Requesters
Build carts from the account's catalog and reorder lists, and see only the prices their company negotiated.
Retail / B2B Ecommerce
B2B ecommerce development for brands and distributors that sell to businesses
Business buyers need their own prices, approval rules and purchase orders, and most consumer storefronts cannot hold them. Agnotic Technologies builds B2B ecommerce that gives each company account its catalog, contract prices and checkout, and passes every order to your ERP and trading partners without rekeying.
Accounts
Buyer roles and approvals
X12 850
EDI purchase orders
cXML
Punchout catalogs
Trusted by global innovators
Industry Overview
What is B2B ecommerce?
B2B ecommerce is online ordering built for business buyers: company accounts with several users, negotiated contract prices, approval rules, purchase order and net terms checkout, and orders exchanged by EDI or punchout. Agnotic Technologies builds these storefronts and the integrations behind them, so each buying feature lives in the system that should own it.
Who orders
Who places a B2B order?
One business order often passes through four people at the customer. The storefront gives each of them a role, not a shared login.
Approvers
Approve orders above a spending limit or outside a budget category, under rules the customer's own admin sets.
Accounts payable
Need a PO number on every order, invoices that match what was ordered and statements against net terms.
Account admins
Add and remove users, manage ship-to addresses and cost centers, and do it without calling your sales team.
Industry Challenges
Where does B2B ecommerce go wrong?
Most failed B2B storefronts are consumer platforms stretched to fit. These are the failure points we look for first.
Contract prices are copied into the storefront by hand, so the web price and the ERP invoice disagree and accounts payable disputes the bill.
Every buyer at a customer shares one login, so nobody can tell who placed an order or enforce a spending limit.
Punchout buyers return a cart to their procurement system, but the purchase order that follows is keyed in by staff instead of matched to that cart.
Orders arrive by EDI, email and the storefront, and each channel creates orders in a different shape.
Credit limits and net terms live only in the ERP, so the storefront accepts orders that finance later puts on hold.
Customer-specific assortments are filtered in the browser, which is slow and can show items a customer should never see.
Decision table
Which system should own each B2B buying feature?
This is the ownership map we agree on scoping calls. When two systems both think they own a feature, prices drift and orders fail. The owner is the system of record; the others read from it.
| Buying feature | Owner (system of record) | What the commerce layer does | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company accounts and buyer roles | Commerce layer, linked to the ERP customer number | Holds users, roles, ship-to addresses and approval rules | Creating a new ERP customer for every web user |
| Contract and tiered pricing | ERP or a pricing engine | Reads each account's price list and caches it with a version | Re-entering negotiated prices in the storefront admin |
| Product data and assortments | PIM | Shows only the assortment assigned to each account | Feeding raw ERP item descriptions straight to the site |
| Credit limits and net terms | ERP (finance) | Checks available credit before accepting a terms order | Accepting every order and letting finance hold it later |
| Quotes and negotiated deals | Commerce layer or CPQ, approved by sales | Turns an accepted quote into an order at the quoted price | Emailing PDF quotes that buyers retype as orders |
| Punchout sessions | Commerce layer | Returns the cart to the buyer's procurement system and matches the purchase order that follows | Treating the punchout PO as a new, unmatched order |
| EDI purchase orders and acknowledgments | Integration layer, posting to the OMS or ERP | Shows EDI orders in the account's order history | Running EDI orders on a path the website never sees |
| Order status, splits and backorders | OMS | Shows status and shipments per order line | Showing one status for an order whose lines ship separately |
Our Approach
How do you build B2B ecommerce that sales and finance both trust?
How to build B2B ecommerce comes down to three choices, made before any screen is designed.
Keep prices where the contracts live
The storefront reads contract prices from the ERP or pricing engine and never keeps its own copy as the source. Each order records the price list version it used.
Model the customer as a company
One account per customer company, many users under it, each with a role and limits. Approval rules belong to the account, so the customer's buying policy holds on every order.
Use one order path for every channel
Storefront, punchout and EDI orders land in the same order service with the same checks, so customer service and the OMS work from one queue.
Capabilities
Which B2B ecommerce modules do we build?
B2B ecommerce services scoped to the buying features your customers use, connected to your ERP, PIM and OMS.
Company accounts and roles
Parent and child accounts, buyer roles, ship-to addresses and cost centers, with self-service user management for the customer's admin.
Approval workflows
Spending limits, category rules and multi-step approvals, with delegation when an approver is away and a record of who approved what.
