Running a B2B eCommerce operation looks nothing like selling to individual consumers. B2B often means dealing with purchasing cycles that can stretch for weeks or months, price negotiations that vary by customer, approval workflows with multiple decision-makers, and custom commercial terms that can differ wildly from one business to another.
More companies are moving their B2B operations online, and they're facing the same problem - platforms that worked great for retail sales are falling short in B2B eCommerce. What works perfectly for selling shoes to individual customers cannot support managing bulk orders, tiered pricing structures, organizational hierarchies, and complex integrations with systems like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) or Product Information Management (PIM).
This is where flexibility stops being a nice-to-have and becomes essential. B2B businesses need platforms that adapt to their specific workflows instead of forcing them into rigid solutions. The platform should work for the business, not force the business to work around platform limitations.
Considering this, we'll walk through the key challenges B2B companies face when selling online and show how the open source eCommerce platform Sylius and its B2B Suite handle each one with practical features designed to solve real business problems.
Challenge #1: Managing multiple pricing lists and discounts
B2B pricing rarely follows the "one price fits all" model. Different customers can get different rates based on their contract terms, purchase volumes, payment schedules, or relationship with a company. A longtime distributor might have negotiated 15% off everything, while a new regional partner gets tiered pricing that changes at certain quantity thresholds.
Without a flexible pricing system, businesses face constant manual updates, pricing errors that eat into margins, and frustrated sales teams spending hours calculating quotes instead of actually selling. The bigger your catalog and customer base, the worse this gets.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: B2B Pricing engine</div>
Sylius B2B Suite's pricing engine handles this complexity by letting you define custom pricing rules at multiple levels. You can create dedicated price lists for specific organizations or customer groups, set percentage discounts across entire product categories, or implement tier pricing where unit costs drop automatically based on order quantity.
The system runs these pricing rules automatically, so your sales team doesn't need to manually calculate every quote or worry about outdated price sheets. Customers see their negotiated rates instantly when they log in, making the buying process faster and reducing back-and-forth communication. This automation cuts down on pricing errors while keeping your margins protected and your contractual agreements properly enforced.
Challenge #2: Searching and filtering large product catalogs
B2B catalogs can easily contain tens of thousands of products, often with multiple variants abd technical information. Unlike B2C shoppers who browse and discover, business-to-business customers usually know exactly what they need. They're searching by SKU numbers, manufacturer part codes, or specific technical parameters like thread size, voltage rating, or material grade.
Standard eCommerce search just doesn't work here. When a customer types in a product number and can’t find it because of a single character difference, or when they can't filter by the exact specifications they need, they're wasting time. Multiply that frustration across dozens of orders per week, and you're looking at lost sales and customers who'd rather call your sales team or go to a competitor with better search functionality.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Advanced Elasticsearch</div>
Sylius B2B Suite integrates Elasticsearch to handle search at the scale B2B companies actually operate. The system indexes your entire catalog and delivers instant results even when you're dealing with catalogs containing up to 3-4 million products.
Search works the way B2B buyers think. Type a partial SKU and get suggestions immediately. Filter by multiple technical attributes simultaneously. Sort results by relevance, price, or availability. The autocomplete feature helps buyers find products faster by suggesting matches as they type, while advanced filtering lets them narrow down results by any product attribute you define.
Challenge #3: Time-consuming ordering process
B2B buyers aren't browsing for inspiration - they know exactly what they need and they need to order it quickly. A purchasing manager placing a weekly restock order might need to add 50, 100, or even 200 different products to their cart. Doing this the traditional B2C way means searching for each product individually, clicking through to product pages, selecting variants, adding to cart, and repeating the process dozens of times.
This is mind-numbing work that wastes hours every week. For companies placing regular bulk orders or restocking from established catalogs, the traditional product browsing experience becomes a major bottleneck.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Quick shopping</div>
Quick shopping in Sylius B2B Suite eliminates the repetitive browsing problem entirely. Buyers can add products in bulk by typing or pasting SKU codes directly, uploading a CSV file with their entire order, or using product codes from their own inventory system.
The interface works on a single page - no clicking through categories or individual product pages. Type a SKU, specify quantity, and move to the next line. Or paste a list of 100 SKUs with quantities and add everything to the cart in seconds. For companies with recurring orders, this means turning a two-hour ordering process into a five-minute task.
Challenge #4: Complex order workflows and management
B2B orders rarely follow the simple "order, pay, ship" flow that works in retail. A single order might require approval from multiple managers, partial invoicing tied to delivery milestones, or custom payment terms. Some orders need to be held for credit approval, and others involve back-and-forth communication about quantities, delivery dates, or customization details.
Standard B2C shopping carts weren't built for this. They assume one buyer, one payment, one shipment, done. When you try to force complex B2B workflows into that model, you end up with workarounds - manual order adjustments, email chains tracking approvals, spreadsheets managing partial shipments. This creates confusion, delays orders, and increases the chance of mistakes that damage customer relationships.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Order management</div>
Sylius B2B Suite provides full control over the entire order lifecycle from placing an order through fulfillment and invoicing. The system handles multiple order statuses, custom workflows, and different order types based on your business needs.
Administrators and business users can track and manage orders from their respective dashboards, with visibility into approval status, fulfillment progress, and payment terms. The system supports partial shipments (Sylius offers another module for that), split invoicing, and custom workflows that match your actual business processes rather than forcing you to adapt to platform limitations.
