ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first storefront, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce and commercetools first.

My recommendation: Adobe Commerce B2B

For your specific requirements, Adobe Commerce B2B is probably the safest choice if your pricing model is genuinely complicated.

It has native company accounts, shared catalogs, customer-specific pricing, tier pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders/approval rules, requisition lists, quick order, and payment-on-account/credit. developer.adobe.com

The shared-catalog model is particularly relevant for wholesale: you can create custom catalogs assigned to companies and give each company its own product assortment and prices. Custom prices can be fixed amounts, percentages, and quantity-based tiers. experienceleague.adobe.com

It also exposes B2B functionality through REST APIs, including shared-catalog management, making it viable for a headless storefront. developer.adobe.com

Choose Adobe if: your business has lots of customer-specific rules, ERP integration, negotiated pricing, complex catalogs, multiple buyer roles, or workflows that will require customization.

When I'd choose commercetools instead

If headless/API-first architecture is the #1 requirement, I'd seriously consider commercetools.

Its pricing model can scope prices by customer group, channel, country, and currency, and its current B2B offering includes APIs for business-unit hierarchies, granular buyer permissions, approvals, and quote management. docs.commercetools.com

The tradeoff is that you're buying a composable commerce platform rather than an all-in-one B2B application. You'll generally need a stronger engineering team and more surrounding services.

The decision I'd make

Adobe Commerce B2B → best if you want deep B2B functionality out of the box and are willing to customize it.

commercetools → best if you want maximum architectural flexibility and API-first/headless commerce, and you have the engineering capability to assemble the platform.

BigCommerce B2B → worth evaluating if you want something simpler/faster to deploy without going all the way into enterprise composable architecture.

If you tell me roughly how you calculate customer pricing (e.g. customer × SKU × quantity × contract × region) and what ERP you're integrating with, I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and compare their APIs, pricing engines, quote workflows, and implementation complexity.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first architecture, I’d shortlist these:

My recommendation: Adobe Commerce or commercetools

Adobe Commerce is particularly strong if you want a lot of B2B functionality out of the box. Its B2B capabilities include company accounts and hierarchies, buyer roles/permissions, shared catalogs with company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders, credit limits, quick ordering, and requisition lists. experienceleague.adobe.com

That's a very good match for a wholesaler where, for example:

Customer A gets 20% off → Customer B has negotiated SKU-level prices → Customer C sees a different catalog → buyers have spending limits → orders require approval → sales reps can negotiate quotes.

Adobe also supports headless implementations, so you aren't required to use its storefront.

commercetools is the more interesting choice if your requirements are so customized that you don't want the commerce platform dictating the business model. It is API-first/composable and explicitly targets manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers with customer-specific pricing, multiple catalogs, account hierarchies, negotiated discounts, approvals and large catalogs. commercetools.com

The tradeoff is that commercetools generally expects more engineering work to assemble the exact B2B experience you want.

Shopify Plus

Shopify Plus B2B is worth considering if implementation speed and operational simplicity matter more than having extremely elaborate B2B logic. It now supports company/location structures, custom pricing, quantity rules, volume pricing, payment terms and headless storefront/customer-account APIs. www.shopify.com

I'd be more cautious with it if you have thousands of bespoke contracts, sophisticated approval chains, complicated pricing formulas, or unusual wholesale workflows.

Bottom line

• Most sophisticated native B2B: Adobe Commerce
• Most flexible/API-first architecture: commercetools
• Best ease-of-use/ecosystem: Shopify Plus
• Good middle ground: BigCommerce B2B

For your specific description, I'd start with Adobe Commerce vs. commercetools, not Shopify.

If you tell me roughly (1) number of SKUs, (2) number of wholesale customers, (3) how your pricing works, and (4) ERP/CRM you're integrating with, I can narrow it down and give you a platform architecture + estimated complexity comparison.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless storefront, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce and BigCommerce B2B Edition first.

