An Adobe Commerce B2B development agency is a firm that sets up Adobe Commerce's native B2B features and builds what they don't cover. That usually means ERP and PIM integrations, contract pricing feeds, quote and approval workflows and the buyer storefront. To hire well, test B2B depth rather than general Magento experience. Start with how the agency would sync prices, credit and orders with your back office.
This guide covers the B2B skills to check, discovery questions and a sample delivery plan. It also covers the evidence to ask for, how to compare proposals, the main risks and what drives cost.
What does an Adobe Commerce B2B development agency do?
A B2B development agency configures the B2B module, connects it to your back-office systems and builds the buyer experience around it. Configuration is the smaller part. Most of the effort goes into integrations and into the edge cases of how your customers really buy.
Typical scope looks like this:
- Solution design for company structures, catalogs, pricing and approvals.
- Setting up company accounts, shared catalogs, quotes, purchase orders and requisition lists.
- Enterprise resource planning (ERP) integration for prices, credit, stock, orders and invoices.
- Product information management (PIM) integration for product data and attributes.
- Storefront work on Luma, a headless front end or the Edge Delivery Services storefront.
- Data migration for companies, users and order history.
- Testing with pilot accounts, then launch and support.
If you need a refresher on what the module does on its own, start with our guide to Adobe Commerce B2B features. For general agency hiring, engagement models and red flags, see our Adobe Commerce agency guide. This post focuses on what's different when the build is B2B.
Which B2B skills should an Adobe Commerce agency have?
Look for proof in five areas: ERP integration, complex pricing, quotes and approvals, Adobe's extensibility tools and B2B data migration. General Adobe Commerce skill gets an agency onto your list. B2B skill is what should decide the shortlist.
| Skill | Why it matters | How to test it |
|---|---|---|
| ERP integration | Prices, credit and orders usually live there | Ask for an integration design from a past project |
| Complex pricing | Contract and tier prices drive buyer trust | Give them three real price scenarios |
| Quotes and approvals | Workflows vary by customer | Ask how they'd model your approval rules |
| Out-of-process extensibility | Required on the cloud service | Ask what they've built with App Builder and API Mesh |
| Punchout and eProcurement | Large buyers may insist on it | Ask which approach they used and why |
| B2B storefront | Buyers need account, quote and PO pages | Ask to see live B2B storefronts |
| Data migration | Companies, users and history must load cleanly | Ask how they'd run a migration rehearsal |
ERP and PIM integration
The ERP is the hardest dependency in most B2B builds. A strong agency will ask which system owns each price and how often prices change. It will also ask how credit is checked and what happens when the ERP is down. The team should know Adobe's integration starter kit, events, webhooks and App Builder, and be honest about when a middleware layer fits better.
For the PIM, ask how attributes, units of measure and B2B-only fields map into Commerce. Ask how they'd keep the PIM as the master, so nobody ends up fixing product data by hand in the Admin.
Pricing, quotes and approvals
B2B pricing is rarely one list. Expect the agency to ask about shared catalogs, customer-specific prices, tier prices and how quote discounts interact with contract prices. A good agency also knows that shared catalogs take over category permissions when you switch them on, and plans that change carefully.
For approvals, they should map your customers' rules onto Adobe's rule types: order total, shipping cost and number of SKUs. Where a customer wants something those types can't express, they should say so plainly and offer an option. Watch for agencies that promise any approval logic without explaining how.
Punchout and procurement systems
Some enterprise buyers will only order through their own procurement system, using a punchout session from that system into your store. Adobe doesn't document a native punchout feature, and Adobe's Commerce Marketplace lists third-party punchout extensions. Ask the agency which route it has used, what the extension or service costs to run and who supports it after launch.
The cloud service and Edge Delivery Services
On Adobe Commerce as a Cloud Service, the agency must build out-of-process, because PHP customization isn't available there. They also need to know the B2B drop-in components for company management, purchase orders, quotes, requisition lists and quick order. Those drop-ins rely on a B2B compatibility package that Adobe installs on the cloud service. Ask what they've shipped on this stack, not just what they've read about it.
What should you ask in discovery?
Good discovery questions force the agency to engage with how your customers really buy. Use these in early calls and notice who answers with specifics and who answers with slides.
- How would you model our three most complex customer accounts?
- Which system should own prices, credit, stock and order status, and why?
- How fresh does each data flow need to be, and what happens when a sync fails?
