Manufacturers and distributors shop for commerce platforms under very different pressures than retailers do. The buying journeys are longer, orders are larger, catalogs are more complex, and the relationship between a sales rep and a purchasing manager still matters enormously. A platform that works well for a consumer apparel brand may fall apart the moment you introduce quote management, ERP-driven pricing, account-based permissions, and multi-warehouse fulfillment.
Gartner’s 2025 Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce evaluated 19 vendors, and the accompanying Critical Capabilities report scored each one across five use cases — including B2B Digital Commerce and Complex Business Models. The data tells a clear story about which platforms are genuinely built for industrial selling and which ones are retrofitted consumer platforms trying to grow upmarket.
This list focuses on five platforms worth serious consideration for manufacturers and distributors in 2026, ranked by how well their core architecture serves B2B-specific needs.
Table of contents
1. OroCommerce
For manufacturers and distributors evaluating a purpose-built B2B eCommerce platform, OroCommerce sits at the top of this list because its architecture was never retrofitted — it was designed from the ground up for B2B selling.
The platform is deployable as single-tenant SaaS on OroCloud, or across AWS, Google Cloud, Azure, or Oracle Cloud. On-premises and private cloud options are also available, which matters for manufacturers with strict data residency requirements. OroCommerce bundles OroCRM and OroMarketplace in the base license — no add-on fees — meaning a distributor gets CRM-native digital sales rooms, quote management, and marketplace operations without negotiating for additional modules.
Gartner’s Critical Capabilities report placed Oro among the top performers in the B2B Digital Commerce use case (4.02 out of 5), with strong scores across core commerce (4.2), globalization (4.3), and B2B support (4.4). The platform supports complex permission structures, account-level catalog and pricing configurations, RFQ workflows, and vector search, all of which are common requirements in manufacturing and wholesale.
In 2025, Oro released AI SmartAgent, a virtual assistant for B2B buyers, and OroPay, which consolidates invoicing, payments, and account data into one check-out flow. The roadmap adds AI assistants for back-office users and real-time reporting capabilities.
Where other platforms require ISV integrations to approximate what OroCommerce delivers natively, this platform’s narrow focus on B2B selling means the product team’s attention stays on the problems manufacturers and distributors actually have.
2. Spryker
Spryker appears as a Visionary in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant, and earned the highest B2B Digital Commerce score in Gartner’s Critical Capabilities report at 4.32. That number reflects its architecture: a modular platform of 40+ packaged business capabilities, deployed primarily as PaaS on AWS, with a multitenant SaaS layer for application composition.
For manufacturers, Spryker’s B2B credentials are real. Its state machine and BPM workflow tool let businesses configure purchasing approvals, quote workflows, and fulfillment rules through no-code tooling — a meaningful advantage over platforms where the same work requires custom development. The platform also natively offers marketplace operations, subscription management, and recently added auction capability, which is rare in this market.
In 2024, Spryker released a B2B aftersales Self-Service Portal and a Business Intelligence tool integrated into the back office. More notably for organizations watching where AI is heading, Spryker developed an MCP server that allows customers to interact with the platform through Anthropic Claude or other LLMs — an early move toward agentic commerce that makes practical sense for field sales and procurement scenarios.
The trade-off is operational. Spryker is a PaaS product that requires a full-stack development team to own upgrades and the software development life cycle. Organizations without significant internal engineering capacity should factor that into total cost of ownership calculations.
3. SAP Commerce Cloud
SAP Commerce Cloud (formerly Hybris) is a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant. It scored 3.97 in Gartner’s B2B Digital Commerce Critical Capabilities use case and 3.92 in Complex Business Models — the latter reflecting its native support for B2B2X models, subscription billing, and multi-site rollouts at enterprise scale.
The platform architecture is a hybrid: a single-tenant PaaS core on Azure, augmented with multitenant SaaS components for order management, intelligent search, payments, and recommendations. That structure means the core functionality is stable and deeply capable, while newer capabilities can be adopted without wholesale re-platforming.