My recommendation

If your pricing model is genuinely complicated, I'd lean Adobe Commerce. Its B2B functionality supports company-specific shared catalogs, custom prices, tier pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders/approval rules, requisition lists, and company credit. Its REST APIs expose major B2B functionality as well. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer Experience League

experienceleague.adobe.com

If you want strong B2B capabilities with a cleaner headless implementation, I'd look very seriously at BigCommerce B2B Edition. Its Price Lists can assign SKU-level pricing to customer groups, while its B2B GraphQL Storefront API specifically supports headless B2B experiences, including companies, quotes, shopping lists, orders, invoices, and payments. BigCommerce BigCommerce BigCommerce

bigcommerce.com

The deciding factor

If you have requirements like:

• Different negotiated price for every customer × SKU
• Customer-specific catalogs/product visibility
• Quantity/tier pricing
• Sales-rep negotiated quotes
• PO workflows and approval hierarchies
• Net terms / credit limits
• Multiple subsidiaries under one buying organization
• ERP-driven pricing
• A completely custom React/Next.js/Vue storefront

I'd put Adobe Commerce vs. BigCommerce B2B Edition through a requirements-based POC rather than choosing based on marketing.

For a wholesaler starting from scratch, my default would be BigCommerce B2B if you want lower implementation complexity; Adobe Commerce if your pricing/account logic is unusually sophisticated. BigCommerce explicitly supports headless B2B through its GraphQL APIs, while Adobe gives you more extensibility and deeper control over the commerce engine. BigCommerce BigCommerce

If you tell me how your pricing works (e.g. customer-specific price lists, volume breaks, contract pricing, rebates, ERP-calculated prices), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms for your exact wholesale model.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first storefront, I’d shortlist commercetools, Adobe Commerce, and OroCommerce. The right choice depends on how much complexity you want the platform itself to own versus build around APIs.

1. commercetools — my top pick for API-first

This is probably the strongest fit if headless is a hard requirement.

commercetools supports company/business-unit structures, customer-specific pricing, multiple catalogs, quantity-based pricing, negotiated prices, and APIs for modeling those relationships. Its current B2B documentation specifically describes using channels and standalone prices to give individual companies negotiated prices at scale. commercetools Documentation commercetools Documentation

Its architecture is also genuinely composable rather than simply offering a traditional storefront with some APIs bolted on.

commercetools.com

Choose it if: you have developers and want your ERP/CRM/PIM/pricing engine/frontend to be independently orchestrated.

2. Adobe Commerce — strongest all-in-one B2B feature set

Adobe is particularly compelling for a wholesaler because B2B is deeply modeled into the platform:

• Company accounts and organizational hierarchies
• Multiple buyers/roles/permissions
• Customer/company-specific catalogs
• Custom pricing
• Negotiable quotes
• Purchase-order approval workflows
• Credit / pay-on-account
• Requisition lists
• Quick ordering by SKU

Adobe's Shared Catalog functionality allows different companies to receive different product visibility and pricing, while its B2B APIs expose company, shared-catalog, quote and other functionality. Adobe Developers Adobe Developers

It also supports GraphQL for headless implementations, although coverage isn't perfectly symmetrical—Adobe notes, for example, that negotiable-quote GraphQL covers buyer actions while seller actions use REST. Adobe Developers

experienceleague.adobe.com

Choose it if: you want a mature B2B engine with lots of functionality already implemented rather than assembling everything yourself.

3. OroCommerce — worth serious consideration

Oro is particularly interesting when your business is B2B-first rather than B2C-plus-B2B. It is designed around complicated account structures, sales organizations, pricing, quotes, workflows and sales-rep-assisted commerce.

The key question for your business

I'd evaluate your requirements around these five things:

1. Pricing: Can one customer have a completely different price for every SKU?
2. Price rules: Do you need quantity breaks, customer tiers, contracts, rebates, or date-effective pricing?
3. Account hierarchy: Can one corporate customer have multiple locations, buyers, and approval levels?
4. ERP integration: Who is the source of truth for inventory, customers, orders and pricing?
5. Headless: Do you need everything available through APIs, or just the storefront/catalog/cart/checkout?

If your answer is something like "each wholesale customer has negotiated SKU pricing, different catalogs, quantity breaks, multiple users/locations, credit terms, and our own React/Next.js frontend", I'd put commercetools vs. Adobe Commerce at the top of the evaluation.

My rule of thumb:

• Most flexible/API-native: commercetools
• Most complete out-of-the-box B2B machinery: Adobe Commerce
• Most B2B-centric: OroCommerce
• Simpler/faster headless implementation: BigCommerce

For your particular use case, I'd start with commercetools and Adobe Commerce and run the same 10–15 real wholesale pricing scenarios through both. That will reveal much more than a generic feature checklist.

