Most of our clients never turn this on, and we would rather say so than sell you a storefront you do not need. When you do need it, it is the same platform and the same data, not a second system and a second migration.
Connected directly to the PIM, the CMS, your ERP and your distributor data, so there is no separate copy to keep in step.
The name on the product says commerce, and the instinct in this category is to open with checkout. We do not, because it would be wrong for most of the people reading. The dominant buyer here does not want engineers transacting on their own site: they want engineers to find the right part, filter on specifications, see live availability, and submit an RFQ or a sample request. The sale closes off-site, through a channel and a relationship that already works.
When a genuine transactional need does exist, a prototype and low-value order stream, a distributor operating a real storefront, a direct line that needs its own path, it is the same platform, the same product data and the same content system. That is the argument for having it available and not leading with it.
The requirements that break retail platforms are the ordinary ones here: customer-specific pricing, customer part numbers, approval chains, punchout, and a first-time buyer with no account at all.
Contract rates, volume breaks and negotiated terms resolved per account, from the system that already holds them.
Buyers order by their own internal numbers. The catalog maps those to yours rather than asking procurement to translate.
Someone with no trading account can still buy. Gating every price behind an account request is how a first order becomes someone else's.
Multi-step approval where the buying organisation requires it, without pushing the whole order back to email.
For buyers whose procurement platform is the only front door they are allowed to use.
Stocked standard items check out directly; large-volume, custom or limited-supply items go to a quote request. The buyer does not have to know which is which.
Where an engineer's parts list becomes a sales opportunity.
Live distributor pricing and availability, on the page.
Every sample request is a tracked lead.
A stated agenda, a real solutions engineer, and a written follow-up with what we found whether or not you proceed.