Answers that mention BigCommerce

For an agency building multiple wholesale stores for different clients, I’d make bigcommerce.com + B2B Edition the default platform I evaluate first.

Why BigCommerce fits an agency model

The important distinction is that you want multi-storefront + B2B, not merely a platform that has wholesale pricing.

BigCommerce gives you:

• Multi-Storefront: multiple brands, regions, or storefronts managed from one backend. Each storefront can have its own branding, domain, settings, and experience. BigCommerce BigCommerce
• B2B Edition: company accounts, buyer roles, quotes, invoices, payment terms, shopping lists, and a buyer portal. BigCommerce
• Company hierarchies: parent companies, subsidiaries, departments, etc., with role-based permissions. This is particularly useful for sophisticated wholesale customers. BigCommerce
• Per-storefront B2B configuration: B2B can be enabled and configured separately for individual storefronts, including buyer portal, login, quotes, shopping lists, and translations. BigCommerce
• Headless/API support: useful if your agency builds custom React/Next.js storefronts or reusable frontend components. BigCommerce BigCommerce

That combination makes it a good fit for building a repeatable agency architecture rather than reinventing the commerce backend for every client.

How I'd rank the main options

BigCommerce vs. Shopify Plus

This is probably the decision you'll encounter most often.

Shopify Plus has become substantially more compelling for B2B. Shopify now provides native companies, company locations, catalogs, quantity rules, payment terms, and other B2B functionality, while Plus adds unlimited B2B catalogs and direct catalog assignment to individual companies/company locations. Shopify Help Center Shopify Help Center

So I'd choose Shopify Plus when:

• The client already uses Shopify.
• They have a strong DTC component alongside wholesale.
• They want the Shopify app ecosystem.
• Your agency wants to maximize developer availability and ease of implementation.
• Their B2B requirements aren't unusually complex.

I'd lean BigCommerce when:

• Wholesale/B2B is the primary business model.
• You need lots of storefronts/channels.
• Customers have complicated organizational structures.
• You expect custom integrations and headless builds.
• You want B2B functionality to be a first-class part of the architecture.

BigCommerce explicitly supports companies operating across multiple storefront channels, including assigning users to particular channels. BigCommerce

The architecture I'd use as an agency

I wouldn't create a totally independent technical stack for every client.

I'd build a repeatable commerce accelerator:

                    Agency
                       │
          ┌────────────┴────────────┐
          │                         │
   Shared frontend              Shared services
   components / design          ERP / CRM / PIM
          │                         │
    ┌─────┼─────┐             ┌─────┼─────┐
    │     │     │             │     │     │
 Client A B     C             ERP   CRM   PIM
 Store   Store Store
    │     │     │
    └─────┴─────┘
          │
   BigCommerce B2B
          │
  Companies / Users
  Catalogs / Pricing
  Quotes / Orders
  Payment Terms
  Permissions

The client is the tenant at the commerce level, while you maintain a reusable application/integration layer.

For example, your agency could have standardized modules for:

• Customer/company onboarding
• Customer-specific pricing
• Contract catalogs
• Minimum order quantities
• Tiered pricing
• Sales-rep workflows
• Quote requests
• PO/net terms
• Approval workflows
• ERP synchronization
• Product/PIM synchronization
• Reordering
• Account dashboards
• Custom checkout
• Analytics

Then each client gets configuration and extensions rather than an entirely new implementation.

One important caveat

If by multi-tenant you literally mean one application/database where dozens or hundreds of unrelated merchants are tenants, that's different from BigCommerce's multi-storefront model.

If you're building a SaaS platform for wholesalers, I'd consider a composable architecture such as commercetools or potentially a custom commerce service. If you're an agency deploying separate stores for separate clients, BigCommerce is much more attractive because you don't need to build and operate the commerce infrastructure yourself.

My recommendation: standardize your agency around BigCommerce B2B Edition for B2B-first clients, while keeping Shopify Plus as your second approved stack for clients where Shopify's ecosystem/DTC strengths are more valuable. This gives you a scalable two-platform strategy without forcing every client into the same technology. BigCommerce BigCommerce

For a wholesaler that needs customizable quote → approval → order workflows, I’d shortlist these:

My pick: BigCommerce B2B Edition

For a typical wholesaler, BigCommerce B2B Edition is probably the best starting point. It has first-class quote objects rather than forcing you to model quotes as orders. Buyers can request quotes, sales reps can customize line pricing, products, shipping and expiration dates, and an approved quote can be taken directly through checkout. BigCommerce BigCommerce BigCommerce

It also supports company accounts and buyer permissions, which is useful when, for example:

Junior buyer → requests quote → sales rep adjusts pricing → manager approves → senior buyer converts quote → PO/order is created.

