ChatGPT answers, unedited

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing, contract pricing, complex catalogs, buyer accounts, ERP integrations, and a headless/API-first storefront, you’ll usually want a platform built for B2B rather than a standard DTC ecommerce system. The strongest fits are: Shopify ORO INC.

How I’d narrow it down

• You have thousands of SKUs, negotiated pricing, dealer/distributor tiers, and sales reps:

Look closely at OroCommerce, Adobe Commerce, or Znode. ORO INC. Znode

• You need a completely custom buyer portal (React/Next.js/mobile apps) and want the commerce engine separated from the frontend:

Consider commercetools, BigCommerce, or Spree Commerce. Shopify Spree Commerce

• You need ERP-driven pricing (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, etc.) where the ERP remains the pricing authority:

Prioritize platforms with strong integration patterns, such as OroCommerce, Sana Commerce, Adobe Commerce, or ERP-native solutions. ORO INC.

Features I’d require in your evaluation checklist

• Account-level price books
• Contract pricing and negotiated discounts
• Quantity breaks / tier pricing
• Customer-specific catalogs
• Multiple buyer roles and approval flows
• Quote-to-order workflows
• Punchout procurement support (cXML/OCI)
• Real-time inventory and ERP sync
• REST/GraphQL APIs
• Webhooks/events for integrations
• Multi-warehouse and regional pricing support

For a true wholesale operation, I would generally start a shortlist with OroCommerce vs Adobe Commerce vs BigCommerce vs commercetools, then eliminate based on your ERP, SKU count, and how custom the buyer experience needs to be. Shopify ORO INC.

If you share your ERP (NetSuite/SAP/Dynamics/etc.), SKU count, number of customer price tiers, and whether you need a custom frontend, I can narrow this to 2–3 realistic choices.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing plus a headless/API-first storefront, I’d focus on BigCommerce B2B Edition, Adobe Commerce, and commercetools. They differ substantially in how much B2B functionality is native versus something your team has to build.

BigCommerce B2B Edition

This is probably the first platform I'd investigate for your requirements. Its B2B Edition supports company accounts, customer-specific catalogs/pricing, buyer roles, sales quotes, invoices, purchase orders and payment terms, while its B2B APIs support both REST management and GraphQL storefront/headless implementations. BigCommerce BigCommerce

Importantly for a wholesaler, companies can be mapped to customer groups that determine the products and pricing their buyers see. BigCommerce

Its quote API also supports custom line-item pricing and discounts, custom products, bespoke shipping methods and quote expiration. BigCommerce

docs.bigcommerce.com

Adobe Commerce

I'd look here if your pricing model is particularly intricate—for example, different price lists by account, negotiated pricing, approval chains, credit limits, requisition lists, RFQs and complex ERP integration. Current industry comparisons identify Adobe Commerce as having one of the deepest native B2B feature sets. Elogic Commerce Elogic Commerce

The tradeoff is considerably more implementation and operational complexity than a SaaS platform.

commercetools

If headless/API-first architecture is the primary requirement, commercetools deserves serious consideration. It's designed around composable commerce and gives an engineering team considerable freedom to construct custom pricing, catalog, account and procurement services. The tradeoff is that more B2B functionality becomes your implementation rather than turnkey platform functionality. Naturaily Elogic Commerce

My practical shortlist

For a wholesaler, I'd frame the decision this way:

• Want substantial B2B functionality + headless without building the whole commerce engine: BigCommerce B2B Edition
• Have unusually complex pricing/procurement/ERP requirements: Adobe Commerce
• Have a strong engineering team and want maximum API/composable control: commercetools
• Already operate substantial DTC on Shopify: consider Shopify Plus B2B, but carefully validate your quoting, approval, hierarchy and pricing requirements first. Elogic Commerce

If you tell me roughly how your pricing works (e.g. 500 customers each with negotiated prices, quantity breaks, contract pricing, regional price lists, etc.) and what ERP you're using, I can narrow this to a 2–3 platform comparison specifically for your architecture.

This is probably the first platform I'd investigate for your requirements. Its B2B Edition supports company accounts, customer-specific catalogs/pricing, buyer roles, sales quotes, invoices, purchase orders and payment terms, while its B2B APIs support both REST management and GraphQL storefront/headless implementations. BigCommerce BigCommerce

Importantly for a wholesaler, companies can be mapped to customer groups that determine the products and pricing their buyers see. BigCommerce

Its quote API also supports custom line-item pricing and discounts, custom products, bespoke shipping methods and quote expiration. BigCommerce

docs.bigcommerce.com

Adobe Commerce

I'd look here if your pricing model is particularly intricate—for example, different price lists by account, negotiated pricing, approval chains, credit limits, requisition lists, RFQs and complex ERP integration. Current industry comparisons identify Adobe Commerce as having one of the deepest native B2B feature sets. elogic.co elogic.co

The tradeoff is considerably more implementation and operational complexity than a SaaS platform.

commercetools

If headless/API-first architecture is the primary requirement, commercetools deserves serious consideration. It's designed around composable commerce and gives an engineering team considerable freedom to construct custom pricing, catalog, account and procurement services. The tradeoff is that more B2B functionality becomes your implementation rather than turnkey platform functionality.

My practical shortlist

For a wholesaler, I'd frame the decision this way:

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing, contract catalogs, account hierarchies, ERP integrations, and headless APIs, you’ll generally want an enterprise B2B commerce platform rather than a standard ecommerce store. The strongest options are: Shopify Atwix

My shortlist based on your description

If you are a true wholesaler/distributor (thousands of SKUs, negotiated pricing, dealer accounts, sales reps, purchase orders):

1. OroCommerce — probably the closest functional match for wholesale-first needs. ORO INC.
2. commercetools — best if your team wants a fully headless, API-driven architecture and has developers. Naturaily
3. Adobe Commerce — best if you need maximum customization and have implementation resources. Shopify
4. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance of SaaS simplicity and B2B capability. KIBO Commerce

Features I would verify during vendor evaluation

For a complex wholesaler, make sure the platform supports:

• Customer/account-specific price books
• Contract pricing and negotiated discounts
• Multiple catalogs by customer segment
• Tier pricing by quantity
• Quote → approval → order workflows
• Buyer roles and company hierarchies
• Net payment terms / purchase orders
• ERP sync (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, Infor, etc.)
• Real-time inventory and availability APIs
• Headless storefront APIs (GraphQL/REST)
• Punchout procurement integrations (OCI/cXML)
• Multi-brand or multi-region catalogs

A key question is where your pricing logic currently lives: ERP, CRM, a pricing engine, or spreadsheets. That often determines whether you want a commerce platform with strong native pricing (Oro/Adobe/SAP) or an API-first platform where pricing stays in your own services (commercetools). ORO INC. Naturaily

If you share your ERP (NetSuite/SAP/Dynamics/etc.), SKU count, number of customer accounts, and whether you need a custom frontend, I can narrow this to 2–3 realistic choices.

