Best B2B e-commerce platforms for wholesalers: how to choose in 2026

A wholesaler with 150 employees, an ERP and a few hundred customers on negotiated prices asks which B2B e-commerce platform to choose. The honest answer starts with questions, not product names. This guide walks through those questions and then through the platforms that fit each answer. Fonda is one of the platforms covered, so read that section with that in mind and check every fact with the vendor.

Six questions that narrow the field before you book a demo

Which ERP do you run? This filters fastest. Sana reads prices and stock directly from SAP and Microsoft Dynamics, and its integrations page names no other systems. If your company runs on Exact or AFAS, the two mid-market ERPs you meet most often in the Netherlands and Belgium, Sana is out. For the other platforms it depends on who builds the connection and who maintains it.

How many customer-specific prices do you have, and how often do they change? Any platform handles two or three price lists. With hundreds of negotiated contracts, the price has to come live from the ERP, or you build a synchronisation that someone has to watch.

Do your largest customers order from inside their own procurement system? Then you need PunchOut. Not every platform has it as standard, and it is one of the first requirements to fall over in a tender. Our PunchOut guide explains how it works.

Who keeps the platform running? With an in-house IT team or a regular agency you can pick a flexible foundation. Without one, you want the vendor to carry updates, security and integrations.

How rich is your product data? Spec sheets, certificates, translations and photos do not belong in an ERP. Ask whether a PIM and a media library come with the platform or have to be bought separately.

What does the pricing model look like? A subscription per package, a licence plus project costs, apps that each bill separately and day rates for custom work can all be defended. They cannot be compared until you add everything up over three years.

Which platform fits which situation

Below, each situation lists the option that comes up first, what the vendor itself says about its platform and what to check. For a head-to-head with Fonda, see the platform comparison pages.

You run SAP or Microsoft Dynamics and the ERP must be the single source

Sana Commerce was built for this. According to Sana, prices, stock, customer and order data are read straight from the ERP, with no middleware and no copy or cache. Customer-specific prices and contract terms are fetched live at every login. Supported systems are SAP ECC, S/4HANA and Business One, plus Dynamics AX, 365 Finance and Operations, NAV and Business Central.

Sana does not publish prices or a fixed lead time. Both depend on the complexity of your ERP and are settled during discovery, so ask for a plan and a quote based on your exact ERP version.

You also sell to consumers, or your pricing is simple

Everyone knows Shopify, and it now has a B2B layer. According to the Shopify Help Center, B2B is available on the Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, and the plan you are on decides which features you get. Shopify itself lists company accounts with their own prices and payment terms per location, B2B catalogs, quantity rules and volume pricing, payment terms from Net 7 to Net 90, and draft orders that let a salesperson enter a quote price. For the ERP, Shopify points to APIs and integrations with external systems.

PunchOut is not among the B2B features Shopify lists. If your larger customers order from their procurement system, ask how that gets solved and what it costs. For a wholesaler with a heavy ERP and many contract prices the limit usually sits at the integration, not at the storefront. We cover it in Shopify for a B2B webshop: when is it enough?

You have a development team or a regular agency

Shopware is a flexible base that you shape yourself. Its B2B features come as B2B Components, delivered through the Shopware Commercial extension from the Evolve plan upward. According to Shopware's documentation they cover sub-accounts with roles, approval flows, quick order by item number or CSV upload, quote management and budgets per organisation unit. Customer-specific prices per organisation unit arrived with version 6.7.8.0.

The documentation does not mention ERP integration or PunchOut. Ask your partner who builds the ERP connection, what it costs and who maintains it with every Shopware update.

Your ERP has its own webshop module, such as Odoo

While your catalog stays manageable and your price agreements differ little, the ERP's own module can be enough. Where it stops is covered in ERP webshop module vs a dedicated B2B e-commerce platform.

You want it built to your own specification

That buys you freedom and hands you the maintenance. What it means for time and dependence is in SaaS B2B platform vs custom-built.

You are larger than a mid-sized company, or run several shops in different languages and currencies

Intershop and Spryker are B2B platforms that mostly serve larger organisations. commercetools supplies an API layer on which you build the storefront yourself. They bring more features and a heavier project. In our view that is usually more platform than a company with 20 to 300 employees needs. Fonda targets those mid-sized companies and says itself that anyone running multiple international shops in different languages and currencies fits a larger platform better.

You use Exact, AFAS, Business Central, SAP or Odoo, have many customer prices and no in-house IT team

Fonda has standard connectors for SAP Business One and S/4HANA, Dynamics 365 Business Central, Exact Online and Exact Globe, Odoo and AFAS. Prices and stock sync in real time and orders flow back into the ERP automatically. Product content such as descriptions, photos and translations lives in Fonda's PIM and DAM, not in your ERP. The price is a fixed amount per package, regardless of the number of users or SKUs. According to Fonda, customers go live within an average of one month, depending on the ERP and the catalog.

The limits: if your ERP is not on the list, Fonda looks at it case by case and there is no guarantee. A feature that falls outside the platform needs an external integration, because you do not build on top of it yourself. More about the connectors is on the ERP integrations page.

What to ask every vendor

Test with your own data. Ask for a trial with ten of your own items and a few customers with their real prices. Demo data says nothing about your ERP.

Ask what happens when the ERP is briefly unreachable. Does the customer see an error, an old price or nothing?

Ask for each feature whether it is standard. Bring your list of hard requirements and have the vendor point out for each one whether it sits in the platform, in an extension or in custom work. An extension comes with its own price and its own update cycle.

Calculate three years. Add licence, subscription, apps, partner hours, hosting and integrations, for year two and three as well. The licence alone compares nothing.

Ask what happens at an ERP upgrade. Who retests the connection, and at whose cost?

Ask how you leave. Can you export your products, customers and price lists yourself, and in which format?

Ask who picks up the phone when the connection stalls. In which language, until what time, and with access to your environment or not.

Frequently asked questions

Which B2B e-commerce platform is best for a wholesaler?

There is no universal best. Start with your ERP, then look at your price agreements and decide who maintains the platform. That usually leaves two or three platforms to compare side by side.

Which platform fits Exact or AFAS?

Sana's integrations page names only SAP and Microsoft Dynamics. With Shopify and Shopware the connection runs through integrations or extensions, which is an extra project. Fonda has standard connectors for Exact Online, Exact Globe and AFAS.

Is Shopify suitable for a B2B wholesaler?

With simple pricing, few customer groups and a light ERP, it can be. With many contract prices or a heavy ERP, the integration becomes the bottleneck. The trade-off is in our article Shopify for a B2B webshop.

What does a B2B e-commerce platform cost?

It depends on the model: a subscription per package, a licence plus implementation, apps on top of a base platform, or day rates for custom work. Compare over three years, not just the year-one licence.

How long until you are live?

Your ERP and your catalog decide that, not an average. Sana names no fixed duration and settles it in discovery. Fonda says an average of one month. Ask every vendor for a plan based on your own ERP version.