Comparing BigCommerce and Adobe Commerce: B2B Features

In this article, we discuss the differences between Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento 2) and BigCommerce in relation to B2B Features. You will see how each system behaves so you can determine which is a better fit for your needs.

B2B Features

Price Lists

One of our favorite questions to ask in B2B-related conversations is, "what is your pricing structure like?" While we did have the answer "there are no price differences" recently, this is quite unusual. The most common that we observe is unique lists of prices. Customers enter into different groupings based on order volume or other criteria. Of course, there are situations in which the final price is calculated, but it's rare (or impossible) that a system could natively accommodate these rules.

Adobe Commerce

Utilizing a feature called Shared Catalogs, this is simply a usability varnish on the existing Tier Price features with one additional feature: you can enable/disable products and categories. You can apply discounts individually or across a group. Prices are changeable by website. These shared catalogs are assigned to companies.

BigCommerce

Price Lists offer unique pricing per storefront, and customer group. Within a price list, prices can be entered per enabled currency. Administrators need to import via CSV to mass-assign pricing. Each product can have a discount or have a new price specified (the discount is auto-calculated).

Product restrictions

Companies sometimes request a limited set of products, typically with highly negotiated prices. This makes it easier and reduces confusion for repeat buyers.

Adobe Commerce

Shared Catalogs also allow you to exclude specific categories and/or products. Simply check or uncheck the boxes. Just so you know, for every new product you create, you need to manually associate each with shared catalogs.

BigCommerce

Each customer group has a mechanism to allow access to specific categories. Once this override is enabled, every new category must be manually enabled in all applicable customer groups.

B2B workflow

While we will dive into the unique details of the B2B purchase experience, it would be helpful to start with an overview.

Adobe Commerce

Initialization process

• New company registration form (no control over fields).
• Store administrator manually approves company. This creates the company administrator's account. Store administrator also configures or builds a shared catalog to determine products company buyers see.
• Company administrator creates roles with highly granular permissions.
• Company administrator invites new users and assigns their role permissions.
• If purchase order approvals are desired, Store administrator selects "Enable Purchase Orders". The Company administrator needs to build a role that prevents approving Purchase Orders.

Purchase process, from the buyer's perspective

• Buyer adds products to the cart
• Buyer proceeds to checkout and selects addresses (which are not shared among sibling accounts).
• Buyer selects shipping and payment methods.
• Buyer clicks Place Purchase Order.
• Company administrator receives an email indicating the purchase order needs approval.
• Company administrator reviews the purchase order and can Approve or Reject it.
• The order is sent to Adobe Commerce for fulfillment.

BigCommerce

Initialization process

• User fills out the Trade Professional Application. This differentiates between a business and a personal account in the process. Company administrators can customize which fields are shown on this form. The user chooses their login email and password.
• Company approvals can be automatic. Additionally, a default price list can be specified. These can be overridden per company.
• The Company administrator can immediately log in.
• The Company administrator can invite buyers with one of three roles: Admin, Senior Buyer, or Junior Buyer (cannot place orders).

Purchase process, from a junior buyer's perspective

• Junior buyers can not officiate a purchase on their own.
• The Junior buyer adds products to a shopping list.
• The Junior buyer submits the shopping list for approval, which sends it to the Company administrator.
• The Company administrator approves the shopping list, selects all products, and adds to the cart.
• Company administrator places the order. Addresses are shared across users in the company.

Company registration

Not every company has access to special features, such as payment terms, custom price lists, purchase order approvals, etc. B2B companies must be able to automate as much as makes sense for onboarding new customers.

Adobe Commerce

New companies can fill out the below form. No customer accounts are created until an administrator manually approves the company. This form is only customizable by a developer. Individual/customer registration happens on a separate form.

BigCommerce

Visitors are given a choice between company and individual registration. Store administrators can add new fields. Store administrators can assign a default price list and payment methods.

Address management

Businesses (usually) have a set number of shipment destinations. The ability to store a shared address book will save users time.

Adobe Commerce

This capability does not exist out of the box.

BigCommerce

Store administrators can select how addresses are shared and managed.

Payment / Shipping Method Restrictions

Some relationships involve specific types of payment and shipping methods.

Adobe Commerce

Store administrators control a list of default payment and shipping methods. This can be overridden for each company.

BigCommerce

When a company is created, it is assigned a default list of payment methods. Changing this default list does not affect existing company accounts. Shipping methods are not controlled at the company level.