- Which of our needs are native, which need configuration and which need custom code?
- What would you build differently on the cloud service compared with PaaS?
- How would you handle punchout for the buyers who need it?
- How will you test approval rules and quotes with real buyers before launch?
- What will our team need to run ourselves after go-live?
Strong agencies ask you hard questions back. Expect requests for sample price files, order volumes, account counts and examples of credit holds or pricing disputes. If an agency doesn't ask, it's guessing.
What does an Adobe Commerce B2B delivery plan look like?
A sound plan puts integrations and pricing first, then features and storefront, then a pilot. The durations below are indicative only. They assume one ERP, one PIM, one main storefront and a client team that can make decisions quickly.
| Phase | What happens | Indicative length |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and design | Customer models, data ownership, architecture | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Foundations | Environments, catalog, base configuration | 4 to 6 weeks |
| Integrations | ERP, PIM and other back-office flows | 8 to 16 weeks, in parallel |
| B2B features and storefront | Accounts, catalogs, quotes, POs, buyer pages | 8 to 12 weeks, in parallel |
| Migration and testing | Data loads, test cycles, user acceptance | 4 to 8 weeks |
| Pilot and waves | A few companies first, then the rest | 4 to 12 weeks |
Several things stretch these ranges: more than one ERP, poor price data, custom product configurators and many regions and languages. Rebuilding the storefront at the same time and slow internal sign-off add time too. Clean data, standard approval rules and a decision-maker who's available every week shorten them.
Ask each agency to show its own plan in this shape. If integrations appear as a single line late in the plan, that's a warning sign.
Who owns the ERP side?
In many B2B projects, two firms touch the same integration: the commerce agency and the partner that runs your ERP. Decide early who builds each end, who owns the shared data mapping and who answers the phone when an order fails to post. Put that split in both contracts.
Gaps between the two firms are where launch dates tend to slip. Hold a joint integration workshop in the first month, with both teams plus your finance and sales operations leads. It tends to surface the hard questions while they're still cheap to answer.
What evidence should you ask an agency for?
Ask for evidence that's specific to B2B and that you can check. A logo slide proves little. A walkthrough of a live buyer portal, with the agency explaining what it built, proves a lot.
- B2B case studies that name the features used, the ERP involved and what changed for buyers.
- References from B2B merchants you can call, ideally ones with a similar ERP.
- Sample artifacts such as an integration specification, a data ownership matrix or a test plan, with client details removed.
- Named team members, with their roles and how much of their time you'll get.
- Certifications you can verify in Adobe's credential system. Our guide to Adobe Commerce experts explains which ones matter for each role.
- Adobe partner standing, checked in Adobe's own partner directory rather than on the agency's slides.
On that last point, services firms sit in Adobe's Solution Partner Program, whose levels run from Bronze through Silver and Gold to Platinum. A level tells you about the firm's overall Adobe relationship, not its B2B depth, so treat it as one signal among several.
Our guide to choosing Adobe Commerce partners explains how to verify a firm's standing. Profiles in our directory also say when a firm's current Adobe tier couldn't be confirmed at last check.
When you call references, skip the general satisfaction question. Ask what went wrong with the ERP integration and how the agency handled it. Ask how long the first price sync took to stabilize, and whether they'd hire the same team for their next B2B project.
How do you compare Adobe Commerce B2B development agency proposals?
Compare proposals on how well they understand your B2B model, not on the headline price. Put every proposal into the same structure first, so you're comparing like with like.
| Criterion | What good looks like | Red flag |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding | Restates your customer models accurately | Generic B2B feature list |
| Native vs custom | Clear split, with reasons | Everything custom, or nothing |
| Integrations | Each flow scoped and estimated | One line called "integration" |
| Team | Named people with B2B history | Unnamed roles, heavy subcontracting |
| Testing | Pilot accounts and approval scenarios | Testing only at the end |
| Run phase | Support, upgrades and monitoring priced | Nothing about life after launch |
Then ask each shortlisted agency to walk you through its estimate for one integration in detail. You'll learn more from that hour than from the rest of the document. Our Adobe Commerce RFP template gives every bidder the same structure, and our compare tool lets you set firms side by side.
What are the biggest risks in a B2B build, and how do you reduce them?
B2B builds tend to run into the same few problems: the ERP, the data and too much customization. None of them should surprise a good agency, which is why strong proposals name them up front.
