Executive Summary
Many B2B companies hold back from selling online because a standard storefront treats every visitor the same. That doesn’t match how B2B actually works, where a weekly pallet buyer on Net 60 is a very different customer from a first-time buyer paying by card. Sales teams notice, and they either ignore the site or fight it.
EcoProducts, a large supplier of sustainable packaging, faced this on its path to a B2B-ready store. We built a custom BigCommerce app that shows each customer group only the products meant for them and assigns payment terms like Net 30 and Net 60 by account. Across the full replatforming effort, automation and account-level customization helped EcoProducts avoid one to two additional hires, an estimated $80,000 to $90,000 in annual savings.
At a Glance
EcoProducts
B2B packaging and distribution
BigCommerce
A default storefront couldn’t tell customers apart by product access, pricing, or payment terms
A custom BigCommerce app for customer-group product visibility and per-account payment terms
An estimated $80,000 to $90,000 in annual savings across the overall project, from avoided hires
Problem / Challenge
Traditional eCommerce platforms assume every visitor sees the same products, sees the same prices, and pays the same way. That works for a consumer buying a pair of shoes. It breaks down when you sell to businesses with negotiated pricing, credit terms, and account-specific catalogs. The everyday friction looks like this:
That includes items that aren’t relevant, aren’t available to them, or are restricted to specific accounts, which makes buying confusing and unprofessional.
You either publish rates that undercut your negotiated deals, or hide pricing entirely and push everyone back to a phone call.
There’s no way to honor the Net 30 or Net 60 terms your best accounts earned over years of doing business with you.
The website doesn’t reflect the relationship they’ve built, so they fight the site or ignore it.
Why the default setup falls short
This isn’t a BigCommerce shortcoming so much as a gap between what the platform does out of the box and what a real B2B account structure needs. Standard customer groups can control which products a segment of buyers sees, but they don’t natively let you assign different payment terms, like Net 30 for one account and Net 60 for another, based on that account’s history with you. That account-level logic doesn’t exist by default. It has to be built on top.
Solution
For EcoProducts, we built a custom BigCommerce app that makes the storefront follow the same account rules the business already runs on.
Specific products are visible only to the customer groups they’re meant for, so buyers see a clean, relevant catalog instead of a wall of irrelevant items.
Terms like Net 30 and Net 60 are assigned per account based on predefined criteria, so larger buyers can keep managing payments the way they always have.
Customers get the speed of ordering online without stripping away the flexibility the sales team has always offered.
Business Outcome
A storefront that scales B2B sales without asking the sales team to give up the flexibility behind their customer relationships.
✓ Cleaner buying experience. Each account sees the products relevant to it.
✓ Payment terms that match the relationship. Larger, longer-standing accounts order on terms instead of paying upfront like one-time shoppers.
✓ Roughly $80,000 to $90,000 in estimated annual savings across the overall replatforming project, from avoiding the need to hire one to two additional employees.
Platform Considerations
Good for controlling product visibility by segment. Per-account payment terms and deeper account logic usually need a custom app or extension. Read more: BigCommerce vs Shopify Plus for hybrid B2B and B2C.
If your sales team negotiates rates, plan for how those rates will be reflected online so reps don’t need manual overrides. See also: Shopify Plus vs Adobe Commerce vs BigCommerce for a mid-size B2B wholesaler.
The storefront works best when sales leaders are involved early, since the goal is to support the sales team rather than replace its judgment.
Where Folio3 Can Help
If your team resists sending customers to your website, or your online store still can’t reflect account pricing, product access, or payment terms, we can help. We specialize in B2B eCommerce, including:
✓ Customer-group product visibility and gated catalogs
✓ Custom payment terms and approval logic per account
✓ Custom BigCommerce apps and integrations
✓ B2B storefront replatforming
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. Customer groups can control which products each segment of buyers sees, and a custom app can extend that to fit more specific account rules.
Not at the per-account level. Assigning different terms to different accounts based on their history with you typically requires a custom app or extension.
By building account-specific pricing into the storefront, so the rates your sales team negotiated are the rates each customer sees, with no manual overrides.
It shouldn’t. A well-built B2B storefront handles routine ordering so reps can focus on relationships, and it respects the terms and pricing they’ve already set.
Standard setups assume every visitor is an anonymous shopper who sees the same prices and pays the same way. B2B accounts have negotiated pricing, credit terms, and account-specific catalogs.
Packaging, industrial supply, and distribution companies with a mix of small buyers, regional distributors, and large accounts, each with different pricing, access, and terms.