Order approvals

Some companies require a process to ensure orders meet certain requirements.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce has rich capabilities for this. Junior buyers can completely configure the order. The final step is to submit the purchase order for approval. Administrators can approve or reject with comments.

BigCommerce

Junior buyers cannot make purchases. Instead, they add products to a shopping list. They send the shopping list for approval. The Company administrator adds these products to the cart and places the order.

Defining when orders need approval

Low-value orders may be automatically approved, while others may need review by specific parties.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce has rich capabilities for this. Company administrators can create rules defining when orders require approval. These rules are based on order total, number of SKUs, or shipping amount. Administrators can also define who is capable of approving the order, making a way for tiered approvals.

BigCommerce

Junior buyers can only add items to Shopping Lists for approval. There is no native capability for this.

Pay on account / Net Terms

In many cases, B2B extends terms to their customers. Being able to track this in an ecommerce environment reduces customer support inquiries.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce provides customer reporting around terms. Store administrators can extend a credit limit to buyers (along with the capability to exceed that). There is no definition of time, for example, 30 days. Finance can notate payments which reduces the overall amount owed.

BigCommerce

At the time of writing, Invoices are not possible with the new B2B User Portal. BigCommerce has the backend infrastructure, but this still needs to be exposed on the frontend. BigCommerce tracks payment terms. Customers can pay invoices directly on the website. This will be a robust feature when it is made available.

Company management

The sales or customer service team needs an easily accessible dashboard to review company status.

Adobe Commerce

Out of all the great features that Adobe Commerce's B2B suite has, this is fairly lacking. While there is a place to edit company details, no additional information is present, like orders or links to individual customer accounts.

BigCommerce

The Company Detail allows Store administrators to edit company information—but what details are editable is just as interesting: company users, super admins, shared address book, and uploads (upon registration, visitors can upload files). Additionally, BigCommerce allows you to associate Sales Staff with each company.

Additional fields in Checkout

B2B often means customization. We first think of price lists, but we shouldn't stop there. How do we collect additional information in the checkout?

Adobe Commerce

This is not a native feature of Adobe Commerce.

BigCommerce

The B2B edition allows administrators to add custom fields to the Company, Address, Order, or Invoice forms. These values are reflected in Order Notes in the admin panel.

Quotes

What if the buyer wishes to request a special price? In fact, some B2B websites only sell through a quoting process—usually to ensure the correct product is chosen for the given application.

Adobe Commerce

Store administrators can enable quoting globally or for specific company accounts. Once products are in the cart, buyers can Request a Quote. Store administrators can configure discounts per item and per-quote discounts. They can set an expiration date, and add new products and comments with files. Every change is verbosely logged. This is designed to allow back-and-forth communication. Buyers can purchase at their convenience.

BigCommerce

Buyers can add products to a quote on the product page or in the cart. Buyers can submit the quote at their convenience—including a message and files. Products can be added, quantities changed, prices adjusted, discounts applied and shipping applied. By adjusting the price, the discount percent is calculated. Once the quote is ready, the sales staff can send the quote in a rich email to the buyer (with the quote also attached as a PDF). Changes are tracked in the history, but they aren't detailed.

Quick order

Some B2B buyers are considered power users, looking for fast ways to navigate the buying process. Quick order allows a buyer to search for or upload products in one form.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce has an excellent search feature built into the quick order form. Buyers can easily upload a list of products.

BigCommerce

The B2B edition has a useful feature in that it shows a list of previously ordered products (along with the date it was ordered). This allows for a quick, ad-hoc reordering process. Beyond this, buyers can search for products or upload a list of products.

Sales staff assignment

Wouldn't it be nice to assign salespeople to specific accounts so they can manage the respective quotes and orders?

Adobe Commerce

There is no native functionality for this.

BigCommerce

Once salespeople have accounts for the BigCommerce store, they can then access the B2B Edition app. Store administrators will create each salesperson an account on the B2B Edition and assign them to specific companies.

Ordering lists

Having a list of products from which you can consistently order saves time and reduces potentially costly mistakes.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe Commerce calls this feature Requisition Lists. Buyers cannot share these with other team members. However, these lists can be exported.

BigCommerce

Shopping lists provide a list of products that can be ordered. If a Junior Buyer creates a list, they must escalate to an administrator. However, these are not technically shareable.