B2B catalog management is one of the most operationally complex parts of running a B2B eCommerce platform. Different customers see different products. Different customers see different prices. Different customers see the same products with different specifications. Different customer accounts have multiple buyers with different permissions. The platform’s ability to handle this complexity cleanly — without requiring extensive customization or producing chaotic internal workflows — is what separates B2B-capable platforms from DTC platforms with B2B branding.
This piece compares Shopify B2B Catalogs and Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs in practical terms. It is written for B2B eCommerce leaders, IT directors, and operations managers evaluating which platform their business should run on, particularly those whose catalog complexity is mid-to-high. The patterns below come from Bemeir’s B2B implementations on both platforms.
What Each Platform Means by “B2B Catalog”
Shopify B2B Catalogs are a feature within Shopify Plus that lets merchants create distinct product catalogs assigned to specific Company Profiles. Each catalog can include or exclude specific products, override prices, control product visibility, and configure variant availability. Catalogs are managed through the Shopify admin interface and can be assigned to multiple companies.
Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs are a more mature feature, having been in the platform since Magento Commerce 2.2. Shared Catalogs work as overlay catalogs on top of the master catalog. Each shared catalog includes a subset of products from the master, with custom pricing, custom tier prices, and custom visibility. Customer accounts are assigned to shared catalogs, and a customer can be in exactly one shared catalog at a time (with the master catalog as the fallback for unassigned customers).
The two are conceptually similar but operationally different. Shopify B2B Catalogs are simpler. Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs are more flexible.
The Pricing Model Comparison
Both platforms support customer-specific pricing at the catalog level. The differences are in granularity and management ergonomics.
Shopify B2B Catalogs support fixed price overrides per product, per catalog. The merchant sets the catalog price for each product, and customers assigned to that catalog see that price. Volume discounts are supported via Shopify Functions or apps. The model is straightforward and the admin UI is friendly.
Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs support fixed prices, tier prices (quantity-based discounts at multiple thresholds), and customer-group-based discounts on top of catalog prices. The pricing model is layered and powerful, and it supports more complex B2B pricing scenarios out of the box. The admin UI is functional but not as polished as Shopify’s.
For merchants whose pricing is “wholesale price = retail price minus 30%” the Shopify model is easier. For merchants whose pricing requires tier discounts, customer-group adjustments, and special quote pricing, the Adobe Commerce model fits more naturally.
Visibility Control
Visibility control in B2B is critical. The wrong product visible to the wrong customer is a contractual problem, not just a UX problem.
Shopify B2B Catalogs control product inclusion at the catalog level. A product is either in the catalog or it isn’t, and the customer assigned to that catalog sees the catalog’s products. Variant-level visibility is more limited — typically all variants of an included product are visible.
Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs control product inclusion at the catalog level and variant inclusion within each product. A merchant can include the parent product but exclude specific variants, which is useful for SKU-level B2B agreements. The control is finer-grained.
| Catalog feature | Shopify B2B Catalogs | Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs |
|---|---|---|
| Product inclusion control | Per product per catalog | Per product per catalog |
| Variant-level inclusion | Limited | Per variant per catalog |
| Pricing override | Fixed price per product | Fixed + tier + group-based |
| Number of catalogs supported | Up to several hundred per shop | Up to several thousand |
| Customer assignment | Multiple catalogs per company | One shared catalog per customer |
| Catalog management UI | Polished, Shopify-native | Functional, Magento-native |
| Import / export | CSV via admin | CSV via admin and API |
| API access | GraphQL Storefront and Admin | REST and GraphQL |
| Multi-warehouse stock by catalog | Limited | Full MSI integration |
| Hierarchy support | Flat catalogs | Flat catalogs |
Customer Assignment Models
The customer assignment model differs in important ways.
Shopify B2B uses Company Profiles. A Company contains one or more buyers (customers), and the Company is assigned to one or more catalogs. This model fits naturally with B2B reality, where buyers represent companies and the company is the actual customer.
Adobe Commerce uses Customer Groups for shared catalog assignment. A customer group is assigned to a shared catalog, and customers belong to the customer group. Adobe Commerce B2B also has Company Accounts, which add buyer hierarchies on top of customer groups.
The Adobe Commerce model is more flexible but also more complex. Merchants need to understand both customer groups and company accounts to operate the catalog system correctly.
