If you are a B2B business looking to start selling online, it can be challenging when looking for an ecommerce platform as many lists that look at B2B options only list enterprise level solutions but we know that there a B2B businesses of all sizes.
That is why we created a list of options that are suitable for B2B businesses of all sizes and ones that are suitable for UK Businesses, so let’s get into the list…
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1: ShopWired
In our opinion, the best option for UK B2B businesses is ShopWired and while at first glance, it may look like it is for B2C or DTC businesses, they actually include a range of features that are just for B2B businesses, including:
- Bulk Discounts
- Minimum/Maximum Order Quantities
- Trade Accounts – allows you to set trade pricing and also create trade only products
- Set Custom VAT Rates
- Create Quotes for your customers
- Back Orders for out of stock products
These features are available for all plans but some like trade accounts are paid options on the entry level Pro plan but are included with the Advanced and Premium plans.
These features also let you sell directly to consumers if that is part of your business model, which means that ShopWired offers a good level of flexibility.
ShopWired also offers a lot of features, including integrations with accounting software and shipping companies, which could help you streamline some processes that while aren’t B2B specific can be very helpful to all types of businesses.
All of this is backed up by highly-rated UK-based support teams and the platform is built on a hosting infrastructure that is not only reliable but also performs very well.
ShopWired Pricing
When it comes to pricing, ShopWired has 3 standard plans that are ideal for small to medium B2B businesses and they are:
| Monthly Price | Annual Turnover Limit | Transaction Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| ShopWired Pro | £34.95 | £75,000 | 0% |
| ShopWired Advanced | £69.95 | £200,000 | 0% |
| ShopWired Premium | £129.95 | £500,000 | 0% |
For businesses that exceed the £500,000 annual turnover limit, ShopWired does have a range of enterprise plans that start from £249.95/m.
If you pay for your plan yearly, you will also get a discount ranging from 10% to 30% depending on how many years you pay for in advance.
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Who Is ShopWired Best For?
ShopWired is a great option for B2B businesses of all sizes, whether you sell just to the trade or whether you also want to sell direct to end customers.
They offer a very good selection of features, a great website builder and excellent UK-based support, which makes them one of the best UK-based ecommerce platforms.
If you want to learn more about ShopWired, then check out our Full Review.
2: Bluepark
The second option when it comes to B2B ecomemrce in the UK is Bluepark as it comes with a range of built-in features but you will need to be on the Business plan in order to be able to use them but the features available include:
- Trade Accounts – allowing you to assign different pricing, discounts and product ranges to selected user groups
- Charge the Correct VAT
- Send Pro Forma Invoices
- Enable Password Protection on all of your b2b areas
With Bluepark, you can sell to trade and retail customers through the same storefront, which might be required by some businesses or if you are purely B2B, then it can be set up for this.
Outside of the B2B specific features, Bluepark is well sorted and includes things like a built-in email newsletter, product reviews, product bundles and good selection of payment gateways along with a nice selection of free themes and highly-rated UK-based support.
Bluepark Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Bluepark keeps things very simple and offer 3 standard plans, which are:
| Monthly Price | Annual Turnover Limit | Transaction Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bluepark Retail | £24.99 | N/A | 0% |
| Bluepark Business | £39.99 | N/A | 0% |
| Bluepark Enterprise | £59.99 | N/A | 0% |
With Bluepark, you do need to buy an SSL certificate on top of your subscription, which costs £69.99 a year and all plans come with storage limits of 500MB, 1GB and 2GB respectively.
You can add additional storage at £10 per GB up to a maximum of 12GB.
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Who Is Bluepark Best For?
Bluepark is a really good option for businesses that want an ecommerce platform with all of the features built-in and very straightforward pricing.
While not as easy to use as some of the platforms mentioned on this list, is does come with a lot of options and controls for site owners and the UK-based support is very good.
If you want to learn more about Bluepark, then check out our Full Review.
3. Shopit
Shopit is a relative newcomer to the UK ecommerce space but could be a good option for B2B businesses, especially if you are looking to create multiple sites for your business as you can easily create separate sites whether you have DTC and a B2B business or want to create a site to target a particular market.
When it comes to B2B features, Shopit offers:
- Volume discounts
- Manual and automated account approvals
- Prices only visible to logged-in users
- Create quotes and estimates
- 30 days delayed payment
One of the most attractive features of Shopit is that every plan includes all the features that they offer and they are constantly adding new features.
If you decide to use the multi-store feature, you can manage everything from one dashboard and easily allocate products to individual stores.
Shopit Pricing
When it comes to pricing, Shopit does things very differently to every other platform mentioned on this list as they don’t have set plans, instead you are billed on the number of users that your site gets every month, for example:
- 1000 visitors a month – max monthly price £20
- 15000 visitors a month – max monthly price £125
- 50000 visitors a month – max monthly price £500
So how much you pay really does depend on how successful your business is in terms of traffic and Shopit doesn’t charge any additional transaction fees.
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Who Is Shopit Best For?
Shopit is a great option for businesses that want to create individual sites for the B2B and DTC brands but be able to manage them all from one dashboard.
The pricing structure may also be attractive to many businesses, especially high-converting, low-traffic ones.
If you want to learn more about Shopit, then check out our Full Review.
