B2B commerce is moving to marketplaces at an unprecedented pace. Marketplace platforms now handle 65% of all B2B eCommerce transactions, accounting for over $21 trillion in global annual sales. In the US alone, B2B marketplace sales jumped around 500% between 2021 and 2024, with 88% of business buyers making at least one marketplace purchase annually.

Mirakl pioneered the enterprise marketplace platform category in 2012 and now serves over 400 B2B companies and retailers, connecting them with a network of 100,000+ brands. Mirakl offers a marketplace platform as a SaaS solution that handles seller onboarding, catalog management, order routing, and payments without building from scratch. For B2B specifically, the platform includes practical B2B features that we will describe in today’s blog.

The multi-vendor model solves a basic problem: ‘How to expand your catalog without buying more inventory?” Marketplaces let businesses offer thousands of additional products from third-party sellers who handle their own stock and fulfillment. For manufacturers, this means creating direct sales channels without cutting out distributors; for distributors, it means becoming a one-stop shop by adding complementary products to their core offering.

B2B eCommerce specifics that a marketplace must handle

Running a B2B marketplace isn't like running a retail store with multiple sellers. The requirements are different, the workflows are more complex, and what works perfectly for selling one or two products to consumers falls apart when you're dealing with businesses buying in bulk with negotiated terms. 

What to look for when choosing a B2B marketplace platform?

Personalized pricing and discounts

First of all, an integral part of B2B eCommerce is flexible pricing. For example, a long-term customer might have negotiated 15% off everything, while a new regional partner gets tiered pricing that changes at quantity thresholds. A lack of a flexible pricing engine leads to slow manual quoting and frequent errors. 

Negotiations and quote requests

As we just mentioned, the list price is often just the starting point. The possibility to request quotes for bulk orders, negotiate custom terms for specific projects, and work out pricing before committing to large contracts is essential for any B2B marketplace. The platform should let buyers submit requirements, sellers respond with custom pricing, and both parties negotiate directly in the system.

Repeat orders

Business buyers place the same orders on a regular basis (weekly restocks or seasonal inventory builds). They don't want to search for 50 SKUs and add them to the cart one by one every time. The platform should let buyers save order templates, reorder from previous purchases with a few clicks, or upload CSV files with their entire order list to speed up the repetitive purchasing process.

Multi-warehouse capabilities

In a B2B marketplace, each seller might have multiple warehouses or shipping locations. The platform needs to track inventory across all these spots and route orders intelligently based on stock availability, delivery times, shipping costs, and territory agreements. This typically works in coordination with ERP or other systems.

Advanced search and filtering

B2B catalogs can contain tens of thousands of SKUs with detailed specifications. Customers search by manufacturer part numbers, filter by exact specifications, and need results instantly, even in massive catalogs. Standard eCommerce search is certainly not enough - the platform needs a search engine that handles technical attributes, supports autocomplete for part numbers, and lets buyers filter by multiple criteria.

Organization management

In B2B eCommerce, purchases are rarely handled by a single person. In such cases, one user builds the cart, another approves the order, and finance takes care of payment terms. The platform needs to support company accounts with multiple users, each with clearly defined roles and permissions. Sales teams can place orders, managers can approve them, and finance teams can access invoices - everyone gets access to exactly what they need, and nothing they don’t.

https://bitbag.io/blog/why-mirakl-leads-the-marketplace-game

How does Mirakl support B2B specifics?

Mirakl was built for marketplaces, so platforms where multiple sellers serve business buyers through a single storefront. While it started with B2C retail in mind, the platform has evolved to support the workflows that B2B marketplaces need. The question is whether it does this well enough and what's missing without additional integrations.

In a B2B marketplace, store owners are coordinating relationships between the platform, dozens or hundreds of suppliers, and business buyers. Here's how Mirakl approaches the core B2B requirements.

Personalized pricing and discounts

Mirakl supports customer-specific pricing through its data model - each seller can offer different price points for different customers, manage scheduled pricing changes, and handle quote requests directly through the platform. As the marketplace operator, you can monitor and validate supplier price changes before they go live.

The platform respects pricing information from the front-end system, so if the eCommerce platform already handles complex pricing rules (such as contract-based pricing, volume tiers, negotiated rates), Mirakl will follow them. This means you don't have to force sellers to rebuild their pricing infrastructure, as it flows through the marketplace.

