B2B eCommerce isn’t what it used to be.
The buyer journey has shifted dramatically—procurement teams expect lightning-fast product discovery, contract-based pricing, effortless reordering, multi-location fulfillment, and 24/7 account visibility. And if a platform can’t keep up, buyers don’t hesitate to move on.
Epicor Commerce Connect (ECC) once made perfect sense for manufacturers and distributors already invested in Epicor ERP systems. It offered online ordering paired with ERP connectivity—promising to centralize operations and support digital sales. But in today’s hyper-competitive commerce landscape, ECC’s Magento-dependent build, upgrade limitations, and customization costs are becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.
On the other side of the ring is BigCommerce B2B Edition, quickly becoming the preferred commerce engine for distributors, wholesalers, and industrial brands. It’s modern, agile, and built with the realities of B2B selling in mind—faster deployments, more flexibility, easier product and price management, and customer-first buying experiences that directly influence revenue.
As more B2B companies reassess their digital infrastructure for long-term growth, the ECC vs BigCommerce debate has become impossible to overlook. This blog takes a deep, unbiased dive into both platforms across the metrics that matter most to industrial sellers—performance, integrations, customization, scalability, ownership costs, and future-readiness.
If you’re evaluating whether to stay with Epicor ECC or switch to BigCommerce B2B Edition, this guide will give you the clarity you need before making your next move.
- B2B eCommerce isn’t what it used to be.
- Which Platform Helps to Enable B2B Growth?
- Time-to-Value & Total Cost of Ownership: Where Growth Either Accelerates or Slows Down
- BigCommerce: Faster Payback, Lower Long-Term Overhead
- Agility Without the Headaches: Can Your Platform Keep Up With Modern B2B Commerce?
- BigCommerce: Agility Engineered Into the Core
- Seamless ERP Integration
- Real-World B2B Use Cases
- Future-Proofing Your B2B Commerce
- Comparative Table: ECC vs BigCommerce
- Common Pitfalls of Sticking With ECC
- Why Leading B2B Brands Are Making the Switch
- How BigCommerce + Epicor Eclipse Delivered Faster, Smarter B2B Commerce for Prostar Industries
- Survival Mode vs Growth Mode & How DotcomWeavers Can Help
Let’s dive deeper into every aspect to give you a complete picture.
Before you dive deeper into the platform comparison below, check out this video where we break down Epicor ECC and BigCommerce B2B Edition in a clear visual format. You’ll see:
- What each platform actually delivers for modern B2B commerce
- Key differences in flexibility, scalability, and buyer experience
- How your organization can decide which solution aligns with your growth goals
This video complements the insights in this article and gives you a quick, actionable overview to reinforce your next steps.
Which Platform Helps to Enable B2B Growth?
When comparing Epicor ECC and BigCommerce B2B Edition, it’s crucial to understand how each platform was originally built — because architecture directly influences speed, flexibility, and long-term ROI.
Epicor ECC: ERP First, Commerce Second
ECC was never engineered as a commerce engine. Its purpose is to extend Epicor ERP to the web — not to drive a modern online buying journey. Behind the scenes, ECC is powered by Magento, which introduces complexity and long-term maintenance overhead.
Heavy Developer Dependency — Even basic operations like updating SKUs, launching new catalog segments, uploading bulk price lists, or creating customer-specific catalogs require developer involvement.
Maintenance Burden — Patches, security updates, and Magento upgrades frequently clash with customizations, causing broken modules and emergency fixes.
Rigid Architecture — The system prioritizes ERP logic over buyer experience, slowing down UX improvements and revenue-generating experiments.
Slow Adaptability — Adding features such as punchout, split-shipment logic, or contract-pricing rules often turns into long development cycles.
Limited Personalization — Modern B2B capabilities like AI-powered recommendations, account-level segmentation, and self-service portals require significant custom build-out.
Bottom line: ECC forces merchants to align their web strategy with ERP limitations rather than evolving to meet buyer expectations.