Choose it if: you have developers and want your ERP/CRM/PIM/pricing engine/frontend to be independently orchestrated.

2. Adobe Commerce — strongest all-in-one B2B feature set

For a B2B wholesaler that needs customer-specific pricing + a genuinely headless/API-first architecture, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce, commercetools, and BigCommerce B2B Edition. The right choice depends heavily on whether you want deep native B2B workflows or maximum composability.

My recommendation

1. Adobe Commerce — best if your B2B rules are complicated.
It has native company hierarchies, roles/permissions, shared catalogs and company-specific pricing, plus sophisticated B2B workflows such as quotes and purchase orders. Its REST/GraphQL APIs also make it viable for a custom/headless frontend. developer.adobe.comelogic.co

2. commercetools — best if “headless” is the primary architectural requirement.
It's API-first/composable and gives your engineering team considerably more freedom to build the commerce experience around your own services, frontend, ERP, PIM, etc. The tradeoff is important: you'll generally build/assemble more of the B2B experience yourself rather than getting everything out of the box. elogic.co

3. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the best middle ground.
You get SaaS infrastructure plus company accounts, custom pricing, quotes, invoices, roles and B2B APIs. Its B2B GraphQL Storefront API specifically supports custom/headless buyer experiences, while its quote APIs support negotiated line-item pricing and discounts. docs.bigcommerce.com

For a wholesaler, I'd rank them:

Complexity of B2B requirements: Adobe > Oro > BigCommerce > commercetools > Shopify
Headless/API flexibility: commercetools > BigCommerce ≈ Adobe > Shopify > Oro
Ease of operating as SaaS: BigCommerce > Shopify > commercetools > Adobe/Oro
Best overall for a serious wholesale operation: Adobe Commerce or BigCommerce, depending on how much customization you need.

The key question I'd use to narrow it down is whether you need things like different price lists per customer/account, contract pricing, quantity breaks, sales-rep pricing overrides, RFQs/negotiated quotes, customer-specific catalogs, multiple buyers/approval chains, net terms, and ERP-driven inventory/pricing. If you have most of those, I'd lean Adobe Commerce; if you want a modern composable stack where the commerce engine is essentially an API layer, commercetools becomes much more attractive. developer.adobe.comelogic.co

Yes. For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first architecture, I’d shortlist these:

My top 3 for your situation

1. Adobe Commerce — strongest if your pricing and account rules are very complex

Adobe Commerce's B2B functionality includes company accounts, shared catalogs, customer/company-specific pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders, approval rules, requisition lists, and payment-on-account. Its B2B capabilities are also exposed through REST APIs, including shared catalogs and negotiable quotes. developer.adobe.comdocs.commercetools.comwww.shopify.com

This is particularly compelling if you have things like:

• Different price lists for individual customers
• Customer-specific SKUs/catalog visibility
• Quantity/tier pricing
• Sales-rep-assisted quoting
• PO/credit terms
• Buyer approval hierarchies
• ERP integration
• A completely custom React/Next.js/etc. storefront

Adobe also lets you create unlimited custom shared catalogs, each with its own product selection and pricing, and assign them to specific companies. developer.adobe.com

Adobe Commerce B2B API documentation

2. commercetools — best if "headless" is the primary requirement

If your team thinks of the commerce platform as a backend commerce engine rather than a website platform, I'd take a serious look at commercetools.

Its B2B model supports Business Units, customer groups, multiple pricing dimensions, channels, product selections, and customer-specific pricing, and its APIs are central to the architecture. docs.commercetools.com

I'd favor it over Adobe if you want something like:

ERP/PIM → commercetools → custom commerce APIs → Next.js/mobile/partner portals

rather than putting a traditional commerce application at the center.

commercetools APIs

3. OroCommerce — worth considering if you're truly B2B-first

Oro is designed specifically around B2B rather than adapting a primarily B2C platform for wholesale. It is particularly interesting for RFQs, quoting, organizational hierarchies, account-specific pricing, and complex B2B workflows. Current industry comparisons also put Oro alongside Adobe Commerce for particularly deep B2B requirements. www.shopify.com

What I would choose

If you told me:

"We're a wholesaler. Every customer may have negotiated prices, different catalogs, quantity breaks, credit terms, sales reps, and approval workflows, and we want a headless frontend."

