The Problem

B2B transactions that run through email, PDF quotes, and phone calls are not just slow - they are invisible to the organization. No audit trail. No self-service. No reliable data on what a customer actually ordered six months ago. The sales team becomes the system of record, which does not scale and does not survive team turnover.

The alternative many companies reach for is a B2C platform adapted for B2B. It works until the first scenario that B2C commerce was not designed for: a company account with twelve buyers, three approval levels, and contract pricing that varies by product category. At that point the workarounds begin, and the workarounds accumulate until the platform is the problem it was supposed to solve.

B2B commerce requires a different architecture from the start, not a B2C platform with permission layers bolted on.

What B2B Commerce Actually Requires

Account and Hierarchy Management

A single "customer" in B2B is rarely a single person. It is a company account with multiple buyers who have different purchasing limits, a procurement manager who approves orders above a threshold, and a finance contact who receives invoices. The commerce platform must reflect that structure. Gradion implements account hierarchy management in Spryker, which is purpose-built for this complexity: company accounts, sub-accounts, user roles, delegated purchasing authority, and permission scopes that match how procurement actually functions within the client organization. Detlev Louis - a motorbike accessories brand with over 2,300 employees operating across international markets - runs its Spryker-based commerce platform with Gradion handling platform development, performance, and international store rollouts.

Pricing Architecture

B2B pricing is not a price list. It is a set of rules: customer-specific contract prices, tiered volume discounts that activate at quantity thresholds, promotional price lists with defined validity windows, and gross margin floors that prevent certain combinations from being offered. This logic typically lives in the ERP - SAP, Infor, Microsoft Dynamics - and must be reflected accurately in the storefront without manual synchronization. Gradion builds the ERP-to-storefront pricing pipeline so that what sales agreed with a customer in a contract is what that customer sees when they log in, with no manual step in between.

Quote and CPQ Workflows

Not every B2B purchase moves from cart to checkout. A request for quote, a negotiation, and a reviewed approval before the order is placed is the normal path for high-value or custom purchases. Gradion implements quote workflows that support RFQ submission, version management across negotiation rounds, approval chain routing, and conversion from approved quote to confirmed order. For organizations with configured products, CPQ logic can be integrated so that the configured specification and its price carry through to the quote and order without re-entry.

Order Management

B2B order behavior is different from B2C. Orders may contain hundreds of line items. Delivery may be split across multiple warehouses or staggered across delivery dates. Customers reorder from historical orders rather than rebuilding carts from scratch. Gradion implements order management that handles bulk order entry, scheduled and recurring orders, order history-based reordering, and split shipment logic aligned to warehouse availability. Returns and credit notes synchronize back to the ERP so that the finance team does not carry a separate manual reconciliation process.

Payment Terms and Credit Management

B2B payment is not Stripe checkout with a saved card. Payment terms in B2B commerce include net-30 and net-60 invoicing, purchase order payment where the buyer submits a PO number rather than a card, and credit limit management where orders above the available credit line are held for review rather than declined at the point of purchase. Gradion implements payment term configuration and credit limit enforcement at the account level, with ERP synchronization ensuring that credit exposure in the storefront matches the current position in the financial system.

Self-Service Account Portal

Every inbound call to the sales or customer service team for an order status, invoice copy, or delivery update is a cost that can be eliminated. Gradion builds self-service account portals that give buyers full visibility into order history, invoice downloads, delivery tracking, and account user management. The measurable outcome is a reduction in inbound query volume to the sales team - which shifts sales capacity toward new business rather than account administration.

Proof in Production

Detlev Louis built its international B2C and B2B commerce operations on Spryker, with Gradion as the implementation and development partner since 2018. New country stores launched in 20 days. Page load speeds improved by 40 percent. The platform supports the catalog and order flows of a business with over 2,300 employees across markets. Gradion's team is trained and certified in Spryker, and has run the full scope from initial migration through ongoing platform development and performance optimization.

CTA

Describe the B2B buying process and the current platform. We will scope the commerce architecture.