WooCommerce B2B Setup: Setting Up a Fully-Featured B2B Online Store

By / October 12, 2023
Customer Specific Pricing for WooCommerce B2B Stores

This guide walks you through implementing B2BWoo and guides you on WooCommerce B2B Setup.

Ecommerce has taken over the world. Today, no industry is spared from the eCommerce revolution. Even B2B Food and Beverage Companies that were initially slow to adopt have caught up.

But for small-sized B2B companies, this poses a real problem. As opposed to B2C eCommerce, B2B eCommerce is riddled with complexities, which drives up the costs of eCommerce implementation.

Every B2B eCommerce solution out there including Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and Sana Commerce has monthly costs lying in the range of thousands. To put it bluntly, there isn’t any “get started for $29” solution for B2B eCommerce.

That’s the reason why B2B eCommerce isn’t as commoditized as B2C eCommerce. If you’re small-sized, getting your own eCommerce store for thousands of dollars per month wouldn’t be a considerable option.

Of course, this inaction results in missed opportunities. And increased threats.

You’re not just missing out on the opportunity to acquire new customers through eCommerce but also running the risk of getting crushed by some young company that uses eCommerce to distinguish itself.

So, what’s the solution? Is there any affordable option for small-sized wholesalers, manufacturers, and distributors?

Codup, the company behind B2BWoo saw this gap in the market and created this product for providing complete WooCommerce B2B solutions to manufacturers and wholesalers.

Let’s see why WooCommerce is a great option for B2B companies, the pros and cons, and what sets B2BWoo apart.

The Openness of WooCommerce

WooCommerce is open-source software. This means anyone can access the source code and edit it, for free. This openness makes it very affordable and appealing for SMBs.

For one, WooCommerce is free to download and install on your site. So, the basic eCommerce infrastructure can be laid out without any cost.

But there’s a problem. WooCommerce doesn’t offer any B2B-specific features, out of the box.

But that’s where the openness of WooCommerce comes in handy.

B2BWoo leveraged this openness of WooCommerce and created the most effective and complete WooCommerce B2B solution.

Flexibility of WooCommerce and How It’s Useful in B2B

Being open-source isn’t the only thing that makes WooCommerce so flexible.

It’s the whole architecture underneath the software that makes it so flexible.

The ability to create child themes in WordPress allows you to make any kind of front-end changes to your site without writing a lot of code.

Action and filter hooks allow developers to quickly edit the functionality of WooCommerce, allowing them to add or modify the native WooCommerce functionality.

This comes in extremely handy for B2B eCommerce.

In the B2B industry, every business is different. Even the ones in the same industry have very different processes and buyer journeys. In fact, there are times when each client in a company has different needs and buying processes than the other.

The main challenge in B2B eCommerce is to accommodate all those different needs while still delivering a great user experience expected from buyers.

The flexibility of WooCommerce allows you to easily add new features in your online store to accommodate the changing needs. For example, adding a new feature on a WooCommerce site would take a few months of development time when compared to other software platforms.  

Large Eco System makes WooCommerce B2B Setup Affordable

Now, because of all the benefits of WooCommerce highlighted above, it has gathered a huge ecosystem of its own. The openness and the flexibility of its architecture make it an easy platform for developers to work with.

This large ecosystem means you can easily find WooCommerce developers and products like plugins and themes.

Let’s consider this scenario. You already have an online store with basic online ordering capability. But you have onboarded a new buyer account and they have some unique subscription requirements that your store currently doesn’t support. Now, to accommodate the needs of that new buyer, you can go and search for a WooCommerce subscription extension that offers this functionality. Given the large ecosystem, that extension isn’t hard to find. But it doesn’t really function the way your new buyer wants. So, hire a WooCommerce developer and ask him to add some additional features to that subscription extension. So, instead of creating your own subscription extension, you can actually take one that’s already in the marketplace and add on to it.

And because its open-source, anyone can do that – not just the original creators of that subscription extension. This keeps costs considerably low.

WooCommerce B2B Setup with B2BWoo

You have two options for WooCommerce B2B Setup with B2BWoo:

1 – Install the B2BWoo plugin bundle on your WooCommerce store and get started.

2 – Hire the team behind B2BWoo to implement the solution on your WooCommerce store.

The B2BWoo plugin bundle includes the following plugins: 

  1. B2B eCommerce for WooCommerce
  2. Catalog Visibility for WooCommerce 
  3. Roles and Permissions for WooCommerce 
  4. Product Tables for WooCommerce
  5. Quick Order for WooCommerce 
  6. Wholesale Product Page Customizer

Here are all the things you can possibly do with the B2BWoo Plugin Bundle for WooCommerce: 

Add Request for Quote Feature

Add a powerful quotation engine that allows your buyers to seamlessly receive quotes online, view quote requests, and convert quotes to orders. Both you and your buyers get a dedicated Quotations dashboard to streamline the quoting process. 

Read this complete guide on how to add a request for quote button functionality on your WooCommerce store.

Offer Customer-specific Pricing to Buyers 

For buyers that have already negotiated the price with you, you can activate customer-specific pricing to display the pre-negotiated price. 

Gate Pricing for Non-Logged in Users

It’s common for B2B companies to hide their prices from the general public. With price gating, you can hide it from non-logged-in audiences. 

Recruit Customers with a Sign-up Form

Add a sign-up form on your site where buyers can sign up and create an account upon approval. 

Add Custom Payment Terms for Customers

With an option to add custom payment terms for different customers/users in your store, you can accommodate the different payment method requirements of buyers. 

Offer Account Management Features to Buyers

In B2B, your buyers are often part of a company with their own unique buying process and workflows. To deliver a seamless experience, you need to accommodate those unique needs of companies that buy from you and offer them account management features that allow them to add multiple users per account, add user roles, and assign permissions to create their own workflows. Buyers can even share carts with their team members and expedite the order approval process. 

Set Credit Limits for Companies 

If your buyers purchase on credit, the feature to set a credit limit for companies may come in handy for you. You can set credit limits, view credit logs, and replenish their credit when used up. Even your buyers get the option to see their credit status. 

Display Tailored Product Catalogues

Today’s B2B buyers want a personalized experience. If you’re selling a thousand products but the buyer visiting your store is only interested in 10 of those products, you can enable catalog visibility features to create a tailored catalog for him to cut down clutter and show the relevant products only. 

Add B2B Specific Features on Product Pages

Features like downloadable PDFs and variation tables are useful for complex product catalogs. 

Display Products in Table Format for Easy Buying Experience

Return buyers can benefit from a product table where they can easily search for products they need and add them to cart instead of visiting separate product pages one by one. 

Add a Quick Order Form

A quick order form is especially useful for buyers who order the same products every month. With CSV upload, buyers can pretty much automate their buying process. 

The B2BWoo Plugin Bundle is the most comprehensive and all-inclusive B2B solution for WooCommerce. It was designed specifically to help small and medium-sized B2B companies dive all in the eCommerce water instead of just dipping their toes in. 

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A writer by profession, Maria Ilyas is an eCommerce and digital marketing enthusiast and is always digging into the latest marketing trends, best practices, and growth strategies.