Introduction: In our article series “The Regionalisation of B2B Commerce is Here,” Ludvig Bergander, Strategic Account Advisor at Columbus Sweden, and his colleagues discuss five areas where regionalisation is changing how B2B businesses must think, build, and operate. "The future of B2B commerce is shareable, not just scalable" is the third article in the series.
Global B2B companies need a digital foundation that does more than just scale. For manufacturers, regionalisation is making markets more diverse again.
This means sharing responsibilities, data, components, capabilities, and experiences across teams, systems, and geographies. This isn’t about losing control - it’s about building it in. The goal is to give central teams the tools to enable local differentiation, not restrict it.
In this article, Kristoffer Persson, Head of Architects at Columbus Sweden and I cover:
- The key principles of modern architecture
- How to move from traditional to modular models
- What manufacturers must look for in future-ready platforms
- How to select and compose the right stack
Five key principles of modern architecture
Kristoffer shares his take on how B2B leaders in manufacturing can build for this shift:
- Set clear boundaries between global and regional logic
Make it obvious what’s shared and what’s market-specific – in code, content, and operations. For example, use tax services like Avalara only for the U.S., and configure it in commercetools to trigger conditionally. That keeps the global setup clean and avoids unnecessary complexity elsewhere.
- Be headless and composable – where it counts
Don’t decouple for the sake of it. But do decouple what needs to move independently – like local storefronts, customer portals, or regional checkout and fulfilment workflows. This is especially important for manufacturers managing different product ranges, sales models or partners by market.
- Build governance through enablement
Build your stack so that local teams can make adjustments within a clear framework without needing to rely on central IT for changes like:
- Market-specific extensions or add-ons
- Data boundaries per region so that users can only work with specific sites or assortments.
- Use hierarchical configurations
You don’t need a separate setup for every market. Build a structure that lets you override where needed without duplicating. Start with a global base: standard assortments and pricing. Then let regions adjust—adding or removing products, switching currencies, running local promos. For key customers, go a step further with tailored assortments and negotiated pricing.
- Design for AI readiness
AI’s only as good as the data it can access. That means structured, clean, accessible data with clear ownership. Using modular, API-first platforms can prevent your data from getting stuck in silos and make it much easier to tap into AI use cases later, like personalisation or predictive inventory.
How to move from traditional to modular models
Traditional platforms - or rather the way we’ve used them - have often backed us into a corner. The two choices are: either clone a full setup for every market (which is expensive and a pain to maintain), or enforce one global template (which saves time, but usually misses the mark locally). Neither approach really works in a regionalised B2B world.
Modern commerce platforms like Optimizely, Shopify and commercetools are built to support modularity and flexibility, which is exactly what regionalisation needs. But modular doesn’t mean plug-and-play. It takes solid architecture, governance, and clear priorities to make it work. The good news? When done right, it opens the ability to:
- Let your SaaS provider handle upgrades and security, so your teams can focus on delivering value.
- Use payment orchestration tools like Adyen, Stripe, Briqpay, and Spreedly to offer local options while keeping control centralised.
- Integrate regional product data sources like NOBB (Norway) or FINFO (Sweden) in a flexible, scalable way.
- Reuse components, APIs and product models globally – while still allowing for local UX, content and pricing.
The biggest mindset shift? Moving from scale-first to shareable-first, where your architecture is designed to be flexible across regions. It’s not always easy, but it’s increasingly necessary if you want to stay relevant in today’s market.
What manufacturers must look for in future-ready platforms
Whether you’re looking at commercetools, Optimizely, Shopify, or another platform, look for native support in these three main areas:
Multi-market operations
You’ll want a platform that handles regional differences without needing a separate setup for each one. Look for:
- Multiple websites or stores managed in one solution
- Built-in support for multiple languages and currencies
- Market-specific assortments, pricing, and warehouses
Native B2B capabilities
You need to factor in that B2B requires its own set of features. Prioritise platforms that include:
- Account-specific pricing and assortments
- Quote handling, approval flows, custom catalogues
- Customer and supplier portals to support post-purchase activities
- Strong CRM integrations and support for tools like PLM, field service, punch out and EDI
Open and extendable architecture
To adapt quickly, you need a platform that’s designed for change. That means:
- Solid integration support for PIM, ERP, CRM, and more
- Extension support so you can extend or modify platform behaviour
- API first design, so your frontend stays flexible
- Event driven support architecture, so you can react to platform events in real-time
Regional complexity used to be a burden for central teams. Now, with the right architecture, it can be your competitive advantage.
How to select and compose the right stack
Choosing platforms and services isn’t just about ticking boxes on a feature list. It’s about finding the right fit with your business logic, organisation, governance abilities, growth plans, and more.
Here are a few principles to guide the process:
- Start from your business architecture
Before looking at tools, define the capabilities you need to enable both globally and locally. Let business logic and customer journeys guide technical design, not the other way around.
- Design for change
Don’t overfit for today. Choose platforms that can evolve with you, especially when regional priorities shift or new markets are added.
- Think in capabilities, not vendors
View your architecture as a set of shared capabilities, not a stack of vendor names. The goal is not to pick “the best tool,” but to assemble a toolkit that enables both consistency and flexibility.
- Understand the economics
SaaS models shift spend from CAPEX to OPEX, which can be great for speed and flexibility, but costs can mount up quickly. Especially when combining multiple platforms and services, the total spend can become hard to track and justify.
Build a cost model that reflects both current needs and expected growth. Think about how your architecture scales: not just technically, but financially. Align investment with business value at each stage.
- Pilot, then scale
Test in one or two priority markets before rolling out. Prove the concept, refine governance, and build reusable patterns.
What’s next for modern B2B commerce in manufacturing
Modern B2B commerce in manufacturing isn’t just about scaling globally. It’s about doing it with control, clarity, and regional flexibility. That means designing your architecture to support both centralised efficiency and local relevance, choosing tools that align with your business logic, and building for change, not just today’s setup.
In our next article, myself and Erik Söderholm, Principal Advisor at Columbus Sweden, look into what happens after checkout—from fulfilment orchestration to managing complexity in today’s unpredictable supply chains.
If you'd like to chat more about anything we’ve covered here or how it applies to your business, don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Don’t miss the next article:
OMS in manufacturing: Meeting B2B buyer expectations post-checkout
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