BigCommerce B2B Edition: Commerce Engine Built for Today’s Buyer
BigCommerce is engineered for digital commerce from day one — designed to handle complex B2B needs without slowing down marketing and sales teams.
Advantages that matter for manufacturers and distributors:
Pre-Built B2B Toolset — Company accounts, shared shopping lists, price lists, quote management, approval workflows, order history, and bulk reordering — available immediately.
Seamless ERP Compatibility — Integrations with Epicor Kinetic, P21, Eclipse, and other ERP systems through modern middleware like Shiphive, Jitterbit, and Cloras.
AI-ready data orchestration Ensure discoverability across agentic search engines and AI shopping apps with BigCommerce + Feedonomics enrichment pipelines.
Business-User Control — Marketing and operations teams can update product data, pricing rules, promotions, and content independently — no developer needed.
Rapid Feature Expansion — Customers get subscription ordering, quick-order pads, reordering automation, and invoice payments without long development cycles.
Scalability with Ease — Multi-storefront, wholesale/retail hybrid portals, D2C expansion, and marketplace selling can be added without architectural restructuring.
In short, ECC is built around ERP workflows, while BigCommerce is built around driving revenue and buyer convenience — and this difference compounds over time.
Additional Value Points for Context
| Business Priority | ECC | BigCommerce B2B Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Commerce Flexibility | Low | High |
| Buyer Experience | Limited | Best-in-class |
| Upgrade Stability | Risk prone | Smooth |
| Control for Non-Technical Users | Very low | High |
| Long-Term Cost Predictability | Uncertain | Consistent |
| Support for Multi-Channel Growth | Requires Custom Build | Built-in |
| Future-Proofing | Low | Strong |
Time-to-Value & Total Cost of Ownership: Where Growth Either Accelerates or Slows Down
When evaluating ECC vs BigCommerce, cost shouldn’t be measured simply by licensing. What really separates the two platforms is the speed at which they start generating ROI — and the ongoing cost required to keep them running smoothly.
The ECC Cost Reality: More Expensive Than It Looks
While ECC may appear cost-effective initially — especially for companies already using Epicor ERP — the long-term financial impact tells a different story.
Hidden drains on budget and productivity include:
Over time, ECC becomes a platform that demands continuous investment but struggles to contribute proportionate commercial value.
BigCommerce: Faster Payback, Lower Long-Term Overhead
BigCommerce is built to reduce technical friction so businesses can focus on growth, not platform management.
Key cost advantages include:
Business-User Autonomy
Merchants can update pricing, catalogs, customer groups, promotions, tax rules, and content without waiting for developers — eliminating recurring IT billing for routine tasks.
Minimal Maintenance Burden
Core updates and feature improvements are applied without disrupting custom storefront logic. No emergency fixes. No version-upgrade chaos. No “post-release firefighting.”
Rapid Time-to-Market
Deployments take weeks or a few months — not quarters or years. Faster implementations equal faster buying adoption, faster revenue generation, and faster payback.
High Multi-Team Productivity
Sales, marketing, operations, and CX teams can all manage what they need within the platform — dramatically reducing bottlenecks and operational cost.
Put simply: ECC absorbs resources while BigCommerce compounds results.
Agility Without the Headaches: Can Your Platform Keep Up With Modern B2B Commerce?
B2B commerce isn’t static. Buyer expectations evolve, sales models shift, fulfillment rules change, and competitive pressure is relentless. The real question is not whether a platform works today — but whether it allows your business to adapt quickly without creating chaos, delays, or added expenses.
ECC’s Agility Limitations: Built for Stability, Not Adaptability
ECC’s Magento foundation makes it highly customizable — but not dynamically agile. Every enhancement increases complexity, which creates friction when change is needed.
Where ECC slows merchants down:
Risky Update and Release Cycle
In many cases, new patches or version updates conflict with custom-coded modules, causing bugs and emergency rollbacks after the patch is applied.
