Magento B2B features are the reason Adobe Commerce dominates UK B2B eCommerce. No other platform ships company accounts, shared catalogues, negotiable quotes, quick order, and payment on account as native functionality. This guide explains every major feature in plain English for decision makers, covers Open Source vs Adobe Commerce availability, and gives you the commercial case for each feature.
Native B2B features in Adobe Commerce not available on Shopify Plus
Reduction in account management overhead after B2B portal launch
Additional licence cost for B2B features on Adobe Commerce
Years 5MS has built Magento B2B stores for UK manufacturers
Magento B2B features available natively in Adobe Commerce include: company accounts with sub-users and approval workflows; shared catalogues with account-specific pricing and product visibility; negotiable quotes with a full request, counter-offer, and accept workflow; quick order by SKU or CSV upload; requisition lists for saved order templates; payment on account with credit limits and net terms; purchase order approval workflows; and a B2B-specific customer portal. None require extensions on Adobe Commerce. On Magento Open Source, all require either a paid extension or custom build.
Magento Open Source is the free community version. It has no native B2B features. Every B2B capability must be added through paid third-party extensions or custom development.
Adobe Commerce includes the complete B2B module as part of the licence. Every feature in this guide is native, supported by Adobe, and maintained with the platform. No additional extension costs for B2B functionality.
| B2B Feature | Magento Open Source | Adobe Commerce |
|---|---|---|
| Company accounts | Extension required | Native |
| Shared catalogues | Extension required | Native |
| Negotiable quotes | Extension required | Native |
| Quick order | Extension required | Native |
| Requisition lists | Extension required | Native |
| Payment on account | Extension required | Native |
| PO approval workflows | Extension required | Native |
| Customer group pricing | Native | Native |
A full B2B extension stack on Magento Open Source costs between £3,000 and £8,000 per year in extension licences alone. For a business running B2B eCommerce for five or more years, the Adobe Commerce licence cost is frequently lower than the cumulative extension cost on Open Source. Always model both over a three to five year horizon.
A company account is a top-level entity representing a business customer. Multiple individual users sit beneath it, each with a defined role (buyer, approver, viewer) and spending limits. One company can have dozens of individual logins, all operating under the same pricing, catalogue, and credit terms.
Procurement at UK businesses involves multiple people. Without company account structure, buyers, approvers, and finance either share one login or have unconnected accounts with no visibility between them.
Roles are fully configurable: a buyer role might allow orders up to £500 with no approval required. An approver can authorise up to £5,000. Anything above routes to the company admin. Roles also control portal visibility, address management, invoice access, and who can request quotes.
Accounts using company account structure self-serve at significantly higher rates. Finance can access invoices without involving the buyer. Managers get visibility without being copied on every order.
The buyer adds items, sets a quantity, and requests a quote. The seller adjusts line-item pricing, adds notes, sets an expiry, and sends it back. The buyer accepts, counter-offers, or declines. Once accepted, the quote converts to a locked order at the agreed price.
Large B2B orders are rarely placed at catalogue price. Without a structured quote workflow, negotiation happens over email and phone, creating version control problems and manual work for both sides.
The quote appears in the admin with full basket contents, the buyer’s message, and their order history. The seller adjusts pricing, adds comments, sets an expiry, and sends it back. The buyer reviews it in their portal and accepts or counters. The accepted quote becomes an order at the locked price.
Quote workflows keep large deals on the platform rather than drifting to email. Every negotiation is logged and auditable. The buyer can accept with one click rather than emailing back a confirmation.
A form in the B2B portal that lets buyers enter multiple SKUs and quantities directly, without navigating product pages. A buyer who knows their part numbers can enter 20 line items in under a minute. Also accepts CSV uploads — buyers upload their standard order template directly from a spreadsheet.
B2B buyers are not browsers. They have part numbers and want to order without navigating category trees. Quick order removes the friction between “I know my order” and “my order is in the basket”.
The quick order form validates each SKU against the buyer’s shared catalogue as they type, showing the product name and account price for confirmation. Invalid SKUs are flagged immediately. The CSV upload accepts a two-column format (SKU, quantity) and processes the entire file in one action.
Stores that deploy quick order typically see order frequency increase for established accounts. The CSV upload is particularly valuable for accounts who maintain their own purchasing spreadsheets.
A saved collection of products and quantities that a buyer can store, name, and reuse. A buyer can maintain multiple lists simultaneously: one for weekly consumables, one for monthly maintenance stock, one for a specific project. Each list can be added to basket in one action.
Most B2B orders are repeats of previous orders. Without requisition lists, buyers rebuild the same basket manually every time. With them, a standard weekly order becomes a one-click action.
Buyers create lists from product pages, quick order, or previous order history. Lists can be named and annotated. When ready to order, the buyer selects the list and adds all items to basket in one action. The list is not consumed by the order — it remains saved for the next use.
