How to Choose an Ecommerce Platform for a B2B or Food and Beverage Brand Going Direct
Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce or Adobe Commerce? For a B2B manufacturer or a food and beverage brand adding direct sales, the right answer comes from how you sell and how much technology you want to own. Here's how to decide.
Most platform comparisons are written for someone starting a T-shirt store. If you're a manufacturer, distributor, or food and beverage brand adding direct online sales to a business that already runs on distributors, sales reps, and an ERP, the question is different. You're picking the system that has to handle contract pricing, purchase orders, case packs, and shipping rules your existing customers already expect, while also selling to people who have never heard of you. That's a much bigger job than choosing a store builder.
Start with one question: how much technology do you want to own?
Before features or pricing, answer this honestly: do you want to deal with website technology? Your answer narrows the field faster than any feature grid.
- "No, never." Choose a hosted platform like Shopify or BigCommerce. The vendor runs hosting, security patches, and uptime. You trade some flexibility for not having to think about servers.
- "Yes, we have the people for it." WooCommerce on WordPress, or Adobe Commerce, gives you control over almost everything. You also own updates, security, and the things that break when a plugin updates.
- "Somewhere in between." This is where most $2M to $20M companies land: a hosted platform with an agency or in-house developer handling custom work, or WordPress on managed hosting with a team maintaining it.
The platform with the lowest price on the pricing page is rarely the cheapest one to own a year later.
Where B2B and food and beverage brands differ from a typical store
Two groups get the least help from generic platform advice.
B2B manufacturers and distributors need features retail platforms treated as add-ons for years: company accounts with multiple buyers, customer-specific price lists, quantity rules and case packs, quote requests, and payment on terms. Our guide to B2B ecommerce UX covers what those features should look like for your buyers, but the platform has to support them first.
Food and beverage brands going direct usually sell two ways at once: wholesale to retailers and distributors, and direct to consumers. That means two price models on one catalog, plus physical constraints most platforms don't solve on their own: perishable shipping windows, cold-pack and weight-based rates, and, for alcohol, state-by-state shipping rules. Wine, for example, can ship direct to consumers in 49 states and D.C., each with its own rules, and Utah allows none. Even that count is generous for online sales. Rhode Island ships only after an onsite purchase at the winery, which in effect blocks online orders, and despite a new 2025 law, Delaware still carries a "do not ship" warning from Wine Institute (Sovos ShipCompliant, February 2026). If you sell alcohol, that patchwork is a headache, so confirm compliance and shipping tools for your category before you fall for a theme.
How the main platforms handle B2B today
The gap between platforms on B2B has narrowed fast. Here's what each vendor documents now:
| Platform | B2B features (from the vendor) | Who runs the tech |
|---|---|---|
| Shopify | Since April 2026, Basic, Grow and Advanced plans include company profiles, up to three custom catalogs with their own pricing, bulk discounts, quantity rules, vaulted cards and net terms. Plus adds unlimited customer-specific catalogs, deposits and partial payments (Shopify). | Shopify |
| BigCommerce | B2B Edition lists custom buyer pricing, buyer-specific catalogs, company credit management, configure-price-quote, multi-company hierarchies and share lists with reordering (BigCommerce). | BigCommerce |
| Adobe Commerce | B2B module includes company accounts, shared catalogs, Quick Order, requisition lists, negotiable quotes, purchase order approvals and pay on account (Adobe Experience League). | You or your partner |
| WooCommerce | Core plugin is free but runs only on WordPress. B2B pricing and quotes come from paid extensions, for example B2B for WooCommerce at $149 a year (WooCommerce Marketplace). | You or your partner |
None of these is "the best." Shopify is the easiest to run and now covers most mid-market B2B needs below Plus. BigCommerce and Adobe Commerce go deeper on complex B2B structures. WooCommerce gives you the most control, along with the most maintenance.
Four things to weigh before you commit
Total cost, not the subscription
The subscription is the smallest number in the decision. Add payment processing, apps or extensions, hosting if you self-host, ERP integration, and the people who maintain it. For larger B2B operations, the tier you'll need matters more than the entry plan: Shopify Plus starts at $2,300 a month on a three-year term (Shopify).
How to do it
- List every recurring cost: subscription, payment processing, apps or extensions, hosting, and ongoing development or maintenance.
- Price the tier you'll need in 18 months rather than the one you start on, especially if you need unlimited customer-specific price lists.
- Model card processing against your real order volume, and note how many B2B orders will move to PO or terms instead of card.
- Add the one-time cost of connecting to your ERP or accounting system, which is often the biggest line in a B2B build.
See a worked example
The numbers here are made up, but the math is typical. A brand doing 300 direct orders a month at a $60 average order value moves about $18,000. At Stripe's published 2.9% + 30 cents per domestic card transaction, processing alone is roughly $612 a month before subscription, apps, or hosting (Stripe). A B2B account paying by PO on net terms changes that math, which is why it pays to split the two channels in the model.
Tools to use
Steal our AI prompt
Act as an ecommerce finance analyst for a B2B manufacturer that is adding direct online sales. My numbers are: [monthly direct-to-consumer orders and average order value, monthly B2B orders and average order value, share of B2B orders paid by PO or terms]. Here are the pricing pages I'm comparing: [paste subscription tiers, transaction fees, and the cost of any B2B apps or extensions]. Build a 24-month total cost comparison that includes subscription, payment processing, apps, hosting, and a placeholder line for ERP integration. Flag every cost that scales with order volume and the point where I would be forced onto a higher tier.