- ERP bottlenecks. The ERP team is often busy and its APIs may be thin. Agree access, test data and a named ERP contact before the build starts.
- Messy price data. If contract prices live in spreadsheets, clean them first. Shared catalogs can't fix bad data for you.
- Over-customizing native features. Rewriting quotes or approvals in PHP makes upgrades harder. It also blocks a later move to the cloud service, which only allows out-of-process extensions.
- Version drift on PaaS. B2B versions are tied to Commerce versions. Plan upgrades together and read the compatibility notes.
- Background jobs that stop. On PaaS, shared catalog prices, quote prices and purchase orders depend on message queue consumers. Make monitoring them part of the support plan.
- Storefront gaps. In June 2026, the Edge Delivery Services company hierarchy block handled a parent and its direct children only. Check current drop-in limits against your account structures.
- Payment limits in approvals. Adobe lists PayPal Express and Braintree as the online methods supported in purchase order approval flows. Confirm your gateway works before you design around it.
A simple control helps with most of these. Ask for a risk log in the proposal, with an owner and a mitigation for each item. Then review it every week during the build.
How much does an Adobe Commerce B2B build cost?
There's no reliable public price for a B2B build, and Adobe doesn't publish list prices for Adobe Commerce or the B2B module. Cost follows scope, so focus on the drivers and ask every bidder to price them separately.
- The number of integrations, and how close to real time each one must be.
- How many custom catalogs, price rules and approval patterns you support.
- Whether punchout, configure-price-quote (CPQ) tools or a custom configurator are in scope.
- The storefront choice, and whether it's being rebuilt at the same time.
- The number of sites, languages and regions.
- Data migration volume and quality.
- Support, monitoring and upgrades after launch.
Engagement models, such as fixed scope, time and materials or a retainer, change how risk is shared rather than what the work costs. The agency guide linked earlier explains how each model behaves.
What should you do next?
Prepare before you talk to agencies, and you'll get sharper proposals back. A short summary of your customers and systems is enough to start an Adobe Commerce B2B development agency search.
- Document three to five real customer accounts, with their structures, prices and approvals.
- List every system the store must talk to, and which one owns each kind of data.
- Mark the needs you suspect aren't native, such as punchout or configurators.
- Decide your deployment and storefront, or ask agencies to recommend one with reasons.
- Shortlist three or four agencies with B2B evidence, and send them the same brief.
- Score proposals against the table above, then call references.
To build your shortlist, start with our Adobe Commerce partner finder and filter for the evidence you care about.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between an Adobe Commerce agency and a B2B development agency?
Any Adobe Commerce agency can build a store, but a B2B specialist has done the harder parts many times: syncing contract prices and credit with an ERP, modeling company hierarchies, configuring approval rules and supporting sales reps who quote. Ask for B2B case studies that name the ERP and the features used. General retail references don't prove B2B depth.
Should the ERP partner or the commerce agency build the integration?
Often both play a part. The commerce agency usually owns the Adobe Commerce side and any middleware, while the ERP partner owns the ERP endpoints and data rules. What matters is that one party owns the end-to-end flow and its support. Write the split into both contracts, and hold a joint design session before either team starts building.
Does Adobe certify B2B specialists?
Adobe certifies individuals for Adobe Commerce developer, business practitioner and architect roles, and it rates firms through partner levels in the Solution Partner Program. Neither is a B2B-specific badge. Check certifications in Adobe's credential system and partner standing in Adobe's partner directory, then judge B2B depth from case studies, references and how the team answers your scenarios.
Can an agency add punchout to Adobe Commerce?
Yes, but it isn't a documented native feature, so it's extra scope. Agencies typically use a third-party punchout extension listed on Adobe's Commerce Marketplace or build a custom connector to buyers' procurement systems. Ask which route they'd take, who supports it after launch and what the running costs are, since some services charge their own subscription.
How many agencies should I invite to bid on a B2B build?
Three or four is usually enough to see a real range of approaches without drowning your team in proposals. Send every agency the same brief, the same sample accounts and the same price scenarios. Then hold a working session with each shortlisted firm on one integration, which shows far more than the written proposal does.
What should a B2B agency proposal include?
It should restate your customer models, split native features from configuration and custom code, and scope each integration separately. Look for a named team, a phased plan with a pilot, a test approach for quotes and approvals, a risk log and priced support after launch. Proposals that bundle integration into one line make later disputes likely.