Challenge #5: Managing organizational structures for B2B customers
As we mentioned above, B2B purchasing isn't a one-person job. In most companies, multiple people are involved in the buying process, each with different roles and responsibilities. A purchasing manager might add products to the cart, a department head needs to approve the order, accounting handles payment terms, and a warehouse coordinator tracks delivery. When everyone shares a single login, or worse, when each person needs their own separate account, you lose visibility and control.
Standard eCommerce platforms treat every user as an individual buyer, which doesn't reflect how businesses actually work. You can't set spending limits for specific team members, restrict who can approve orders, or give accounting access to invoices without also giving them ordering permissions. This lack of organizational structure makes it nearly impossible to manage budgets, enforce approval workflows, or maintain proper oversight of purchasing activity.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Organization management</div>
Sylius B2B Suite lets you create company accounts with multiple users, each assigned specific roles and permissions. Set up purchasing managers who can create orders, approvers who review before finalizing, and finance users who only access invoices and payment history.
The system supports spending limits per user or role, approval workflows for orders above certain thresholds, and shared visibility of order history across the organization. Everyone sees what they need to see - nothing more, nothing less. Billing information, addresses, and company data stay centralized while access stays controlled.
Challenge #6: No shopping lists and planning purchases
Customers from the B2B sector often work on multiple projects simultaneously, each with its own product requirements and budget. A buyer might need one set of products for an office renovation, another for regular maintenance supplies, and a third for an upcoming expansion project. Without the ability to organize products into separate lists, they're forced to either place orders immediately or keep track of everything in spreadsheets and notes.
This becomes even more problematic for companies with cyclical purchasing patterns. If you order the same 30 products every month, you shouldn't need to search for and add each one manually every single time. The lack of proper list management means buyers waste time recreating orders from scratch and risk forgetting items or ordering the wrong quantities.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Multiple shopping lists</div>
Customers can create and manage multiple shopping lists, each serving a different purpose. Organize products by project, department, seasonal needs, or any other criteria that match how your business actually operates.
Lists can be saved, edited, and converted into orders whenever needed. A buyer can prepare a list for an upcoming project, share it with colleagues for review, adjust quantities based on budget approval, and then place the order when ready. For recurring purchases, save your regular order as a list and reuse it month after month with just a few clicks.
Challenge #7: Complicated product data exchange and integrations
B2B companies don't run on eCommerce platforms alone. Product information lives in your PIM system, pricing comes from ERP, inventory levels are updated from your warehouse management software, and customer data sits in your CRM. All of these systems need to stay synchronized, or you end up selling products you don't have in stock, showing outdated prices, or missing critical product specifications.
Manual data updates are really troublesome at scale. Export a CSV from your ERP, reformat it, upload it to your store, and hope nothing breaks. Repeat this process every time prices change or new products arrive. It's time-consuming, error-prone, and doesn't scale when you're managing thousands of SKUs with prices that change regularly based on supplier costs or market conditions.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Import/export integration layer</div>
Sylius B2B Suite provides an integration layer that automates data exchange between your eCommerce platform and external business systems. Import product data, pricing, inventory levels, and order information automatically without manual file handling.
The integration layer supports synchronization with various systems, such as ERP, PIM, CRM, and warehouse management systems, keeping everything aligned in real-time.
Challenge #8: Lack of negotiation and quote request capabilities
B2B eCommerce often rely on flexibility and negotiation. A new customer might want to discuss pricing terms before committing to a large contract. An existing partner might need a custom quote for a bulk order that doesn't fit standard pricing tiers. A distributor might want to negotiate terms for a special project with unique requirements.
Without a quote request system built into your platform, these negotiations happen through email, phone calls, and manual quote preparation. Your sales team spends hours creating custom quotes in spreadsheets, sending them back and forth, tracking different versions, and manually entering approved quotes as orders. Customers wait days for responses, and opportunities get lost in the shuffle when quotes sit unanswered in someone's inbox.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-50">Solution: Request for Quotation</div>
Although it's a separate Sylius Plus module rather than part of the B2B Suite core, the Request for Quotation (RFQ) module integrates seamlessly to handle this exact scenario. Customers can submit quote requests directly through the platform, specifying products, quantities, and any special requirements.
The system routes these requests to your sales team, who can respond with custom pricing, adjust terms, and negotiate conditions without leaving the platform. All communication stays in one place, quotes are tracked automatically, and approved quotes convert to orders with a single click.
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Wrapping up
Sylius B2B Suite isn't just a collection of features thrown together - it's built around the actual problems B2B companies face every day. From handling complex pricing negotiations to managing large catalogs and organizational structures, these tools address real business needs rather than forcing you to adapt your processes to platform limitations.
The modular architecture of Sylius allows you to start with the features that solve your most pressing problems, then add more as your business grows and requirements evolve. Sylius scales alongside your operations without requiring platform migrations or architectural overhauls down the road.
When you combine B2B Suite with additional Sylius Plus modules like Request for Quote, RBAC, or Multi-source Inventory, you get comprehensive support for even the most demanding B2B scenarios. This flexibility, paired with Sylius' proven scalability and API-first architecture, gives you a platform that adapts to your business instead of the other way around.
<div class="rtb-text-box is-blue-100">Want to see these features in action? Check out the Sylius B2B demo and explore Sylius' capabilities in a B2B environment.</div>