BigCommerce's current B2B positioning specifically targets wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors with account pricing, buyer portals, quote workflows and approval controls. BigCommerce

When I'd choose OroCommerce instead

If workflow customization is the primary requirement, I'd look very seriously at oroinc.com.

Oro has explicit quote workflows with approval states and transitions. Its documentation even distinguishes a simple quote process from a "Quote Management with Approvals" flow where a salesperson needs authorization before sending a quote with changed pricing. Oro Documentation Oro Documentation

That makes Oro particularly attractive if you have rules such as:

• Discount >10% requires sales-manager approval
• Margin below a threshold requires finance approval
• Certain customers require two-person approval
• Quotes over $50K follow a different workflow
• Different product categories have different approval chains

When Pepperi wins

pepperi.com is especially compelling if your wholesale business has field sales reps taking orders, rather than being primarily an ecommerce storefront. It combines B2B ecommerce, mobile order taking and sales-force workflows. B2B Commerce Platform | Pepperi B2B Commerce Platform | Pepperi

It also explicitly supports configurable approval workflows and multiple catalogs, price lists, buyer types and storefronts. B2B Commerce Platform | Pepperi

Bottom line:

• BigCommerce → best default for a modern wholesale ecommerce portal with quote-to-order.
• OroCommerce → best if complicated approval/workflow logic is the differentiator.
• Pepperi → best if sales reps + distributor ordering are central.
• Shopware → worth considering when you want a highly customizable commerce stack.

If you tell me how your quote/approval process works today (e.g. customer requests quote → rep edits → manager approval → customer accepts → PO), I can map it against these platforms and tell you which one requires the least customization.

BigCommerce's current B2B positioning specifically targets wholesalers, manufacturers and distributors with account pricing, buyer portals, quote workflows and approval controls. bigcommerce.com

When I'd choose OroCommerce instead

For your requirements—B2B customer registration/approval + Net 30 invoicing + sales-rep commissions—I’d shortlist BigCommerce B2B Edition, OroCommerce, and Pepperi.

My top pick: BigCommerce B2B Edition

bigcommerce.com is probably the best starting point if you want a relatively straightforward hosted store.

• Customer registration & approval: Businesses can submit registration forms, and you can require manual approval before they can order or even see products/pricing. BigCommerce
• Net 30: B2B Edition supports company-specific payment terms, including Net 30, and invoice management for PO/net-term orders. BigCommerce BigCommerce
• Sales reps: Reps can be assigned to specific B2B accounts and can access/order on behalf of customers. BigCommerce BigCommerce
• Customer-specific pricing: Useful if different distributors/dealers get different price lists. BigCommerce

The catch: I'd treat sales commissions as the piece that needs verification/customization. BigCommerce has strong sales-rep/account-assignment functionality, but its native B2B feature set isn't primarily an incentive/commission-management system. You'd likely calculate commissions through an integration, ERP, CRM, or custom workflow.

If commissions are a major requirement: OroCommerce

oroinc.com is worth a serious look if you're a distributor/manufacturer with a more sophisticated sales organization.

It combines B2B ecommerce with a built-in CRM and sales enablement, including accounts, opportunities, quotes, contracts, sales workflows and reporting. It also has configurable workflows for things such as account/order approvals. ORO INC. ORO INC.

I'd favor Oro if your requirement is really:

"We need the ecommerce site to be part of our sales operation."

rather than simply:

"We need a B2B website that accepts orders."

Also worth considering: Pepperi

pepperi.com is particularly interesting if your reps are actively visiting/calling customers and taking orders.

It combines B2B ecommerce with sales-rep order taking, customer-specific catalogs/pricing, account workflows, invoicing/AR information, and sales analytics. B2B Commerce Platform | Pepperi B2B Commerce Platform | Pepperi

My ranking

If I were choosing for a typical B2B distributor, I'd start with BigCommerce B2B Edition. It checks your registration/approval and Net 30 boxes very cleanly, while leaving commissions to the system that should probably own them (ERP/CRM/payroll/commission software).

If you tell me what you sell, roughly how many sales reps you have, and what accounting/ERP you use (QuickBooks, NetSuite, Sage, Dynamics, etc.), I can narrow this down to the best 1–2 platforms and show exactly how I'd implement registration → approval → Net 30 → rep commission.

