For a long time the split was simple: here the B2C shop with gross prices and a fast checkout, there the B2B portal with net prices, framework contracts and approvals. That boundary is increasingly dissolving. Millennials and Generation Z now make up 71 percent (Forrester) of B2B buyers and bring their B2C habits into their professional lives. Accordingly, 83 percent (Gartner) of B2B buyers prefer to order and pay through digital commerce channels. At the same time, the market is large enough to take both worlds seriously: B2B online trade among German manufacturers and wholesalers reached a volume of 509 billion euros in 2024 (ECC Cologne). Anyone serving both audiences faces an architecture question: run two separate systems in parallel, or unite B2B and B2C in a single Shopware instance? This article shows how to build a hybrid store with separate customer groups and prices, clean net-gross logic, controlled assortment visibility and two matching checkout flows.
Why the Boundary Between B2B and B2C Is Blurring
The trigger of this convergence is a generational shift in buying. The share of Millennials and Gen Z among B2B buyers has risen from 64 percent in 2022 to 71 percent (Forrester). These buyers know frictionless shops, clear product information and fast payment from their private lives and expect the same at work. Forrester even reports that two-thirds (Forrester) of B2B buyers expect more personalization in a professional context than in their personal shopping. Professional buying has become more demanding, not less.
This expectation shows up in behavior. 83 percent (Gartner) of B2B buyers say they prefer to place orders and payments through digital commerce channels, and 67 percent (Gartner) now prefer a buying process entirely without direct sales contact. It holds for large volumes too: according to Forrester, in 2025 more than half of large B2B purchases of one million US dollars or more will be processed through digital self-service channels (Forrester). For platform strategy, this means the digital channel is no longer a sideshow but the main route, for business and private customers alike.
Analysts see this as a lasting structural shift. Gartner expects that by 2030 digital commerce will span B2C and B2B interactions seamlessly, with the same commerce solution serving both models (Gartner). Modern commerce platforms support exactly this natively: they treat customer groups, net and gross prices, roles and separate sales channels as built-in concepts. This turns the hybrid store from a workaround into the obvious design.
Key finding
One Store Instead of Two Systems: the Architecture Advantage
The classic way to serve two audiences is two systems: one shop for end customers, a separate portal for business customers. That sounds cleanly separated but causes double the effort. Products, prices and content have to be maintained twice, two systems need to be updated and secured, and customer data sits in separate silos. With a market volume of 509 billion euros (ECC Cologne) in German B2B online trade, of which 76 percent (ECC Cologne) runs through companies' own online shops, the own shop is the backbone anyway. Building it twice ties up resources that are missing elsewhere.
The hybrid approach reverses the logic: one Shopware instance, one product catalog, one backend, one team. The differences between B2C and B2B arise not from separate systems but from configuration within the same store, via customer groups, sales channels and visibility rules. This lowers maintenance effort, keeps the data base consistent and makes further development easier because it happens in one place. Including electronic trade with EDI, B2B e-commerce in Germany exceeds 1.5 trillion euros (IFH Cologne), a volume that demands a robust and maintainable architecture.
One Catalog, Used Twice
Products, images and descriptions are maintained once and delivered to both worlds. For the assortment there is one source of truth instead of two data sets that drift apart.
One Backend, One Team
Orders, customers and content are managed in one interface. The team works with one system instead of two and only needs to master one stack.
One Base for Development
Updates, security patches and new features concern one instance. Improvements benefit both audiences without double implementation.
Customer Groups: the Switch Between B2B and B2C
The central tool of the hybrid store is the customer group. In Shopware Open Source it controls several things at once: whether net or gross prices are shown, which prices and tiers apply, which assortments are visible, and which payment and shipping methods are available. This bundling is what makes it the switch between the two worlds: an unauthenticated visitor or an end customer lands in a B2C group with gross prices, a verified business customer in a B2B group with net prices and individual terms. How deeply customer groups interact with roles and permissions is explored in our article on customer groups, roles and permissions in Shopware.
In practice, the assignment to the right group decides the entire experience. An open B2C area needs no registration; whoever buys sees gross prices and pays immediately. For the B2B area the company registers, its VAT ID and business registration are verified, and only then is the account moved into the appropriate B2B group, with net prices, tiers and possibly its own assortment. How closely customer groups are interwoven with price resolution is shown in our article on price lists and tier pricing. The customer group is thus not only a pricing tool but a control instrument for the entire presentation.
Separate customer group and sales channel
Net or Gross: Keeping Tax Logic Clean
The most visible difference between B2C and B2B is price display. Towards consumers, gross prices including VAT must be shown under German price indication rules; business customers, by contrast, calculate in net prices because they deduct input tax. In the hybrid store this is no contradiction but a matter of the customer group: the same product is shown to the end customer gross and to the business customer net, controlled by the group and not by a second system or a second data set.