Customizations Break Easily
B2B features — such as account-level pricing, quoting, or purchase order workflows — are mostly custom-built. When Magento evolves, these enhancements frequently lose compatibility.
High Cost of Simple Improvements
Adding a payment provider, changing pricing segmentation, updating a product catalog, introducing coupon logic, or launching a microsite can take weeks or months.
Change Management Bottlenecks
Because ECC development relies heavily on specialized Magento resources, business teams can’t experiment or iterate independently.
The net effect? ECC locks merchants into slow operational cycles — making them reactive instead of strategic.
BigCommerce: Agility Engineered Into the Core
BigCommerce is designed for merchants who want to move fast, improve continuously, and respond instantly to changes in customer demand.
Where BigCommerce gives teams an execution advantage:
Ready-to-Use B2B Capabilities
Quoting tools, invoice portals, shared shopping lists, reordering automation, request-for-quote support, approval workflows, and company accounts are already available — no long development cycles.
Changes Without Technical Barriers
Teams can independently update storefront content, products, pricing structures, customer groups, promotions, and workflows — without developer intervention.
Adaptable Architecture for Growth
Support for multi-storefront, dealer portals, distributor/wholesaler hybrid sales, punchout catalogs, marketplace selling, and regional expansion doesn’t require replatforming or heavy rebuilding.
Built for Innovation, Not Maintenance
Merchants can focus on strategies that boost revenue — like improving conversion rates and adding new sales channels — instead of fixing code and troubleshooting compatibility.
The outcome is straightforward: BigCommerce helps organizations stay ahead of shifting buyer expectations rather than racing to catch up.
Seamless ERP Integration
Integration is the backbone of B2B eCommerce.
ECC Limitations
BigCommerce Advantage
Outcome: ERP remains the operational backbone while commerce drives growth, freeing teams to innovate rather than maintain.
Real-World B2B Use Cases
Case Study 1: Manufacturing Distributor
- Challenge: Slow product updates and inventory sync delays with ECC.
- Solution: Migrated to BigCommerce with ERP integration.
- Result: Launches that previously took 6 months are now completed in 6 weeks, with 25% increase in online orders within the first quarter.
Case Study 2: Multi-Brand Distributor
- Challenge: Difficulty managing multiple storefronts and pricing tiers in ECC.
- Solution: BigCommerce multi-storefront and pricing management.
- Result: Unified control across brands, with real-time updates and simplified workflows, boosting team efficiency by 40%.
Another emerging advantage for B2B sellers on BigCommerce is its ability to support AI-powered discovery and automated purchasing. By enriching catalog data and pushing it to AI channels, distributors are seeing measurable lifts in product visibility across AI-driven search platforms. This gives BigCommerce merchants a competitive edge in the new “agentic commerce” era where buyers use AI tools—not just websites—to search, compare, and buy.
These examples highlight how BigCommerce converts operational complexity into growth opportunities.
Future-Proofing Your B2B Commerce
B2B ecommerce is no longer static. Emerging trends like AI-powered personalization, headless architecture, and global omnichannel selling demand platforms that can evolve.
- ECC: Constrained by legacy Magento architecture, upgrades are slow, risky, and often break customizations.
- BigCommerce: Continuous innovation via SaaS updates keeps businesses ahead of the curve. Features like AI-assisted product recommendations, dynamic quoting, and headless storefronts ensure your platform can grow with your business.
Beyond traditional SaaS improvements, BigCommerce is deeply aligned with the rise of agentic commerce—where AI systems act as buying agents, generating recommendations, comparing SKUs, negotiating, and even completing purchases on behalf of human buyers.
With capabilities like Agentic Search, AI Data Readiness, Brand Agents, AI Insights, and Agentic Checkout, BigCommerce is preparing manufacturers and distributors for the next decade of AI-driven B2B commerce. ECC, tied to older architecture, cannot support these emerging AI-driven buying pathways.
The verdict: Only a modern commerce-first platform like BigCommerce can truly future-proof B2B operations.
