account management, shared catalog browsing, quote workflow screens, purchase order and approval UI, requisition list management, and quick order. Without it, all of those pages render in Luma regardless of what theme the rest of your store is running. Hyvä Enterprise also supports multi-store and multi-brand setups, but for B2B builds, the B2B coverage is the primary reason you need it.
The practical implication: if you're building on Adobe Commerce with the native B2B module and Hyvä, your frontend budget must include Hyvä Enterprise (€2,500/year). Discovering this mid-project — after scoping and contracts — is one of the most common avoidable surprises in Magento B2B builds.
Learn more about our Hyvä theme development services.
Magento B2B and ERP integration
B2B commerce doesn't run in isolation. Your Magento store needs to talk to your ERP — for pricing, inventory, order fulfillment, and customer account data. When this integration works well, you have a B2B store that reflects real-time stock levels, serves accurate customer-specific pricing, and routes orders to fulfillment without manual intervention. When it doesn't, you have pricing mismatches, oversold inventory, and buyers calling to ask where their order is.
B2B integration is more complex than B2C for a structural reason: the data flows are bidirectional and account-specific. Your ERP doesn't just push product prices — it pushes prices per customer, per contract, per volume tier. Inventory isn't binary in or out of stock — it's available at warehouse A for this customer group, backordered at warehouse B for everyone else. Order fulfillment doesn't just trigger a shipment — it may update a contract balance, route through an approval workflow, and sync back a tracking number and invoice.
Key B2B-specific integration patterns
Customer-specific pricing sync is typically the highest-complexity integration in a B2B build. Your ERP holds negotiated pricing per customer or contract; Magento needs to display it accurately for each logged-in account. The integration layer must handle near-real-time updates when contracts change, and fall back gracefully when the ERP is unavailable.
Multi-warehouse inventory allocation goes beyond a single stock count. For B2B buyers, the relevant question isn't "is this item in stock?" — it's "can this item be allocated to my account, from the warehouse closest to my delivery address, at the quantity I need?" This requires the integration to carry customer-group metadata with every inventory query.
Purchase order routing to ERP means approved purchase orders must flow from Magento to the ERP with all account metadata intact: company ID, contract reference, cost center, shipping address, and any approval chain records. A poorly designed integration drops this context and creates manual reconciliation work.
Order status sync closes the loop: fulfillment updates, tracking numbers, and invoice data flow back from the ERP to the Magento buyer portal, giving buyers full visibility into their order history without needing to call your team.
For a full breakdown of integration architecture, middleware options, and common failure patterns, read our Magento ERP integration guide. For integration with CRM, PIM, and other systems beyond ERP, see our third-party integration services.
If you have existing integrations that you suspect are causing issues — pricing mismatches, sync delays, or data inconsistencies — but aren't sure whether the root cause is in Magento, the middleware, or the ERP, a Magento code audit can isolate it.
Real B2B stores built on Magento
Engels Group
A 70-year-old Dutch family business with €40M annual turnover, specializing in sustainable logistic solutions. As Engels expanded into the UK market, they needed a modern platform for both B2B and B2C commerce. Eltrino delivered a Hyvä-powered frontend, a cohesive design system, and enhanced B2B functionality — combining wholesale ordering workflows with a consumer-facing storefront on a single Magento instance.
Eastwood
A trusted name in automotive restoration, Eastwood has been an Eltrino client since 2011. Over 15 years of partnership, we've built and evolved their Magento platform — from ERP integrations to custom B2B and B2C features, performance optimization, and ongoing managed support.
BuyerQuest (now VARIS)
BuyerQuest set out to build a consumer-like procurement experience for enterprise B2B. Built on Magento Enterprise with Eltrino as long-term development partner since 2012, the platform was trusted by McDonald's, GE, and Saudi Aramco, and scaled into a top-rated solution in Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Procure-to-Pay. This project demonstrated what's possible when Magento is used as the foundation for a fully custom procurement platform rather than a configured-out-of-the-box solution.
Southco
A global manufacturer serving 100,000+ customers across 83 countries, with 17 manufacturing sites in 9 countries and a catalog of 25,000+ standard products. Eltrino migrated their platform from Magento 1 Enterprise to Magento 2 Commerce Cloud and built a custom ERP integration that handles bidirectional data sync: product data, price updates, and stock status flow from ERP to Magento; orders, customer records, and order updates flow back. Multi-warehouse inventory was custom-built to allocate stock per customer group across manufacturing sites — a practical implementation of the ERP integration patterns described in this guide, at genuine enterprise scale.
How to choose a Magento B2B development partner
Not every Magento agency can deliver B2B. The native B2B module has its own architecture, its own GraphQL endpoints, its own quirks — and B2B projects always involve integrations that require deep platform knowledge. Here is what to evaluate before signing a contract.