For a B2B wholesaler needing customer-specific pricing + serious headless APIs, I’d shortlist:

1. Adobe Commerce — best for the deepest B2B complexity: company hierarchies, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, approval workflows, credit limits, and extensive customization. Elogic Commerce Elogic Commerce
2. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance of B2B functionality, SaaS simplicity, and headless/API flexibility. Supports customer-specific pricing, catalogs, quotes, approvals, and open APIs. BigCommerce
3. commercetools — best if API-first/composable architecture is the priority and you have a strong engineering team. Extremely flexible, but more B2B functionality must be assembled/custom-built. Naturaily Elogic Commerce

My pick: BigCommerce if you want complex B2B without a huge engineering burden; Adobe Commerce if your pricing/procurement rules are unusually complicated; commercetools if you're building a highly custom commerce stack. Elogic Commerce

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

My ranking

1. commercetools — best fit if headless/API-first is the priority

• Strong B2B account hierarchies, buyer roles, permissions and approval workflows.
• Designed around APIs/composable architecture, so you can build your own React/Next.js, mobile, sales portal, etc.
• Supports customer-specific price lists, contract pricing and negotiated discounts.
• Explicitly targets manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers. commercetools commercetools
• Tradeoff: more implementation/integration work; you'll likely need an experienced commerce team or SI.
• Adobe Commerce — best if you want deep B2B functionality out of the box

• Company accounts with organizational hierarchies, roles and permissions.
• Shared Catalogs let you maintain company-specific catalogs and custom product pricing. Experience League Experience League
• Native negotiable quotes, including line-level discounts, quantities and negotiated pricing. Experience League
• B2B APIs expose company, shared-catalog and other B2B functionality for integrations/headless implementations. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer
• Tradeoff: considerably more platform complexity and infrastructure/maintenance than a pure composable platform.

What I'd choose for your use case

If your requirements look like:

Customer A gets 37% off → Customer B has negotiated SKU pricing → different catalogs by account → buyer permissions → sales-rep quotes → ERP inventory/pricing → custom headless portal

I'd lean commercetools if your organization is comfortable building a composable architecture.

If you want more B2B business logic already packaged into the commerce platform, I'd lean Adobe Commerce.

The key question is whether your pricing engine lives in the commerce platform or in your ERP/CPQ. If you tell me what ERP you're using (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, Epicor, Infor, etc.) and roughly how many SKUs/customers you have, I can narrow this down to 2–3 platforms and compare their B2B pricing, APIs, ERP integration, total cost, and headless architecture.

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

My pick: BigCommerce B2B Edition

BigCommerce is probably the best fit if you want strong B2B functionality without owning as much infrastructure.

It supports:

• Company accounts and hierarchies
• Customer-specific pricing and catalogs
• Negotiated quotes with custom line-item pricing/discounts
• Purchase orders, invoices and payment terms
• Buyer roles and approval workflows
• Quick ordering / SKU-based ordering
• Headless storefronts
• REST Management APIs + dedicated B2B GraphQL APIs
• Custom integrations with ERP/CRM/PIM systems

The B2B GraphQL API specifically supports custom headless storefronts, while the REST APIs handle backend B2B operations such as companies, quotes, invoices and orders. BigCommerce BigCommerce

BigCommerce also explicitly positions B2B Edition toward distributors, manufacturers and wholesalers that need more complex purchasing workflows. BigCommerce

bigcommerce.com

When I'd choose Adobe Commerce instead

Adobe Adobe Commerce B2B is the stronger choice if your pricing/catalog logic is extremely complicated and you want maximum control/customization.

Its B2B functionality includes:

• Shared catalogs with custom pricing per company
• Tier/quantity pricing
• Company accounts
• Negotiable quotes
• Company-specific product visibility
• Multiple websites/storefronts
• Extensive customization of pricing/business rules

For example, Adobe's shared catalogs can have different product selections and custom prices for individual companies, including fixed and percentage-based pricing and quantity tiers. Experience League Experience League

It also has native B2B quote negotiation where sellers can modify quantities, products, discounts and shipping. Experience League

Quick comparison

Bottom line: If you're saying "we're a wholesaler, need customer-specific price lists, negotiated pricing, company accounts, approvals, ERP integration, and want our own React/Next.js/etc. frontend" → I'd start with BigCommerce B2B Edition.

If your requirement is more like "every customer can have a highly customized catalog/pricing hierarchy, complex pricing algorithms, unusual workflows, and we're willing to invest heavily in development" → Adobe Commerce B2B is worth the additional complexity.

If you tell me roughly how your pricing works (e.g. customer → price list → SKU discount → quantity breaks → contract pricing → rebates), I can narrow this down to the best platform and also compare BigCommerce vs Adobe Commerce vs commercetools for your architecture.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + headless APIs, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce, OroCommerce, commercetools, and BigCommerce B2B Edition. The right choice depends heavily on how complex your pricing and ERP workflows are.

My recommendation: Adobe Commerce

For your particular requirements, Adobe Commerce would be my first platform to evaluate.

Its B2B functionality natively supports company accounts, organizational hierarchies, roles/permissions, shared catalogs, company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders, credit limits, quick ordering, and requisition lists. Experience League Experience League Experience League

The Shared Catalog functionality is particularly relevant to wholesale: you can create catalogs with custom prices and restrict them to particular companies. Experience League Experience League

It also has a fairly sophisticated quote workflow where buyers or sales reps can negotiate quantities, discounts, and pricing. Experience League

When I'd choose commercetools instead

If by "headless APIs" you mean API-first is more important than having a huge amount of B2B functionality built into the platform, I'd seriously consider commercetools.