Accounts with active requisition lists order more frequently and at higher average order values because the ordering process becomes routine rather than an active decision.
A native payment method that lets approved trade accounts complete checkout without paying at point of order. The order is placed against the account’s credit limit and an invoice is raised for payment on agreed terms (30, 60 days, or custom). Includes configurable credit limits, real-time credit balance display, and automatic order hold when the limit is reached.
B2B buyers do not pay by card at checkout. A checkout that only accepts card is not a B2B checkout. Payment on account turns the store into a genuine trade channel by reflecting how B2B purchasing actually works.
Each company has a configured credit limit. When a buyer places an order on account, Magento checks the outstanding balance plus the new order against the credit limit. If within limit, the order proceeds. If over, the buyer sees a notification and the order is blocked or placed on hold for admin review.
Accounts that can order on credit terms order more frequently and at higher volumes than accounts restricted to card payment. Removing payment friction at checkout is one of the most direct levers for increasing order frequency.
The company admin sets rules requiring certain orders to be approved before submission. Rules can be based on order value, number of SKUs, or shipping method. Multiple approval levels: team leader approves up to £2,000, department head up to £10,000, company admin above that.
UK businesses have internal procurement controls. Without an approval workflow in the store, the workaround is email approval before ordering — adding delay, creating an audit gap, and often resulting in the order being placed by phone instead.
When a buyer places an order that triggers an approval rule, the order is submitted to the approver rather than the supplier. The approver receives an email, reviews the order in their portal, approves or rejects with a comment. Approved orders proceed to fulfilment. The full chain is logged and auditable.
Approval workflows keep procurement on the platform. Every approval is logged. Procurement managers get the control they need without removing the convenience of self-serve for buyers.
The feature that closes the most deals: in every B2B eCommerce scoping conversation 5MS has with UK manufacturers and wholesalers, purchase order approval workflows and payment on account are the two features that make the difference between “we can move our trade channel online” and “we still need the phone for anything serious”. Both are native in Adobe Commerce. Both require custom development or expensive extensions on every other platform.
Platform choice determines what is possible without custom development. The table below shows native capability only. Every “extension required” or “custom build” entry represents additional cost, maintenance overhead, and integration risk.
| Feature | Adobe Commerce | Shopify Plus | WooCommerce |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company accounts with sub-users | Native | Native (limited) | Plugin required |
| Shared catalogues | Native | Custom build | Custom build |
| Negotiable quotes | Native | Custom build | Custom build |
| Quick order by SKU / CSV | Native | Custom build | Plugin / custom |
| Requisition lists | Native | Custom build | Custom build |
| Payment on account | Native | Via apps (limited) | Plugin required |
| PO approval workflows | Native | Custom build | Custom build |
| ERP integration depth | Deep, bidirectional | Middleware-dependent | Middleware-dependent |
For the broader platform decision, see our guide to B2B eCommerce strategy for UK manufacturers and what a B2B eCommerce agency actually does.
- All eight native Magento B2B features are exclusive to Adobe Commerce. Magento Open Source requires paid extensions or custom development for every B2B capability.
- Company accounts with sub-users and role-based permissions are the foundation. Without them, pricing, catalogue visibility, approval workflows, and credit terms cannot be assigned at account level.
- Shared catalogues go beyond customer group pricing. They control which products each company can see, not just what they pay. No other major platform has this natively.
- Quick order and requisition lists are the highest-impact UX features for established accounts. They reduce repeat ordering from minutes to seconds.
- Payment on account and PO approval workflows are the features that make a B2B store genuinely usable for UK procurement teams. Without both, the channel works for simple orders and fails for anything requiring internal sign-off or credit terms.
5MS has built Magento and Adobe Commerce B2B stores for UK manufacturers, wholesalers, and distributors since 2011. Tell us which features you need, what your ERP runs on, and how your trade accounts currently order.
Magento B2B features available natively in Adobe Commerce include: company accounts with sub-users and role-based permissions; shared catalogues with account-specific product visibility and pricing; negotiable quotes with a full request, counter-offer, and accept workflow; quick order by SKU or CSV upload; requisition lists for saved order templates; payment on account with configurable credit limits and net terms; and purchase order approval workflows with multi-level sign-off rules. None require third-party extensions on Adobe Commerce. All require extensions or custom development on Magento Open Source, Shopify Plus, and WooCommerce.
What to do next:
- 1Map your B2B requirements against the eight features above. Identify which are must-haves at launch and which can follow in phase two.
- 2Run the platform cost model: Adobe Commerce licence over three years versus the extension stack on Magento Open Source or the custom build cost on Shopify Plus.
- 3Talk to a Magento B2B specialist before committing. 5MS offers a free scoping consultation. Get in touch here.
Common questions UK B2B decision makers ask about Magento B2B features. If yours is not here, get in touch.
We scope Magento B2B projects every week. Bring us your requirements, your current platform, and your ERP. We will tell you straight what the build costs and which version of Magento makes sense.