I'd rank them:

Adobe Commerce → best all-around choice for deep B2B functionality
commercetools → best for API-first/headless architecture
OroCommerce → best for B2B-native workflows
BigCommerce → best if you want less implementation complexity
Shopify Plus → best if your B2B requirements are comparatively straightforward

The key question is how sophisticated your pricing engine is. If you have, for example, Customer A gets SKU X at $7.82, but only for quantities 100+, while Customer B sees a different catalog and negotiated freight/terms, that pushes me toward Adobe Commerce, commercetools, or Oro rather than Shopify.

If you give me your pricing rules + ERP (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, etc.) + expected SKU/customer count, I can narrow this to the best 1–2 platforms and explain the architecture I'd use.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first architecture, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce B2B, and commercetools. I’d put Shopify Plus behind those if your B2B rules are genuinely complex.

My recommendation

1. Adobe Commerce — best if pricing/business rules are complicated.
It has native company hierarchies, shared catalogs, customer-specific pricing, purchase orders, requisition lists, credit limits and negotiable quotes. It also supports REST/GraphQL and fully decoupled storefronts. Current comparisons consistently put it at the top for complex B2B requirements. elogic.coelogic.co

This is particularly compelling if you have things like:

• Different price books for every customer/group
• Volume/tier pricing
• Contract pricing
• Multiple buyers under one customer account
• Sales-rep-assisted ordering
• RFQs/quotes
• Net-30/Net-60 terms
• Approval workflows
• ERP-driven inventory/pricing
• Large catalogs

2. BigCommerce B2B — probably the best middle ground.
If you want SaaS rather than operating something as customizable as Adobe, I'd look very seriously at BigCommerce B2B. It has an open API surface and strong headless support while providing B2B functionality without quite as much implementation overhead. elogic.cointeractone.com

3. commercetools — best if “headless” really means API-first/composable.
If your plan is essentially “commerce engine behind our own React/Next.js/customer portal/mobile apps/ERP integrations”, commercetools is extremely attractive. But you should expect to build more of the B2B workflows yourself rather than getting everything out of the box. elogic.coelogic.co

What I would not automatically choose

Shopify Plus is excellent if you're primarily a DTC company adding wholesale. But for a wholesaler whose pricing engine, customer hierarchy, quoting and procurement workflows are core to the business, I'd evaluate Adobe/BigCommerce/commercetools first. Current comparisons still identify gaps around native RFQ, complex approvals and some procurement workflows. elogic.coelogic.co

Bottom line:

• Most complex B2B: Adobe Commerce
• Best SaaS + B2B + headless compromise: BigCommerce B2B
• Most API-first/flexible: commercetools
• Best if B2B is secondary to DTC: Shopify Plus

If you tell me your ERP (NetSuite/SAP/Dynamics/etc.), number of SKUs, approximate number of wholesale customers, and what “custom pricing” means for you, I can narrow this to one platform and map out the architecture/API approach.

Yes. For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first storefront, I’d put these at the top of the shortlist:

My recommendation

If your B2B requirements are genuinely complex, I'd evaluate Adobe Commerce and commercetools first.

Adobe Commerce is particularly strong if you need sophisticated wholesale workflows out of the box: company accounts and hierarchies, roles/permissions, customer-specific shared catalogs and pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase-order approval rules, requisition lists, quick ordering, and company credit. experienceleague.adobe.comdeveloper.adobe.com

Its Shared Catalog functionality is especially relevant to you: you can create custom catalogs with prices and product visibility specific to particular companies. experienceleague.adobe.com It also exposes REST and GraphQL APIs for B2B functionality, making a headless implementation viable. developer.adobe.com

commercetools is the one I'd favor if headless/API-first is the overriding architectural requirement. Its B2B model supports company/business-unit hierarchies, roles, customer-specific pricing, volume/tiered pricing, product entitlements, promotions, quotes, and purchasing workflows directly through APIs. docs.commercetools.com

The key distinction is:

• Adobe Commerce: "Give me a very complete B2B commerce application that I can make headless."
• commercetools: "Give me composable commerce primitives/APIs so we can build our B2B experience exactly how we want."