4: EKM
Option number 4 is the UK’s largest fully-hosted ecommerce platform and while their primary focus is on DTC, they do also offer a range of features that make them a viable option for B2B businesses, including:
- Bulk Pricing
- Trade Discounts – this allows you to apply custom discounts to trade customers and also require your trade customers to login before being able to see prices and place orders
- Quotes
- Minimum and Maximum order quantities
The only negative when it comes to EKM’s B2B offering is that you do need to be on the Advanced plan to get access to the trade account, which is a shame as it does make EKM a more expensive option out of the box.
But the benefits of being on the Advanced plan is that not only do you get access to pretty much all of EKM’s features but you also get your own dedicated account manager and 24/7 UK-based support, who are there to help with any issues that you may encounter.
EKM Pricing
As mentioned above, in order to access EKM’s trade accounts, you do need to be on the Advanced plan but EKM does have a range of plans to choose from:
| Monthly Price | Annual Turnover Limit | Transaction Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| EKM Lite | £19.99 | £15,000 | 2% |
| EKM Basic | £34.99 | £50,000 | 2% |
| EKM Standard | £69.99 | £150,000 | 1% |
| EKM Advanced | £209.99 | £1 Million | 0.5% |
For businesses turning over in excess of £1 Million a year, EKM has a larger Pro plan that starts from £599.99/m.
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Who Is EKM Best For?
EKM is good option for existing ecommerce businesses who are looking to add a B2B option to their business or already have an established customer base and are looking to create an online store to help them take orders.
If having a dedicated account manager and 24/7 support are also requirements, the EKM is definitely worth considering.
If you want to learn more about EKM, then check out our Full Review.
5. Shopify Plus
Next up is the most expensive option on the list, which is Shopify Plus as it is currently the only Shopify plan that includes a range of B2B features, which includes:
- Company profiles
- Quantity rules
- Customer specific price lists
- Net payment terms
- Easy reordering
These features make B2B selling very easy to do with Shopify Plus but you can also create a B2B site on Shopify with one of their standard plans and a B2B app, of which there is a large selection to choose from, with many including a very good range of features.
So this means that there are multiple options to suit all budgets when it comes to creating a B2B store with Shopify and whichever option you choose, you still get access to Shopify’s excellent website builder and an app store that includes thousands of apps that offer all different kinds of flexibility and integrations.
Shopify Pricing
Shopify Plus starts from $2,000/m, which is definitely on the expensive side but if you are using an app, you can use one of the standard Shopify plans, which are much more reasonably priced:
| Monthly Price | Annual Turnover Limit | Transaction Fee | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Basic | £25 | N/A | 2% |
| Shopify Standard | £65 | N/A | 1% |
| Shopify Advanced | £344 | N/A | 0.5% |
On top of this, you will need to factor in the monthly cost of the B2B app, which varies depending on the app you use but whichever one it is, it will still work out cheaper than Shopify Plus.
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Who Is Shopify Best For?
Shopify Plus is a very good option for enterprise-level B2B businesses that are looking for a complete platform to manage their business as it offers a very good range of features and the perks the come with Shopify Plus.
For smaller businesses, it is still a viable option when combined with a B2B app and may be a good option for businesses who sell internationally due to Shopify being a global platform.
If you want to learn more about Shopify, then check out our Full Review.
6. WooCommerce
The final entry on the list is WooCommerce and while it doesn’t offer any B2B functionality as standard, there are plenty of plugins (both free and paid) that can turn Woo into a B2B platform.
One thing we do like about WooCommerce when it comes to B2B is that it is one of the few platforms that allows you to build a catalogue only site, so if you only want to showcase your products rather than sell through your site, then WooCommerce might be a very good option for you.
But it can also be used to process sales and have trade accounts, tiered pricing etc but the features available does depend on the plugin that you are using as they are all built differently.
It is also the only self-hosted platform on this list, which means that you need to buy your own hosting and then install/configure WordPress, WooCommerce and your chosen B2B app in order for you to create your store, which does mean that there is more technical involvement required from the site owner (unless you use a developer).
WooCommerce Pricing
WordPress and WooCommerce are completely free to install and use but you will need to pay for web hosting and feature rich B2B apps are paid options.
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Who Is WooCommerce Best For?
WooCommerce is a great option for businesses looking to build a catalogue site or are trying to build a B2B site on a budget as it can be cheaper than some of the other options mentioned.
But it does have the steepest learning curve and may not be as reliable as some of the hosted options mentioned above.
If you want to learn more about WooCommerce, then check out our Full Review.
Conclusion
Choosing an ecommerce platform is difficult, especially for B2B businesses as this is functionality that every platform offers but hopefully this list has given you some ideas as to the options out there that you can use for your business as we are pretty well catered for here in the UK.
Fortunately, most of these platforms include a free trial, which allows you to try the platforms out before committing to a paid plan (this isn’t available with WooCommerce).
Editors Choice: ShopWired
While there are some great options on this list, ShopWired comes out on top in our opinion as it:
- Offers a good range of features, including B2B
- B2B is available on all plans
- The platform is very easy to use and has very good support
Overall it is a very capable platform and will be a viable option for many B2B ecommerce businesses.
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Hi, I'm Paul, the Owner and Founder of EcommerceGold.
I ran my own Ecommerce Business for over 7 years and now help others start their own online retail empires!