It's more appropriate when you have an engineering team that wants to build the entire buying experience around APIs and compose commerce with your ERP, PIM, pricing engine, search, CMS, etc. Current industry comparisons characterize commercetools as the composable/API-first choice, whereas Adobe is stronger for deep native B2B functionality. Shopify KIBO Commerce

When OroCommerce is especially interesting

OroCommerce deserves a close look if you're specifically a B2B distributor/wholesaler rather than a consumer brand adding B2B. It's built around B2B concepts such as organizational accounts, RFQ/quoting and complex pricing, and is frequently positioned alongside Adobe for companies with complicated wholesale requirements. Shopify Alkali

Bottom line

I'd rank them for your use case:

1. Adobe Commerce — best overall for deep B2B + customization.
2. OroCommerce — excellent if wholesale/B2B is the center of the business.
3. commercetools — best if your priority is an API-first, highly composable architecture.
4. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best if you want SaaS simplicity while retaining substantial B2B capabilities.
5. Shopify Plus — attractive if your B2B requirements are comparatively straightforward.

If you tell me (1) how you calculate customer-specific prices, (2) what ERP you're integrating with, and (3) whether the storefront must be completely headless, I can narrow this to the best 2 platforms and compare their APIs, pricing model, ERP integration, quotes, customer hierarchies, and implementation complexity.

For your particular requirements, Adobe Commerce would be my first platform to evaluate.

Its B2B functionality natively supports company accounts, organizational hierarchies, roles/permissions, shared catalogs, company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders, credit limits, quick ordering, and requisition lists. Experience League Experience League Experience League

The Shared Catalog functionality is particularly relevant to wholesale: you can create catalogs with custom prices and restrict them to particular companies. Experience League Experience League

It also has a fairly sophisticated quote workflow where buyers or sales reps can negotiate quantities, discounts, and pricing. Experience League

When I'd choose commercetools instead

If by "headless APIs" you mean API-first is more important than having a huge amount of B2B functionality built into the platform, I'd seriously consider commercetools.

It's more appropriate when you have an engineering team that wants to build the entire buying experience around APIs and compose commerce with your ERP, PIM, pricing engine, search, CMS, etc. Current industry comparisons characterize commercetools as the composable/API-first choice, whereas Adobe is stronger for deep native B2B functionality. shopify.com kibocommerce.com

When OroCommerce is especially interesting

OroCommerce deserves a close look if you're specifically a B2B distributor/wholesaler rather than a consumer brand adding B2B. It's built around B2B concepts such as organizational accounts, RFQ/quoting and complex pricing, and is frequently positioned alongside Adobe for companies with complicated wholesale requirements.

Bottom line

I'd rank them for your use case:

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

1. commercetools — best for maximum flexibility

This is probably my #1 choice if your engineering team wants an API-first platform.

It supports complex account hierarchies, buyer roles/permissions, approval workflows, and thousands of customer-specific price lists, contract terms, and negotiated discounts. Its architecture is fundamentally headless/API-native rather than a traditional storefront with APIs bolted on. commercetools commercetools

It also exposes REST and GraphQL APIs and is designed for composable architectures. commercetools Documentation

Choose it if: your pricing logic, ERP integration, customer hierarchy, and storefront are going to be heavily customized.

2. OroCommerce — best B2B-native option

Oro is particularly interesting for wholesalers/distributors because B2B functionality is the center of the product, rather than an add-on.

It provides API coverage for corporate accounts, customized catalogs, quoting, matrix ordering, and other B2B logic. Its architecture lets you use its native storefront where appropriate while going headless for specific experiences. ORO INC.

Choose it if: your business rules are unusually B2B-heavy—complex organizations, catalogs, pricing, quoting, sales reps, and wholesale workflows.

3. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance of capability and implementation speed

BigCommerce is compelling if you want strong B2B functionality without taking on as much platform engineering.

Its B2B Edition includes company hierarchies, roles, negotiated pricing, quotes, invoices, purchase orders, approvals, and buyer portals. BigCommerce BigCommerce

It also has B2B-specific GraphQL APIs for headless buyer experiences, including companies, users, quotes, shopping lists, orders, invoices, and payments. BigCommerce BigCommerce Its quote APIs can handle custom line-item pricing/discounts and specialized shipping arrangements. BigCommerce

Choose it if: you want headless but don't want to build as much commerce infrastructure yourself.

My recommendation

For your particular requirements, I'd rank them:

commercetools → OroCommerce → BigCommerce

I'd pick commercetools if you have a strong engineering team and expect things like:

• Customer-specific price books
• Contract pricing
• Quantity/volume breaks
• Different pricing by customer/location
• Complex account hierarchies
• ERP-driven inventory and pricing
• Custom quoting/approval workflows
• Multiple storefronts or channels
• A completely custom React/Next.js/etc. frontend
• Heavy API integration

I'd pick OroCommerce if the business complexity is more important than having the most composable architecture.

I'd pick BigCommerce if you want to get to market substantially faster while still having genuine B2B + headless capabilities.

One important distinction: don't evaluate these platforms primarily on whether they say "custom pricing." For a wholesaler, I'd specifically test whether the platform can represent your actual pricing matrix—e.g. customer → contract → SKU/category → quantity tier → currency → region → effective dates → negotiated override—without requiring you to build a separate pricing engine.

If you give me an example of how your wholesale pricing works (e.g. “Acme gets 20% off, but SKU X has a special contract price and quantities over 100 get another discount”), I can compare commercetools vs Oro vs BigCommerce against that exact model.

2. OroCommerce — best B2B-native option

Oro is particularly interesting for wholesalers/distributors because B2B functionality is the center of the product, rather than an add-on.

It provides API coverage for corporate accounts, customized catalogs, quoting, matrix ordering, and other B2B logic. Its architecture lets you use its native storefront where appropriate while going headless for specific experiences. ORO INC.

Choose it if: your business rules are unusually B2B-heavy—complex organizations, catalogs, pricing, quoting, sales reps, and wholesale workflows.

3. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance of capability and implementation speed

BigCommerce is compelling if you want strong B2B functionality without taking on as much platform engineering.

Its B2B Edition includes company hierarchies, roles, negotiated pricing, quotes, invoices, purchase orders, approvals, and buyer portals.

It also has B2B-specific GraphQL APIs for headless buyer experiences, including companies, users, quotes, shopping lists, orders, invoices, and payments. Its quote APIs can handle custom line-item pricing/discounts and specialized shipping arrangements.

For a B2B wholesaler that needs customer-specific pricing plus a headless storefront/API architecture, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce and BigCommerce B2B Edition, with the choice depending on how complex your pricing and workflows are.