Negotiations and quote workflows

Mirakl supports multi-warehouse marketplace scenarios by gathering inventory data from multiple seller-managed locations and presenting it in a unified storefront. It’s possible to create custom quotes for buyers, which then get transacted through the platform. For more complex scenarios, such as multi-step negotiations or detailed RFQ processes, we would need to integrate Mirakl with the CRM or ERP system.

Some implementations use Mirakl to handle the transactional side while keeping the negotiation phase in existing tools.

Repeat orders and procurement integration

Mirakl integrates with punchout solutions, allowing B2B buyers to start their journey in their internal purchasing systems, move seamlessly to your marketplace, and complete orders without leaving the tools they already use. Once the order is placed, all order data is automatically sent back to their system.

When it comes to recurring orders, Mirakl does not offer a built-in “reorder” button like some B2B platforms. Instead, repeat purchases are usually handled through the buyer’s own purchasing systems or saved carts. If recurring ordering is a key requirement, this logic needs to be implemented on the front end or managed through custom integrations.

Multi-warehouse and inventory orchestration

Mirakl supports multi-warehouse marketplace scenarios by uploading inventory availability from multiple seller-managed locations and showcasing it to the storefront in a unified way. While the platform does not act as a warehouse management system or perform advanced fulfillment optimization, it enables sellers to manage multiple fulfillment sources and apply availability, shipping, and territory rules at the offer level. Tasks like order routing and warehouse-level fulfillment decisions are typically handled by external ERP or WMS systems integrated with Mirakl.

Advanced search and catalog management

Managing product data from multiple suppliers is one of the biggest operational challenges in B2B marketplaces. Different data formats, inconsistent attributes, and incomplete product information can quickly slow down seller onboarding and impact the buyer experience.

Mirakl Catalog Manager helps eCommerce teams manage this complexity at scale. Sellers can upload catalogs in various formats, such as Excel files or API feeds, while the platform assists in normalizing and structuring that data into a single marketplace catalog. AI-assisted automation supports product mapping to your marketplace taxonomy, whether based on industry standards or a custom classification.

Organization management and user hierarchies

Mirakl supports organization-level customer models with built-in user roles such as administrators, approvers, and requisitioners. Multi-step approval workflows are supported, while more complex approval chains are typically handled through integration with external ERP or purchasing workflow systems.

The platform also enables account- and user-level configuration, allowing different organizations to access specific catalogs, pricing, and workflows. 

Payments and invoicing

Mirakl supports both “Buy Now” and “Pay Later” payment models, including net payment terms commonly used in B2B marketplaces. The platform can generate standardized invoices on behalf of sellers and integrates with external ERP or financial systems for purchase orders, advanced payment workflows, invoicing, and payment collection, complementing existing finance and accounting infrastructure rather than replacing it.

Integration architecture

Most B2B-specific capabilities depend on how well Mirakl integrates with your existing tech stack. The platform offers pre-built connectors for major systems (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Salesforce, NetSuite) and flexible APIs for custom integrations.

Advantages of Mirakl for B2B businesses

After discussing the B2B capabilities of the Mirakl platform, it is worth stepping back and looking at the broader advantages that make Mirakl an attractive choice for companies building or scaling marketplaces. Beyond specific B2B features, the platform offers strong foundations in scalability, operational efficiency, and speed to market, which are critical for enterprises operating in complex, multi-seller environments.

Scalability and handling large data volumes

According to Mirakl, the infrastructure is built to handle enterprise-scale operations, managing over 600 million SKUs, 250 million API calls daily, and 1 billion inventory updates across its platform. This means the platform won't break when you're dealing with massive catalogs from multiple suppliers, high transaction volumes, or complex product data with hundreds of technical specifications. For B2B companies experiencing rapid growth or seasonal spikes in ordering activity, this scalability ensures the marketplace keeps running smoothly without dropping performance.

Process standardization and reduced operational cost 

The marketplace model shifts much of the operational burden to sellers - they manage their own inventory, handle fulfillment, and deal with product data updates through standardized workflows. This standardization means no need for maintaining separate integration processes for each supplier or manually coordinating dozens of different fulfillment methods. 

Faster market entry with the marketplace model

As a SaaS platform with pre-built features specifically for B2B marketplaces, Mirakl cuts implementation time compared to building a marketplace from scratch. The platform comes with seller onboarding tools, catalog management, order orchestration, and payment processing already configured for marketplace operations. Companies can launch their marketplace in months rather than years, testing the business model and generating revenue while competitors are still in the development phase.

