What Is B2B Tech? How Modern Companies Use Technology to Sell Smarter (2026)

Business-to-business (B2B) buyers want the buying experience to feel simpler, even when the purchase itself is not. They expect consumer-grade UX, prefer self-directed decision-making, and are comfortable with digital transactions on self-serve portals.

This shift is happening as global B2B ecommerce is projected to reach $36 trillion by 2026, growing at a double-digit annual rate. Research also shows that B2B buyers are becoming more comfortable with digital, self-directed purchasing. 

While B2B buyers want a simpler buying experience, the B2B process is far more complex than the consumer ecommerce experience.

For example, individual consumers can scroll TikTok during breakfast, see a cool nail polish, research it on Google, and then go buy it from the retailer’s website before their coffee gets cold. They don’t need a budget review or an internal sign-off before pressing “process payment.”

By contrast, B2B buying involves much larger purchases, months of research, negotiated pricing, account-level permissions, internal approvals, payment terms, and recurring purchasing.

So with rising expectations of simplicity in a structurally complex environment, what’s a B2B company to do? 

Answer: Invest in the right B2B tech, or the systems that reduce friction behind the scenes, make buying easier, and help drive growth.

This article clarifies what B2B tech encompasses today, breaks down the foundational system categories, and explores how high-performing B2B companies use technology to scale.

What is B2B tech?

B2B tech is the set of tools and platforms that help businesses connect with, sell to, and serve other businesses. It supports the full buying and ordering journey, especially when purchases involve multiple stakeholders, negotiated pricing, approvals, and repeat orders.

This tech includes the systems that support the journey from first touch to repeat orders, such as:

• Acquisition tools. B2B marketing automation, ads, and sales systems that support marketing, generate demand, and manage leads.
• Ordering and ecommerce. Self-serve portals and quoting workflows that reflect negotiated pricing and approval structures.
• Fulfillment and operations. Inventory systems and ERP integrations that keep orders and financial data aligned.
• Account management. CRM, support, and analytics tools that manage relationships and ongoing performance.

Examples of B2B tech 

The exact B2B tech stack depends on what a business sells, but most modern B2B stacks include a mix of the following categories:

Core categories of B2B tech in 2026

Not every B2B company prioritizes the same systems. Here’s priorities can shift by business model:

• Product-based B2B (wholesale, manufacturing, distribution): Ecommerce portals, ERP integrations, inventory systems, pricing rules, and payment terms are foundational
• Service-based B2B (agencies, consultancies): CRM, life cycle communications, invoicing, and project- and account- tracking systems matter more than inventory tooling.
• SaaS companies: CRM, life cycle automation, billing systems, analytics, and customer success tooling often form the core stack.

How Shopify supports the B2B buying journey

McKinsey’s biannual B2B Customer Pulse survey shows that B2B buyers now use an average of 10 channels throughout the purchasing cycle.

While the process is complex, buyers are more comfortable completing high-value transactions through self-service digital channels. In fact, McKinsey found that for orders of more than $50,000, comfort with digital interactions rose from 59% in 2022 to 75% in 2024. For $500,000 orders, comfort increased from 33% to 42%. 

Even with this comfort, buyers won’t stick around if the omnichannel experience is difficult to navigate. Fifty-six percent of B2B buyers say they would abandon a purchase or switch suppliers after a poor omnichannel experience.

To keep buyers through more complex transactions, including negotiated pricing, payment terms, and account-level controls, B2B businesses need an omnichannel experience that’s easy to navigate, self-serve, and fast.

That takes reliable, modern B2B tech. Here are some of the ways Shopify supports a smoother B2B buying journey:

Company profiles and customer-specific permissions

Research from Demandbase shows that 72% of B2B purchases involve complex, multistakeholder buying groups. That means procurement teams, finance stakeholders, and regional managers often need shared access within the same company account.

With Shopify, organizations create companies and assign customers to a company before those customers can place B2B orders. Each customer authenticates using their individual email address, but their purchasing access is tied to the company and specific company locations.

A customer can be assigned to one company and to multiple locations within that company. Permissions are managed at the location level.

When assigning customers, organizations choose from two permission types:

• Ordering only: The customer can place orders for their assigned locations and view their own order history.
• Location admin: The customer can place orders, view all orders placed for that location, and edit billing and shipping addresses.

