Negotiable quotes let a B2B buyer send a cart to the seller as a request to negotiate price, quantity, and terms before it becomes an order. Adobe Commerce runs the workflow in the backend, but the buyer-facing quote screens are legacy Knockout components that do not render on a Hyva theme without a purpose-built rebuild.
What negotiable quotes are and why B2B buyers need them
In B2C, a price is a price. In B2B, the list price is often a starting position. A distributor ordering 4,000 units, a contractor pricing a project, or a procurement lead consolidating a quarter’s spend all expect to negotiate before they commit. The negotiable quote feature in Adobe Commerce B2B is how that negotiation happens inside the store rather than over a chain of emails and spreadsheets.
A negotiable quote, sometimes called request for quote or RFQ, is a cart that a logged-in company buyer submits to the merchant as a formal request to agree terms. Instead of checking out at the shown price, the buyer asks the seller to review it. The seller can adjust prices down to the line-item level, change quantities, propose shipping, and send it back. The two sides pass the quote back and forth until they agree or one side walks away. Only then does it convert to an order.
This is a core reason mid-market and enterprise merchants choose Adobe Commerce for B2B in the first place. The quote engine, company accounts, shared catalogs, and payment on account are the features that separate a real B2B platform from a B2C store with a wholesale discount bolted on.
The negotiable quote workflow, step by step
The workflow is a structured negotiation with defined states, not a free-for-all. Walking it end to end makes the moving parts clear.
- The buyer builds a cart and requests a quote. A company user adds products to the cart, then chooses to request a quote instead of checking out. They can add a note explaining what they want, for example a target price or a project deadline. At this point they can save it as a draft to finish later or submit it straight to the seller.
- The quote enters the seller’s queue. On submission, the quote appears in the merchant’s Admin under the company’s record with a status the seller can act on. The clock effectively starts here, and response time is a competitive factor because a buyer waiting on a quote is a buyer who might request one from a competitor too.
- The seller reviews and adjusts. The merchant can change prices at the catalog, subtotal, or individual line-item level, adjust quantities, and add or remove items. They can apply a percentage or fixed discount, or set specific negotiated prices. This is where the merchant’s pricing strategy meets the buyer’s ask.
- Shipping and address enter the picture. The buyer can add a shipping address to the quote. Once they do, the seller can provide shipping and delivery options against that address, and the agreement has to be reviewed before it closes. Shipping is part of the negotiated package, not an afterthought at checkout.
- The quote goes back and forth. Each side can counter. The seller sends a proposed price, the buyer can accept it, counter it, or add a comment, and the seller can continue the negotiation or decline the quote. Every exchange is recorded, so both parties see the history.
- Agreement and conversion. When the buyer accepts the proposed price, the quote is locked and they proceed to checkout to place the order against the agreed terms. Two constraints matter here: additional discounts cannot be stacked onto an already negotiated quote, and the shipping options are locked at checkout. The negotiation is the negotiation, and checkout simply executes it.
Adobe’s own negotiable quotes documentation describes this as the process buyers and sellers use to manage an order, adding items, updating quantities, and requesting and applying discounts until they reach agreement. The important product insight is that the quote is a first-class object with its own lifecycle, not a modified cart.
Who can request a quote: the B2B prerequisites
Negotiable quotes do not exist in isolation. They sit on top of the Adobe Commerce B2B feature set, and several things have to be true before a buyer ever sees a request-a-quote button.
First, you need Adobe Commerce, not Magento Open Source. Negotiable quotes are part of the commercial B2B module, which ships with Adobe Commerce and is absent from Open Source. Second, B2B features and the Company structure must be enabled, because quoting is tied to company accounts. A quote is requested by a company user acting on behalf of a company, not by an anonymous shopper. Third, the requesting user needs a role and permission that allows quote creation, since Adobe Commerce B2B lets you scope what each member of a company can do. A junior buyer might build carts while only a purchasing manager can submit a quote.
Those prerequisites are the same foundation that requisition lists, shared catalogs, and payment on account build on, which is why B2B projects are best scoped as a whole rather than feature by feature. Many merchants pair negotiated quotes with net terms so an approved quote can be paid on account, a flow we detail in implementing payment on account and company credit on Adobe Commerce and Hyva.
The Hyva problem: why the default B2B storefront breaks
Here is the part that surprises teams migrating to a modern frontend. The negotiable quote engine runs entirely in the Adobe Commerce backend, and that backend logic works untouched on Hyva. The pricing rules, the quote states, the Admin negotiation tools, all of it keeps functioning. What breaks is the buyer-facing storefront.
Adobe built the B2B storefront interfaces, the negotiable quotes screens, company account management, requisition lists, and quick order, as KnockoutJS and RequireJS components on the legacy Luma theme. A Hyva theme deliberately removes Knockout, RequireJS, and jQuery and replaces them with inline Alpine.js and Tailwind. The consequence is direct: the default Adobe B2B storefront components have nothing to render against on Hyva. The buyer can technically have a quote in the system, but the polished storefront screens for creating, tracking, and negotiating it are not there out of the box.
This catches people because most Hyva coverage focuses on catalog and checkout speed, where Hyva shines. B2B storefront features are a different story, and they are the single most common reason a Hyva B2B migration runs longer than a B2C one. We map every one of these features and its Hyva status in our Adobe Commerce B2B on Hyva compatibility guide.
| B2B storefront feature | Backend on Hyva | Default storefront on Hyva | How you get it back |
|---|---|---|---|
| Negotiable quotes | Works | Does not render (Knockout) | Hyva Enterprise B2B or custom rebuild |
| Company account management | Works | Does not render (Knockout) | Hyva Enterprise B2B or custom rebuild |
| Requisition lists | Works | Does not render (Knockout) | Hyva Enterprise B2B or custom rebuild |
| Quick order | Works | Does not render (Knockout) | Hyva Enterprise B2B or custom rebuild |
| Shared catalog pricing | Works | Prices render normally | Native, no rebuild needed |
| Company credit / payment on account | Works | Checkout step needs Hyva-ready build | Hyva Enterprise or custom checkout work |
Three ways to get negotiable quotes working on Hyva
Once you accept that the storefront layer needs work, there are three realistic paths, and the right one depends on budget, timeline, and how bespoke your quote process is.
