Using Adobe Commerce for B2B eCommerce: Features You Need to Know!

Summary

Adobe Commerce (previously Magento) is a secure, flexible, and comprehensive enterprise eCommerce platform that allows you to create world-class B2C and B2B experiences, all from a single platform. 

Thanks to its extensive B2B (business-to-business) features, it’s one of the best go-to options for new-age entrepreneurs looking to improve their operations. 

So, if you’re a business owner looking for a way to start, the Adobe B2B eCommerce platform might be the perfect option. It has extensions that help you streamline the workflow and improve your operations. 

Therefore, in this guide, we’ll learn more about: 

• Is Adobe Commerce (Magento) Good for B2B?
• Key Adobe Commerce B2B Features: What Makes it Unique?
• Core Adobe Commerce Features that Support B2B
• Other Unique Features of Adobe Commerce that Adds to B2B Businesses

So continue reading as we learn more about Adobe Commerce in the following sections. 

Is Adobe Commerce (Magento) Good for B2B?

Adobe Commerce marketplace is a robust B2B platform that is changing how organizations work and scale. It features integrated B2B (Business to Business) opportunities, allowing organizations to manage both B2C and B2B stores from a single interface, with the ability to grow to several storefronts across countries, brands, catalogs, and currencies.

Adobe Commerce is a highly competitive B2B platform that may be used exclusively for B2B or with other business models and brands. Whether you’re a manufacturer, distributor, or wholesaler, Adobe’s innovative B2B solution allows you to handle several tiers of buyers, manage inventory, track quotations and orders, and take advantage of the latest AI-powered customization.

The B2B plugin is compatible with all supported Adobe Commerce versions (on-premise or cloud) but not Magento Open Source. The B2B extension is installed when the Adobe Commerce Magento infrastructure is set up, as per Adobe’s instructions here. Store managers must then activate B2B capabilities, specifying which elements are required to suit your business model.

Read More: How to Use Generative AI to Its Full Potential in Your Adobe Commerce Store

Key Adobe Commerce B2B Features: What Makes it Unique?

Adobe Commerce is the future of B2B eCommerce, thanks to its features that are designed for businesses that sell to other businesses. These features accommodate both basic and complicated buyer organizational structures and the unique demands of B2B buyers. This section will describe the current B2B features available for Adobe Commerce that are compatible with either the native storefront architecture (conventional deployment) or headless commerce deployment that operates in a B2B model. 

1. Company accounts and company management

A company profile is vital for B2B sales and effective account management since it links one or more buyers with a single firm or corporate account. Account features include:

• Pay on Account: This feature allows people to make purchases against a business credit line (established by the merchant).
• Roles and Permissions: A higher-level administrator can assign permissions and user roles based on the corporate structure, which includes regulating purchasing, quotation, ordering, profile access, credit access, and other functions.
• Operational Controls: Payment mechanisms, pricing levels, price discussions (via quotations), generate requisition lists
• Company Management: Administrators can create a company hierarchy (child/parent account structures) that reflects complicated buying teams, conglomerates, or B2B2X enterprises.

2. Quick Orders and Requisition Lists

The Quick Order functionality and Requisition lists aim to eliminate friction in the B2B customer portals. While Quick Order is not officially referred to as a “bulk order” tool, it does provide flexibility over quantity purchases.

• Quick order: To make ordering easier, consumers can manually search for a product SKU or name or through a form on the site or customer portal.
• Multiples and lists: Customers can input numerous SKUs simultaneously or submit a list (CSV) to simplify further.
• Requisition list: Save everyday purchases to a list to allow easy repurchase.
• Access to quick orders

3. Advanced quoting capabilities

Thanks to the latest updates over the Adobe Commerce platform, B2B vendors can utilize the built-in quotation tool for features like: 

• Negotiable Quotes: Initiated by the buyer or seller, with complete tracking of contact history, the ability to write remarks at the line or quotation level, delete goods, add discounts, and so on.
• Requisition List: RFQ features include split quotes, quote templates, draft quotes, duplicate quotes, and multi-admin access (new in 2024).

4. Shared catalogs and customer price books

Shared catalogs and custom price rules are essential for B2B organizations to change rates for various client groups.

• Shared Catalogs: Sell items at varying price points based on customer group.
• Catalog Service: Catalog Service provides functionality for Adobe Commerce B2B. This free hosted service complements current catalog data, allowing you to show category and product information at a better performance level.

5. Purchase order approval workflows

When utilizing purchase orders (PO), clients must follow approval requirements depending on their role and the regulations put up by their administrator. When one or more approvals are required based on value triggers, the process is reviewed, and those approving will see the POs that need their approval.

6. Flexible payment options for B2B

B2B buyers have various payment options that vary from buyer to buyer, including the opportunity to purchase on credit via credit card or purchase order, bank transfer, cheque, electronic cash transfers, and virtual cards.

• Payment on account, purchase orders, and supporting credit.
• Cash on delivery supports postponed payment.
• Built-in basic payment options include check/money orders and bank transfers.
• Adobe Commerce B2B features Seamless support to receive third-party payments.

Core Adobe Commerce Features that Support B2B

Since Adobe Commerce is a unified system that can handle both B2B and B2C enterprises, once B2B capabilities are installed and enabled, many of the platform’s key features remain critical to B2B success. This includes:

1. Inventory & fulfillment

Adobe Commerce development services offer single- and multi-source inventory, fulfillment, and integration with more extensive inventory management tools.