Bemeir’s B2B implementation work, documented across the Adobe Commerce B2B practice and the Shopify Plus B2B practice, spends significant time at the beginning of every engagement modeling the customer assignment correctly, because mistakes here propagate throughout the catalog operations.
Bulk Operations
Bulk operations are where B2B catalog management lives or dies. Merchants update catalogs all the time — adding products, removing products, adjusting prices, changing visibility. The platform’s bulk operations determine whether catalog management is sustainable.
Shopify B2B Catalogs support bulk operations via CSV import/export in the admin and via the GraphQL API. Bulk price updates and bulk product additions are possible, though for very large catalogs the import process can be slow. The Shopify API rate limits also constrain very-large operations.
Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs support bulk operations via the admin CSV import/export, the REST API, and the GraphQL API. The admin tools are functional but not particularly fast for catalogs with tens of thousands of products. The API tools are more performant for programmatic operations.
For merchants with PIM-driven catalog management, both platforms support the integration pattern: the PIM is the source of truth, and catalog data flows into Shopify or Adobe Commerce via API on a scheduled cadence.
Multi-Catalog Scenarios
Some B2B merchants need many catalogs — distributors with hundreds of dealers, agencies with many client accounts, or marketplaces with multiple vendor relationships.
Shopify B2B Catalogs handle up to several hundred catalogs per shop comfortably. Beyond that, the admin UI becomes harder to navigate, and the management overhead grows. For most B2B businesses, this ceiling is high enough.
Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs scale further. Adobe Commerce installations with thousands of shared catalogs exist in production. The admin tooling for managing this scale requires more discipline, but the platform handles it.
For merchants whose B2B model requires hundreds or thousands of distinct catalogs, Adobe Commerce has more headroom.
Headless and API-Driven Catalog Operations
Both platforms support headless B2B catalog management, where the catalog data is accessed via API and presented through a custom storefront.
Shopify exposes B2B catalogs through the Storefront API and the Admin API. The data model is consistent across both, and the documentation is mature. The Shopify B2B API documentation covers the operations available.
Adobe Commerce exposes shared catalogs through GraphQL and REST. The GraphQL coverage has improved substantially with recent Adobe Commerce releases. The Adobe Commerce GraphQL documentation covers B2B-specific queries and mutations.
For merchants building headless B2B storefronts, both platforms are workable. Adobe Commerce’s GraphQL B2B coverage is mature; Shopify’s is rapidly improving.
Operational Considerations
Beyond the feature comparison, the operational reality differs.
Shopify B2B Catalogs are managed by Shopify’s infrastructure. The merchant doesn’t worry about catalog performance, database scaling, or admin response time. Catalog operations run on Shopify’s platform, with Shopify’s reliability.
Adobe Commerce Shared Catalogs are managed by the merchant’s infrastructure (or Adobe Commerce Cloud’s). The merchant is responsible for indexer performance, database scaling, and admin response time. Catalog operations at scale require infrastructure investment.
For merchants with limited infrastructure engineering capacity, the Shopify model is operationally simpler. For merchants with strong infrastructure teams, the Adobe Commerce model offers more control.
The Practical Decision
The decision between Shopify B2B and Adobe Commerce B2B rarely comes down to catalog features alone, but catalogs are often the most operationally significant feature for B2B businesses. The decision tends to follow:
- B2B operations with moderate catalog complexity, hundreds rather than thousands of customer-specific catalogs, and limited in-house engineering: Shopify Plus B2B is often the right fit
- B2B operations with deep ERP integration, thousands of catalogs, complex pricing models, and dedicated engineering capacity: Adobe Commerce B2B remains the more flexible choice
- B2B operations transitioning from a legacy ERP-driven catalog system: the migration path is what often decides the platform
Bemeir’s B2B engagements include catalog modeling as a first-phase deliverable, because the platform decision is fundamentally a catalog decision for most B2B businesses. The practice spans Adobe Commerce, Shopify Plus, Shopware, and BigCommerce, and the recommendation follows the catalog complexity and the merchant’s operational capacity rather than a vendor preference.
For broader B2B platform analysis, Forrester’s Wave for B2B Commerce Suites and Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Digital Commerce cover both Shopify and Adobe Commerce with attention to B2B-specific capabilities. The catalog comparison above is one component of that broader assessment, but it’s a particularly important one because the catalog model determines how every other B2B feature feels in daily operation.
