Salesforce B2B Commerce: when a self-service ordering site makes sense

A B2B ordering site on Salesforce makes sense when customers buy the same items repeatedly and already know your part numbers. They mainly want their own prices and a faster way to submit orders. It suits manufacturers and distributors whose staff rekey emailed, phoned or PDF orders every day. It fits poorly when most orders are configured one-off quotes, or when an order-status portal would remove most of the calls.

What is B2B Commerce on Salesforce today?

B2B Commerce is the Salesforce storefront for business buyers. It belongs to Salesforce's Commerce Cloud product line, which was briefly marketed as Agentforce Commerce in 2025 and 2026.

Salesforce Help describes current B2B stores as built on Experience Cloud and Lightning. That means the store sits in the same org as your accounts, contacts, products and orders. Admins configure stores in the Commerce app and adjust page design in Experience Builder. Some long-running stores still use an older architecture, so ask which one you have before planning changes.

Product names, editions and packaging in this area have shifted several times. Confirm current licensing, the store types included and any add-on costs with your Salesforce account team, in writing, before the business case goes to leadership.

Does a full store fit, or would a lighter portal do?

Choose a store when buyers need to browse a catalog, fill a cart and check out at their own prices. Choose a portal when they mostly want status, documents and a way to send a request.

There are three realistic paths. Each puts the ordering work in a different place.

• Experience Cloud customer portal: buyers see order history, invoices and cases, and submit a reorder request that an inside rep confirms. Our Experience Cloud portal guide covers that route.
• B2B Commerce store: buyers search an entitled catalog, see contract prices, check out and create an order without staff touching it.
• A separate e-commerce platform integrated with Salesforce: sensible when a digital team already runs a storefront, or the catalog and checkout live outside Salesforce. Salesforce then receives customers and orders for sales and service.

Signals that a store is worth it include buyers ordering the same SKUs every cycle and inside sales spending hours on data entry. Another sign is customers phoning mainly to ask for a price. A clean, publishable product catalog matters too.

Which data has to be ready before the store opens?

Buyer accounts, buyer users, products, price books and entitlements all need to be right on day one. The store shows exactly what that data allows, so gaps become visible to customers immediately.

A buyer account is a business account enabled for the store, and buyer users are its contacts with store access. Buyer groups collect accounts that share access rules. Entitlement policies decide which products a buyer group can see and purchase. Price books then set prices, either for the whole store or for one buyer group.

Account structure deserves early attention. Distributors and manufacturers often have parent companies, separate ship-to locations and different bill-to entities. Decide which level is the buyer account before loading anything; our account hierarchies article explains the trade-offs.

The catalog needs categories, searchable attributes, units of measure, images and spec sheets. Products and price book entries come from the standard Salesforce objects, which our products and price books guide covers in more depth.

How do account-specific and contract prices get into the store?

They usually come from the ERP. You either load them into buyer-group price books or fetch them live when the cart is priced.

Salesforce Help outlines a few pricing strategies. One uses tiers, with a buyer group, entitlement policy and price book per tier. Another gives each buyer its own price book and buyer group. Tiers stay manageable. Per-buyer price books multiply fast when you have thousands of accounts and frequent price changes.

When pricing is calculated from many rules in the ERP, such as customer-item agreements, quantity breaks and promotions, a live call is often simpler. Salesforce provides Commerce extensions for pricing and inventory so the store can ask an outside service at cart time. A hybrid also works: show tier prices while browsing, then confirm contract prices in the cart.

Inventory follows the same choice. Show availability from the ERP or warehouse system, and be honest in the store about how current it is. Our ERP integration guide and wholesale distributor guide cover the wider sync design.

How do checkout, payments, tax and shipping work?

Checkout calls out to services for shipping rates, tax and payment. Salesforce recommends its Commerce extensions for this, while still supporting the older checkout integration framework.

