B2B commerce continues to rapidly gain importance and has been experiencing continuous and cross-industry growth for several years. [1] The assumption that only online stores in the B2C sector are attractive has long been outdated. B2B companies are also increasingly being forced to move out of their comfort zone and jump on the "ecommerce train". B2B stores have to orient themselves progressively on the functions and comfort of B2C stores. The challenge is to implement relevant B2B functions such as customer-specific pricing, role and rights management, or a simplified ordering process in the online store.
Shopware B2B Suite offers comprehensive functions for B2B business models
The Shopware B2B Suite combines the emotional shopping experience of Shopware with the processes that are important in the B2B sector.
Thus, the B2B Suite offers the possibility to define rights and roles with budgeting and control them by means of an approval process. The hierarchical organization of roles allows you to clearly define responsibilities and competencies within a company.
In addition, the Shopware B2B Suite makes it possible to simplify field sales: employees can be assigned access to several customer accounts, which increasingly facilitates customer-specific consulting and sales.
The B2B Suite meets the complex requirements of the B2B segment and, like the powerful framework, offers a high degree of customization options and straightforward integration into existing workflows and processes. These are particularly important in terms of pricing, where individual discount scales, different customer groups, or order quantities play a decisive role. Shopware 6 also supports the creation of individual pricing Information.
Unlike end consumers, B2B customers often place similar orders at regular intervals. For this reason, the ordering process should be as simple and straightforward as possible. With the Shopware B2B Suite, it is possible to place quick orders using a CSV or XLS file or order the products through an item mask.
API-first approach in Shopware 6 allows unlimited freedom
The API-first approach of Shopware 6 gives you the flexibility and technology you need to ensure the long-term success of your B2B business. At the same time, it greatly reduces the extensive effort required to manage cross-channel and cross-device trade.
You gain further freedom thanks to numerous interfaces that ensure perfect integration of a Shopware shop into existing system landscapes.
Easy searching with the Advanced Search
For customers, the extensive product range of a B2B company usually seems very confusing and diverse, which is why a powerful search function in a B2B shop is essential to ensure that the goods are found and purchased by the customer.
The high-performance and highly scalable Shopware Advanced Search recognizes synonyms, offers filtering and sorting options, and allows searching in individual categories.
Shopware Rule Builder guarantees boundless freedom
With the Shopware Rule Builder, you can create flexible rules and realize complex requirements without programming effort to individualize customer-specific prices, shipping costs, or content.
The Rule Builder is also characterized by a global logic, which means that once rules have been created, they can be reused in a variety of places.
Emotional Shopping Experiences also play a key role in B2B
Already common in B2C commerce: Shopping Experiences. They are increasingly in demand in B2B commerce and are a decisive differentiating factor from the competition. With the Shopware 6 “Shopping Experiences” feature, you can create an innovative journey for your customers and deliver individually tailored content to each customer group. Neither technical expertise nor design affinity is required when creating Shopping Experiences, as they can be intuitively created using drag & drop. In addition, the website and shop can be operated from a single solution, which ensures a standardized design and serves to optimize processes and consolidate data.
Finding a digital home is often not an easy step for many traditional B2B companies. Particularly in the case of industrial companies, it is noticeable that replacing or supplementing traditional sales channels is not easy. The Shopware customer BÜFA Chemicals is leading the way when it comes to creating exceptional shopping experiences for their B2B customers.
Another B2B solution from Shopware: The B2B Components
In 2023, we released the first features of our new B2B Components. The B2B Components offer a diverse collection of tailor-made functions specifically designed for the needs of B2B commerce. These can be flexibly configured for each user and role, achieving a high level of personalization. Our modular principle allows each function to be designed as an independent component that can be effortlessly integrated into the larger system. This allows for easy activation or deactivation based on requirements, ensuring the system remains user-friendly and intuitive across the evolving landscape of B2B commerce and its increasingly sophisticated demands for custom solutions.
What is the difference from the Shopware B2B Suite?
While the Shopware B2B Suite is a comprehensive, all-encompassing solution, the B2B Components shine with their modular architecture. They boast a broader spectrum of functionalities and greater opportunities for customization compared to the B2B Suite. Additionally, B2B Components is also API-first and will work in a SaaS environment.
For more information on the B2B Components, you can read the blog post Shopware B2B Components for tailored B2B shops.
For a thorough overview of both the Shopware B2B Suite and the B2B Components, visit our dedicated Shopware B2B theme page. It includes a comprehensive FAQ section that answers all your questions and more.
Dive into the success stories of our B2B customers
You can read details about the successful projects in our case studies:
... or discover more Shopware B2B case studies here.
[1] See press release of Forrester: US B2B E-Commerce Will Reach An Estimated $3 Trillion By 2027.
