In B2B, the payment method often decides whether an order is placed at all. While B2C is dominated by credit cards and wallets, commercial buyers expect one thing above all: purchase on invoice with a payment term. According to the HHL Leipzig study on payment methods in B2B online trade, 95 percent (HHL Leipzig) of B2B buyers want to buy on invoice in the online shop - but only 45 percent (HHL Leipzig) of B2B merchants offer this option at all. This gap costs revenue: 67 percent (B2B Buyer Expectations Report) of buyers abandon a purchase when no suitable payment term is available at checkout. Anyone who wants to sell seriously in B2B e-commerce must map invoice purchase, credit limit and SEPA B2B direct debit cleanly - while keeping the default risk under control.
Why Invoice Purchase Is the Default Payment in B2B
Purchase on invoice is not a comfort feature in commercial procurement but part of the established purchasing process. Purchasing departments work with order approvals, goods-receipt checks and invoice verification - and they typically pay only after receiving and checking the goods. A card prepayment simply does not fit into these workflows. This is reflected in the figures: in German e-commerce overall, invoice purchase ranks second with a 26.1 percent (EHI Online-Payment 2026) revenue share behind the wallet and ahead of direct debit at 14.4 percent (EHI Online-Payment 2026). In B2B, the preference is even more pronounced.
There is also the cash flow aspect. A payment term is effectively a supplier credit: the buyer receives the goods immediately but pays only in 30, 45 or 60 days. According to Atradius, around 47 percent (Atradius) of all B2B sales in Germany are conducted on a credit basis, with average payment terms of about 60 days. For the buyer this is a central instrument for managing liquidity - and therefore a selection criterion for the supplier. 78 percent (B2B Buyer Expectations Report) of buyers describe payment terms as an essential factor when choosing a supplier.
For the merchant this means: anyone who does without invoice purchase loses orders to competitors who offer it. At the same time, payment on invoice involves effort and risk, which is why many shops avoid it. This is exactly where well-thought-out e-commerce consulting comes in: it clarifies which customer groups invoice purchase makes sense for, how the limit is managed and which technical building blocks limit the risk. This is closely linked to the question of how customer groups, roles and permissions in Shopware are mapped, since not every customer should see the same terms.
The Gap Between Demand and Supply
The Most Important B2B Payment Methods at a Glance
A professional B2B shop offers not one payment method but a tiered portfolio. New customers without a credit history pay differently from long-standing regular customers with an established credit limit. The art lies in showing each customer group exactly the options approved for them - and in securing the riskier variants. The following four payment methods form the core of a B2B checkout and cover the common procurement situations.
Purchase on Invoice
The B2B default payment. The customer receives the goods and pays within the payment term. The prerequisite is a credit check and a stored credit limit. For regular customers this is the normal case.
SEPA B2B Direct Debit
The amount is collected from the business account via a B2B mandate. Unlike the consumer direct debit, there is no right of refund for authorized direct debits, which gives the merchant high planning security.
Credit Card
Immediate payment without default risk for the merchant. Ideal for new customers, foreign orders or orders above the credit limit. In B2B more of a supplement than a main payment method.
Prepayment
The customer transfers the amount before dispatch. Risk-free for the merchant but unpopular: only around 28 percent of shops still offer it (HHL Leipzig). Useful for custom-made goods or critical credit standing.
What is decisive is the rule-based control: which payment method a customer sees depends on their customer group, their credit status and the current order value. A new customer initially sees only prepayment and credit card, a checked regular customer sees invoice purchase up to their limit. This logic can be mapped cleanly as a rule set in a Shopware shop, so that the risk is controlled individually per customer without complicating the checkout.
Credit Limit: Invoice Purchase Without Incalculable Risk
Invoice purchase is only manageable when a credit limit sits behind it. The limit defines up to which total open amount a customer may order on invoice. It acts like a safety net: as long as the sum of open invoices and the current order does not exceed the limit, invoice purchase is available. When the limit is reached, either an approval applies or the customer is directed to another payment method. This matters because, according to Atradius, payment behavior is strained: the share of overdue B2B invoices stands at around 57 percent (Atradius), and uncollectable receivables recently rose from 8 to 10 percent (Atradius).
For the limit to work reliably, it must be checked in real time against the open-items list in the ERP. This is exactly where the core technical task lies: at the time of the order, the shop must know how high the limit is, how much of it is already tied up by open invoices and whether the current order still fits. A solid ERP integration supplies these values so that the checkout does not use outdated limits. Without this connection, any limit would just be a static estimate - and therefore worthless as soon as the open balance changes.
{
"customer": "K-48120",
"customer_group": "wholesale-a",
"credit_limit": 50000.00,
"open_invoices": 32000.00,
"current_cart_gross": 13351.80,
"available": 18000.00,
"within_limit": true,
"payment_methods": ["invoice", "sepa_b2b", "credit_card"],
"approval_required": false
}Handling the edge case is important. A hard rejection at checkout - "your limit is exhausted" - frustrates exactly the good customers who want to order more at short notice. A tiered approach is better: when the limit is exceeded, the order is not blocked but routed into an approval workflow. Sales or accounting reviews the case and releases the limit for this specific order. This keeps the customer in self-service without the merchant losing control over its risk.
A Static Limit Is No Limit
Credit Check: From New Customer to Invoice Customer
Before a customer may order on invoice, their creditworthiness must be assessed. For existing customers this is done on the basis of the previous payment history - those who have paid on time for years receive a corresponding limit. For new customers this history is missing, which is why an external credit check makes sense here. Such checks deliver a decision in seconds today, so the new customer does not have to wait. The check decides whether and up to which amount invoice purchase is approved.