My ranking

Adobe Commerce is probably the strongest fit if "complex B2B" is the priority. Its B2B functionality natively supports company accounts, organizational hierarchies, roles/permissions, shared catalogs, company-specific pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders, credit terms, quick ordering and requisition lists. Adobe Developer Experience League

Its Shared Catalogs are particularly relevant to wholesale: you can create custom catalogs assigned to particular companies and give those companies their own product visibility and pricing. Pricing can be configured as fixed amounts, percentage discounts, and quantity-based tiers. Experience League Experience League

It also exposes B2B functionality through APIs—for example, Shared Catalog and negotiable-quote APIs—so you're not locked into its storefront. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer

BigCommerce B2B Edition is the option I'd investigate first if you want to minimize custom infrastructure. Its B2B APIs cover companies, users, quotes, invoices, orders and payments, and it has a dedicated GraphQL Storefront API intended for headless B2B experiences. BigCommerce BigCommerce

BigCommerce also specifically positions B2B Edition around corporate accounts, quotes, invoices and approval workflows, while allowing you to build a customized/headless buyer experience. BigCommerce BigCommerce

What I'd choose

• Thousands of customers with individually negotiated price lists, complicated account structures, ERP integration, sophisticated quoting/approval rules → Adobe Commerce.
• Wholesale catalog + customer-specific pricing + account management + headless React/Next.js storefront, but you want a more managed platform → BigCommerce B2B Edition.
• You have a serious engineering team and want to assemble commerce from APIs/microservices rather than adopt a traditional commerce suite → commercetools.

If you tell me how you price customers (e.g. customer-specific price lists, quantity breaks, contract pricing, rebates, regional pricing, etc.) and what ERP you're integrating with (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, custom, etc.), I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms.

Adobe Commerce is probably the strongest fit if "complex B2B" is the priority. Its B2B functionality natively supports company accounts, organizational hierarchies, roles/permissions, shared catalogs, company-specific pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders, credit terms, quick ordering and requisition lists. Adobe Developer Experience League

Its Shared Catalogs are particularly relevant to wholesale: you can create custom catalogs assigned to particular companies and give those companies their own product visibility and pricing. Pricing can be configured as fixed amounts, percentage discounts, and quantity-based tiers. Experience League Experience League

It also exposes B2B functionality through APIs—for example, Shared Catalog and negotiable-quote APIs—so you're not locked into its storefront. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer

BigCommerce B2B Edition is the option I'd investigate first if you want to minimize custom infrastructure. Its B2B APIs cover companies, users, quotes, invoices, orders and payments, and it has a dedicated GraphQL Storefront API intended for headless B2B experiences.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing, complex catalogs, account hierarchies, and headless APIs, you’ll want to look beyond typical ecommerce platforms. The strongest options are usually enterprise B2B commerce platforms rather than B2C-first tools. Alkali ORO INC.

Best-fit platforms for complex wholesale B2B

KIBO Commerce CSSChopper## My shortlist for a serious wholesaler

1. OroCommerce — strongest “native B2B” choice

Best if your business has:

• Thousands of SKUs
• Customer-specific contract pricing
• Multiple buyer roles per account
• Sales rep workflows
• RFQs/quotes
• ERP integration needs

It was designed specifically for B2B rather than adapted from retail. ORO INC.

2. Adobe Commerce — best for maximum customization

Choose this if you need:

• Very complex pricing rules
• Custom workflows
• Multiple brands/sites
• Deep integrations
• A large development team or agency

It has mature B2B capabilities such as company accounts, shared catalogs, and quote workflows. Alkali

3. commercetools — best true headless architecture

Choose this if your goal is:

• A custom React/Next.js storefront
• Mobile apps
• Multiple sales channels
• A composable architecture

The tradeoff: you are building more yourself. It gives flexibility through APIs rather than a fully packaged B2B admin experience. KIBO Commerce

4. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance of speed and capability

Good if you want:

• SaaS hosting
• Faster launch
• Headless storefront options
• Customer groups and price lists
• Lower operational overhead

It is often a good fit for mid-sized wholesalers that do not want an enterprise implementation project. KIBO Commerce

Features I would require for your use case

Before selecting a platform, verify it supports:

• Account-level pricing (“Customer A pays $4.20, Customer B pays $3.85”)
• Tier/volume pricing
• Contract pricing overrides
• Multiple catalogs by customer segment
• Buyer roles and approval workflows
• Quote → order conversion
• Purchase orders and payment terms
• ERP integration (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, etc.)
• GraphQL/REST APIs
• Headless checkout and customer portals
• Bulk ordering / CSV uploads
• Punchout procurement if you sell to large enterprises

Likely recommendation

For a traditional wholesaler/distributor:

1. OroCommerce
2. Adobe Commerce
3. BigCommerce B2B Edition

For a technology-forward company building a custom buying experience:

1. commercetools
2. Adobe Commerce headless
3. BigCommerce headless

If you share your approximate scale (SKUs, number of customers, ERP, annual revenue, and whether you need a custom frontend), I can narrow this to 2–3 realistic candidates.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + a headless/API-first architecture, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce, commercetools, and BigCommerce B2B. Shopify Plus is worth considering if implementation speed matters more than maximum B2B complexity.

My recommendation

1. commercetools — best if APIs/headless are the priority.
It is explicitly built around composable, API-first commerce, with REST and GraphQL APIs. Its B2B capabilities include business units, roles/permissions, customer-specific pricing, multiple catalogs, negotiated discounts, and complex account structures. Commercetools commercetools Documentation

The tradeoff is that you'll build more yourself. That's a feature if your team wants control, but a cost if you want lots of B2B functionality out of the box.

2. Adobe Commerce — best if your B2B requirements are extremely deep.
For wholesalers needing things like negotiated quotes/RFQs, approval workflows, requisition lists, company hierarchies, shared catalogs, credit limits, and sophisticated ERP integrations, Adobe has one of the deepest native B2B feature sets. Elogic Commerce Elogic Commerce

3. BigCommerce B2B — probably the sweet spot for many wholesalers.
You get a SaaS platform without going all the way into the engineering investment of commercetools. It has strong headless capabilities and a dedicated B2B Edition. Shopify

4. Shopify Plus — excellent if you want operational simplicity.
Shopify now supports company accounts, location-level pricing, quantity rules, volume pricing, payment terms, buyer permissions, and headless B2B storefronts through its APIs. Shopify Shopify But if your wholesale model involves very intricate contract pricing, RFQs, multi-step approvals, or unusual procurement workflows, I'd put Adobe/commercetools ahead of it.

