Can Magento handle both B2B and B2C sales on one platform?
In this post, I’ll answer whether a single Magento can handle an online store and a B2B ecommerce, looking entirely different and available under different domains.
Can you run B2B and B2C sales on one Magento?
The best solution for owners of multiple brands
How many different frontends can be connected to one backend?
Why is it not worth creating several separate ecommerce systems?
Summary
You can run several different online stores and B2B ecommerce using one administrative panel and one Magento backend.
If you’re curious about the details, I encourage you to continue reading this article.
I recently spoke with a B2B business owner who mentioned they were considering a new ecommerce system.
They mainly sell to wholesale customers; they have their B2B ecommerce that doesn’t meet their expectations, so they want to exchange it for something better.
At the same time, the company owns several brands that should be available via their dedicated online store. The reason is simple – end customers often like to browse the product catalog, see available products, and get an idea about the price level.
So, the best solution for this business is to create online stores for each brand (and, of course, an additional B2B ecommerce).
In summary—the company wants to conduct B2B sales to wholesalers through B2B ecommerce and, simultaneously, allow B2C customers to purchase their brands through dedicated online stores.
Hence, the question arose: is it possible to use Magento to create such a structure?
It’s important to note that the graphic designs of B2B ecommerce and each private label brand are expected to vary. The stores should look different and have another vibe (look & feel), especially since some are aimed at foreign markets.
They should be adapted to local requirements, as part of the sales takes place in the Middle East, where design and usability requirements differ from Scandinavian markets.
Within Magento, it’s possible to build such a structure. The graphic designs of individual private-label online stores differ from the appearance of B2B ecommerce. Similarly, the functionalities of B2B ecommerce and online stores can look completely different.
For example, an advanced pricing system, a loyalty program, or the fact that the site is only available to registered users are characteristic features of B2B ecommerce. Private-label online stores may not have these elements. So, we are dealing with different graphic designs, different domains, and a different set of functionalities.
In the above case, we don’t want to implement 5 or 10 different ecommerce systems connected to our ERP, OMS, and PIM.
Instead, we’d like to create one solution that we only integrate once with ERP, PIM, and OMS and then differentiate the various stores and platforms at the frontend level.
Is this achievable in Magento? Yes, it’s possible. You utilize the appropriate configuration of the Magento structure (Websites, Stores, Storeviews, and Storefronts).
I won’t delve into the technical details. From a business perspective, it’s important to understand that we can have one backend that several stores or B2B ecommerce use.
You can connect even several dozens of different online stores to one Magento backend.
The number of 50 different Storeviews is mentioned somewhere in the Magento documentation. However, this shouldn’t be regarded as a strict criterion.
Let’s consider why not develop several different ecommerce systems (i.e., different backends), integrate each with ERP, OMS, and PIM, and develop the business that way. There are several reasons, but the most important is the financial aspect.
Firstly, the implementation costs of a solution with one backend and one administrative panel to which we connect additional frontends with various functionalities are significantly lower.
A large part of the ecommerce implementation budget, especially in the case of Magento, consists of backend costs and integrations. Imagine we have to do it 5 times – the costs would be significantly higher.
Using one backend, we integrate it only once with ERP, OMS, and PIM, we don’t perform more integrations, and everything works correctly. This dramatically reduces implementation costs.
The cost of setting up a backend and integrations in a Magento implementation project often represents about 60-70% of the total project budget. What does that mean? By integrating additional stores into the same Magento backend, you save 60 to 70% each time (otherwise, you would have to spend on backend implementation).
For example, the situation may look like this for a simple calculation. Of course, these aren’t the actual costs of Magento implementation, but for simplicity, they amount to 100.000 EUR/USD. Probably around 70.000 EUR/USD would be for the backend and approximately 30,000 EUR/USD for the frontend.
If you want to launch 3 different online stores, you pay 70.000 EUR/USD for the backend and 30,000 EUR/USD for each of the fronts, which gives a total of 160.000 EUR/USD. Thus, you have 3 stores.
Otherwise, you would have to pay 3 x 100.000 EUR/USD, which is 300.000 EUR/USD – practically twice as much.
With such a structure, we have lower implementation costs. Besides, there’s another big advantage – lower maintenance costs. Sometimes you will need to update ERP or the version of Magento. If you have 3 separate Magento systems (separate for each online store or B2B ecommerce), you would have to bear the costs of updating Magento separately for each store.
If you use one backend, you only bear the update cost once (after all, all frontends use the same backend). Therefore, this is an excellent solution if you are looking for lower maintenance costs and lower implementation costs.
In this post, I presented Magento’s capabilities when you want to conduct sales across several different stores and B2B ecommerce.
Stores connected to Magento can differ in appearance, be available under different domains, and have various functionalities, all while using the same Magento backend.
In this way, you can connect even several dozen different stores to one Magento.
If you’re considering using Magento in your business and wondering how to reconcile B2B sales with B2C, or whether Magento is the optimal choice for you, please contact us. In that case, please fill out the contact form. Our consultant will contact you in 15 minutes to preliminarily understand your situation and then direct you to one of our expert consultants.
