B2B Webshops: Price Lists, Invoices, Customer Accounts
By CodexierPublished 6 min read
A B2B webshop looks like a consumer store and behaves like an order desk. The buyer already has a negotiated price, wants to pay by invoice, orders on behalf of a company with several people involved, and may need to re-order the same fifty items every month. This guide covers the features that make that work and the platforms that support them.
How B2B buying differs
The mechanism behind every B2B feature is that the buyer is a professional doing a job. They know the article number, they have a budget code, and they need the purchase to be booked correctly on both sides. A consumer store optimises for discovery and impulse; a B2B store optimises for speed, accuracy and the accounting trail.
Customer-specific price lists
Most B2B companies already have price lists: a base list, customer groups with a discount level, and a handful of accounts with individually negotiated prices on specific articles. The webshop has to show each logged-in buyer their own price, excluding VAT, and it has to get that price from the same place the ERP or invoicing system uses, or the two will drift and the invoice will not match the order.
| Pricing need | How it is usually built | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|
| Customer groups with discount levels | Groups or tags on the account, rule-based pricing | Groups that nobody maintains after the first year |
| Negotiated prices on specific articles | Price list per account, synced from the ERP | Manual edits in two systems |
| Volume tiers | Quantity breaks on the product | Tiers that do not match the ERP's rounding |
| Prices hidden until login | Catalogue mode for visitors | Google cannot index prices, which is usually fine in B2B |
| Currency and VAT by country | Per-market settings, VAT number validation | Reverse charge must be applied correctly for EU customers |
The single most important design decision is which system owns the price. Pick one, sync one way, and never let the shop become a second source of truth.
Invoice payment and credit checks
Business buyers expect to pay by invoice, typically thirty days. That means the shop has to decide, at checkout, whether this account may buy on credit and up to what amount. New accounts are checked against a credit reference service (UC or Creditsafe are the Swedish standards) and given a limit; existing accounts get their limit from the ERP. Orders above the limit go to manual approval rather than being rejected.
- Credit limit per account, with the open balance pulled from the invoicing system.
- Invoice created automatically in Fortnox or Visma when the order ships, with the buyer's reference and cost centre carried over.
- E-invoice via Peppol for customers who require it, which is increasingly the public sector and larger companies.
- Card or Swish as a fallback for small or new accounts that do not pass the credit check.
- Payment terms shown on the account, not negotiated in the checkout.
The Fortnox connection is usually the deciding technical piece: if the order, the customer and the invoice flow into the ledger without re-typing, the shop pays for itself in admin hours alone.
Company accounts with several buyers
A company account is a hierarchy: the company, its delivery addresses, its users, and the rules about who may do what. A site manager may order up to a limit, a purchaser may approve, and finance may see invoices but not order. Without this, buyers share one login, nobody knows who ordered what, and the approval step happens by email outside the system.
Roles
Buyer, approver, administrator. Keep it to three; more roles than that are rarely used.
Approval flow
Orders over a threshold wait for an approver, who gets an email with one-click approve or reject.
Multiple addresses
Sites, warehouses, projects. The buyer picks from a list; the invoice address stays fixed.
Order history and re-order
Every past order re-orderable in one click, and a quick-order form that accepts pasted article numbers.
Platform options for B2B
Shopify's native B2B features (company accounts, price lists, invoice terms) live on its top-tier plan, which is expensive for a small wholesaler; on lower plans you rely on apps that cover most needs but not the approval flow. WooCommerce handles B2B through a small set of mature plugins for price lists, invoice payment and company accounts, and its open code makes ERP integration straightforward. Swedish B2B-first platforms exist for larger catalogues with complex pricing, at a correspondingly higher running cost.
When you do not need a B2B webshop: if you have a dozen accounts that order by email and phone, a good order form and a Fortnox integration may serve you better than a store nobody logs into. Build the shop when order volume or article count makes manual entry the bottleneck. Our custom e-commerce features package covers price lists, invoice checkout and the ERP sync on top of a Shopify or WooCommerce base from 24,990 kr; the full price list is on the pricing page, and a short call is the quickest way to find out which platform fits your catalogue.
- Custom E-Commerce Features & IntegrationsCustomer price lists, invoice payment with credit limits, company accounts and Fortnox or Visma sync.
- Store SetupThe Shopify or WooCommerce base the B2B features are built on.
- Book a free 15-minute callDescribe your price lists and how customers order today; we tell you which platform handles it and what it would cost.
Frequently asked questions
Can I run B2B and B2C in the same webshop?
Yes, and it is common: visitors see consumer prices including VAT, and logged-in business accounts see their own prices excluding VAT. The checkout has to switch payment options and VAT handling by account type, and the legal information for consumers must still be in place. Keep the two catalogues the same to avoid double maintenance.
How do I handle VAT for EU business customers?
Validate the customer's VAT number against the EU's VIES service at registration, store the result, and apply reverse charge on invoices to valid EU businesses outside Sweden. The invoice must state that reverse charge applies and carry both VAT numbers. Most B2B plugins and Shopify's B2B features support this once it is configured.
Should prices be visible without login?
It depends on whether competitors seeing your list prices matters more than new customers finding you. Many wholesalers show list prices publicly and negotiated prices after login, which keeps the catalogue useful for search and still protects the agreements. Hiding everything behind a login is fine if your customers already know you.
What does the credit check cost per new customer?
Credit reference services charge per lookup or by subscription, and the price depends on the provider and volume, so we do not quote a figure here. For a small wholesaler, checking only accounts that ask for invoice terms above a modest amount keeps the cost low; below that, a card payment on the first order is a simpler control.
Do your customers still order by email?
Bring your price list structure and a typical order. In fifteen minutes we tell you which platform handles your pricing and invoicing natively, what would need custom work, and what it costs.
Book a free 15-minute call