For your particular use case

If by "complex B2B" you mean:

• Every customer/account gets a different price list
• Customers have multiple locations/buyers
• Tiered or quantity pricing
• Contract/negotiated pricing
• Large catalogs
• ERP-driven inventory/pricing
• Sales reps ordering on behalf of customers
• RFQs and negotiated quotes
• Custom wholesale portal
• Your own React/Next.js/mobile frontend
• APIs feeding multiple channels

I'd rank them:

commercetools → Adobe Commerce → BigCommerce B2B → Shopify Plus

But there's an important distinction: commercetools is the strongest architectural choice, while Adobe is arguably the stronger "give us all the complicated B2B machinery" choice. Commercetools Elogic Commerce

If you tell me your ERP (e.g. SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics), approximate SKU count, number of wholesale customers, and how complicated your pricing rules are, I can narrow this down to the best 2 and compare APIs, pricing model, B2B features, implementation effort, and likely total cost.

4. Shopify Plus — excellent if you want operational simplicity.
Shopify now supports company accounts, location-level pricing, quantity rules, volume pricing, payment terms, buyer permissions, and headless B2B storefronts through its APIs. But if your wholesale model involves very intricate contract pricing, RFQs, multi-step approvals, or unusual procurement workflows, I'd put Adobe/commercetools ahead of it.

For your particular use case

If by "complex B2B" you mean:

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

My recommendation

1. Adobe Commerce — best if B2B complexity is the priority.

Adobe's B2B functionality is unusually deep: company accounts and hierarchies, roles/permissions, company-specific shared catalogs and pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders, requisition lists, company credit, and custom payment/shipping rules. Experience League Experience League Experience League

Its shared catalogs are particularly relevant to wholesale: you can create custom catalogs containing products and prices visible only to assigned companies. Experience League

2. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the best overall choice if headless is equally important.

BigCommerce has dedicated B2B APIs, including GraphQL for company accounts, quotes, invoices, shopping lists and other buyer-portal functionality. It explicitly recommends GraphQL for headless B2B storefront customization. BigCommerce

3. commercetools — best if you're building a highly customized commerce stack.

I'd consider it when you want commerce to be an API-driven component rather than an all-in-one application. You get tremendous architectural flexibility, but you'll generally be assembling more of the B2B experience yourself.

What I'd choose for your situation

If your requirements sound like:

"Each wholesale customer gets their own price lists/catalog, quantity breaks, negotiated pricing, account hierarchy, purchasing permissions, quotes, and we want to build our own React/Next.js/etc. frontend."

I'd rank them:

Adobe Commerce → BigCommerce B2B → commercetools

If headless/API development is the overriding priority, I'd flip the first two:

BigCommerce B2B → Adobe Commerce → commercetools

Salesforce is especially compelling if your sales/customer-management operation already runs heavily on Salesforce; its Commerce Cloud supports B2B headless APIs and arbitrary frontend frameworks. salesforce.com

If you tell me roughly how many SKUs/customers you have and what ERP you're using (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, custom, etc.), I can narrow this to the best 2–3 platforms for your wholesale operation.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex pricing rules and a headless/API-first storefront, you’ll usually want an enterprise commerce platform rather than a standard ecommerce store. The strongest options depend on how much complexity you have (contract pricing, ERP integration, buyer permissions, quotes, punchout, etc.). Shopify OroCommerce

Shopify Elastic Path OroCommerce### My shortlist for a wholesale business

• If you have thousands of customer-specific price agreements:

Look at OroCommerce, Adobe Commerce, or Elastic Path. These are better suited to distributor/manufacturer scenarios where every account may see different pricing. OroCommerce Elastic Path

• If you need a fully custom frontend (React/Next.js/mobile apps/partner portals):

Look at commercetools or Elastic Path. They are built around APIs rather than a traditional storefront. Elastic Path Naturaily

• If you want to launch quickly but still have serious B2B features:

BigCommerce B2B Edition is often a practical middle ground. KIBO Commerce

• If you also sell direct-to-consumer:

Shopify Plus can work well because B2B and B2C can share infrastructure, while still supporting custom B2B catalogs and pricing. Shopify

For a typical wholesaler, I would evaluate these first:

1. OroCommerce — strongest “built for wholesale” fit
2. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best SaaS balance
3. commercetools / Elastic Path — best if headless is the priority
4. Adobe Commerce — best if you need maximum customization and have development resources

The deciding questions are:

• Do you need customer-specific contract pricing (thousands of price lists)?
• Do buyers need approval workflows / multiple users per company?
• Are you integrating with an ERP (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, Epicor, etc.)?
• Is the frontend going to be Next.js/mobile/custom portal, or a normal storefront?

Those answers usually narrow the choice quickly.

For a B2B wholesaler that needs negotiated/custom pricing plus a headless storefront, I’d shortlist these three:

My pick: BigCommerce B2B Edition

For a wholesaler, BigCommerce B2B Edition is probably the first platform I'd evaluate. Its B2B functionality includes company accounts, customer-specific pricing/catalogs, quotes, invoices, roles/permissions, approval workflows and multi-company hierarchies. BigCommerce BigCommerce

More importantly for your headless requirement, it has dedicated B2B GraphQL Storefront APIs plus REST management APIs. The GraphQL API exposes company accounts, quotes, shopping lists, orders, invoices and payments, making it practical to build your own React/Next.js/etc. buying experience rather than being tied to the native storefront. BigCommerce BigCommerce

Its pricing model is also well suited to wholesale: companies can be mapped to customer groups/price lists so different customers can receive different product pricing. BigCommerce BigCommerce

When I'd choose Adobe Commerce instead

Adobe Commerce B2B is stronger if your pricing and catalog logic is extremely complicated or you're expecting substantial custom development. It supports shared catalogs with company-specific product pricing, negotiable quotes, company hierarchies, multiple buyer roles, credit/payment-on-account and requisition lists. Adobe Developer Experience League

The tradeoff is implementation and operational complexity. It's the platform I'd favor when your business processes themselves are highly customized and you have a strong engineering/implementation team.

When I'd choose commercetools

If your requirement is essentially "commerce engine as APIs, with us building everything around it", commercetools deserves serious consideration. Its advanced B2B APIs support arbitrary account hierarchies and granular user permissions, and its architecture is explicitly composable. commercetools

The downside is that you're taking on more of the B2B application yourself rather than getting as much functionality out of the box.

Bottom line: For a typical distributor/wholesaler needing customer-specific price lists + negotiated pricing + company accounts + purchasing permissions + a headless frontend, I'd start with BigCommerce B2B Edition. If you have unusually complex pricing/catalog rules, compare it directly against Adobe Commerce; if API-first composability is the overriding priority, add commercetools to the evaluation.

If you tell me roughly how your pricing works (e.g. 500 customers each with their own price list, volume tiers, contract pricing, quote overrides, etc.), I can compare these three specifically against your B2B requirements.

