B2B and B2C are two different business models that serve different types of customers. B2B companies sell products or services to other businesses, while B2C companies sell directly to individual consumers. As a result, these models differ not only in marketing strategies but also in sales cycles, purchasing workflows, pricing, customer relationships, and eCommerce requirements.
The scale of digital B2B commerce makes these differences especially important for eCommerce software providers. According to the U.S. International Trade Administration, the global B2B eCommerce market is expected to reach about $36 trillion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.5%. Therefore, SaaS vendors that support eCommerce businesses increasingly need to understand how B2B workflows differ from B2C operations.
Moreover, digital buying continues to reshape B2B sales. According to McKinsey's 2026 Global B2B Pulse Survey, B2B companies are increasingly combining digital channels, AI, personalization, and sales processes to meet changing buyer expectations.
A B2B marketing strategy therefore differs from marketing to individual consumers. However, the differences between B2B and B2C go beyond promotion. In this article, we compare their customers, buying processes, pricing models, sales cycles, and eCommerce requirements. We also explain why these differences matter for software providers that build solutions for online businesses.
Decision-Making in B2B and B2C
The buying process often differs significantly between B2B and B2C customers. In B2B, purchases may involve several decision-makers, such as managers, finance teams, procurement specialists, and executives. Moreover, companies often need to compare vendors, confirm technical requirements, approve budgets, and negotiate terms before making a purchase. As a result, the B2B buying cycle can take much longer.
B2C customers usually make purchasing decisions faster. For example, they may compare products, read reviews, check prices, or ask friends for recommendations before placing an order. However, most consumer purchases involve fewer decision-makers and a simpler approval process. Therefore, the buying journey can take minutes, hours, or days rather than weeks or months.
B2B and B2C Pricing Models
B2C stores usually display standard product prices to all shoppers. However, retailers can adjust the final price through promotions, loyalty programs, discount codes, subscriptions, or personalized offers. Therefore, B2C pricing often focuses on clear prices and incentives that encourage customers to complete a purchase.
B2B pricing can involve more complex rules. For instance, sellers may offer customer-specific prices, volume discounts, negotiated rates, contract pricing, or different payment terms. Some B2B stores also require customers to sign in before they can see certain prices. Consequently, eCommerce systems that support B2B sales may need to manage pricing at the company, customer, product, and order level.
Types of Relationships in B2B and B2C
B2B companies often focus on building long-term customer relationships because business buyers may place repeat or high-volume orders. In addition, changing suppliers can require new negotiations, technical checks, contracts, or changes to internal workflows. Therefore, reliable service, product availability, pricing terms, and account support can play an important role in retaining B2B customers.
B2C relationships often work differently. Individual consumers can choose between many sellers and may switch brands or stores from one purchase to another. However, B2C companies can encourage repeat purchases through customer service, loyalty programs, subscriptions, personalized offers, and a convenient shopping experience.
Logic and Emotions in B2B and B2C Buying
B2B buyers often evaluate products according to business needs, costs, expected value, technical requirements, and potential risks. For example, a company buying software may compare its features, integration options, pricing, security, and expected return on investment. However, trust and previous experience with a vendor can also influence the final decision.
B2C purchases can involve both practical and emotional factors. Consumers may consider price, quality, reviews, convenience, brand reputation, or personal preferences. In addition, some purchases happen quickly, while expensive products may require much more research. Therefore, the difference between B2B and B2C is not simply logic versus emotion; the buying context and decision process also matter.
Different Day-to-Day Priorities
B2B and B2C companies also have different day-to-day priorities. For example, B2B sellers may focus on account management, contract terms, bulk orders, customer-specific pricing, stock availability, and long-term relationships. They may also need to coordinate orders with procurement, ERP, inventory, or warehouse systems.
B2C sellers, meanwhile, often focus on customer acquisition, product discovery, promotions, checkout experience, order fulfillment, and customer retention. As a result, each business model can create different requirements for the eCommerce software that supports these operations.
These differences become especially important for software providers. An application that supports both B2B and B2C merchants may need to process different pricing rules, customer structures, order workflows, inventory data, and purchasing patterns. Therefore, software vendors need to consider these differences when designing their eCommerce integrations.
What B2B and B2C Differences Mean for eCommerce Software
The differences between B2B and B2C also affect the software that supports online sales. B2C applications often work with standard product catalogs, consumer orders, promotions, and faster checkout flows. B2B software, however, may need to support bulk orders, customer-specific pricing, company accounts, larger order volumes, and more complex purchasing workflows.
