B2B Edition

Overview

The B2B Edition developer documentation contains helpful resources for building custom B2B experiences. Use the information in the Overview to familiarize yourself with B2B Edition and gather necessary tools for development.

What is B2B Edition?

B2B Edition is BigCommerce’s all-in-one solution that offers enterprise-level B2B functionality to businesses of all types and sizes. It enables business owners to facilitate their B2B operations online and to provide customers with self-service account capabilities and seamless transactions.

B2B Edition integrates directly into your control panel, seamlessly blending the backend functionality of BigCommerce with a suite of tools for managing the different aspects of your B2B storefront experience, such as:

  • Company accounts for managing client business relationships and configuring unique features
  • Sales quotes to offer personalized deals with customized products and negotiated pricing
  • Invoice management to facilitate purchase orders paid on net terms
  • User roles to tailor access control for Company buyers and backend staff
  • Assigning sales agents as Super Admins and Sales Staff to assist clients from the storefront and backend respectively

In addition to its management tools, B2B Edition includes the Buyer Portal: a unique storefront account area for Company users to efficiently handle their B2B purchasing workflows, such as requesting sales quotes or paying outstanding invoices. Stores can use the default version of the Buyer Portal, or a customized build (opens in a new tab) for Stencil and headless storefronts alike.

To learn more about B2B Edition’s tools, settings, and storefront features, see the B2B Edition User Guide (Help Center) (opens in a new tab).

Start Developing with B2B Edition

Before you can start building a custom B2B solution, you’ll need a developer sandbox that can access our APIs. Use these steps to obtain the necessary tools and proceed with your development workflow.

Create a Sandbox Store

To request a non-transactional sandbox store for development, fill out the form located in the "Create A Sandbox Store" step of the BigCommerce API Overview (opens in a new tab). The developer sandbox is free of charge.

To request B2B Edition provisioning on your store, install the B2B Edition app (opens in a new tab) from the marketplace and then contact our support team (opens in a new tab) to start the process. If you are a BigCommerce Partner (opens in a new tab), reach out to your partner manager to request B2B Edition.

In your request, make sure to specify whether you are developing on B2B Edition’s Buyer Portal experience (opens in a new tab) or the legacy storefront experience (opens in a new tab). New B2B Edition stores use the Buyer Portal experience by default.

Generate API Credentials

Depending on what you are developing, you may need auth tokens for B2B Edition’s Server to Server Management APIs or the REST Storefront and GraphQL APIs.

You can create an API account (opens in a new tab) from Settings › API Accounts in your B2B Edition control panel to authenticate requests to the REST Management API. You can also generate management and storefront tokens via API requests. See Authentication for hosted storefronts (opens in a new tab) to learn more.

Storefront auth tokens are associated with an existing B2C storefront customer or B2B Company user to authenticate requests. These tokens are typically generated using the REST Management API or via direct authentications with the storefront APIs. For tokens associated with Company users, the user’s assigned role and permissions determine which requests are authorized. See Company Roles and Permissions for a complete list of Company user permissions.

If you are building an integration that affects non-B2B resources of a BigCommerce store, such as products or orders, you must also create a BigCommerce store-level API account (opens in a new tab) with the correct OAuth scopes.

Choose Your Development Workflow

Now that you have a sandbox store with the necessary auth tokens, you can start building your solution. Use the links below to find helpful information related to a specific development path.

  • B2B Edition APIs (opens in a new tab) — Review the resources and usage information for B2B Edition Server to Server Management and Storefront APIs. The Storefront API resources list the equivalent GraphQL API query or mutation for each endpoint.
  • GraphQL Playground (opens in a new tab) — The playground includes documentation and schemas for B2B GraphQL API requests, as well as an environment for testing responses. It is recommended to use the GraphQL API instead of the Storefront REST API for storefront development on B2B Edition’s Buyer Portal experience.

Additional Resources

As you proceed with your development, consult these resources for best practices, tips, and helpful reference material.

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