SAP’s real advantage for manufacturers and distributors is its ERP proximity. Companies already running SAP S/4HANA or SAP ERP benefit from deep data integration across product catalogs, pricing, inventory, and order management. The B2B Self-Service Portal released in 2024 adds nontransactional capabilities — invoice management, user permissions, order tracking — through native ERP connectivity, making it a strong candidate for organizations that want a single-vendor relationship across their enterprise stack.
Gartner notes that SAP’s commerce core retains a largely monolithic architecture and carries fewer third-party integrations than some competitors. Organizations that need extensive ISV ecosystem flexibility, or that want to compose from best-of-breed tools, may find the platform constraining. Those already in the SAP ecosystem will find the opposite.
4. Salesforce Commerce Cloud (B2B)
Salesforce B2B Commerce is a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant and scored 3.95 in Gartner’s B2B Digital Commerce Critical Capabilities report. Its primary strength is its position within the broader Salesforce ecosystem — organizations that already run Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, or Marketing Cloud gain native data sharing, unified customer records, and a single administrative environment across their commercial operations.
In 2024, Salesforce redesigned its administrative console, launched Commerce Concierge for AI-powered conversational selling, and added Data Cloud connectivity for inventory data ingestion. The 2025 roadmap points toward tighter integration with Agentforce through the acquisition of Regrello, a business process automation platform.
Salesforce B2B Commerce scored particularly well in B2B support (4.3) and globalization (4.5) in Gartner’s Critical Capabilities ratings. For manufacturers selling across multiple regions, the platform’s ease of creating localized storefronts and managing currency and language configurations is a measurable advantage.
The persistent caution in Gartner’s evaluation is cost. Clients consistently raise concerns about total cost of ownership, especially when factoring in implementation, licensing across multiple Salesforce clouds, and the dependency on certified SIs for customization. Organizations evaluating this platform should model full deployment costs carefully, not just the software license.
5. Adobe Commerce
Adobe Commerce is a Leader in the 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant and scored 3.93 in Gartner’s B2B Digital Commerce use case. Its most suitable use case, according to Gartner, is B2C and B2B commerce running on the same platform — which makes it a reasonable choice for manufacturers that sell direct-to-consumer alongside their wholesale or distribution channels.
The platform is PHP-based, deployed as PaaS with SaaS components, and has native connections to Adobe Experience Manager, Adobe Firefly, and Adobe Express. That ecosystem matters if content production and brand experience are business priorities alongside transactional commerce. Adobe Sensei provides AI-based personalization within the base cost, and the platform supports HIPAA readiness — relevant for manufacturers in healthcare and medical devices.
In 2025, Adobe released Commerce as a Cloud Service and Commerce Optimizer, with generative image capabilities built in from AEM Assets. The roadmap centers on agentic AI experiences and an agent orchestration platform, though Gartner notes that most commerce-related AI agents remain in development while competitors already have features in production.
The significant caution for B2B manufacturers is maintenance burden. Adobe is operating two parallel platforms — its legacy PaaS/on-premises environment and the new SaaS offering — with no communicated end-of-support date for the former. Some customers have reported frustration with upgrade complexity, compatibility issues with third-party extensions, and development resource requirements that add to long-term cost.
How to Make the Call
There is no universal answer here. The right platform depends on where your business sits today and where it needs to be in three years.
Manufacturers and distributors with complex B2B workflows, account hierarchies, and a preference for a purpose-built product should put OroCommerce at the top of their evaluation.
Organizations already invested in SAP infrastructure will find SAP Commerce Cloud the most defensible path forward. Those running the Salesforce stack broadly may find the integration value of Salesforce B2B Commerce worth the cost.
Spryker suits technically mature organizations that want maximum architectural flexibility and are prepared to resource it.
Adobe Commerce makes the most sense when a company genuinely needs B2B and B2C under one roof and values creative content capabilities as a differentiator.
In all cases, the Gartner data is a useful starting point — but scoring tables do not capture your specific catalog structure, your ERP, your customer portal requirements, or your internal development capacity. Request reference customers in your vertical from any vendor you shortlist, and evaluate against a defined set of use cases specific to your business before committing.