As a result, software providers need reliable access to products, orders, customers, inventory, shipments, and other store data. The challenge becomes greater when their customers use different eCommerce platforms. Each platform has its own API structure, data model, authentication flow, and supported features.
Therefore, building separate integrations for every platform can require significant development and maintenance work. This is especially important for SaaS vendors that support both B2B and B2C merchants across multiple sales channels.
How API2Cart Supports B2B and B2C eCommerce Software
API2Cart provides one unified API for connecting software with 70+ eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. Instead of building separate connectors for each platform, developers can use one API layer to work with products, orders, customers, inventory, shipments, categories, and other store data.
For example, an OMS, ERP, wholesale platform, inventory system, or other eCommerce application may need to import orders from Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, and other platforms. With API2Cart, the software can use standardized API methods to retrieve this data from connected stores.
This approach can be useful for both business models. B2C software may use order and customer data to support fulfillment, analytics, or marketing workflows. Meanwhile, B2B software can use the same integration layer to support retailer orders, catalog workflows, inventory updates, and other wholesale operations.
B2B Wholesale Order Management Use Case
Consider a B2B wholesale platform that works with retailers running stores on different eCommerce systems. The platform needs to retrieve new retailer orders and pass them to its internal order management or ERP system.
Without a unified integration layer, developers would need to implement separate order retrieval logic for each supported platform. However, API2Cart provides the order.list method for retrieving order data from connected stores.
For example, the application can send a request like this:
{
"return_code": 0,
"return_message": "string",
"pagination": {
"previous": "string",
"next": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"result": {
"orders_count": 0,
"order": [
{
"id": "string",
"order_id": "string",
"basket_id": "string",
"channel_id": "string",
"customer": {
"id": "string",
"email": "string",
"first_name": "string",
"last_name": "string",
"phone": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"create_at": {
"value": "string",
"format": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"currency": {
"id": "string",
"name": "string",
"iso3": "string",
"symbol_left": "string",
"symbol_right": "string",
"rate": 0,
"avail": true,
"default": true,
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"shipping_address": {
"id": "string",
"type": "string",
"first_name": "string",
"last_name": "string",
"postcode": "string",
"address1": "string",
"address2": "string",
"phone": "string",
"phone_mobile": "string",
"city": "string",
"country": {
"code2": "string",
"code3": "string",
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"state": {
"code": "string",
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"company": "string",
"fax": "string",
"website": "string",
"gender": "string",
"region": "string",
"default": true,
"tax_id": "string",
"identification_number": "string",
"alias": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"billing_address": {
"id": "string",
"type": "string",
"first_name": "string",
"last_name": "string",
"postcode": "string",
"address1": "string",
"address2": "string",
"phone": "string",
"phone_mobile": "string",
"city": "string",
"country": {
"code2": "string",
"code3": "string",
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"state": {
"code": "string",
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"company": "string",
"fax": "string",
"website": "string",
"gender": "string",
"region": "string",
"default": true,
"tax_id": "string",
"identification_number": "string",
"alias": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"payment_method": {
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"shipping_method": {
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"shipping_methods": [
{
"name": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"status": {
"id": "string",
"name": "string",
"history": [
{
"id": "string",
"name": "string",
"modified_time": {
"value": "string",
"format": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"notify": true,
"comment": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"refund_info": {
"shipping": 0,
"fee": 0,
"tax": 0,
"total_refunded": 0,
"time": {
"value": "string",
"format": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"comment": "string",
"refunded_items": [
{
"product_id": "string",
"variant_id": "string",
"order_product_id": "string",
"qty": 0,
"refund": 0,
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"totals": {
"total": 0,
"subtotal": 0,
"shipping": 0,
"tax": 0,
"discount": 0,
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"total": {
"subtotal_ex_tax": 0,
"wrapping_ex_tax": 0,
"shipping_ex_tax": 0,
"total_discount": 0,
"total_tax": 0,
"total": 0,
"total_paid": 0,
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"discounts": [
{
"code": "string",
"value": 0,
"type": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"order_products": [
{
"product_id": "string",
"order_product_id": "string",
"model": "string",
"name": "string",
"price": 0,
"price_inc_tax": 0,
"quantity": 0,
"discount_amount": 0,
"total_price": 0,
"tax_percent": 0,
"tax_value": 0,
"tax_value_after_discount": 0,
"options": [
{
"option_id": "string",
"name": "string",
"value": "string",
"price": 0,
"weight": 0,
"type": "string",
"product_option_value_id": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"variant_id": "string",
"weight_unit": "string",
"weight": 0,
"barcode": "string",
"parent_order_product_id": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"bundles": [
{
"product_id": "string",
"order_product_id": "string",
"model": "string",
"name": "string",
"price": 0,
"price_inc_tax": 0,
"quantity": 0,
"discount_amount": 0,
"total_price": 0,
"tax_percent": 0,
"tax_value": 0,
"tax_value_after_discount": 0,
"options": [
{
"option_id": "string",
"name": "string",
"value": "string",
"price": 0,
"weight": 0,
"type": "string",
"product_option_value_id": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"variant_id": "string",
"weight_unit": "string",
"weight": 0,
"barcode": "string",
"parent_order_product_id": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"modified_at": {
"value": "string",
"format": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"finished_time": {
"value": "string",
"format": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"comment": "string",
"store_id": "string",
"warehouses_ids": [
"string"
],
"refunds": [
{
"id": "string",
"shipping": 0,
"fee": 0,
"tax": 0,
"total": 0,
"modified_time": {
"value": "string",
"format": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"comment": "string",
"items": [
{
"product_id": "string",
"variant_id": "string",
"order_product_id": "string",
"qty": 0,
"refund": 0,
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"gift_message": "string",
"order_details_url": "string",
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
],
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
},
"additional_fields": {},
"custom_fields": {}
}
The response provides order data in the API2Cart structure. As a result, the software can process orders from supported platforms through one integration approach instead of creating separate order-processing logic for every platform.