B2B module experience, specifically. Ask for examples of B2B projects involving company accounts, quote workflows, and approval chains. Generic Magento development experience does not guarantee B2B competence. The B2B module has behaviors that surprise developers who have only built B2C stores.
ERP integration track record. If your B2B store connects to SAP, Dynamics 365, NetSuite, Exact, or a custom ERP, your agency needs to have built those integrations before. Ask how they handle pricing sync, inventory allocation, and error recovery. Integration quality is the single biggest risk factor in B2B projects — not the Magento build itself.
Frontend performance capability. Most B2B agencies treat the frontend as a checkbox — "we installed Luma." A modern B2B store needs performance that works for buyers on slow connections and shared devices. Ask whether the agency can deliver on Hyvä or a headless frontend, and whether they have benchmark data to prove it.
Open Source versus Commerce advisory. A good partner will tell you honestly whether you need Adobe Commerce or whether Open Source covers your needs. Be cautious with agencies that default to Commerce without analyzing your requirements — or with those that only work with one edition and can't give you an unbiased view.
Post-launch support model. B2B stores aren't "launch and forget." ERP syncs break, new customer segments need catalog setup, pricing rules evolve with contracts. Ask about their managed support offering, SLA structure, and how they handle incidents during business hours across your buyers' time zones.
For a full overview of Eltrino's approach to B2B builds, see our Magento B2B development services.
FAQ
For wholesalers, the highest-impact features are shared catalogs — which deliver unique product assortments and pricing per account — requisition lists for fast reordering of regular purchases, quick order for SKU-based bulk ordering, and ERP integration for real-time inventory and pricing sync. Purchase order approval workflows become essential if your wholesale customers have internal procurement governance rules.
Yes. Adobe Commerce supports dual-storefront setups natively — B2B buyers log into a portal with company accounts, negotiated pricing, and approval workflows, while B2C customers experience a standard consumer storefront. Both share the same product catalog, inventory, and admin backend. On Magento Open Source, the same setup requires more custom development but is achievable through customer-group segmentation and separate store views.
Magento B2B adds organizational account structures, per-account pricing and catalogs, quote negotiation, requisition lists, and purchase order approval workflows on top of the standard Magento B2C feature set. B2C commerce is optimized for individual buyers making independent purchasing decisions. B2B commerce is optimized for buyers operating within organizational hierarchies, procurement rules, and negotiated commercial terms — requirements that standard eCommerce platforms don't address natively.
Magento's B2B capabilities are significantly deeper than Shopify's. Adobe Commerce offers native company accounts with multi-level hierarchies, shared catalogs, quote negotiation, and purchase order approval workflows. Shopify Plus has added B2B features in recent years — including wholesale storefronts, customer-specific price lists, and basic company profiles — but lacks the depth of multi-level approval chains, requisition lists, and ERP-grade integration that larger B2B operations require. For a full platform comparison, read our [Magento vs Shopify guide](/blog/magento-vs-shopify).
Costs range from approximately €30,000 for an MVP on Open Source — customer-group pricing, basic accounts, single ERP integration — to €150,000+ for a full Adobe Commerce build with shared catalogs, quote management, multi-level approvals, multiple integrations, and a Hyvä frontend. Adobe Commerce licensing is an additional annual cost based on gross merchandise volume. For a complete breakdown of all cost factors, read our guide to the [true cost of a Magento store](/blog/understanding-the-true-cost-of-a-magento-adobe-commerce-web-store).
Yes, but you need Hyvä Enterprise specifically. The base Hyvä Theme covers standard catalog and checkout pages only. Adobe Commerce B2B module pages — company account management, purchase order approval UI, requisition lists, quote workflows — require Hyvä Enterprise (€2,500/year) to render in Hyvä rather than falling back to Luma. Without it, buyers get a split experience: fast Hyvä on catalog pages and slow Luma on every B2B account page. For any Adobe Commerce B2B build on Hyvä, Hyvä Enterprise is a required line item in the budget.
Conclusion
Magento B2B features — when configured correctly and integrated properly — turn your storefront into a platform that mirrors the way your buyers actually operate. Company accounts replace flat customer records with real org structures. Shared catalogs replace one-size-fits-all pricing with the negotiated terms each buyer expects. Approval workflows replace email chains with a documented, auditable procurement process.
The right implementation starts with the right question: does your operation need Adobe Commerce's native B2B module, or will Open Source extensions get you there for less? That decision shapes everything — architecture, timeline, cost, and the development partner you need.
If you're evaluating Magento for a B2B build or looking to extend an existing platform, talk to our team. We've built B2B stores ranging from wholesale portals to enterprise procurement platforms trusted by Fortune 500 companies — and we'll give you an honest assessment of what your operation actually needs.