Magento B2B Features — Shared Catalog, Company Accounts and Quotes

In this tutorial, you'll learn how Magento B2B features enable company account management, shared catalogs with custom pricing, negotiable quotes, purchase orders, and requisition lists for wholesale operations.

What You'll Learn

• How to create and manage company accounts with hierarchy
• How to set up shared catalogs with custom pricing per company
• How the negotiable quote workflow works between buyer and seller
• How purchase orders and approval rules control spending
• How requisition lists streamline repeat ordering

Why It Matters

B2B commerce is fundamentally different from B2C. Businesses need negotiated pricing, purchase order workflows, approval processes, and the ability to reorder supplies efficiently. Magento's B2B features, available in Adobe Commerce, provide these capabilities out of the box.

Real-World Use

An office supply company sells to 500 corporate clients. Each client has negotiated prices, a credit limit, and designated approvers for purchases over $500. Buyers within each company submit orders through requisition lists, and orders over the threshold require manager approval before processing.

Learning Path

flowchart LR
    A[Import & Export] --> B[B2B Features]
    B --> C[Extensions Marketplace]
    B --> D[Multi-Store]
    C --> E[Deployment]
    D --> E
    style B fill:#3b82f6,color:#fff

B2B Modules Overview

B2B features in Adobe Commerce are provided through dedicated modules:

Company Accounts

Company accounts are the foundation of B2B commerce in Magento.

Create a Company

1. Go to Customers > Companies
2. Click Add New Company
3. Fill in the required fields:

Company Hierarchy

Companies have a hierarchical structure:

• Company Admin — manages users and settings
• Buyers — place orders up to their permission level
• Approvers — approve orders that exceed thresholds

Create Company Users

From the company detail page:

1. Go to Company Users tab
2. Click Add User
3. Set role (Buyer, Approver, or Company Admin)
4. Assign permission rules

Shared Catalog

Shared catalogs let you show different products and prices to different companies.

How Shared Catalogs Work

1. A shared catalog contains a subset of your product catalog
2. Each product in a shared catalog can have custom pricing
3. Companies are assigned to a shared catalog
4. Customers from those companies see only the assigned catalog with their custom prices

Create a Shared Catalog

1. Go to Stores > Shared Catalogs
2. Click Add Shared Catalog
3. Name the catalog (e.g. "Wholesale Pricing - Tier 1")
4. Select the customer groups it applies to
5. Assign products with custom prices
6. Assign companies

Custom Pricing per Company

Set pricing rules:

• Fixed discount — 15% off all products
• Custom price — specific price per SKU
• Tier pricing — volume-based discounts

# Example shared catalog CSV structure
sku,price,discount
WH-001,45.00,0
WH-002,38.50,0
WH-003,,10%

Negotiable Quotes

The quote workflow lets buyers request price negotiations.

Buyer Workflow

1. Buyer adds products to cart
2. Buyer submits a quote request with desired price
3. Seller reviews the request in admin panel
4. Seller responds with counter-offer or accepted price
5. Buyer accepts or counters
6. Once accepted, buyer converts quote to order

Seller Workflow

1. Go to Sales > Negotiable Quotes
2. Review pending quote requests
3. Adjust prices, add discounts, or modify quantities
4. Add an expiration date for the quote
5. Send response to buyer

Quote Management

# CLI command to clean expired quotes
bin/magento negotiable-quote:clean-expired-quotes

Purchase Orders

Purchase orders enforce spending controls within a company.

PO Workflow

1. Buyer creates cart with desired items
2. Buyer converts cart to purchase order
3. If the order exceeds approval rules, it goes to pending approval
4. Approver reviews and approves or rejects the PO
5. Approved PO becomes an order
6. Order is processed normally by Magento

Approval Rules

Configure approval rules per company:

Configure in Stores > Configuration > Sales > Purchase Order > Approval Rules.

Requisition Lists

Requisition lists are reusable shopping lists for businesses that order the same items regularly.

Create Requisition List

Buyers create lists from their account dashboard:

1. Browse products and add to requisition list
2. Name the list (e.g. "Monthly Office Supplies")
3. Add to cart from the list when reordering

Manage Lists

Users can:

• Create unlimited named lists
• Add products with specific quantities
• Merge list items into cart
• Duplicate lists for different departments

Quick Order

Quick Order lets buyers enter multiple SKUs at once:

• Enter SKUs one per line
• Upload a CSV file with SKUs and quantities
• Paste a tab-separated list

Go to Quick Order page in the customer account.

B2B Payment Methods

B2B customers typically use different payment methods than retail:

Configure in Stores > Configuration > Sales > Payment Methods > B2B.

B2B Shipping

Configure per-company shipping rates:

• Free shipping for companies with orders over $200
• Flat rate per company
• Table rates based on weight or destination
• Company-specific carrier accounts

Common Mistakes

• Creating a company but forgetting to assign a shared catalog, so the company sees the full public catalog with retail prices
• Setting credit limits too high without monitoring, leading to unpaid invoices and bad debt
• Not configuring approval rules, so all purchase orders are automatically approved regardless of amount
• Assigning a sales representative to hundreds of companies, overwhelming that person with quote requests
• Using requisition lists without regular maintenance, resulting in lists with discontinued or obsolete products

Practice Questions

1. What is the relationship between shared catalogs and customer groups?
2. How does the negotiable quote workflow differ from a standard checkout?
3. What happens when a buyer submits a purchase order that exceeds the approval threshold?

Challenge: Set up a complete B2B configuration for a wholesale company: create the company account with 3 buyers and 1 approver, create a shared catalog with 15% discount on all products, configure an approval rule for orders over $500, and test the quote workflow.

FAQ

Mini Project

Create a test scenario: register a new B2B company in a Magento store, assign them to a shared catalog with 10 products at custom pricing, configure an approval rule requiring manager approval for orders over $1,000, create a requisition list with 5 items, submit a purchase order for $1,500, approve it as the manager, and Process the resulting order.

What's Next

Now that you understand B2B features, explore Magento Extensions Marketplace to find modules that extend your store's functionality. Then continue with Magento Multi-Store for managing multiple brands and languages.