• Payment terms: many B2B buyers pay on account with a purchase order number. Credit limits and holds usually stay in the ERP.
• Card payments: Salesforce provides a payment adapter framework for gateways. Card data should be tokenized by the payment processor, never stored in Salesforce fields.
• Tax: a tax calculation service or ERP rules, plus a plan for exemption certificates on tax-exempt accounts.
• Shipping: carrier rates, flat rules per delivery group, or freight confirmed after the order for pallet and truckload shipments.

For phase one, decide which charges can be confirmed after placement. Many B2B customers accept an order acknowledgment that adds freight later.

Where do orders go after checkout?

The store creates an order in Salesforce, and the ERP normally fulfills, invoices and remains the system of record. Salesforce Order Management can add order summaries, fulfillment and change handling, but it is licensed separately.

Design the handoff carefully. Decide whether orders go to the ERP immediately or after a credit check. Store the ERP order number back on the Salesforce order. Return status changes, such as shipped, backordered and invoiced, so buyers and reps see the same picture.

Failed syncs need a queue and a named person who clears it every day. Salesforce lists Order Management for B2B on its commerce pages; whether you need it depends on whether your ERP already handles splits, edits and returns well. Confirm scope and licensing with your account team.

Which buyer features cut reorder time?

Reordering from past orders and quick order entry by SKU matter most. Salesforce Help lists both as B2B Commerce capabilities; check which ones your store template enables.

Quick order suits buyers who work from their own purchasing system or a printed stock sheet. Saved lists help customers who restock the same assortment every cycle. Search should handle part numbers, synonyms and the names buyers actually use, which often differ from your internal descriptions.

Salesforce also offers product recommendations, and since June 2026 a generally available B2B Search, a Buyer Agent that takes orders over channels such as WhatsApp and SMS, and a Merchant Agent for catalog management. Treat the agents as later-phase features. Their value depends on catalog quality and order volume, and licensing varies, so confirm it with your account team.

How do sales reps fit in once buyers order online?

Reps should see web orders on their accounts and keep credit for them. Without that, some will quietly steer customers back to email.

Settle commission and credit rules before launch, not after the first complaint. Add a component or related list showing recent web orders on the account page, and report on online share by rep.

Salesforce supports Order on Behalf Of, which lets account managers and service agents place B2B orders for a buyer. That helps when a customer phones in an order, and it puts rep-entered orders through the same pricing and entitlement rules. Confirm setup requirements and licensing for your org.

Who owns each piece of a B2B store?

Ownership spreads across sales operations, e-commerce, IT, operations and finance. Each capability needs one named owner, or problems bounce between teams while customers wait.

How should the rollout be staged?

Start with a small set of pilot customers who reorder often and will tell you what is wrong. Widen access only after their orders reach the ERP without manual fixes.

• Pick pilot accounts with simple pricing, steady volume and a buyer willing to try something new.
• Have the account rep join the first order so questions get answered while the buyer is in the store.
• Keep email and phone ordering open, but reply to emailed orders with a link to the same items in the store.
• Give customer service a short guide to store questions, password resets and order status lookups.
• Add accounts in waves, grouped by pricing model, so each wave tests one new pricing pattern.

How will you know the store is working?

Watch the share of orders placed online and how often those orders need correcting. Both should move in the right direction before you add features.

• Online share of orders or order lines for each pilot account, compared with its previous ordering pattern
• Web orders that needed a manual fix, grouped by cause: price, item, unit of measure or address
• Time from order placement to ERP acceptance
• Active buyer users per account and repeat visits
• Calls and emails asking for prices or order status
• Inside sales time spent keying orders

What should a first B2B store release include?

A store for pilot customers with the catalog they buy, their contract prices, reorder, quick order, on-account checkout and dependable ERP order sync. Card payments, recommendations and agents can usually wait.

• Decide store versus portal versus external platform, and confirm licensing with Salesforce
• Agree buyer account level, buyer groups and entitlement rules
• Clean and enrich catalog data for the pilot assortment
• Choose synced price books, live pricing or a hybrid
• Build order sync to the ERP with status updates and an error queue
• Configure checkout for purchase orders, tax and shipping rules
• Give reps order visibility and settle credit for web orders
• Launch to pilot accounts and review measures before widening