The B2B ecommerce app space has grown in leaps and bounds over the years: Current research values the B2B ecommerce market at $20.4 trillion—over five times the value of the B2C market.
With this, the ability to choose the right apps and build the right tech stack has become a difference-maker for leaders looking to build thriving businesses.
Despite the massive market growth, people often underestimate the size and diversity of the app marketplace now available to them. Today’s business leaders choose from a wide spectrum of apps, from all-in-one solutions to countless niche solutions they can help build to fit their business.
Whichever app they choose probably comes with even more add-ons and options, no matter how niche. Picking among too many great options is a good problem to have, but it’s a problem nonetheless.
Whether a business is small and scrappy and trying to scale with minimal expenditure, or an established brand looking to expand, businesses need to narrow down the options before they can test-drive the ones that suit their needs.
Shopify hosts an app marketplace filled with partners that can help merchants leverage best-in-class third-party functionality without losing the benefits of a centralized platform. With Shopify, businesses can narrow the options down without having to vet every single app and integrate it into their business.
The best B2B ecommerce apps
As business leaders look for options, they need to keep in mind that the best B2B ecommerce app will likely be different for each business.
For example, if one business sells relatively expensive products, Affirm might be the key to ensuring customers can afford its products over time. And if a business’s customers are young or tend to lean on influencers for decision-making, then TikTok might be essential for brand-building.
Dynamics 365 Business Central
Dynamics 365 Business Central is a business management app built for small and mid-sized companies. With this app, businesses can easily get a big-picture view of their profits and costs and feel in control of their taxes.
Dynamics 365 Business Central is especially useful for businesses with complex inventory needs, because it can help them optimize inventory management and provide visibility into their purchasing, manufacturing, and warehouse processes. Dynamics 365 Business Central even includes AI features that let businesses leverage inventory data to predict future sales.
Brightpearl
Brightpearl is an app especially suited for B2B merchants and wholesalers who work across multiple channels. The app can help businesses manage everything post-sale, including order management, accounting, and inventory management.
With Brightpearl’s Shopify integration, businesses can maintain a Shopify storefront, use Brightpearl to automate their operations, and integrate their front and back offices.
Infor eCommerce Connector
Infor eCommerce Connector is a Shopify app that allows businesses using Infor M3 to connect to Shopify. The Infor M3 ERP is built for enterprise manufacturers and distributors who need to manage and execute complex processes reliably. With the Infor M3 ERP, users can build a great user experience and assemble comprehensive business analytics even while working across a variety of countries and regions.
Segment
It’s obvious that businesses that know their customers best outperform businesses that don’t, and leaders who take this fact as their first principle often make tools like Segment key to their tech stacks. Segment is a customer data platform (CDP) that allows businesses to collect, clean, enrich, and unify their business data.
With the Segment Shopify app, businesses can automatically send the data generated by their customers on Shopify to Segment, which allows businesses to capture a wide range of customer checkpoints, from their earliest checkout actions to post-purchase behavior.
Affirm
Many businesses suffer from the results of sticker shock, when customers are surprised with higher-than-expected prices. At its worst, sticker shock can cause customers to immediately abandon a purchase without accounting for the real value of a high-quality product.
With Affirm, businesses can reframe expensive, one-time costs as cheaper, pay-as-you-go costs. The Affirm app automatically estimates monthly or bi-weekly payments, allowing customers spread out costs over a longer term. Businesses can drive up average order value (AOV) and ensure customers aren’t constrained by strict budgets when making important purchases.
QuickBooks
A mature approach to accounting is essential for growing businesses. Once businesses enter a growth phase, they need to carefully keep track of where money is coming in, where it’s going out, and what they can do with it. Enter QuickBooks, one of the most well-known accounting tools.
With QuickBooks Online, businesses can track sales and fees, update inventory, and sync their products and orders. When businesses connect QuickBooks to Shopify via the QuickBooks app, they can make all their Shopify financial data easily trackable, enabling them to maximize profitability.
Shippo
The best B2B ecommerce apps allow businesses to think less about the background players so they can focus on growth. Multi-carrier shipping app Shippo allows businesses to work with over 40 global carriers from one place without having to integrate with each one individually.
Shippo is especially useful for small businesses, which can use it to connect to stores and provide customers with tracking information, and businesses with developers on staff who can integrate Shippo via API. With the Shippo Shopify app, businesses can sync all their Shopify orders to Shippo and automate the many workflows between ordering and fulfillment.
Google and YouTube
For many people, search and Google are synonymous—and for good reason. But another Alphabet property, YouTube, may be underrated, as it’s often deemed the second-most popular search engine. With the Google and YouTube app, businesses benefit from connecting their Shopify to both search powerhouses.
With Google, businesses can sync their products and deals to Google Merchant Center and spread the word through Google Search. With YouTube, businesses can extend their brand’s reach via YouTube Shopping, allowing shoppers to make purchases directly from videos.