For B2B wholesale software, this data can support retailer order import, order processing, reporting, and other workflows. In addition, other API2Cart methods can provide access to product, customer, shipment, and inventory-related data where the connected platform supports it.
Why a Unified API Matters for Software Providers
The technical requirements of B2B and B2C may differ, but both models depend on reliable access to commerce data. As platform coverage grows, maintaining separate integrations can consume more engineering resources and slow down product development.
API2Cart allows software vendors to centralize the eCommerce integration layer. Therefore, development teams can spend less time maintaining platform-specific connections and more time building the features that define their products.
If your software needs to work with multiple eCommerce platforms, you can review the API2Cart documentation to explore available methods and supported data structures.
Create a free API2Cart account and start testing your integration with supported eCommerce platforms.
Conclusion: Supporting B2B and B2C with API2Cart
B2B and B2C businesses serve different customers and follow different buying processes. They may require different pricing models, customer relationships, order workflows, and sales strategies. Therefore, software providers need to consider these differences when building solutions for eCommerce businesses.
However, both business models depend on reliable access to commerce data. Software solutions may need to work with products, orders, customers, inventory, shipments, and other store information across multiple eCommerce platforms. Building and maintaining each platform integration separately can require significant development resources.
API2Cart simplifies this process by providing one unified API for 70+ eCommerce platforms and marketplaces. It allows eCommerce software providers to expand their platform coverage through a single integration layer instead of developing separate connections for every platform.
Explore the API2Cart documentation to review available API methods and supported data, or start testing the unified API with your own eCommerce software.
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Already Built Your eCommerce Integrations? Learn How to Market Them
Building an integration is only the first step. B2B eCommerce software vendors also need to make potential customers aware of their integration capabilities and show how these connections solve real business problems.
If your company has already implemented eCommerce integrations, download our whitepaper, “How to Market Your Integrations: Marketing Tips for B2B eCommerce Vendors.” It provides practical recommendations for attracting targeted traffic, promoting integrations, and turning interested prospects into customers.
FAQs
What are B2B and B2C?
B2B and B2C are two common business models. B2B, or business-to-business, describes companies that sell products or services to other businesses. B2C, or business-to-consumer, focuses on selling directly to individual customers. Therefore, the main difference lies in who buys the product or service and how the buying process works.
What is the main difference between B2B and B2C?
The main difference between B2B and B2C is the target customer. B2B companies sell to other businesses, while B2C companies sell to individual consumers. As a result, B2B purchases often involve longer sales cycles, several decision-makers, larger orders, and negotiated terms. In contrast, B2C purchases are usually faster and involve fewer people in the buying decision.
How are B2B and B2C different in eCommerce?
In eCommerce, B2B and B2C businesses often require different purchasing workflows. For example, B2B eCommerce may include bulk orders, customer-specific pricing, quotes, payment terms, and company accounts. B2C stores, however, usually focus on simple checkout, standard pricing, promotions, and fast purchases. Therefore, eCommerce software may need different features and data models to support each type of customer.
Can a company operate as both B2B and B2C?
Yes. A company can sell to both businesses and individual consumers. For example, a manufacturer may sell large wholesale orders to retailers while also selling individual products through its own online store. However, each customer group may need different prices, order processes, payment options, and account features. As a result, companies that combine B2B and B2C often need systems that can support both sales models.