Yes. If your requirements are (1) migrate an existing wholesale catalog, (2) give each customer/account its own pricing, and (3) preserve/manage open quotes, there are several good options—but they differ quite a bit in how much is native vs. bolted on.

My shortlist

1. BigCommerce B2B Edition — probably the first one I'd investigate

BigCommerce is unusually well suited to what you're describing.

Its B2B functionality includes company/account-specific pricing, customer groups, buyer permissions, catalogs, and a native quoting engine. Its price lists can customize pricing down to the individual SKU and can be assigned to specific wholesale accounts or customer groups. BigCommerce BigCommerce

Its quote system is particularly relevant: quotes can contain custom line-item prices, discounts, custom products, special shipping methods, and expiration dates, and buyers can take accepted quotes through checkout. BigCommerce

That's a much cleaner fit if you currently have something like:

Customer A → 1,200 products → their own price on each SKU → several quotes currently outstanding

rather than trying to recreate that structure with a collection of Shopify apps.

bigcommerce.com

2. Shopify B2B — easiest if you want a relatively painless migration

Shopify has gotten substantially better for wholesale.

Its B2B catalogs let you control which products a customer can see and what price they pay, with catalogs assignable to specific company locations. Shopify Help Center

Shopify also treats B2B quotes as draft orders, so sales reps can create a quote using the customer's specific pricing/payment terms and send the customer a checkout link. Shopify

The catch is open/customer-initiated quote management. If you need a sophisticated RFQ workflow—multiple revisions, negotiation, quote status, expiration, etc.—you'll likely add an app. There are now several options that integrate quotes with Shopify Draft Orders. Shopify App Store Shopify App Store

So I'd characterize Shopify as:

Best if catalog migration and ease of administration are more important than having deeply native B2B quoting.

shopify.com

3. Adobe Commerce — powerful, but probably more platform than you need

Adobe Commerce has native Shared Catalogs for company-specific pricing and native B2B Quotes for negotiated pricing. Experience League

It's a strong choice if your pricing model is extremely complicated—for example:

• thousands of customer-specific price lists
• different catalogs by customer/company
• quantity breaks
• account hierarchies
• sophisticated purchasing permissions
• ERP integration
• sales-rep-assisted quoting

But if the goal is "move our existing wholesale business online without turning this into a major IT project," I'd look at BigCommerce and Shopify first.

The important question: what does "open quotes" mean in your business?

This actually changes my recommendation quite a bit.

If you mean:

A. "Our salespeople create quotes for customers and sometimes the customer comes back months later and orders from that quote."

→ BigCommerce B2B is very compelling.

B. "Customers log in, build a large basket, request a quote, negotiate it with us, and eventually convert it to an order."

→ BigCommerce B2B or Shopify + a strong quote app.

C. "We have hundreds/thousands of existing quotes in our current system that need to be migrated and remain open."

→ This is a different problem. I'd pay much more attention to the migration/API capabilities and quote data model than the storefront features.

D. "Every customer has a negotiated price for individual SKUs, and we need to import those prices from our existing system."

→ BigCommerce becomes particularly interesting because of its native price-list structure. BigCommerce

If I were evaluating this for your situation

I'd probably do a proof-of-concept with BigCommerce B2B vs. Shopify B2B.

Give both vendors the same sample export:

• 500–2,000 products
• 10–20 customers
• customer-specific SKU pricing
• inventory quantities
• product images
• 5–10 open quotes
• quote line-item prices
• customer payment terms
• customer shipping addresses

Then ask them to demonstrate importing that data and having an existing customer log in and see exactly the catalog/prices they should see.

That's much more revealing than a generic platform demo.

If you tell me what your current wholesale platform/software is (even just the name) and roughly how many SKUs, customers, and open quotes you have, I can narrow this down to 2–3 platforms and specifically assess how hard the migration would be and whether the existing quotes can actually be carried over.

B. "Customers log in, build a large basket, request a quote, negotiate it with us, and eventually convert it to an order."

→ BigCommerce B2B or Shopify + a strong quote app.

C. "We have hundreds/thousands of existing quotes in our current system that need to be migrated and remain open."

→ This is a different problem. I'd pay much more attention to the migration/API capabilities and quote data model than the storefront features.

D. "Every customer has a negotiated price for individual SKUs, and we need to import those prices from our existing system."

→ BigCommerce becomes particularly interesting because of its native price-list structure.

If I were evaluating this for your situation

I'd probably do a proof-of-concept with BigCommerce B2B vs. Shopify B2B.

Give both vendors the same sample export:

Best if catalog migration and ease of administration are more important than having deeply native B2B quoting.