• Multi-source Support: Inventory is maintained from numerous suppliers or locations, with consumers only having access to specific sources (specified at the shop level) or depending on a predetermined priority.
• Set the Thresholds: Specify notifications when stock is low, with options to specify minimum or maximum quantities and support backorders.
• Sales Channels: Commerce offers B2B assistance correlating goods with specific sales channels.
• Omnichannel: Provide seamless cross-channel commerce experiences and manage inventories across channels in real time.
• Flexible Fulfillment: Picking, staging, and in-store inventory sync, order handoff capabilities, worldwide capabilities for suitable shipping methods, shipment matching algorithms

2. Live Search powered by Adobe Sensei

Live Search is another free hosted service that allows you to replace your standard search approach with AI-powered dynamic faceting and re-ranking search results based on shopper behaviors. 

This allows buyers to find what they’re looking for in less time. It also includes features like search as you type, synonym support, and merchandising rules to bury or boost products based on your preferences.

3. Product Recommendations powered by Adobe Sensei

Adobe’s Product Recommendations hosted solution supports B2B processes by integrating Adobe Sensei AI to combine visitor data with catalog data to provide recommendations based on similarity, popularity, trends, or recommendations unique to a shopper or item.

4. Enhanced security & performance

To support eCommerce security, Adobe provides important safeguards in its PaaS (Platform-as-a-Service) offering tools to assist shop owners in managing security, all based on a high-performance solution:

• Security Resources: Support for Read-only production filesystem, MFA, single-tenant virtual machines, 256-bit key encryption, and 99.9% SLA.
• Compliance Support: PCI-DSS certified as a Level 1 Solution Provider, CCPA-ready, HIPAA, and GDPR.
• Additional Safeguards with Adobe Commerce Manage Services: This service provides additional help to improve security coverage, discuss best practices, and aid with patching and monitoring. 
• Optimized Performance: AWS-based infrastructure with high-performance CDN and SaaS accelerators.

5. Adobe Commerce Intelligence

Adobe Commerce Intelligence facilitates the collection and monitoring of business intelligence to analyze consumer behaviors, improve customization, and guide company choices, including:

• Consolidate data sources to provide one source of truth.
• Customizable dashboards for tracking KPIs such as ROI, merchandising analysis, customer lifetime value, cohort analysis, and more.
• Automatic report updates and export possibilities.
• Mobile responsiveness.
• Adobe Commerce is available in three configurations: standard, hybrid, and headless, all mobile device-focused.

6. Extensible Third-party Applications

Adobe B2B eCommerce solutions may be expanded through a robust extension marketplace or an API that integrates with your technology stack. You may also extend by creating bespoke solutions with the Adobe Developer App Builder.

Read More: How is AI-led Adobe Solution Shaping the Future of eCommerce?

Unique Features of Adobe Commerce that Adds to B2B Businesses

Omnichannel Capabilities

Customers today expect to shop at their convenience, whether in-store, online, or through a sales representative. Adobe Commerce Cloud makes this simple with its omnichannel features. It allows you to access a first-hand view of all your consumers across different channels, allowing you to deliver a consistent experience regardless of how they purchase.

For example, visitors may add items to their basket on their work computer, start their research over mobile devices, and complete the transaction by speaking with a sales representative. All of this information is linked using Adobe Commerce Cloud. The sales associate may view what’s in the cart and continue where the consumer left off.

The technology also connects with AEC, which provides even more omnichannel capabilities. You can manage content, customize experiences, and measure customer journeys across your channels from one location.

Headless Commerce Architecture

Adobe Commerce Cloud operates using a “headless” architecture. This may sound complex, but it’s relatively cool. It isolates the front end (what users see) from the back end (where all data and operations are stored).

Why is this beneficial for B2B? Well, it allows you a lot of versatility. You may design personalized front-end experiences for different consumer groups or even devices. Perhaps you want a fundamental mobile interface for clients who are always on the go and a more thorough desktop version for office-based buyers. You may accomplish this with headless commerce.

The platform’s API-first approach simplifies linking Adobe Commerce Cloud to other systems or applications. This is ideal for B2B organizations looking to partner with Adobe Commerce partners to interact with various tools or develop custom apps.

Robust Security Measures

Security is critical when managing large B2B transactions. Adobe Commerce Cloud takes this seriously. The platform is PCI DSS 3.2.1 degree 1 certified, indicating the most significant security for credit card payments.

However, it is not only about securing payment information. In addition, the platform has enhanced fraud prevention. It uses machine learning to detect suspicious activities, so preventing fraud before it occurs. This is especially crucial in B2B transactions, which can be vast and complex.

Adobe regularly updates the platform with the newest security patches. You won’t have to worry about updating to the latest security dangers; The Adobe Commerce support team will help you navigate it. They continuously try to keep your data and customer’s data secure.

Conclusion

Adobe Commerce Cloud is full of features that make it an excellent solution for large B2B businesses. It is designed to support large-scale operations, from complicated account structures and unique pricing to comprehensive search and analytics capabilities.

The platform’s focus on modular design, security, and integration capabilities allows it to adapt to the specific demands of various enterprises. What’s more? Thanks to features like omnichannel support and AI-driven customization, it allows B2B businesses to provide seamless, personalized buying experiences that customers have grown to anticipate.

Therefore, if you plan to take your business to the next level, don’t miss out on the possibilities Adobe can add to your operations. However, navigating through such challenges alone can be challenging; therefore, hiring a trusted Adobe Commerce agency is best. All the best!