B2B ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS 2025
BigCommerce B2B edition vs Shopify Plus
Choosing a business-to-business (B2B) eCommerce platform can be hard. And also a crucial strategic decision that can streamline your operations and boost sales, and one that should help your company continue to grow.
Now, and in the future.
However you want.
BigCommerce and Shopify are two leading platforms in the market. Both have their strengths, but cater to different needs.
One has a specific eCommerce solution for B2B, trusted by top analysts and adopted by thousands of businesses worldwide.
The other is a traditional B2C SaaS suite with a reputation for being easy to use and having a quick setup. But B2B eCommerce is complex, things aren't always what they seem, and quick fixes can lock you in or make you hit walls in the long run.
We have worked with many eCommerce platforms and tools for over a decade, including Shopify and BigCommerce. We know their journey, and some shortcuts.
Shopify is great at removing choice from merchants who aren't ready for it
Shopify's biggest strength is its market presence. It feels easy to use, with an app-rich ecosystem, and a quick setup process. Sometimes things sound too good to be true because they are not.
Shopify’s gated ecosystem often locks users into proprietary solutions. Integrating tools or customizing a store beyond Shopify’s limitations means additional fees and constraints. Its lack of key native B2B features forces users to workarounds that often mean higher costs and lower efficiency.
BigCommerce is an Open SaaS, and all about openness and flexibility. It gives merchants the freedom to bring their own payment provider and PoS, and a open APIs that support customization and integrations with the systems midmarket and B2B companies want to use.
A member of the MACH alliance, BigCommerce excels at composability and modularization, and is a top pick for large catalogs, complex products, and multi-storefront requirements.
BigCommerce is great for those who are
BigCommerce gives merchants freedom to choose providers and integrations. Far from penalizing merchants for using third-party solutions, it encourages users to build a best-in-class ecosystem tailored to their needs.
That means you're not stuck with a one-size-fits-all approach but can hand-pick the tools that work best for your business, creating a custom setup perfectly tailored to your specific needs.
Tools and Features
BigCommerce B2B Edition and Shopify Plus cater to very different needs. Here's how both platforms compare in terms of the most relevant B2B functionalities and capabilities.
Bigcommerce
Shopify
Open-source Buyer Portal
- Offers personalized self-service experiences with customizable buyer portals that reduce your support workload.
- Limited to standard customer accounts. Two-factor authentication login required to view orders and other basic actions.
Multi-brand & Multi-storefront
- Rapidly deploy multiple storefronts for different locations and currencies, managed from a single back-end. Create experiences in multiple languages and currencies with channel-specific overrides.
- Localized pricing and payment options, but customer accounts are not compatible for international customers. Shopify lacks multi-site functionality, forcing B2B and DTC customers into blended storefronts with shared settings, discounts, and rates.
Catalog and Pricing
- Tailor pricing and catalogs for customers or groups behind individual logins. Log in as buyer, manage shopping lists, add products to carts, and place orders. Store and manage multiple lists for purchasing across departments. Offer personalized pricing options, quotes, and discounts.
- Pricing assigned to basic company profiles only.
- Sales reps can manually create draft orders and send invoices on behalf of buyers.
- Shared Shopping Lists are not supported.
- Personalized pricing requires third-party apps or manual draft orders (does not support split shipping).
Customer Account Management
- Manage credit and accounts for various customer groups from one location. Control logins and allow guest users to apply for corporate accounts. Tailor experiences with customizable buyer tiers, featuring role-based access control.
- Shopify does not natively support company
account credit limits. Dedicated B2B storefronts can restrict logins, while hybrid B2B/DTC storefronts cannot. Limited to two non-customizable role-based permissions (Ordering Only and Location Admin).
Orders, Payment & Invoicing
- Manage approved payment options, including
purchase orders and credit cards. Invoice portal with various payment options for secure, efficient, and fast transactions. Both online and offline. Easy reordering and buy again with company-wide purchase history, including prices.
- Shopify charges a penalty fee for using third-party payment. Buyers can manage invoices, payment terms, and checkout options, review past orders and reorder items but only for their specific company location.
Mobile Optimized
- Mobile-friendly buyer portal with intuitive self-service features.
- Use only a single B2B theme optimized for mobile experiences.
You want to break free
Whether you want to manage complex product catalogs, expand to new markets, or deliver personalized B2B experiences, BigCommerce B2B edition is a platform built to set you free.
Free to customize: You’re not stuck with cookie-cutter solutions or endless app dependencies. And you're not locked-in a gated ecosystem that adds costs and limits options.
Free to scale: You won’t outgrow BigCommerce. Get enterprise-grade performance and scalability for businesses with big ambitions.
Free to grow. Without limits.
Our process ensures zero downtime, flawless data transfer, and a custom-designed store optimized for performance.
Audit
We analyze your current setup to identify opportunities for improvement.
Strategy
We craft a tailored migration plan aligned with your business goals.
Migration
We handle every detail, ensuring a smooth transition with no disruptions.
Optimization
We fine-tune your store for peak performance and scalability.
Step by step
We're big on measuring twice to cut once. We plan and prioritize, then execute. Then, celebrate.
1. Discovery Call
A 30-min call with our CEO or CTO to understand your business, goals, and challenges, and figure out if our set of skills aligns with your specific needs.
3. Proposal
Our detailed plan outlining our approach, timeline and investment.
2. Definitions
A 60-min call to dig deeper into your requirements, shared assumptions, potential blockers, and scope definitions.
4. Your website
This covers the design, development, testing and launch stages, followed by performance reports and conversations to make sure expectations are fulfilled.
Bigcommerce Resources
WOULD YOU LIKE TO DO MORE?
Now is not the best time to miss out on digital channels, challenges, or opportunities. The world moves fast and eCommerce changes quickly. It's hard to see the forest, the trees, the x1000 zoom, the 10,000 ft view, and figure out what to do about it. Where do you even start? Right here.
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