Contract price lists
Per-account price lists, quantity breaks and effective dates read from your ERP or pricing engine, with versioned caching for speed.
Quick order and reorder
Order by SKU list or file upload, saved lists and one-step reorder from order history, built for buyers who know what they need.
Quote to order
Buyers request a quote, sales adjusts it, and the accepted quote becomes an order at the agreed price without retyping.
Punchout catalogs
cXML PunchOut and SAP OCI sessions that launch from the buyer's procurement system and return the cart to it.
Purchase order and terms checkout
PO number capture, a credit check before terms orders are accepted, and card checkout through your payment gateway for accounts without terms.
EDI order exchange
Inbound X12 850 orders, 855 acknowledgments, 856 ship notices and 810 invoices through your translator or VAN, posted to the same order service.
How It Works
How does one order travel from cart to invoice?
The path is the same whether the order starts on the storefront, in a punchout session or as an inbound EDI 850.
Order captured
The order is checked against the account: buyer role, ship-to address, contract price version and available credit.
01
1
Approval
Web orders above the buyer's limit wait for the account's approver. Punchout and EDI orders arrive already approved by the customer's own system.
02
2
Acknowledged
The buyer gets a confirmation: an email and order history entry for web orders, an X12 855 or cXML response for system orders, including any line that cannot be filled.
03
3
Released to fulfillment
The order posts to the OMS or ERP, which owns allocation, split shipments and backorders.
04
4
Shipped and invoiced
Ship notices and invoices flow back, so the buyer sees tracking per line and accounts payable receives an invoice that matches the PO.
05
5
Engineering Stack
Standards and systems behind B2B ordering
Chosen to match the formats your customers' procurement teams and trading partners already use.
EDI
ASC X12 850, 855, 856, 810AS2 or SFTP transportEDI translator or VAN
Procurement
cXML PunchOutSAP OCI punchoutOASIS UBL 2.3 orders and invoices
Core systems
ERP customer, price and credit APIsPIM assortmentsOMS order release
Platform
Headless commerce APIsRole-based access with SSOEvent queue between systemsAudit logging
Measured Impact
What should a B2B storefront measure?
Measures we build reports around and review with your sales operations and finance leads.
Digital orders
Share placed online
Orders placed on the storefront, by punchout or by EDI instead of by email or phone.
Price match
Invoices that agree
Invoices whose prices match the web order, by account.
Approval time
Orders waiting
How long orders sit with a customer's approver before release.
Exceptions
Orders needing a person
EDI and punchout orders that fail checks, grouped by cause.
Use Cases
Where do B2B ecommerce projects start?
B2B ecommerce for startups and established distributors usually starts with one buyer group and grows from there.
01
Reorder portal
Existing accounts reorder at contract prices instead of emailing a sales rep.
02
Punchout for procurement-led customers
Large customers buy from your catalog inside their own procurement system.
03
EDI onboarding for a retail partner
A big retail customer requires 850, 855, 856 and 810 exchange to keep the account.
04
Quote to order
Configured or high-value products move from quote to order without retyping.
05
Dealer and distributor portal
Channel partners order, track shipments and download invoices in one place.
06
Business and consumer on one catalog
One product catalog with separate prices, accounts and checkout rules for each audience.
Integrations
Which systems does B2B ecommerce connect to?
The systems that own prices, products, credit and orders, plus your customers' own procurement tools.
Customers, prices, credit
ERP (SAP, Oracle NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365)
Product data
PIM
Orders
Order management system
Trading partners
EDI translator or VAN
Punchout
Buyer procurement systems
Card payments
Payment gateway
Tax
Tax engine
Quotes and accounts
CRM
Compliance-First Development Services Backed by Global Standards
We build secure, scalable products designed for privacy, interoperability, and regulatory readiness from day one across every sector we serve.
General Data Protection Regulation
Implement lawful consent flows, data minimization, and secure processing for global data privacy.
Payment Card Industry (PCI DSS)
Securing payment transactions and protecting cardholder data with industry-best practices.
Our Edge
Why Global Leaders Choose Us
We combine deep technical expertise with industry-specific knowledge to deliver solutions that aren't just functional, but transformational.
Enterprise-Grade Security
We implement rigorous security protocols and compliance standards (HIPAA, GDPR, SOC2) across all industrial solutions to protect sensitive data.
High-Performance Scaling
Our architectures are built to handle massive data loads and user bases, keeping performance steady whether you're serving ten or ten million.
Accelerated Time-to-Market
Using our suite of internal tools and proven frameworks, we cut setup work so your first release reaches users sooner.