For a B2B wholesaler that needs complex customer-specific pricing plus a headless/API-first architecture, I’d shortlist these three:

1. Adobe Commerce — strongest for complex wholesaling

This would be my choice if your pricing and account logic is particularly complicated.

Adobe Commerce B2B supports company accounts, organizational hierarchies, roles/permissions, company-specific shared catalogs and pricing, negotiated quotes, purchase orders, credit/payment terms, quick ordering and requisition lists. Adobe Developer Experience League

Its Shared Catalog functionality is especially relevant: you can give different companies different product assortments and custom prices per product. Adobe Developer Experience League

It also exposes GraphQL and REST APIs, including B2B functionality such as negotiable quotes. Adobe Developer

Tradeoff: it's more complex to implement and operate than a SaaS platform.

2. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the best overall balance

If you want headless without wanting to run a huge commerce stack, I'd look very seriously at BigCommerce.

Its B2B Edition has company accounts, account hierarchies, roles, sales quotes, invoices, purchase-order workflows and buyer approvals. BigCommerce

The particularly attractive part for your requirement is the API layer: B2B Edition provides REST management APIs plus GraphQL storefront APIs, specifically supporting headless storefronts. BigCommerce BigCommerce

BigCommerce also specifically positions B2B for wholesalers/distributors needing customized pricing down to the SKU level. BigCommerce

My default recommendation: BigCommerce B2B Edition if your requirements are sophisticated but you don't need Adobe-level customization everywhere.

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

If by "headless" you mean we want commerce to essentially be backend infrastructure and we'll build our own experience, commercetools is compelling.

Its Advanced B2B capabilities include Business Units, account hierarchies and granular user permissions, while its architecture is fundamentally composable/API-oriented. commercetools

The downside is that you'll generally be assembling more of the B2B experience yourself. It's excellent for a sophisticated engineering organization, but less turnkey.

What I'd choose for your situation

If you're a wholesaler with complex price lists, customer tiers, negotiated pricing, ERP integration and a custom frontend:

1. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best starting point for most companies.
2. Adobe Commerce — choose this if pricing/catalog/account rules are unusually complex.
3. commercetools — choose this if your team specifically wants a composable/API-first architecture and is comfortable building more infrastructure.

One important distinction: "custom pricing" can mean very different things. If you have rules like customer A gets 17% off SKU X, customer B gets a negotiated price, customer C gets a contract price based on quantity/volume, different customers see different catalogs, and prices come from an ERP, the platform choice can change substantially.

If you tell me how your pricing works (customer-specific price lists, quantity breaks, tiers, contracts, ERP-driven prices, etc.) and what ERP you use, I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms.

Its Shared Catalog functionality is especially relevant: you can give different companies different product assortments and custom prices per product. Adobe Developer Experience League

It also exposes GraphQL and REST APIs, including B2B functionality such as negotiable quotes. Adobe Developer

Tradeoff: it's more complex to implement and operate than a SaaS platform.

2. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the best overall balance

If you want headless without wanting to run a huge commerce stack, I'd look very seriously at BigCommerce.

Its B2B Edition has company accounts, account hierarchies, roles, sales quotes, invoices, purchase-order workflows and buyer approvals. docs.bigcommerce.com

The particularly attractive part for your requirement is the API layer: B2B Edition provides REST management APIs plus GraphQL storefront APIs, specifically supporting headless storefronts.

BigCommerce also specifically positions B2B for wholesalers/distributors needing customized pricing down to the SKU level.

My default recommendation: BigCommerce B2B Edition if your requirements are sophisticated but you don't need Adobe-level customization everywhere.

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

If by "headless" you mean we want commerce to essentially be backend infrastructure and we'll build our own experience, commercetools is compelling.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing, complex catalogs, and headless APIs, you’ll generally want an enterprise B2B commerce platform rather than a standard ecommerce store. The strongest options are usually: Atwix Naturaily

My shortlist for a B2B wholesaler

1. OroCommerce — if your business is truly wholesale-first

• Multiple price lists by customer/group
• Contract pricing
• Buyer approval workflows
• Corporate account structures
• Sales rep-assisted ordering
• ERP integrations

This is often the closest match to distributor/manufacturer workflows. OroCommerce

2. commercetools — if headless APIs are the priority
Choose this if you have a strong engineering team and want:

• Custom React/Next.js storefronts
• Mobile apps
• Dealer portals
• Multiple sales channels
• Custom pricing services
• A composable stack (PIM, search, CMS, ERP, etc.) Naturaily

3. Adobe Commerce — if you need maximum customization
Good when your requirements include:

• Highly unusual pricing rules
• Complex product configurations
• Multiple storefronts/regions
• Heavy ERP customization

The tradeoff is higher implementation and maintenance complexity. CSSChopper

4. BigCommerce B2B Edition — if you want faster deployment
A good fit when you need:

• Company accounts
• Customer-specific pricing
• Bulk ordering
• Headless storefront APIs
• Lower operational overhead than fully custom platforms BigCommerce

Features I would verify before choosing

For a wholesale platform, make sure it supports:

• Customer-specific price lists (not just discount codes)
• Contract pricing overrides
• Tier/volume pricing
• Multiple catalogs by customer segment
• Buyer roles and approval flows
• Quote/RFQ workflows
• Purchase orders and payment terms
• ERP sync (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, etc.)
• Real-time inventory/pricing APIs
• Headless checkout and order APIs

If you share:

1. your ERP (NetSuite/SAP/Dynamics/custom),
2. approximate SKU count,
3. number of customers, and
4. whether pricing comes from ERP or commerce,

I can narrow this to 2–3 platforms.

For a B2B wholesaler with customer-specific pricing + headless APIs + complex account logic, I’d shortlist BigCommerce B2B Edition, Adobe Commerce, and Shopify Plus—with BigCommerce as the strongest default fit.

