TL;DR
WooCommerce already covers the basics of selling to businesses: customer accounts, offline payment methods like bank transfer, order statuses and emails. What it doesn’t include are the things that make business buying different: trade prices, paying on invoice terms, tax-exempt customers, purchase order numbers, quotes, minimum orders, and several people ordering for one company. Each of those comes from a plugin or custom code, and most stores only need a few of them.
B2B has a reputation for needing a huge, all-in-one setup. In practice, most stores selling to businesses need two or three specific things, and which ones depends entirely on how their customers buy. This guide goes through what WooCommerce does on its own, what it doesn’t, and a sensible order to fill the gaps.
What WooCommerce already does
- Customer accounts with order history and saved addresses.
- Offline payment methods. Direct bank transfer and Check payments place the order On hold until you confirm the money has arrived. Cash on delivery is there too. You can rename any of them, so “Check payments” can become “Pay by invoice”.
- Order statuses and emails, including sending a customer an email with a link to pay for an order from WP Admin.
- Coupons, which can be limited to specific email addresses. Some stores use them for simple trade discounts.
- Taxes by location, with rates you set per country or region.
What usually needs a plugin
| What customers ask for | Why business buyers need it | In WooCommerce itself? |
|---|---|---|
| Trade or wholesale prices | Business customers expect different prices from the public. | No |
| Paying on terms, such as Net 30 | Many companies pay after delivery, against an invoice. | Partly: bank transfer and check hold the order without payment, but there are no credit limits or due dates. |
| Tax-exempt customers | Resellers and some organisations don’t pay sales tax or VAT. | No setting. Developers can mark a customer as exempt in code. |
| Purchase order numbers | The buyer’s accounts team won’t pay an invoice without one. | No field. The order notes box is the usual workaround. |
| Quotes | Large or custom orders get priced before they’re placed. | No |
| Minimum order quantity or amount | Trade pricing often only works above a certain size. | No |
| Hiding prices from the public | Trade prices shouldn’t be visible to everyone. | No |
| PDF invoices | Accounts teams file and pay invoices, not order emails. | No |
| Several people ordering for one company | Different staff order, and someone signs off on big orders. | No |
Start from what your customers ask for
The quickest way to find your list is to look at why customers don’t order online today. Check your inbox and your phone orders. The same few requests tend to come up:
- “We need to pay by invoice.” You need payment terms. See how to offer Net 30 in WooCommerce.
- “Our accounts team needs a PO number on the invoice.” You need a PO field and invoices that show it. See what a PO number is and how to collect it.
- “The prices on your site aren’t our prices.” You need trade pricing.
- “My colleague needs to order too” or “I want to approve big orders.” You need company accounts. See several people from one company on one account.
If nobody asks for quotes, skip quotes. Every feature you add is one more thing to configure, test and keep updated.
One big suite or a few focused plugins?
B2B suites put many of these features in one plugin with one settings area. That’s convenient if you need most of them. The cost is a lot of settings, and features you’ll never use still run on your store.
Focused plugins each do one job. You install only what you need, but you have more plugins to keep updated and check against each other.
Neither is right for everyone. Whichever way you go, test on a staging copy of your store first, because most B2B features change checkout, and checkout is where conflicts show up. Check both the block checkout and the classic one if you use either.
A sensible order to set things up
- Prices. If trade customers see the wrong prices, nothing else matters.
- How they pay. Card, bank transfer or terms.
- Paperwork. PO numbers, invoices, tax exemption.
- Who can order. Company accounts, approvals and spending limits.
- Convenience. Quick reorder lists and bulk order forms.
For transparency: I make CrewCommerce, which covers step 4 and the reorder list in step 5. Everything else on this page needs other tools.
Questions people ask
Can WooCommerce be used for B2B?
Yes. WooCommerce handles accounts, orders, offline payments and emails. Features specific to business buyers, such as trade prices, payment terms, PO numbers, quotes and company accounts, come from plugins or custom code.
Do I need a separate store for business customers?
Usually not. One store can serve both, with trade customers seeing their own prices and payment options once they log in, using a pricing or payment plugin.
Is a B2B suite better than separate plugins?
It depends on how many B2B features you need. A suite is convenient if you need most of them; focused plugins keep your store simpler if you only need two or three.
Does WooCommerce support tax-exempt customers?
Not through a setting. WooCommerce can treat a customer as VAT-exempt, but turning that on per customer needs a plugin or custom code.