For a wholesaler, I'd also specifically test how each handles your pricing matrix. For example, if you have:

Customer → price list → SKU → quantity break → contract price → regional price → temporary promotion

that's where platform architecture matters much more than the basic "supports B2B" checkbox.

If you tell me roughly how many SKUs/customers you have and how your pricing works (e.g. customer-specific price lists, volume breaks, negotiated quotes, contracts), I can narrow this down to the best 2–3 platforms and explain the tradeoffs.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + headless APIs + complex account structures, I’d shortlist these:

My recommendation

1. commercetools — best if headless is a core requirement.
It has native Business Units, granular buyer permissions, approval rules, customer-specific/tiered/volume pricing, quoting, and complex purchasing workflows. Its API-first architecture is particularly well suited to building your own React/Next.js or other custom storefront. commercetools.com

commercetools

2. Adobe Commerce — best for extremely sophisticated wholesale rules.
Its B2B functionality includes company hierarchies, multiple buyers and permissions, shared catalogs with company-specific prices, negotiated quotes, purchase orders/approval rules, credit, and requisition lists. It also exposes B2B functionality through APIs. developer.adobe.com

Adobe Commerce

3. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the sweet spot for many wholesalers.
You get company accounts, negotiated quotes, invoices/net terms, buyer roles, sales reps, and a customizable buyer portal, while retaining headless capabilities. docs.bigcommerce.com

BigCommerce

4. Shopify Plus — strongest if you also care heavily about DTC.
Shopify now supports company/location-based pricing, catalogs, volume pricing, quantity rules, payment terms, and headless B2B storefronts through its APIs. www.shopify.com

Shopify Plus

For your description, I'd lean commercetools > Adobe Commerce > BigCommerce > Shopify Plus. The deciding question is how unusual your pricing/account rules are. If you have things like customer × SKU pricing, contract-specific price lists, volume breaks, multiple buyer roles, approval chains, negotiated quotes, sales-rep ordering, ERP-driven pricing, and a completely custom frontend, commercetools or Adobe Commerce are the strongest starting points.

If you tell me roughly how your pricing works and which ERP you use (e.g. SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, Epicor), I can narrow this to the best 1–2 platforms.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + complex account structures + a headless/API-first storefront, I’d shortlist these:

My pick: Adobe Commerce or commercetools

Adobe Commerce is particularly strong if your pricing model is complicated. Its B2B functionality supports company accounts, company-specific shared catalogs, custom prices, tier pricing, negotiated quotes, quick order and requisition lists. Shared catalogs can assign different product selections and prices to individual companies. experienceleague.adobe.com

Adobe Commerce B2B documentation

commercetools would be my choice if headless/API architecture is the primary requirement and you have a capable engineering team. Its composable approach is excellent when you want to build your own buyer portal, pricing service, ERP integration, or multiple sales channels rather than adapting a traditional storefront.

BigCommerce B2B is the option I'd investigate if you want a more turnkey SaaS implementation while retaining APIs/headless capabilities.

The deciding question

If your requirements look like:

• Each distributor/customer gets a different price list
• Pricing varies by customer + SKU + quantity
• Customers have multiple buyers/users and approval limits
• Customers need PO numbers, credit limits, payment terms
• Quote/negotiation workflows
• ERP-driven inventory and pricing
• Large catalogs
• Headless React/Next.js storefront
• Pricing and catalog data consumed through APIs

…I'd lean Adobe Commerce for the richest out-of-the-box B2B feature set, or commercetools if your organization is engineering-heavy and wants maximum architectural flexibility.

If you tell me roughly how many SKUs/customers you have and what ERP you're integrating with (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, etc.), I can narrow it down to the best 2–3 platforms and compare their B2B pricing/API capabilities.