My pick: BigCommerce B2B Edition

BigCommerce is particularly compelling because its B2B APIs cover company accounts, users, account hierarchies, quotes and invoice payments, while its broader API stack supports headless implementations. BigCommerce

Its quote API can also handle custom line-item pricing/discounts, custom products, bespoke shipping methods and quote expiration, which is much closer to a sophisticated wholesaler's workflow than simply applying a discount code. BigCommerce

The architecture also lets you keep the commerce backend while building your own React/Next.js/etc. customer portal or storefront. Current industry comparisons specifically rank BigCommerce as a strong choice for headless B2B. Shopify

When I'd choose the others

• Adobe Commerce — choose this if you have very complicated pricing, company hierarchies, negotiated quotes, requisition lists, credit limits, ERP logic, or a substantial engineering team. It gives you enormous customization freedom, but with substantially more implementation/maintenance burden. Shopify Shopify
• Shopify Plus — excellent if you prioritize ease of operation and a polished headless stack. Shopify now has native B2B catalogs, customer-specific pricing, volume pricing, company accounts, payment terms and headless APIs. Shopify Help Center Shopify However, I'd scrutinize it if your pricing engine is highly contractual or depends on complicated customer-specific rules.
• commercetools — worth serious consideration if you're intentionally building a composable/API-first commerce architecture and have strong internal engineering resources. It's less of an out-of-the-box wholesale portal and more of a flexible commerce foundation.

If you tell me your requirements for pricing (e.g. customer × SKU price lists, quantity breaks, rebates, negotiated contracts), ERP (NetSuite/SAP/Dynamics/etc.), and storefront (Next.js/React/etc.), I can narrow this to the best 1–2 platforms and map the architecture.

BigCommerce is particularly compelling because its B2B APIs cover company accounts, users, account hierarchies, quotes and invoice payments, while its broader API stack supports headless implementations.

Its quote API can also handle custom line-item pricing/discounts, custom products, bespoke shipping methods and quote expiration, which is much closer to a sophisticated wholesaler's workflow than simply applying a discount code.

For a B2B wholesaler that needs customer-specific pricing plus a genuinely headless/API-first architecture, I’d narrow the field to BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, and commercetools.

My ranking

1. commercetools — best if APIs/headless are the priority

I'd put commercetools at the top if your requirements include things like:

• Contract/customer-specific pricing
• Different catalogs and assortments by account
• Quantity/volume pricing
• Complex account hierarchies
• Multiple sales channels
• Custom buying workflows
• ERP/CRM integration
• A completely custom frontend

Its B2B model supports Business Units, customer-specific pricing, product selections, channels, tiered pricing, promotions and approval/quote workflows. It also exposes REST and GraphQL APIs. commercetools Documentation commercetools Documentation commercetools Documentation

The tradeoff: it's a composable platform, so you'll build more of the experience yourself. That's a feature if you have a strong engineering team, but a drawback if you want lots of functionality turnkey.

commercetools.com

2. Adobe Commerce — best for maximum native B2B depth

If "complex B2B" means lots of functionality should already exist in the commerce platform, I'd strongly consider Adobe Commerce.

Its B2B functionality includes company accounts, shared catalogs, company-specific pricing, purchasing controls, quotes, requisition lists, payment terms and other enterprise workflows. Shared catalogs can contain custom pricing and be restricted to particular companies. Experience League Experience League

It's also capable of headless implementations, but I'd choose it more for B2B feature depth than for having the cleanest composable architecture.

experienceleague.adobe.com

3. BigCommerce — probably the pragmatic choice

If you want headless + serious B2B without taking on the full complexity of commercetools/Adobe, BigCommerce is particularly interesting.

B2B Edition has APIs for companies, users, quotes, invoices and payments, and its GraphQL Storefront API is explicitly designed to support custom/headless B2B storefronts. BigCommerce BigCommerce

It also supports negotiated quotes with custom line-item pricing, discounts, custom products and custom shipping, which is useful for wholesale sales teams. BigCommerce BigCommerce

docs.bigcommerce.com

What I'd choose for a wholesaler

If your pricing engine is the heart of the business:
→ commercetools

If you need the most sophisticated B2B functionality out of the box:
→ Adobe Commerce

If you want strong B2B + headless APIs but want to minimize infrastructure/engineering burden:
→ BigCommerce

One important distinction: don't evaluate these primarily on whether they have a "B2B pricing" feature. For a wholesaler, I'd specifically test how each handles customer → price list → product assortment → quantity breaks → contract terms → sales rep overrides → quote → ERP synchronization.

If you tell me roughly SKU count, number of B2B customers, ERP (e.g. SAP/NetSuite/Dynamics), and whether pricing is per-customer or per-customer-group, I can give you a much more decisive recommendation between these three.

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

My recommendation: BigCommerce B2B Edition

For your requirements, BigCommerce B2B Edition is probably the strongest starting point. Its B2B APIs specifically expose company accounts, users, quotes, invoices, orders and other B2B resources, while its GraphQL Storefront API is designed for customized headless B2B storefronts. BigCommerce BigCommerce

It also supports workflows that matter to wholesalers, including:

• Company accounts and account hierarchies
• Buyer/user roles and permissions
• Sales quotes and negotiated pricing
• Purchase orders and invoice/payment workflows
• Shopping lists
• Sales reps/admin users
• Headless Buyer Portal customization BigCommerce BigCommerce

docs.bigcommerce.com

When I'd choose Adobe Commerce instead

If your pricing model is extremely complicated—for example, thousands of customer-specific catalogs, sophisticated tier pricing, multiple websites, unusual catalog rules, or substantial custom business logic—Adobe Commerce B2B deserves serious consideration.

Its Shared Catalog system lets you create custom catalogs for companies with company-specific pricing and product visibility, and it supports both fixed and percentage pricing plus quantity-based tier pricing. Experience League Experience League

Adobe also exposes B2B functionality through REST APIs, including Shared Catalogs, negotiable quotes and purchase orders. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer

developer.adobe.com

Rule of thumb:

• BigCommerce → easier path to a modern headless wholesale platform.
• Adobe Commerce → maximum flexibility when your B2B pricing/catalog logic is unusually complex.
• OroCommerce → worth evaluating if you want a platform built specifically around sophisticated B2B processes rather than adapting a broader ecommerce platform.

If you tell me how your pricing works (e.g. customer-specific price lists, quantity breaks, contract pricing, rebates, multiple currencies, sales-rep quotes, ERP-driven prices), I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms and compare their APIs/architecture.

Its Shared Catalog system lets you create custom catalogs for companies with company-specific pricing and product visibility, and it supports both fixed and percentage pricing plus quantity-based tier pricing. experienceleague.adobe.com experienceleague.adobe.com

Adobe also exposes B2B functionality through REST APIs, including Shared Catalogs, negotiable quotes and purchase orders.

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

My recommendation

1. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the best starting point.