If business clients already exist in Shopify, organizations can assign customers to a company. During the assignment, they can optionally migrate the customer’s existing order history to a specific company location.

Apparel brand Kulani Kinis used Shopify’s native B2B company profiles to launch a dedicated wholesale storefront for retailers. 

“We’re using Shopify Plus to run a very specific B2B store theme and website. Thanks to features such as Shopify Plus’s native B2B company profiles, we can set up a new retailer on the wholesale website to make the user experience highly personalized to that customer. We’ve been able to create a user-friendly space for smaller retailers around the world to select and buy our products to sell,” says Alex Babich, managing director and co-founder of Kulani Kinis.

By structuring accounts at the company level and enabling self-serve ordering for smaller stockists, the brand created a personalized wholesale experience without manual setup for each order. As a result, its wholesale customer base grew more than threefold, and wholesale transaction revenue increased significantly.

Custom catalogs and price lists

B2B pricing often varies by customer, contract, or region. Shopify manages this through B2B catalogs that control product availability and customer-specific pricing at the company or location level.

Organizations create catalogs that include or exclude specific products and assign custom price lists to them. They then assign those catalogs to companies or specific company locations to determine which products a buyer can see and which prices apply.

What’s more, a single company or location can have multiple catalogs. If more than one catalog applies to the same product with different prices, Shopify automatically displays the lowest price.

Organizations can also set quantity rules to limit order sizes and configure volume pricing to apply price breaks when customers purchase specified quantities within a single order.

Filtrous used customer-specific catalogs and price lists to tailor pricing by account. After migrating to Shopify, they implemented customer-specific catalogs, discounts, payment options, and automation through Shopify Flow. As a result, the company saw a 27% increase in organic conversion rate and reduced customer support workload by 10 hours per week.

Fast search, filtering, and quick-add ordering

B2B buyers often navigate large catalogs with thousands of SKUs. Shopify storefronts support faceted navigation, allowing buyers to filter products by attributes such as size, material, price, or availability. Organizations can further refine results using Shopify’s Search & Discovery tools, including semantic search, synonym groups, and product boosts to improve relevance.

For high-volume buyers, Shopify also offers quick bulk ordering tools. Buyers can view product variants in list or grid formats and add multiple quantities directly from product pages or a dedicated order form.

The Somewhere Co., an Australian consumer goods brand with a large wholesale network, implemented Shopify’s Quick Add feature to make repeat purchasing easier. 

After launching, the company reduced average B2B order time by 33% and increased average monthly B2B order value by 13% year over year.

Payment terms and invoicing workflows

B2B transactions rarely rely solely on immediate card payments. Data shows that 61% of B2B buyers prefer trade credit or net payment terms, making flexible terms an expected part of the buying experience.

Shopify lets organizations define payment terms at the company or company location level, including Net 7-, 15-, 30-, 45-, 60-, or 90-day payment terms, payment due on fulfillment, fixed calendar dates, or immediate payment. Buyers can see their assigned terms directly in their account at checkout.

Fragrance label Who Is Elijah used this approach across eight expansion stores. Once each region had its own catalog and price matrix, international wholesale revenue climbed 50% year over year.

“One of the reasons we needed custom pricing for our wholesale customers was that many of them fall into different B2B categories; some have hard margins, and some we can control,” says the brand’s technical leader, Brylee Lonesborough. “The custom catalog capabilities in B2B on Shopify meant we could set individual pricing categories and attach them to the various types of B2B customers we have so they get a more personalized experience.”

Now, Who Is Elijah is looking at how to incorporate some of Shopify’s latest AI-powered tools, such as Shopify Sidekick, to improve processes and make the brand’s business run more efficiently.

ERP sync for inventory and order processing

Digital ordering only works if inventory, fulfillment, and financial records stay aligned, so tight system integration matters. 

Shopify connects with certified ERP systems through its Global ERP Program, including integrations for NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, Brightpearl, Acumatica, and Infor. These integrations sync product data, inventory levels, customer records, orders, and financial information between systems.

When a buyer places an order online, inventory updates flow to the ERP, and order and customer data remain consistent across platforms.

Darche is a good example of how this alignment supports growth. The camping and outdoor supplier previously processed most wholesale orders by phone or email, and its legacy ecommerce system struggled to integrate cleanly with its ERP. 