The decisive point is the integration with the checkout. If the check is positive, invoice purchase is immediately shown as an option. If it is negative, the customer sees only the risk-free payment methods - without being rejected. This silent control matters for the customer relationship: no one is rebuffed, and the merchant takes no uncalculated risk. How such a check is reliably integrated into the order process is something we are happy to clarify in a personal conversation, since the right source depends heavily on industry and order volume.
- Existing customers: limit based on the internal payment history from the ERP
- New customers: external credit check with a decision in seconds
- Dynamic display: only approved payment methods appear in the checkout
- Silent rejection: on a negative check, risk-free alternatives appear instead of an error message
- Thresholds: invoice purchase only from or up to defined order values
- Re-scoring: regular reassessment when payment behavior changes
SEPA B2B Direct Debit as a Predictable Alternative
The SEPA B2B direct debit is an attractive supplement to invoice purchase in the commercial environment. The customer grants a mandate, the merchant collects the amount from the business account. The decisive difference from the consumer direct debit: for the B2B variant, there is no right of refund for authorized direct debits (Stripe). While a consumer direct debit can be reversed for up to eight weeks without giving a reason, the B2B direct debit is binding after collection. This gives the merchant considerably higher planning security.
Technically, the SEPA B2B direct debit requires the payer's bank to store the mandate and check its content (Stripe). This is an additional step, but it occurs only once and then enables smooth collections. The costs also speak in favor of the direct debit: according to EHI, it is the cheapest method for online merchants at an average of 0.65 percent (EHI Online-Payment 2026) of revenue, while invoice purchase averages 1.42 percent (EHI Online-Payment 2026). For recurring orders with reliable partners, the B2B direct debit is therefore often the most economical solution.
| Criterion | Purchase on Invoice | SEPA B2B Direct Debit | Credit Card |
|---|---|---|---|
| Merchant default risk | Medium (limited by the limit) | Low (no right of refund) | Very low |
| Popularity in B2B | Very high | High | Medium |
| Cost (EHI average) | 1.42 percent | 0.65 percent | higher, card-dependent |
| Liquidity for customers | High (payment term) | Low (immediate collection) | Low |
| Setup | Credit check, limit | B2B mandate once | Usable immediately |
| Typical use | Regular customers | Recurring orders | New customers, limit exceeded |
Mapping Payment Terms and Early-Payment Discounts Correctly
A payment term of 30 days net is common in B2B but by no means uniform. Depending on the industry, customer group and negotiation, 14, 30, 45 or 60 days apply. Added to this are early-payment discount rules - for example a 2 percent deduction for payment within 10 days. These terms are often customer-specific and come from the ERP system. The shop must not hard-code them but take them per customer group or even per customer from the leading source, so that the customer sees exactly the conditions that apply to them in the checkout.
The clean mapping of payment terms is closely linked to the pricing logic. Just as tiered prices and customer discounts come from the ERP, the payment term and early-payment discount also belong to the customer-specific terms. Anyone who consistently draws both from a single source avoids contradictions between quote, order and invoice. The topic therefore overlaps strongly with quote management and quote-to-order, in which the agreed terms must be carried over into the order in a binding manner.
The Payment Term Is Part of the Price
Aligning the B2B Checkout With Payment Methods
The best payment-method logic is of little use if the checkout does not communicate it clearly. B2B buyers abandon when the expected payment is missing or unclear: according to Baymard, 54 percent (Baymard Institute) of customers abandon the checkout when only cards are offered as a payment option, and 13 percent (Baymard Institute) drop off when their preferred method is missing. In B2B this intensifies because the payment term is often decisive for the purchase. The checkout must therefore show the approved options prominently and make the available credit limit transparent.
In concrete terms this means: the logged-in B2B customer sees directly which payment methods are approved for them, how high their remaining limit is and which payment term applies. This transparency prevents abandonment and follow-up questions. At the same time, the checkout should cover the requirements common in B2B - ordering to a billing address and a differing delivery address, the customer's order number, cost center and, where applicable, an internal approval. We describe in detail how such a process is built end to end in our B2B portals.
Self-service capability also contributes to conversion. A buyer who orders regularly wants to be able to view their open invoices, their limit and their terms at any time. These functions connect the payment process with quick order and order lists, because anyone who reorders quickly does not want to experience a break when paying either. The entire flow from cart to confirmed order should feel like one continuous, predictable process.
A Pragmatic Start
Implementation With Shopware Open Source
On the basis of Shopware Open Source, these payment processes can be implemented vendor-independently. The open architecture allows you to define your own payment methods, show and hide them per customer group based on rules and hook the credit and limit check into the order flow. Because the source code is open, the merchant remains independent and can adapt the logic exactly to its grown terms structure instead of bending to a rigid standard.
In practice, a step-by-step approach proves itself. First the payment methods are defined and enabled per customer group. In the second step, the limit check is connected to the ERP so that invoice purchase only appears within the available limit. After that come the external credit check for new customers and the approval workflow for edge cases. This iterative approach reduces project risk and delivers visible value early, because even the first stage enables invoice purchase for regular customers.
From over 50 B2B projects (project experience) we know that the biggest hurdle is rarely the technology but the clean definition of the rules. Who may order on invoice? How is the limit calculated? What happens when it is exceeded? These questions are clarified at the start together with sales and accounting and translated into configurable rules. Long-term stable operation of the interfaces to the ERP is then secured through continuous maintenance so that limits and terms remain reliably up to date.