For this to stay legally sound and traceable, the tax logic must be built centrally and rule-based, not through special cases in the frontend. The following comparison summarizes the typical differences that a customer group controls in the background.
| Aspect | B2C experience | B2B experience |
|---|---|---|
| Price display | Gross prices including VAT | Net prices, VAT shown separately |
| Legal frame | Price indication rules for consumers | commercial price statement for businesses |
| Price resolution | List price and promotions | Tier prices, customer-specific terms |
| Registration | optional, guest purchase possible | VAT ID and business verification |
| Payment | Instant payment | Invoice, credit limit possible |
| Visibility | open, SEO-visible catalog | partly login-gated area |
Do not hard-wire tax
Controlling Assortment and Visibility
Besides price, the assortment often differs. Some items target only business customers (bulk packs, technical goods that need explanation, spare parts), while others sit in the open B2C area. In the hybrid store this can be controlled via visibility rules without creating products twice: an item can be visible to the B2B group and hidden from end customers, or the other way round. This turns one catalog into an audience-appropriate offering.
An important aspect here is search engine visibility. The open B2C area should be findable by search engines, while closed B2B assortments sit behind the login. This separation must be set deliberately so that neither confidential terms become public nor the public catalog loses reach. It is especially decisive when rebuilding or merging two shops: how to move a shop without losing rankings is described in our article on shop migration without ranking loss.
- Sales channels: an open B2C channel and a closed B2B channel share the same catalog but show different subsets.
- Customer-group visibility: individual products or categories are shown or hidden per group.
- Login requirement: sensitive B2B areas and terms are visible only after sign-in.
- SEO control: the public catalog stays crawlable, closed areas are excluded from indexing.
Two Checkout Flows in One Store
At the end of the buying journey the paths finally diverge. An end customer expects a fast checkout, ideally as a guest, with instant payment. A business customer, by contrast, often needs invoice purchase against a credit limit, an order or commission reference, a cost centre and, above certain amounts, an internal approval. In the hybrid store both use the same cart and order engine, but the flow and the available options follow the customer group.
This differentiation decides acceptance. For the B2C customer, speed counts; for the B2B customer, traceability and the mapping of internal rules. Which payment methods make sense in the business area and how invoice purchase and credit limit interact is explored in our article on B2B payment methods, invoice purchase and credit limit. How to streamline order completion overall without losing the B2B requirements is shown in our article on B2B checkout optimization.
| Checkout element | B2C | B2B |
|---|---|---|
| Account | guest purchase possible | company account with users |
| Payment | instant payment | invoice, credit limit |
| References | not needed | order and commission number |
| Approval | none | sign-off above a threshold |
| Cost centre | not relevant | assignment possible |
| Focus | maximum speed | traceability and control |
One engine, two flows
One Data Base, One Inventory Connection
Perhaps the greatest advantage of the hybrid store lies beneath the surface: a shared data base and one connection to inventory management for both worlds. Stock, prices and documents flow once between shop and ERP, not twice for two systems. This not only lowers integration effort but also keeps stock consistent: an item sold in the B2C area is reduced in the B2B area at the same moment. How such a connection is built robustly is described in our article on ERP integration in B2B, and the underlying architecture of such connections is covered by our integrations and interfaces.
The shared data base creates additional value. Seeing the behavior of both audiences in one system lets you steer reorders, cross-selling and customer outreach more precisely. Automated email journeys, from cart-abandonment reminders to reorder prompts, can draw on the same data, as our article on marketing automation and email flows in B2B shows. Whether a hybrid own shop, a marketplace or a combination is the right strategy is framed further in our article on marketplace or own shop.
Two audiences, one foundation: the hybrid store separates the experience but not the systems. The difference arises in the configuration, the efficiency in the shared base.
When a Hybrid Store Pays Off
A hybrid store is not an end in itself. It pays off above all where both audiences concern the same or an overlapping assortment and where running two systems noticeably ties up resources. The following signals help judge whether merging into one instance is the right path.
- You sell the same or overlapping products to end customers and business customers.
- You currently maintain two systems in parallel and feel the double effort in upkeep and maintenance.
- Your business customers expect a modern, B2C-like experience with self-service.
- You want to steer stock, prices and customer data from one source instead of separate silos.
- You plan to digitize sales and shift routine orders into self-service.
A hybrid store may be the wrong call when the two audiences differ so strongly in assortment, brand and processes that a shared base creates more special cases than synergies. That too is a legitimate decision. What matters is making it deliberately and based on your own structure. A sound assessment is part of our B2B e-commerce consulting, in which we clarify assortment, audiences and processes before the technology.
Start with one channel, think hybrid
Building the Hybrid Store with Shopware Open Source
Shopware Open Source suits the hybrid store as a base because it brings the decisive concepts out of the box: customer groups with net or gross display, multiple sales channels on one catalog, visibility rules and an open data model. It is open source, comes without license costs and adapts to B2B requirements such as tier prices, company accounts and approvals. Why the open-source variant suits a B2B foundation is explored in our article on Shopware Open Source in B2B.
In our Shopware development we build the hybrid store so that the B2C and B2B experiences are cleanly separated while the underlying systems are unified: from the customer-group and pricing concept through assortment control to the two checkout flows. On request this grows into a full B2B portal with self-service, company accounts and approvals that makes the business-customer area the preferred ordering channel. We define the appropriate scope and the right architecture together in our B2B e-commerce services, starting from your audiences rather than the technology.
Sources and studies