Many Nordic wholesalers and brands run two separate e-commerce solutions today: one for business customers and one for consumers. It sounds logical — the needs are different, after all — but in practice it means duplicated product data, duplicated integrations and duplicated maintenance. Running B2B and B2C on one platform is the simplest way to eliminate that work. In this article we look at what a shared B2B e-commerce platform means in practice, what it has to handle, and how to make the business case for switching.
Why two platforms means doing everything twice
The problem with two parallel systems is rarely visible at launch. It emerges in the day-to-day, when the same task has to be done twice:
- Product information has to be created, translated and updated in two catalogs.
- The ERP has to be integrated twice — with two different sources of error.
- Prices, campaigns and stock levels have to be kept in sync between the systems.
- Two platforms have to be upgraded, security-patched and monitored.
- The team has to learn two admin interfaces.
Each item is manageable on its own. Together they tie up time that should go into assortment, customers and sales. And every time the two systems drift apart — a price updated in one store but not the other — the customer is the first to notice.
B2B and B2C on one platform — what does it actually mean?
It is important to distinguish between two things. Some solutions are fundamentally consumer stores with B2B features bolted on through add-ons. Others are built with B2B and B2C in one core — like HDL Commerce. That difference determines how much duplicated work you actually get rid of.
With a shared core there is one installation, one codebase and one admin. The business customer and the consumer meet different experiences, but behind the scenes both draw from the same product data, the same inventory and the same order flow. Read more about the architecture on our platform page.
One product catalog, two customer experiences
The consumer wants inspiration, a fast checkout and clear delivery promises. The business customer wants to log in with their company registration number, see their agreed prices and place a fifty-line order without clicking through fifty product pages. A shared platform has to handle both — without you maintaining two catalogs.
Prices and terms per customer type
What usually breaks pure B2C platforms is the pricing logic. B2B commerce is built on customer-specific price lists, negotiated agreements, tiered pricing and a credit limit per customer. Consumer commerce is built on open prices and campaigns. In a platform with a shared core, both models are built in from the start, instead of the B2B logic hanging on add-ons that have to survive every upgrade.
Built-in PIM removes the biggest time sink
Product information is the single largest duplicated cost when B2B and B2C run separately. The same item needs correct names, images, attributes and documents in both channels — and discrepancies are rarely discovered until a customer calls.
HDL Commerce comes with built-in PIM, which means the product data lives in one place and is published to every channel from there. You avoid both the manual copy-and-paste work and the cost of a separate PIM system with yet another integration to maintain. For a wholesaler with tens of thousands of SKUs, this is often where the biggest saving lies.
One integration map instead of two
ERP, warehouse, finance, shipping, payments, EDI with larger customers — every connection you build for the B2B store has to be built or licensed a second time for the B2C store in a two-system setup. With a shared platform you integrate once and let both customer types share the flow.
HDL Commerce ships with 200+ ready-made integrations, which in practice means the most common connections are already on the shelf. See the full list on the integrations page.
What does a shared platform cost?
A shared platform should be compared with the combined cost of two systems: two licenses, two hosting environments, two integration projects and double the ongoing maintenance. HDL Commerce comes in two tiers:
- Light — from SEK 10,000/month plus SEK 50,000 one-time setup, for teams that want to get started quickly.
- Enterprise — from SEK 65,000/month, for larger assortments, more markets and heavier integrations.
If you are coming from Magento, the math is often even clearer: up to 40% lower total cost of ownership than Magento, hosted and operated in Sweden with 99.3% uptime. The full pricing picture is on the pricing page.
How to switch without bringing the business to a halt
The most common reason companies keep running two platforms is not that the setup is good — it is that switching feels risky. But a consolidation does not have to happen in one big cutover where everything changes at once. A proven path is to move one customer type at a time: the open consumer store first, or the logged-in B2B commerce first, depending on where the old solution hurts most. The product data moves into the built-in PIM once, and when the second channel opens later, the catalog is already in place.
Not sure where to start? HDL Commerce offers a free migration analysis where we go through your current systems, integrations and data volumes and propose a migration order — before you commit to anything. That gives you a concrete picture of the scope instead of a gut feeling.
Checklist: can the platform handle both B2B and B2C?
Before you choose a B2B e-commerce platform, put these questions to the vendor:
- Are B2B and B2C the same core, or is B2B an add-on layered on top of a consumer store?
- Are customer-specific price lists, agreements and credit limits handled without custom builds?
- Is PIM built in, or does it require a separate system and one more integration?
- How many of your existing systems are covered by ready-made integrations?
- Where is the platform hosted, and what uptime is guaranteed?
The answers determine whether you are buying your way out of the duplicated work — or just moving it.
See how one shared platform would work for you
The easiest way to judge whether B2B and B2C on one platform fits your business is to see it for real, with your products and your price lists as the starting point. Book a demo and we will show you how HDL Commerce handles both customer types in one and the same core — we reply within 4 hours (weekdays).
