Unlike D2C businesses, B2B needs to strike the perfect balance between  robust product information, seamless navigation, and still retain a professional, clean aesthetic. It can seem quite daunting trying to find a theme that, well, does it all, but don’t worry. We’re here to highlight some of the most effective themes around when it comes to growing your B2B store.

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Trade

This is the only real theme specifically developed for B2B by Shopify themselves, so it’s going at the top of our list! Because it’s developed by Shopify, you can rest assured the code is clean, high-quality, and easy to maintain, as well as being guaranteed to stay up to date and work with Shopify’s ever-growing feature set. In a fast paced and growing market like B2B, scalable features like this are integral to success!

A particularly rare feature in Shopify themes that really adds to B2B user experience, which coincidentally can be found in Trade, is a quick order list. This allows you to display all product variants with quantity selectors that add products directly to your cart. This alongside the ability to display minimum purchase requirements and apply tiered discounts for bulk purchases both simplifies the purchasing journey for your customers, and promotes larger orders. 

Page layouts are intentionally kept clean, simple, and easy to follow, while still placing products and categories at the forefront of the page. With B2B businesses, a visually appealing store is important, but showcasing the products is even more important. Trade manages to keep things professional and timeless in an aesthetic sense, but most importantly, it provides an efficient and optimised UX experience when shopping.

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Enterprise

The Enterprise theme works for both B2B and D2C stores, making it perfect for combined storefronts where you want clean brand led content layered with easy product discovery and clear product information.

Built in specifications tables on the product pages give a simple way to display key information about your products. This helps B2B customers cut through the noise and find the information they need in order to find the right item and purchase on your site.

One feature that is particularly appealing to B2B businesses is the addition of an ‘expert help’ phone button. Many companies need to stay easily contactable via the phone, the addition of an ‘expert help’ phone button featured in the header of your website makes sure your customers know how to contact you when they need support, ensuring you won’t miss out on any sales.

Another way in which Enterprise lends itself to B2B stores is in the layout. Once again, this theme caters towards simple, clean, and easy to follow content, compared to a theme that promotes story telling. In Enterprise, the product does 90% of the talking with clear information at every step and discoverability is made easy by a large search bar with the ability to include several categories. All of which are a must in B2B businesses.

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Avenue

Avenue has stood the test of time on the Shopify Theme Store and it can still be very effective for creating a successful B2B website. Basically, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!

The layout of the page follows the general aesthetic guidelines for B2B businesses. It’s clean, easy to navigate, and promotes the product over brand story telling. Searching for products becomes very easy with the use of advanced filtering at the top of the home page, making it easy for a business customer to navigate straight to a product they’re in need of.

One aspect we really like in this theme is the use of icons highlighting different selling points such as use or power source on the product page. It’s an interesting quirk that is rarely seen across Shopify themes.

There’s also the option to compare products on the site, an excellent asset for customers who are looking for a certain type of product but haven’t settled on a specific one yet. It allows them to select products as they browse to compare different options quickly and in an easily digestible manner. 

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Athens

Athens is a great theme for creating both a successful B2B store and a store that fits your brand's personality. The theme itself includes multiple layouts and styles, perfect for fitting different business niches, all while keeping the functionality a B2B theme needs in mind.

For product prices the theme has the option to display “inc. VAT’’, which is a big plus for B2B stores, and a feature that is not seen included by default across most Shopify themes.

Once again, the Athens theme really shines in product layout. Items are broken down into categories, with the ability to feature up to 15 categories in a relatively small space on the home page. Most people shopping on B2B websites are looking for speed, simplicity, and easy to find products, so once again, this layout is a great addition for any B2B website. In addition to this, the theme itself is also very flexible, which is another important aspect for B2B websites.

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Balancing easy product discoverability with UX and aesthetic design can be difficult for any B2B business, but if you stick with one of these themes, you’re on the right track! Looking for more information on effectively marketing your B2B business? Just get in touch. We’ll be happy to help.

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