Embedded AI Integration
Beyond simple wrappers, we build deep-learning integrations and predictive analytics directly into the core of your industry-specific workflows.
Engagement Model
How does a B2B ecommerce engagement work?
We start with one buyer group and the systems it touches. Timing depends on scope; we agree a fixed first release on the scoping call.
01
Scoping call
We map your buyers, channels and systems, and fill in the ownership table above together.
02
Integration design
ERP, PIM and order interfaces are agreed, with test accounts and sample orders from real customers.
03
Fixed-scope first release
One buyer group with company accounts, contract pricing and PO checkout working end to end.
04
Partner rollout
Punchout and EDI partners are added one at a time, each with its own test cycle.
05
Support
Price list changes, new partners and ERP updates handled under agreed change control.
Facts and sources
Standards behind B2B order exchange
Short facts we design around, each linked to its primary source.
The ASC X12 850 Purchase Order transaction set is used to place purchase orders for goods and services, and X12 states it should not be used to send purchase order changes or acknowledgments.
Source: ASC X12, Transaction Sets (850)ASC X12 defines the 855 Purchase Order Acknowledgment for a seller's acknowledgment of a buyer's purchase order, and the 810 Invoice for billing the goods and services provided.
Source: ASC X12, Transaction Sets (855 and 810)cXML is a protocol for communicating business documents between procurement applications, e-commerce hubs and suppliers, covering catalog content, the PunchOut feature and original, change and delete purchase orders.
Source: cXML.org (cXML 1.2.071)OASIS UBL 2.3, approved as an OASIS Standard on 15 June 2021, defines standard business documents including Order, Order Response, Despatch Advice and Invoice.
Source: OASIS Universal Business Language 2.3
Voice of success
We don't just build products; we forge lasting partnerships. See how we've helped industry leaders transform their vision into technical reality.
“I can clearly see how Agnotic has a unique way of handling end-to-end development. They are always active on quick chat and provide support quickly.”
Aaron Phelan
Founder, Benchmark
“Agnotic combines deep technical expertise with strong domain knowledge. They understand the business context, anticipate challenges, and make collaboration smooth and effective.”
John Pasmore
Founder, Latimer
“Agnotic is the best technical team we evaluated. Their engineering excellence made our work dramatically easier and allowed us to stay focused on what matters most for maternal care outcomes. They took full ownership of the technical execution, and we are always happy to continue working together.”
Kim Smith
Founder, My Lauren
Related pages
Related retail commerce services
This page covers business buying features. These pages cover the systems around them.
Retail software development
The retail industry hub: storefront, B2B, inventory and pricing software Agnotic builds for retail teams.
Omnichannel ecommerce engine
Composable commerce across web, mobile and stores for enterprise retailers.
Order management system software
Order routing, split shipments and backorders once a B2B order is released.
Omnichannel inventory platform
One stock pool behind the availability your business buyers see.
Payment gateway integration services
Card payments, tokenization and refunds for accounts that pay by card.
Ecommerce fulfillment software
Ship notices and stock feeds with 3PLs and dropship vendors.
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Cross-Industry Reach
The Same Engineering Patterns, Across Other Industries
The technical patterns behind this platform translate naturally into adjacent verticals.
Frequently Asked Questions
The number of ERP and PIM integrations, how pricing is modeled (one list or per-account contracts), the punchout and EDI partners in scope, approval rules, catalog size and account-specific assortments, and how much account and order history must move. We explain these drivers on the scoping call instead of quoting a fixed price.
It depends on scope; we agree a fixed first release on the scoping call. Each EDI or punchout partner also adds its own test cycle, which depends on the partner's availability as much as on our work.
Often yes, when the product catalog is shared. The two audiences get separate price lists, account models and checkout rules over one catalog, so consumer card checkout and business terms checkout stay different paths.
Yes. We build cXML PunchOut and SAP OCI sessions: the buyer launches your catalog from their procurement system, sees contract prices, returns the cart, and the purchase order that follows is matched back to that cart.
Yes. Inbound X12 850 orders pass through your translator or VAN into the same order service as web orders, and we send 855 acknowledgments, 856 ship notices and 810 invoices back, so EDI orders also show in the account's order history.
Yes. B2B ecommerce for startups usually begins with company accounts, one price list per account and PO checkout for existing customers. Approvals, punchout and EDI are added when buyers ask for them.
No. Agnotic Technologies is a software development services company. We build B2B ecommerce for you on the commerce platform you choose, or as custom services where a platform does not fit.
Industries