Facebook and Instagram
Though people often think of Facebook and Instagram as places for B2C businesses, B2B businesses have a home there too. With the official Facebook and Instagram Shopify app, businesses can integrate their Facebook and Instagram accounts and manage them from the same place.
Once connected, businesses can use Facebook and Instagram to grow and track conversions as they fulfill and manage orders via Shopify. This combination gives businesses insights into their best-performing products and most popular content, building a marketing engine that keeps them at the top of customers’ feeds.
Snapchat
Snapchat, like Facebook and Instagram, is often deemed an app useful only for B2C companies—but B2B companies can make smart use of it too. With Gen Z entering the workforce and millennials becoming managers and leaders, Snapchat can be an important way to stay connected with them as their purchasing power grows.
With the Snapchat Shopify app, businesses can use Snapchat Ads to improve sales among these demographics by syncing their product catalog to easily create ads, and using the Snap Pixel to track ad performance.
TikTok
Once considered a trendy app whose bubble would burst like so many before it, TikTok now stands as one of the most popular social media apps in the world. Research shows that in 2022 alone, TikTok experienced a 215% growth rate in brand value, showing it’s increasingly popular as well as loved by those who use it.
With the TikTok app for Shopify, businesses can easily create TikTok ad campaigns and sync their Shopify product catalogs. Once connected, businesses can sell products through videos that appear within users’ feeds and through the TikTok Shop tab.
Businesses have long struggled to capture data on customers’ pre-purchase behavior, but they know that unless customers clicked an ad and immediately converted, there were likely multiple interactions with the brand that ultimately led a customer to hit the buy button.
Pinterest is a go-to tool for shopping and ideating. Long before customers take out their credit cards, they’re building Pinterest boards to have a better idea of what they want. With the Pinterest app for Shopify, businesses can get their products in front of shoppers and automatically update the product catalogs that they organically encounter every day.
X / Twitter
X, formerly Twitter, remains a popular, influential app even after Elon Musk’s tumultuous takeover. Many journalists, business leaders, and tech icons consider it a home, and brands that want to leverage their influence need to have a presence.
With the X and Shopify app, businesses can take part in the influential discourse swirling across X, and turn conversations into conversions. With X Shopping, businesses can spotlight products on their profiles and tease upcoming launches.
Technology partners
We partner with leading software providers like Oracle, Algolia, and Klayvio to bring you all of the advanced features and functionality typically reserved for Enterprise businesses and give you a competitive edge in the market.
- Oracle NetSuite ERP is an enterprise resource planning system that over 38,000 businesses depend on to manage critical daily activities, such as accounting, supply chain management, and procurement.
- Acumatica Cloud ERP is an enterprise resource planning system built for cloud-based midmarket businesses. With this ERP, business leaders can access critical business data from any device, customize their environments without the help of a developer, and easily scale their cloud resources.
- PayPal, one of the most popular online payments systems, gives merchants an easy way to charge customers and an accessible way for users to purchase products.
- Stripe provides payment infrastructure for businesses that operate online and in-person, enabling businesses to accept payments and send payouts at scale.
- Flexport is a global logistic and freight forwarding company with software that gives businesses access to streamlined international shipping processes.
- Algolia is a search-as-a-service platform that provides companies with the ability to implement scalable search functionalities for their websites and applications.
- Cloudflare is a web infrastructure and security company that provides content delivery network services (CDNs). CDNs help companies store and deliver content to users based on their location, reducing latency and increasing page speed.
- Klaviyo is an email marketing platform that businesses use to personalize customer communications and reach customers across a wide range of channels.
Build the right tech stack for a rapidly growing market
The rapid growth of the B2B ecommerce market means there will be many different players trying to serve it, resulting in many options to choose from as you’re building a tech stack.
These are important decisions but not permanent ones. As business leaders weigh their options, they need to make sure they’re not dependent on any one app, and that they have the flexibility to adapt as their business and the market of options change and evolve.
FAQ on B2B Ecommerce Apps
What is the best B2B ecommerce platform?
The best B2B ecommerce platform may vary across businesses and industries, but Shopify stands out because it allows businesses to work with a wide range of third-party partners—giving them the benefits of a centralized platform with the flexibility and extensibility of a customizable tech stack.
What is B2B ecommerce software?
B2B ecommerce software includes platforms and apps that facilitate transactions between businesses. Unlike B2C ecommerce, in which businesses sell directly to consumers, B2B ecommerce software helps businesses sell products or services to other businesses.
How do I create a B2B ecommerce platform?
A B2B ecommerce platform is likely too difficult for an individual business or person to create. For almost all businesses, it’s better to work with a platform like Shopify, which can operate as a business’s core platform while connecting it to many other third-party apps.
Can I use Shopify for B2B?
Shopify is a perfect platform for B2B. With Shopify’s B2B ecommerce features, businesses can run wholesale and direct-to-consumer lines of business on a single platform.
