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Ecommerce for manufacturing usually means a B2B portal for dealers, distributors and trade customers rather than a consumer shop: logged-in buyers see their own prices, reorder parts quickly, request quotes, place purchase orders on account and check order status, with the ERP as the source of truth. Adobe Commerce covers much of this through its B2B features (company accounts, shared catalogs, quick order, requisition lists, negotiable quotes and purchase orders). The gaps that usually need extensions or custom work are spare-parts lookup, product configuration and deep ERP integration.
Below, typical manufacturer requirements are mapped to Adobe Commerce features, with a clear note of where each gap sits.
Why manufacturers build B2B portals
- Reduce order handling: orders by email, phone and spreadsheet are re-keyed by staff. Self-service ordering moves routine orders online.
- Serve dealers consistently: every dealer sees the right prices, stock and documents, at any hour.
- Grow aftermarket revenue: spare parts and consumables are frequent, repeat purchases that suit online ordering.
- Free up sales teams: account managers spend time on new business and complex quotes instead of order entry.
Manufacturer requirements mapped to Adobe Commerce B2B
| Requirement | Adobe Commerce feature | Fit | Typical extra work |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dealer and distributor accounts with several buyers | Company accounts with users, roles and permissions; company hierarchies | Native | Sync accounts from ERP or CRM |
| Dealer-specific prices and assortments | Shared catalogs with custom per-product prices; customer group and tier pricing | Native | Import contract prices from ERP; very large price lists need performance planning |
| Fast reordering by part number | Quick Order by SKU or product name; requisition lists | Native | Part-number search tuning, supersession handling |
| Quotes for large or custom orders | Negotiable quotes; quote templates for repeat agreements | Native | Push accepted quotes to ERP or CPQ |
| Buying on account with approvals | Purchase orders with approval rules; Payment on Account with credit limits | Native | Sync credit limits and balances with ERP |
| Spare parts by machine or exploded diagram | Not built in | Gap | Parts finder extension or custom module; diagram hotspots |
| Configured or made-to-order products | Configurable and bundle products, custom options | Partial | Rules-based configurator or CPQ integration |
| Real-time stock and lead times | Inventory sources and salable quantity | Partial | ERP availability calls or frequent sync |
| Invoices, statements, order history from ERP | Magento order history only | Gap | ERP document integration in the account area |
| Sales reps ordering for dealers | Login as Customer (a one-time-code flow on Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service); admin order creation | Partial | Rep assignment and permissions by account |
| Technical documents and certificates | Product attachments via CMS or attributes | Partial | Document management or PIM integration |
Adobe documents these B2B features as part of Adobe Commerce; Magento Open Source does not include them, so Open Source stores use extensions or custom development. Our B2B ecommerce guide explains each feature in more depth.
The ERP is the center of gravity
For manufacturers, the ERP usually owns customers, prices, credit, stock and orders. The portal is only as good as that integration. Plan it around these flows:
- Customers and companies: ERP to Magento, including buyer roles where possible
- Prices: list prices, contract prices and discounts, either synced or calculated live
- Stock and lead times: per warehouse, with how often each figure must refresh
- Orders: Magento to ERP immediately, with status updates back
- Invoices, shipments and credit: ERP to the customer account area
Decide early which values must be live and which can be synced on a schedule. Live price or stock calls feel accurate but put load on the ERP and slow pages if not cached. Our guide to Magento ERP integration covers patterns, middleware and asynchronous APIs.
Spare parts: the most common gap
Aftermarket parts are often the fastest win for a manufacturer, but they need more than a product grid:
- Search by part number, including old and superseded numbers
- Search by machine or serial number, showing only compatible parts
- Exploded diagrams with clickable hotspots that add parts to the cart
- Bills of materials imported from engineering or PLM data
Extensions and parts catalog tools cover some of this; a custom module is common when compatibility data is complex. Clean part data matters more than the tool.
Dealers, distributors and direct sales
Many manufacturers sell through dealers and want to avoid channel conflict. Common patterns include:
- A dealer-only portal with no public prices
- A public catalog without prices, plus a dealer locator, with ordering for logged-in accounts only
- Direct sales of parts and accessories to end customers, with dealers kept for equipment and service
- Orders from end customers routed to the nearest dealer for fulfillment
Adobe Commerce can support each through multiple websites, customer groups, shared catalogs and custom routing. Where wholesale and distribution are the main model, see our guide to wholesale ecommerce on Magento.
Designing for trade buyers
Trade buyers behave differently from consumers. They know what they want, order in bulk, and value speed over inspiration. Good B2B UX for manufacturers includes:
- A dashboard showing recent orders, open quotes and requisition lists after login
- Bulk entry by SKU and file upload for large orders (Adobe's Quick Order supports both, using a downloadable SKU template)
- Prices shown with the buyer's discounts and taxes clearly separated
- Stock and lead time on listing pages, not only on product pages
- Downloadable invoices and documents in the account area
A phased rollout plan
- Phase 1: company accounts, shared catalogs with contract prices, quick order and order sync to ERP for a pilot group of dealers.
- Phase 2: quotes, purchase orders with approvals, payment on account and order status from the ERP.
- Phase 3: spare-parts finder, invoices and documents, sales rep tools.
- Phase 4: configurators, direct-to-customer parts sales and AI-assisted search for part numbers and technical terms.
Phasing lets you prove adoption with real buyers before investing in the harder pieces.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need Adobe Commerce, or is Magento Open Source enough?
If you need company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes and purchase orders, Adobe Commerce includes them. On Open Source you would add extensions for each, from different vendors.
Can the portal show live ERP prices?
Yes, through an ERP call or frequent sync. Live calls need caching and fallbacks so pages stay fast when the ERP is slow.
Will dealers actually use it?
Adoption depends on making reordering faster than email. Start with your most frequent orders, train key accounts and keep the phone line as a backup at first.
Next step
Mistri's B2B storefront UX service designs portals around how trade buyers really order, and our Adobe Commerce development team builds the B2B features and ERP integration behind them.
Sources
Introduction to Adobe Commerce B2B (Adobe Experience League); Quote template use cases and workflows (Adobe Experience League); Adobe Commerce B2B release notes (Adobe Experience League); Quick Order (Adobe Experience League); Login as Customer (Adobe Experience League).