Comparative Table: ECC vs BigCommerce
| Feature / Metric | Epicor ECC | BigCommerce B2B Edition |
|---|---|---|
| Platform Type | ERP Extension (Magento-based) | SaaS-Native, Commerce-First |
| Time-to-Launch | Months to years | Weeks to months |
| Developer Dependence | High | Low |
| Maintenance & Upgrades | Frequent & risky | Automatic, seamless |
| B2B Features | Limited | Multi-user, quoting, approvals |
| ERP Integration | Rigid, requires manual work | Real-time, bi-directional |
| Multi-Storefront Support | Limited | Full, flexible |
| Future Readiness | Constrained | Continuous innovation |
| Total Cost of Ownership | High (hidden costs) | Predictable, lower TCO |
| Scalability | Limited | Global-ready, flexible |
A major differentiator moving forward is how each platform handles AI readiness. BigCommerce is rapidly becoming the industry’s most AI-aligned commerce engine—supporting semantic search, AI-generated product enrichment, intelligent catalog governance, multi-channel AI-driven surfacing, and agent-to-merchant purchase flows. ECC offers none of these capabilities natively and requires heavy, expensive customization to approximate even basic AI functionality.
Common Pitfalls of Sticking With ECC
Switching to BigCommerce eliminates these bottlenecks, allowing teams to focus on growth rather than firefighting.
Why Leading B2B Brands Are Making the Switch
Bottom line: BigCommerce turns your eCommerce operations from a liability into a competitive advantage.
Getting Started With BigCommerce
Transitioning from ECC doesn’t have to be painful:
Step 1: Assess Current Workflows: Identify pain points in ECC—catalog management, pricing updates, ERP integration, etc.
Step 2: Partner With Experts: Engage certified BigCommerce developers and ERP integrators.
Step 3: Plan Migration Strategically: Prioritize critical workflows, data integrity, and minimal downtime.
Step 4: Train Teams: Enable your marketing, sales, and operations teams to fully leverage the platform.
Step 5: Launch and Optimize: Go live with confidence, and continuously refine the buyer experience with analytics and insights.
How BigCommerce + Epicor Eclipse Delivered Faster, Smarter B2B Commerce for Prostar Industries
To support Prostar Industries’ growing B2B demand, DotcomWeavers executed a full commerce upgrade by replatforming to BigCommerce B2B Edition and building a real-time Epicor Eclipse integration. The new storefront delivers a seamless, scalable, and self-service buying experience for distributors and professional buyers.
The Outcome
Survival Mode vs Growth Mode & How DotcomWeavers Can Help
BigCommerce is rapidly becoming the platform of choice for wholesalers who need performance, flexibility, and B2B-first selling tools without overcomplicating their tech stack. With features like contract-based pricing, punchout catalogs, multi-location inventory, buy-again ordering, flexible payment rules, and real-time account visibility, wholesalers finally get a platform that aligns with how their buyers actually shop — fast, predictable, and self-service.
But technology alone doesn’t solve operational complexity. The real impact happens when BigCommerce is implemented with the right architecture, the right workflows, and integrations that don’t break under scale.
That’s where DotcomWeavers comes in.
Wholesalers partner with DCW because we don’t simply “launch a store” — we build infrastructure that keeps revenue flowing without bottlenecks:
Epicor ECC had its moment — when simply getting online and tying ecommerce to the ERP was considered “good enough.” But today’s B2B landscape is brutally competitive. Buyers demand speed, personalization, mobility, transparency, and frictionless self-service. Platforms built around ERP limitations just can’t keep up.
BigCommerce B2B Edition isn’t just a platform swap — it’s a shift in business philosophy:
The pattern across the market is unmistakable: Teams that stay on ECC stay in survival mode. Teams that switch to BigCommerce step into growth mode.
And this is where DotcomWeavers makes the difference.
We don’t just plug in BigCommerce — we engineer high-performance B2B ecosystems:
About the Author: Amit Bhaiya
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