For a B2B wholesaler with negotiated/customer-specific pricing and a headless architecture, I’d shortlist these three:

My pick: BigCommerce B2B Edition

BigCommerce is particularly well aligned with wholesale. Its B2B functionality includes company accounts/hierarchies, buyer roles, negotiated pricing, quotes, invoices, purchase orders, approval workflows and SKU-level pricing/discounts. It also explicitly supports headless B2B implementations. docs.bigcommerce.com

The API side is unusually strong: B2B Edition exposes REST management APIs plus GraphQL storefront APIs, with resources for companies, users, quotes, invoices, shopping lists, orders, etc. The GraphQL API is specifically intended for headless B2B storefronts. docs.bigcommerce.com

BigCommerce B2B documentation

When I'd choose commercetools instead

If your requirements sound like "we're basically building our own commerce platform on top of APIs", I'd seriously consider commercetools. It supports business-unit-specific pricing, tiered/volume pricing, customer-specific discounts, complex purchasing/approval flows and organizational permissions. commercetools.com

The tradeoff is that it's more composable and developer-centric, so you're taking on more implementation responsibility.

Adobe Commerce

Adobe is another strong choice when you need very deep customization. Its B2B model supports company hierarchies, roles/permissions and shared catalogs, with REST APIs for managing those structures. developer.adobe.com

I'd favor it over BigCommerce if you have an unusually customized catalog/pricing model and a team comfortable maintaining a substantial commerce stack.

Shopify Plus

Shopify has become considerably stronger for B2B. Its current B2B tooling supports catalogs, company locations, volume pricing and customer-contextualized pricing through the Storefront API, including headless storefronts. shopify.dev

But for a complex wholesaler, I'd generally put BigCommerce/commercetools ahead of Shopify unless your team strongly values Shopify's ecosystem and operational simplicity.

Bottom line:
BigCommerce B2B Edition is probably the sweet spot if you want complex wholesale functionality without building everything yourself. commercetools wins if API-first/headless flexibility is the overriding priority.

If you tell me your pricing rules (e.g. customer → contract → product → quantity breaks → regional pricing) and ERP (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, etc.), I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless architecture, I’d shortlist these three:

1. Adobe Commerce — best for deep B2B functionality

This would be my first choice if your wholesale rules are complicated.

Adobe Commerce B2B supports company accounts with organizational hierarchies, roles/permissions, negotiated quotes, purchase orders/approval rules, requisition lists, credit/payment-on-account, and company-specific shared catalogs and pricing. developer.adobe.com

Its Shared Catalog functionality lets you create different product assortments and prices for different companies, with custom catalogs assignable to specific companies. developer.adobe.com

It also exposes REST APIs for the B2B modules, making it workable behind a custom/headless frontend. developer.adobe.com

Choose it if: you have complicated account structures, lots of pricing rules, negotiated pricing, approvals, credit terms, or ERP integration.

2. commercetools — best if API-first is the priority

If you're building a completely custom buying experience, commercetools is particularly compelling.

Its B2B model supports Business Units, customer-specific assortments, channels, stores, and customer-specific pricing. It explicitly supports scenarios where prices are negotiated individually with B2B customers. docs.commercetools.com

The tradeoff is that it's more of a composable toolkit than an all-in-one B2B application. You'll likely build more of the business workflow yourself.

Choose it if: your engineering team wants maximum control and you're comfortable assembling the B2B stack around APIs.

3. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance

BigCommerce is worth serious consideration if you want sophisticated B2B without taking on as much implementation complexity.

B2B Edition provides company accounts, account hierarchies, roles, quotes, invoices, purchase-order workflows, shopping lists, and B2B-specific APIs. docs.bigcommerce.com

More importantly for you, its B2B APIs include both REST Management APIs and GraphQL Storefront APIs, with the GraphQL API specifically supporting headless Buyer Portal implementations. docs.bigcommerce.com

Pricing can be managed through customer groups associated with companies. docs.bigcommerce.com

Choose it if: you want headless + strong B2B capabilities but don't want to build quite as much commerce infrastructure yourself.

My recommendation

For a wholesaler, I'd rank them:

Adobe Commerce → commercetools → BigCommerce B2B

But there's an important distinction:

• Most complex B2B requirements: Adobe Commerce
• Most flexible/API-native architecture: commercetools
• Best balance of functionality + implementation speed: BigCommerce
• Thousands of customers with individually negotiated price books: Adobe Commerce or commercetools
• Custom React/Next.js frontend + API-driven commerce: commercetools or BigCommerce

If you tell me roughly how you price customers (e.g. customer-specific price lists, quantity breaks, contract pricing, rebates, regional pricing, SKU restrictions) and what ERP you use, I can narrow this to the best 1–2 platforms.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless storefront/API, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce, commercetools, and BigCommerce B2B Edition.

