B2B
Business-to-Business sales
B2B (Business-to-Business) describes sales transactions where the customer is another business rather than an individual consumer — for example, an importer selling to a retail chain, or a manufacturer selling to a wholesaler. B2B commerce differs fundamentally from B2C: it typically requires customer-specific or tier-based pricing, a minimum order quantity (MOQ), deferred payment terms such as Net 30 or Net 60, private catalogs visible only to approved accounts, and sometimes an order-approval step before the customer is actually charged. A common mistake is trying to run B2B on a standard B2C storefront using manual discount codes — it doesn't scale and creates manual work on every order. Businesses that run both B2C and B2B (a hybrid model) need a platform that supports both sales tracks in parallel while sharing the same inventory, customers, and profitability data. StoreChart supports dedicated B2B price lists and closed catalogs alongside the regular storefront.
B2B eCommerce differs from B2C in ways that ripple through nearly every part of a platform: order volumes per transaction are typically much larger, pricing is frequently negotiated or tiered per customer rather than fixed and public, and the buyer is often a business making a purchase-order-driven decision rather than an individual impulse purchase. A platform built purely for B2C checkout — single fixed price, immediate card payment, one-item-at-a-time cart behavior — struggles to serve a wholesale buyer who needs a quote, net-30 payment terms, and a bulk order of hundreds of units placed against a pre-negotiated price list.
The sales-channels feature inside StoreChart is where this distinction becomes concrete: a wholesale buyer can be given a different pricing tier and order flow than a retail shopper on the exact same catalog, without maintaining two separate product databases — the underlying inventory and customer records stay unified even though the buying experience and pricing logic diverge for each segment.
A store adding a B2B channel for the first time should decide upfront which pricing rules apply per customer segment, since retrofitting tiered pricing onto a catalog originally built for one flat retail price is significantly more work than designing for both segments from the start.
Payment collection is another area where B2B diverges sharply from B2C — an invoice sent on net-30 terms carries real collections risk the business has to manage, unlike an instant card payment at checkout, which is one reason B2B-focused platforms often need dedicated tools for tracking outstanding invoices and following up on late payments.
Frequently asked questions
Yes, if the platform supports customer-specific pricing and separate B2B ordering flows (quotes, bulk pricing, payment terms) alongside a standard retail checkout — many growing eCommerce businesses run both models from one system rather than maintaining two separate sites.
Because B2B buyers are often businesses managing their own cash flow and accounting cycles, net-30 or net-60 invoice terms are standard, whereas B2C customers almost always pay immediately by card or another instant method at checkout.
Often yes — B2B relationships frequently involve negotiated volume discounts or tiered pricing based on order size or contract terms, unlike B2C pricing, which is typically the same fixed, publicly displayed price for every shopper.