Fit to how you sell, now and in 18 months
Write down how orders reach you today and how you want them to in a year and a half. A platform that handles a simple DTC store well can fall over when you add a wholesale channel, a second warehouse, or contract pricing for your top 50 accounts.
How to do it
- List your sales channels and price models: DTC list price, wholesale tiers, distributor contracts, and any customer-specific pricing.
- Check each platform's B2B documentation against that list, line by line. Note which features are native, which need an app, and which need a higher tier.
- Map your catalog: SKU count, variants, case packs, and the specs buyers filter on. Make sure the platform can hold and filter those attributes.
- Confirm the platform supports clean URLs, editable titles and meta descriptions, and sitemap submission in Google Search Console.
See a worked example
A specialty sauce maker sells DTC at list price and wholesale to about 40 independent grocers at two price tiers. On Shopify's non-Plus plans, two wholesale tiers fit within the three custom catalogs now included (Shopify). If they later want contract pricing for each regional distributor, that's when unlimited catalogs, and therefore Plus, come into the picture.
Tools to use
Steal our AI prompt
Act as an ecommerce solutions consultant. Here is how we sell today and in 18 months: [describe channels, price models, number of B2B accounts, SKU count, case packs, warehouses]. Here is what each platform documents for B2B: [paste feature lists from each vendor]. For each platform, tell me which of my requirements are native, which need a third-party app, which need a higher plan, and which are not supported. Then tell me which limit I would hit first on each platform.
Integrations and the tech you will have to run
For a B2B company, the ERP integration usually decides the project. If orders, inventory, and customer pricing don't sync reliably, your team ends up re-keying orders and your portal shows the wrong stock. On the self-hosted side, remember who handles updates and security: on WooCommerce, that's you, and many of the plugins you rely on carry annual subscriptions of their own.
How to do it
- List the systems the store must talk to: ERP or accounting, shipping, tax, email, and for food and beverage, any compliance or cold-chain shipping tools.
- For each platform, find whether a maintained connector exists for your ERP, or whether it needs custom work.
- Look at two or three competitor stores in BuiltWith to see what stack they run, then test those stores on mobile in PageSpeed Insights.
- Confirm which PCI DSS responsibilities the platform covers and which fall on you.
See a worked example
A distributor running an ERP that holds every customer's contract price learns that one platform has a maintained connector that syncs prices and inventory every few minutes, while another needs a custom integration. The second option might still win on other grounds, but now the integration cost is in the budget instead of showing up as a surprise.
Tools to use
Steal our AI prompt
Act as an ecommerce solutions architect. Our systems are: [ERP or accounting, shipping, tax, email, any compliance tools]. We are comparing: [platforms]. For each platform, tell me whether a maintained integration exists for each system, what data it syncs (orders, inventory, customer pricing), and where custom development would be needed. Flag anything that would leave us re-keying orders by hand.
Support and who you call when it breaks
When your top distributor can't place an order on a Friday afternoon, who fixes it? On hosted platforms, the vendor owns uptime and you can read its incident history on a public status page. On self-hosted platforms, support comes from your developer, your hosting company, and community documentation.
How to do it
- Read the platform's public status page for incident frequency and resolution time over the last few months.
- Search the help center for a problem you expect to hit, like customer-specific pricing, and judge whether the docs answer it.
- Decide who supports the store day to day (the vendor, an agency, or someone in-house) and put that cost in the budget.
- Ask the vendor, in writing, what support is included at your plan.
See a worked example
Two platforms can both advertise 24/7 support and still feel very different in practice. Skimming a status page and trying three real questions in the help center usually tells you more than the sales call does.
Tools to use
So which platform should you choose?
Based on the documentation above, here's where we'd start:
- Choose Shopify if you want the vendor to run the technology, your B2B pricing fits a few price lists or you're ready for Plus, and you sell both DTC and wholesale from one catalog.
- Choose BigCommerce or Adobe Commerce if you have complex B2B structures, many contract price lists, multi-company hierarchies, or quote-heavy sales, and the budget to implement them properly.
- Choose WooCommerce if you need unusual customization, already run WordPress well, and have a team that will own updates and security.
The honest part
The platform matters less than people think. A clumsy checkout or a portal that shows the wrong price will lose orders on any of them. Switching platforms is also expensive, so the choice you're making is for the next three to five years rather than the next three months.
If you're weighing a platform change as part of a larger rebuild, it helps to know what that costs before you talk to vendors. Our breakdown of B2B website redesign cost gives real ranges: our projects start at $35K, focused rebuilds have run $35K to $70K, and larger builds $200K to $350K.
Keep reading
E-Commerce & ConversionsWhy Most A/B Tests Lose, and What Actually Moves Conversion
The average A/B test barely moves the needle, and most B2B sites don't have the traffic to test much at all. Here's what the data says, why a system beats a pile of tests, and how to run the few tests worth running.
UX & Web DesignWebsite Care Plan Prices in 2026: What 72 US Providers Charge
We read the published pricing of 72 US website care providers and logged all 187 plan tiers. The median entry plan is $99 a month. Here's what that buys, what the top tiers add, how few providers test updates or promise a person at night, and the questions to ask before you sign.
UX & Web DesignB2B Ecommerce UX: What Manufacturers and Distributors Need in an Ordering Portal
B2B buyers aren't browsing. They're reordering, checking specs, and confirming their price. Here's the UX a manufacturer or distributor ordering portal needs, with the features that earn repeat orders.
Ready to talk about your site?
Book a call with Chykalophia. We focus on your business, your goals and what is in the way, and tell you fast if we are a fit.
Strategies for businesses building what's next.
The Next Draft: occasional notes on turning B2B websites into pipeline. Unsubscribe any time.