After moving to Shopify Plus and implementing company profiles, custom catalogs, personalized price lists, and ERP connectivity, the business anticipates a threefold year-over-year increase in B2B sales in FY24 and reported a 59% rise in annual web traffic. More wholesale customers now place orders directly through the online portal, reducing manual intake and improving inventory visibility across the business.

Reporting and analytics for optimization

Customer data lives across separate systems, including ERP, CRM, and ecommerce. Without a comprehensive, aligned view across those systems, it’s difficult to understand account performance or identify growth opportunities.

Shopify consolidates B2B customer activity into unified company profiles. Orders, pricing, catalogs, and account behavior tie back to the parent company record, giving teams a single view of each account.

Organizations can analyze revenue by company, track repeat purchase patterns, monitor average order value, and segment buyers into cohorts based on behavior or location.

How to choose and implement B2B tech

Modern B2B tech doesn’t require a full digital overhaul on day one. Most mid-market operators can start by prioritizing the core workflows buyers rely on—company-based login, negotiated pricing, structured ordering, and payment on terms—and then build outward from that foundation.

Here’s an eight-step rollout plan to guide implementation:

1. Map the buying journey and ordering paths

Start by documenting how orders actually move through your business today. Identify where buyers enter the process, who is involved in approvals, how pricing is determined, and how payment is collected.

Look closely at the friction points and recurring buyer pain points:

• Are orders initiated by email?
• Are approvals handled offline?
• Do sales reps manually re-enter data into your ERP? 

The goal of this step is to expose gaps between how buyers operate and how your systems support them. When you understand the real ordering paths, you can design your B2B portal to reflect how buyers operate in practice instead of forcing them into a new process.

2. Define account structure and permissions

Before configuring pricing or catalogs, define how customer organizations should be structured in your system.

Evaluate the following:

• Will customers operate under a single company profile or multiple locations?
• Which users can place orders?
• Which users can view all orders for a location?
• Who can manage billing and shipping details?
• Do certain orders require internal review before submission?

3. Build catalogs and price lists

Once your account structure is defined, configure product visibility and pricing at the company or location level. Identify which customers receive negotiated pricing, contract-specific assortments, or regional variations.

Then assign:

• The products that each company or location can access
• The applicable price list
• Any quantity rules or minimum order thresholds
• Any volume pricing tiers

4. Fix search and quick ordering UX

Next, review how products are organized and whether buyers can filter by relevant attributes such as size, compatibility, material, availability, or price.

Evaluate:

• Are filters aligned with how buyers search in real purchasing scenarios?
• Can buyers add multiple variants and quantities without opening each product page?
• Is there a quick order form or bulk add option?
• Can buyers view past orders and reorder efficiently?

Search and ordering should support high-SKU repeat-purchasing behavior. Document where friction exists and adjust taxonomy, filters, and bulk ordering tools accordingly.

5. Configure payment terms and invoicing

Once ordering is structured, align checkout and billing with existing commercial agreements. Review how customers currently pay and how terms are applied. Then configure payment terms at the company or location level to reflect those agreements.

Define:

• Which customers pay immediately versus on net terms
• What net periods apply (e.g., 30, 60, or 90 days)
• Whether deposits are required for certain orders
• Whether specific orders must be submitted for internal review
• How invoices are generated and delivered

6. Integrate ERP and CRM systems

After checkout is configured, map what happens when an order is placed. The order should move directly into your ERP for fulfillment and accounting, and customer activity should update in your CRM.

Clarify which system controls inventory, which system manages financial records, and where customer data lives. Orders, inventory levels, and account history should stay aligned across platforms.

Document how data flows between systems before going live.

7. Add automation and life cycle workflows

Once core ordering and system connections are stable, introduce automation to reduce manual touchpoints.

Identify repetitive tasks in your current process, such as approval notifications, reorder reminders, or follow-ups on unpaid invoices. Then configure workflows to handle them automatically.

8. Instrument analytics and iterate

With workflows in place, measure how the system performs. Track account-level revenue, repeat purchase frequency, average order value, and adoption of self-serve ordering. Monitor where orders still revert to manual processes and where friction persists.

Finally, use performance data to refine pricing structures, adjust catalogs, improve search behavior, optimize payment configurations, and confirm what’s working.