Easier supplier acquisition through Mirakl Connect

Mirakl Connect gives marketplace operators access to a network of over 100,000 verified sellers and brands who are already familiar with the platform. This reduces the friction of seller recruitment - instead of convincing suppliers to integrate with yet another proprietary system, you're inviting them to join a platform many already use. The one-click onboarding process and standardized seller tools make it easier to quickly expand your supplier base and catalog depth without lengthy technical integrations for each new partner.

Building competitive advantage through a richer catalog

The marketplace model lets you offer products you don't stock yourself, expanding catalog breadth and depth without inventory risk or capital investment. For B2B buyers, this creates a one-stop-shop experience; they can purchase core products from you alongside complementary items from third-party sellers, all in a single transaction. This catalog expansion is difficult for traditional competitors to match quickly, giving marketplace owners  a defensible advantage in customer retention.

Limitations and challenges

No platform handles everything, and Mirakl is no exception. Understanding where the platform falls short helps you plan for what you'll need to build, integrate, or work around.

Requires integration with a separate eCommerce platform

Mirakl handles the marketplace side; however, it's not a standalone eCommerce platform. eCommerce businesses will need to integrate it with Sylius, PrestaShop, or similar for their storefront and customer-facing experience. 

That means managing and paying for two separate systems that need to stay in constant sync. Product catalogs, pricing, inventory levels, and orders must flow between them perfectly - when the integration fails, customers see wrong prices or buy items that aren't actually in stock.

Complex implementation and onboarding

Implementing Mirakl, especially for B2B use cases with complex requirements, can be a complex project. More custom B2B projects would likely require extensive onboarding support, and the process won’t be a quick one.

Vendor lock-in and limited customization

As a closed-source SaaS platform, Mirakl operates within a defined framework. Therefore, customers can't access the source code or make big architectural changes like we could with other open-source alternatives, such as Sylius. If a business model requires unique marketplace mechanics that do not align with Mirakl’s structure, this typically results in either adapting the business processes to the platform or selecting an alternative solution. The absence of open-source flexibility creates a dependency on Mirakl’s roadmap for new features and improvements, rather than enabling independent development.

Case examples

Now, let’s look at practical implementations show how B2B companies use Mirakl to solve different marketplace challenges.

European technical supplies distributor

A family-owned wholesale distributor of electronics and technical equipment had built a catalog of 800,000 products over nearly 100 years; however, it wasn't enough to serve the diverse needs of their B2B customers, who needed specialized components the company didn't stock.

The company launched a B2B marketplace in 2017, onboarding over 1,000 curated third-party sellers. Results: expanded from 800,000 to 10+ million products in just five years, now serving over 2 million business customers with B2B-specific features like net payment terms and white-label invoicing. After a successful launch in their home market, they expanded the marketplace to neighboring countries.

Industrial equipment manufacturer's after-sales transformation

A global manufacturer of forklifts and warehouse equipment needed to digitize their parts business. Parts inventory was scattered across dealer networks, pricing wasn't transparent, and customers struggled to find components when equipment needed maintenance.

The manufacturer used Mirakl to create a centralized digital parts catalog, bringing together inventory from dealers and third-party suppliers. As a result, they have tripled online parts sales, with 70% of orders from new customers that dealers hadn't previously engaged. By maintaining the dealer network's role in fulfillment while creating a unified digital storefront, the manufacturer captured after-sales margins and reduced equipment downtime.

Wrapping up

Mirakl works well for mid-to-large businesses that need marketplace infrastructure quickly. The platform excels at seller management, multi-warehouse orchestration, and catalog automation, but requires a separate eCommerce system and significant integration work. 

It's best suited for enterprises with technical resources and clear integration strategies, not for small businesses testing the marketplace model or companies needing deep customization. If you want an all-in-one solution that handles both B2B commerce and marketplace operations in a single platform, open-source alternatives like Sylius with B2B Suite offer more flexibility and lower complexity. 

Success with Mirakl depends on strong integration planning, dedicated seller recruitment, and starting with a focused scope rather than trying to solve everything at once. The question isn't whether Mirakl works; it clearly does for hundreds of companies, but whether its strengths align with your specific situation, resources, and business goals.

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