Option one: Hyva Enterprise B2B modules. Hyva sells a paid Enterprise tier that rebuilds the Adobe Commerce B2B storefront features, including quotes, on the Alpine.js and Tailwind stack. Hyva has been extending this coverage, including B2B checkout capabilities like company credit and store credit, as announced in its Hyva Enterprise B2B and checkout release. This is the fastest path to standard behavior, and it is the right default when your quote workflow matches Adobe’s out-of-the-box process. It carries a license cost, which we weigh against the free core in Hyva Enterprise vs the free Hyva core.
Option two: a custom Hyva rebuild. When your negotiation process has rules Adobe’s default does not model, approval chains, project-based quoting, custom fields on the quote, or integration with an external CPQ or ERP, you rebuild the quote storefront in Hyva to your own specification. This costs more up front and takes longer, but it fits the process rather than forcing the process to fit the software. It is the honest answer for merchants whose quoting is a genuine differentiator.
Option three: a hybrid. Some teams run Hyva for the fast, high-traffic B2C and catalog experience while keeping the heavier B2B account and quote screens on a compatibility layer or a scoped Luma fallback during a phased rollout. This is a transition tactic, not a destination, but it lets a merchant capture Hyva’s speed on the storefront without blocking the B2B migration on a full quote rebuild.
Choosing among these is a scoping conversation, and it is exactly the kind of B2B tradeoff our team works through as an extension of the merchant’s, which is what we mean on our about page when we describe how we engage.
What the seller side looks like in the Admin
The merchant experience is where a quote is won or lost, and it is worth understanding because it shapes staffing. When a quote arrives, a sales or account manager opens it in the Admin, sees the requested items and the buyer’s note, and works the pricing. They can set line-item prices, apply discounts, adjust quantities, propose shipping against the buyer’s address, and add internal or buyer-facing comments. They send the proposal back and the buyer responds.
Two operational realities follow. First, quoting needs a human with authority to price, which means the feature has a staffing cost, not just a build cost. Second, response speed is a conversion lever. Connecting the quote flow to an ERP or CRM so approved quotes and negotiated prices propagate cleanly is often part of the project, and it draws on the same integration discipline behind our technology partner relationships.
Design and UX decisions that make or break quote adoption
A working quote feature that buyers do not use is a wasted build. A few decisions consistently separate quote flows buyers actually adopt from ones they abandon.
Make the request-a-quote action obvious in the cart, not buried in an account menu, because a buyer decides to negotiate at the moment they see the total. Show quote status clearly so a buyer always knows whether the ball is in their court or the seller’s. Preserve the full negotiation history on the quote so neither side re-litigates a point already settled. And make the accepted-quote to checkout handoff frictionless, since the buyer has already committed mentally by the time they accept the price, and any snag there costs an order that was effectively won.
These are storefront craft decisions, and they are precisely what a custom or well-configured Hyva build controls. B2B quoting is not unique to Adobe Commerce either, and merchants weighing platforms often compare it against B2B quoting on Shopify and Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and Shopware, each of which handles negotiation with different depth. If you are deciding whether Adobe Commerce quoting on Hyva fits your process or whether another platform serves it better, that is a scoping question worth raising early with Bemeir.
FAQ
What is a negotiable quote in Adobe Commerce B2B?
A negotiable quote is a cart a logged-in company buyer submits to the merchant as a formal request to agree price, quantity, and terms before ordering. The seller can adjust prices to the line-item level, propose shipping, and counter, and the two sides negotiate until they agree or the seller declines. When the buyer accepts, the quote converts to an order at the agreed terms, with no additional discounts stacked on.
Do negotiable quotes work on a Hyva theme?
The negotiable quote engine runs in the Adobe Commerce backend and works fully on Hyva. What does not work out of the box is the buyer-facing storefront, because Adobe built the quote screens as KnockoutJS components that a Hyva theme removes. You get the storefront back through the paid Hyva Enterprise B2B modules or a custom Hyva rebuild of the quote interface.
Why do B2B storefront features break on Hyva when the catalog does not?
Hyva replaces Magento’s legacy Knockout, RequireJS, and jQuery with inline Alpine.js and Tailwind. Catalog and checkout are rebuilt natively in Hyva, so they render fine. Adobe’s B2B storefront components, including quotes, company accounts, requisition lists, and quick order, were built on the old Knockout stack and have nothing to render against on Hyva until they are rebuilt.
Do I need Adobe Commerce or will Magento Open Source do?
Negotiable quotes are part of the commercial B2B module that ships only with Adobe Commerce. Magento Open Source does not include quoting, company accounts, or shared catalogs natively. If B2B negotiation is core to your business, you need Adobe Commerce, or a third-party B2B extension that adds a comparable quote workflow to Open Source, which is a different and usually more limited path.
How long does it take to build quotes on a Hyva B2B store?
It depends on the path. Adopting the Hyva Enterprise B2B modules is the fastest route when your process matches Adobe’s default workflow. A custom rebuild takes longer because it models your specific negotiation rules, approval chains, and integrations. B2B storefront features are the most common reason a Hyva B2B migration runs longer than a B2C one, so scope them explicitly rather than assuming catalog-speed timelines.