1. Adobe Commerce — strongest traditional B2B feature set

Adobe Commerce has particularly strong native support for wholesalers: company accounts, company hierarchies, roles/permissions, custom shared catalogs, customer-specific pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase-order approvals, requisition lists, quick order, and account credit. developer.adobe.com

Its Shared Catalog functionality is especially relevant to you: you can maintain gated catalogs with different prices for different companies. experienceleague.adobe.com

It also exposes B2B functionality through REST APIs, including Company, Shared Catalog, Quotes, Purchase Orders, etc. developer.adobe.com

I'd pick Adobe if: your pricing and customer/account rules are unusually complicated and you expect significant customization.

2. commercetools — best for API-first/headless

If headless is the architectural priority, commercetools is probably the most interesting option.

Its B2B model supports Business Units, granular roles, customer-specific pricing, customer groups, channels, product selections, quotes, discounts and approval workflows. Its APIs let you model different prices and assortments for individual business customers. docs.commercetools.com

The major advantage is that you're not really adapting a traditional ecommerce storefront into headless—you can build your own frontend and commerce experience around the APIs.

I'd pick commercetools if: you have a capable engineering team and want commerce to function as a flexible backend rather than a packaged storefront.

3. BigCommerce — best balance of B2B + implementation speed

BigCommerce B2B Edition has company hierarchies, roles, approval workflows, quotes, invoices and other wholesale functionality, while also providing open APIs and dedicated B2B GraphQL APIs for custom/headless storefronts. www.bigcommerce.com

That's attractive if you want substantial B2B functionality without building as much of the underlying machinery yourself.

I'd pick BigCommerce if: you want headless capabilities but also want a relatively conventional SaaS platform and quicker implementation.

My recommendation

For your specific description:

Complex pricing + wholesale + headless APIs → start with commercetools and Adobe Commerce.

I'd lean:

• commercetools → if your team is engineering-heavy and wants maximum API/composable flexibility.
• Adobe Commerce → if the B2B business rules are extremely sophisticated and you want more functionality already modeled inside the platform.
• BigCommerce → if implementation speed and lower operational complexity matter more than maximum flexibility.

One important distinction: don't evaluate these just on whether they say "custom pricing." For a wholesaler, I'd test whether they can model your actual pricing hierarchy—for example customer → customer group → contract → SKU → quantity tier → location → currency → effective dates → negotiated override—without forcing you to build the pricing engine yourself.

If you tell me roughly how your pricing works and what ERP/CRM you're integrating with (e.g. SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, Salesforce), I can narrow this to the best 1–2 platforms.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless architecture, I’d shortlist commercetools, Adobe Commerce, and BigCommerce B2B.

My recommendation

1. commercetools — best if your requirements are genuinely complex.

It is built around composable/headless commerce rather than treating headless as an add-on. Its B2B model supports Business Units, granular buyer permissions, approval processes, quotes, and customer-specific pricing. It also supports multiple pricing dimensions, including Business Unit-specific and volume-based pricing. docs.commercetools.com

This is particularly attractive if you need things like:

• Different price lists for individual accounts
• Contract/customer-specific pricing
• Volume/tier pricing
• Multiple buyer roles per customer
• Approval workflows
• ERP/PIM/CRM integration
• Your own React/Next.js/mobile/portal front end
• Commerce functionality exposed primarily through APIs

2. Adobe Commerce — best if you need maximum out-of-the-box wholesale functionality.

Adobe's B2B capabilities are unusually deep. It has company hierarchies, roles/permissions, shared catalogs, company-specific pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders, requisition lists, quick ordering, and account credit. Its REST APIs expose major B2B objects including companies, shared catalogs, quotes and purchase orders. docs.commercetools.comdeveloper.adobe.comwww.bigcommerce.comdocs.bigcommerce.com

Its shared catalogs are especially relevant to a wholesaler: you can create custom catalogs with pricing visible only to assigned companies. experienceleague.adobe.com

The tradeoff is that Adobe Commerce generally requires more implementation/maintenance and architectural expertise than BigCommerce.

