A B2B buyer does not shop like a consumer. They have a contract, an individual price, a credit limit, an approver and an accountant who needs the invoice to match the order. If the shop does not understand this, orders keep arriving by email and phone, and the shop becomes a nice catalogue.
Here we compare B2B and B2C requirements and show what to settle before choosing a platform.
What differs in a B2B shop
| Area | B2C shop | B2B shop |
|---|---|---|
| Prices | One price for all, promotions | Price list per customer or group, volume discounts |
| Buyer | Anonymous or with an account | A company with several users and roles |
| Payment | Card, cash on delivery | Invoice with deferred payment, credit limit |
| Order | One cart visit | Repeat orders, lists, quick order by SKU |
| Documents | Receipt or invoice | Invoice, delivery note, VAT invoice, sometimes e-invoice |
| Data | Catalogue in the shop | Catalogue, stock and prices from the ERP |
Most B2B projects fail not because the platform is bad, but because they start as a B2C shop and only later discover that prices, limits and documents must be rebuilt.
Prices and customer accounts: rules first, design later
Before development, write down how your company sets prices today. Common models:
- an individual price list per customer;
- price by order volume or product group;
- a contract price for a set period;
- different prices for different branches or sales reps of one customer.
If these rules live in the accounting or ERP system, the shop should read them from there, not duplicate them. Duplicated price logic guarantees that sooner or later the same price differs between systems.
The second question is users. In a buyer’s company one person often builds the order and another approves it. You need roles that decide who may order, who sees invoices and who sees prices.
Credit, invoices and payment terms
A B2B buyer often pays on invoice, not by card. So the shop must know the customer’s credit limit and open invoices. Otherwise a salesperson checks every order by hand.
In practice this means synchronisation with accounting: the shop gets the limit status before confirming the order and passes the order back after confirmation. For examples with systems common in Latvia see the articles on Jumis integration and 1C integration, and our separate article on Moneo synchronisation.
Documents and VAT validation
In cross-border sales within the Baltics and the EU you need to validate the buyer’s VAT number. The European Commission’s VIES system checks VAT numbers across member states (VIES). The shop can run the check automatically at registration or order, and the result should be stored with the documents.
Also make sure the shop passes the correct VAT treatment and customer details to accounting. This is where errors usually appear that must later be fixed by hand.
ERP integration: what is the source of truth
Every data field needs one source. A practical split:
- ERP: product records, prices, stock, customers, invoices;
- shop: orders, cart state, user accounts, content pages;
- synchronisation: how data moves, an error log and manual re-run.
Start with one direction, for example ERP to shop: you see results sooner and risk less. Add two-way sync when the first part is stable.
Ready-made platform or custom build
A ready-made platform (WooCommerce, Shopify, Magento or another) with B2B extensions can be enough if:
- price rules are simple;
- there is one standard ERP integration;
- the customer base is small and the order process is not complex.
A custom build is justified if price logic is specific, several systems must be integrated, the approval chain is complex, or platform limits start to cost more than development. We cover this choice in B2B shop development in the Baltics.
Decision rule
- If price and customer status live in the ERP and the shop does not know them, start with integration, not design.
- If your process is ordinary and you have one system, consider a ready-made platform with B2B extensions.
- If orders arrive by email today and are retyped by hand, build the B2B shop around that process from the first version.
If you sell B2B and plan a shop, we help choose the architecture and build a B2B e-commerce solution. Discuss a B2B project.