It has native customer/company accounts, buyer roles, custom pricing, quote management, and strong APIs while remaining SaaS, so you don't have to operate the commerce infrastructure yourself. BigCommerce explicitly supports headless/composable architectures and exposes REST/GraphQL APIs. BigCommerce

For a wholesaler, this is attractive if your requirements look like:

• Customer A gets a negotiated price list
• Customer B gets different pricing/discount tiers
• Customers belong to parent/child companies
• Multiple buyers can order under one account
• Sales reps need to manage accounts
• Bulk ordering
• Quotes/RFQs
• ERP integration
• Custom React/Next.js/etc. storefront
• Commerce backend exposed through APIs

2. Adobe Commerce — choose this if the B2B rules are unusually complicated.

Adobe has one of the deepest native B2B feature sets: company hierarchies, shared catalogs, negotiable quotes, approval workflows, requisition lists, credit limits, purchase orders, and extensive GraphQL/API capabilities. Elogic Commerce Elogic Commerce

The downside is significantly greater implementation and operational complexity.

3. commercetools — choose this if "headless" is the overriding architectural requirement.

It's genuinely API-first/composable and is particularly compelling if you have a strong engineering team and want to build your own B2B experience around APIs and services. Its B2B offering supports business units, granular permissions, quotes, custom pricing, and approval flows. commercetools

The catch: you are deliberately choosing to build more of the B2B application yourself. That's powerful, but potentially expensive.

The decision I'd make

If you're a typical established wholesaler:

BigCommerce B2B → first platform I'd evaluate.

If you have highly intricate pricing/account/approval logic:

Adobe Commerce → strongest functional fit.

If you're essentially saying "we want commerce infrastructure, but our own application should own the customer experience and business logic":

commercetools → strongest architectural fit.

I would not make Shopify Plus my first choice if your defining requirement is genuinely complex wholesale pricing/workflows. It's excellent for simpler B2B, but the gap grows as you need sophisticated quoting, approvals, account hierarchies, and wholesale-specific workflows. BigCommerce

If you tell me your ERP (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, Epicor, etc.), approximate SKU count, number of customers, and how your pricing works, I can narrow this to the best 2 platforms and compare their actual B2B/API capabilities feature-by-feature.

For a B2B wholesaler needing customer-specific pricing, contract pricing, buyer accounts, ERP integrations, and headless APIs, you’ll generally want to avoid basic ecommerce platforms and look at B2B-native or enterprise headless platforms. Atwix CSSChopper

Here are the strongest fits:

Shopify Alkali### My shortlist for a wholesaler with complex pricing

1. OroCommerce — best if B2B is your core business

• Customer/account-specific price lists
• Contract pricing
• Sales rep workflows
• Quote/RFQ management
• Multiple buyer roles and approval flows

This is often a natural fit for distributors and manufacturers. OroCommerce

2. commercetools — best if you have a strong engineering team

• Fully headless from the ground up
• Build your own storefront, pricing services, portals, and integrations
• Good when you need unusual workflows or many channels

The tradeoff is that you own more of the implementation. Naturaily

3. BigCommerce B2B Edition — best balance of capability and speed

• Faster launch than composable platforms
• Good wholesale features out of the box
• Headless storefront support
• Lower operational burden than Adobe/commercetools

BizTechScout### Features I would verify during vendor demos

For a wholesaler, I would specifically test:

• Can each customer see a different negotiated price?
• Can pricing come from ERP (SAP, NetSuite, Dynamics, etc.)?
• Can you support: - tiered volume discounts
• customer-specific catalogs
• contract pricing
• quote approval
• minimum order quantities
• regional pricing
• sales-rep-assisted ordering
• Are APIs complete enough for: - custom React/Next.js storefronts
• mobile apps
• marketplaces
• ERP/WMS/PIM integrations

A practical rule of thumb:

• <$10M–$50M wholesale revenue: BigCommerce B2B or OroCommerce are often the sweet spot.
• Complex distributor/manufacturer workflows: OroCommerce or Adobe Commerce.
• Very custom digital ecosystem: commercetools.

If you share your ERP (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics, Epicor, etc.), catalog size, number of SKUs, and whether you need dealer portals or only a buyer storefront, the shortlist can be narrowed considerably.

For a B2B wholesaler with complex customer-specific pricing + a headless architecture, I’d shortlist Adobe Commerce and BigCommerce B2B Edition, with the choice depending on how complex your pricing/workflows are.

My pick: Adobe Commerce

If by "complex B2B" you mean different prices/catalogs by customer, account hierarchies, purchasing permissions, negotiated quotes, credit terms, PO approval workflows, and ERP integration, Adobe Commerce is particularly strong.

Its B2B functionality includes company accounts with hierarchical users/roles, shared catalogs with company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders, requisition lists, quick order, and payment-on-account/credit. Experience League Adobe Developer

It also exposes B2B functionality through REST and GraphQL APIs, including Company and Shared Catalog functionality, making it viable for a custom/headless storefront. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer

experienceleague.adobe.com

BigCommerce is the strongest alternative

If headless is the primary requirement, I'd seriously consider BigCommerce B2B Edition. Its B2B APIs specifically support company accounts, quotes, invoices, orders and buyer roles, and its B2B GraphQL Storefront API is designed for custom/headless storefronts. BigCommerce BigCommerce

BigCommerce also maps companies to customer groups that control the products and pricing buyers see. BigCommerce

docs.bigcommerce.com

Rule of thumb:

• Most sophisticated B2B business rules → Adobe Commerce
• Best balance of B2B + headless simplicity → BigCommerce
• Maximum architectural flexibility → commercetools
• B2B that's relatively straightforward → Shopify Plus

If you tell me how you currently calculate wholesale pricing (e.g. customer × SKU × quantity × contract tier × region), I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms for your specific model.

If by "complex B2B" you mean different prices/catalogs by customer, account hierarchies, purchasing permissions, negotiated quotes, credit terms, PO approval workflows, and ERP integration, Adobe Commerce is particularly strong.

Its B2B functionality includes company accounts with hierarchical users/roles, shared catalogs with company-specific pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders, requisition lists, quick order, and payment-on-account/credit. Experience League Adobe Developer

It also exposes B2B functionality through REST and GraphQL APIs, including Company and Shared Catalog functionality, making it viable for a custom/headless storefront. Adobe Developer Adobe Developer

experienceleague.adobe.com

BigCommerce is the strongest alternative

If headless is the primary requirement, I'd seriously consider BigCommerce B2B Edition. Its B2B APIs specifically support company accounts, quotes, invoices, orders and buyer roles, and its B2B GraphQL Storefront API is designed for custom/headless storefronts. docs.bigcommerce.com docs.bigcommerce.com

BigCommerce also maps companies to customer groups that control the products and pricing buyers see. docs.bigcommerce.com

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.