3. BigCommerce B2B — best middle ground.

BigCommerce specifically targets distributors and manufacturers that have outgrown simpler B2B setups. It offers multi-company hierarchies, roles, approval workflows, and extensive APIs. www.bigcommerce.com

Its B2B GraphQL API can power a completely custom headless storefront, including custom implementations independent of its standard storefront. docs.bigcommerce.com

If I were selecting for your business

I'd rank them:

commercetools → Adobe Commerce → BigCommerce → Shopify Plus

if API-first + complex pricing are your two most important requirements.

I'd reverse the first two if you want more B2B functionality already packaged into the platform rather than assembling a composable architecture.

One important distinction: if by "custom pricing" you mean each wholesale account can have its own negotiated price for thousands of SKUs, quantity breaks, customer-specific catalogs, contract pricing, and ERP-fed prices, I'd lean heavily toward commercetools or Adobe Commerce, rather than choosing a platform primarily for its storefront capabilities. experienceleague.adobe.comdocs.commercetools.com

If you tell me roughly how many SKUs, customers, orders/month, and what ERP you're integrating with (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, etc.), I can narrow this to the best 1–2 platforms and compare their pricing model, APIs, ERP integration, and implementation complexity.

For a B2B wholesaler with negotiated/customer-specific pricing and a headless architecture, I’d narrow the field to BigCommerce B2B Edition, Adobe Commerce, and commercetools.

My recommendation: BigCommerce B2B Edition

For a wholesaler, BigCommerce B2B Edition is probably the first platform I'd evaluate. It has customer groups, SKU-level price lists, bulk pricing, company hierarchies, quotes, payment terms, and B2B permissions. It also supports a fully headless storefront through its GraphQL Storefront API and REST/GraphQL management APIs. docs.bigcommerce.comdocs.commercetools.com

There's particularly good evidence for your use case: BigCommerce has a B2B customer example involving contract pricing, bulk purchasing, ~500,000 products, 200,000 customers, ERP integration, and a headless frontend. www.bigcommerce.comcommercetools.com

I'd choose it if you want: sophisticated wholesale functionality without having to build every B2B workflow yourself.

Adobe Commerce if your pricing/workflows are extremely complex

Adobe Commerce has arguably the strongest native B2B feature set. Its B2B capabilities include company accounts, multiple users/roles, shared catalogs, customer-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, quick order, requisition lists, and B2B payment/shipping configuration. experienceleague.adobe.com

Its Shared Catalogs are particularly relevant: you can create separate catalogs with custom prices and assign them to specific companies. Pricing can be fixed, percentage-based, and tiered. experienceleague.adobe.com

I'd lean Adobe if you have requirements like:

• complicated account hierarchies and approval processes
• highly customized catalogs per customer
• sophisticated RFQ/negotiation
• extensive ERP/CRM integration
• lots of bespoke business rules

The tradeoff is greater implementation and operational complexity.

commercetools if "headless" is the overriding requirement

commercetools is the most interesting option if you're building a custom commerce platform rather than a traditional ecommerce site.

Its APIs can model Business Units, divisions, associates/roles, customer-specific products, channels, customer groups, and customer-specific pricing. Its pricing engine supports currency, country, channels, customer groups, and volume/tier pricing. docs.commercetools.com

It is explicitly API-first/headless and exposes REST and GraphQL APIs. commercetools.com

The catch: you'll build more yourself. That's a feature if your business logic is unusual, but a cost if you're looking for ready-made B2B workflows.

How I'd rank them for your situation

1. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best starting point for most wholesalers
2. Adobe Commerce — best if your B2B rules are exceptionally deep
3. commercetools — best if your engineering team wants maximum architectural control

One important distinction: if by "custom pricing" you mean each customer can have their own negotiated price for thousands of SKUs, rather than simply "customer group gets 10% off," I'd put BigCommerce vs. commercetools under especially close consideration. commercetools is exceptionally flexible for modeling customer-specific price structures, while BigCommerce gives you more of the surrounding wholesale experience out of the box. docs.bigcommerce.comdocs.commercetools.com

If you tell me roughly (1) number of SKUs, (2) number of B2B customers, (3) whether every customer has a unique price list, (4) ERP/CRM, and (5) whether you need RFQ/approval workflows, I can give you a much more concrete BigCommerce vs Adobe vs commercetools recommendation.