B2B Platform

Shopware B2B tender platform: 50% faster procurement

Shopware 6 B2B tender plugin for a DACH industrial dealer. Multi-level approvals, status workflows, and a self-service dashboard. Cycle time cut from 6 weeks to 3.

Industry:: Industrial Machinery
Project Type:: B2B Platform
Duration:: 4 months
Location:: Germany
Published:: June 15, 2024

Outcome

24+

Enterprise buyers

50%

Faster cycles

95%+

Digital workflow

~80%

Less admin

The Challenge

An industrial machinery dealer in Germany was running million-euro tenders on paper. Bid sheets emailed back and forth. Approvals chased by phone. A status spreadsheet nobody trusted.

Critical Pain Points

Each procurement cycle took 6 weeks of paper-based back-and-forth
Bid status lived across different inboxes for different stakeholders
Multi-level approvals had no central system or audit trail
Enterprise buyers were asking for self-service, not email threads
Pricing negotiations needed formal documentation that PDFs couldn't enforce

They couldn't take on more enterprise customers without breaking the process they already had. The formal procurement standards their buyers expected weren't going to come from spreadsheets.

The Solution

I built a tender management module on top of Shopware that turns the formal bidding process into a self-service workflow.

Status-driven workflow

Submitted, under review, approval pending, approved, order placed. Notifications fire automatically at each step so nobody has to chase.

Customer dashboard

Buyers submit tenders, watch status in real time, and place bulk orders against multiple approved bids in one click.

Multi-level approvals

Routing rules escalate tenders by value threshold and product category. The right person sees the right bid, automatically.

Admin control room

A Vue.js admin panel where the sales team manages every tender, approval, and customer message from a single screen.

Results & Business Impact

Cycle time halved

Tenders that used to take 6 weeks now close in 3, because nothing waits in an inbox.

24+ enterprises onboarded

Existing accounts moved over without resistance. Self-service became the default channel.

Email chains gone

Status updates, notifications, and approval routing all happen automatically. Spreadsheet tracking retired.

Audit-ready by default

Every action is logged. Procurement audits run on the data, not on email forensics.

Technologies Used

Shopware 6
PHP 8
Symfony
Vue.js
MySQL
Custom Entities
B2B Platform

Running tenders on email?

If your procurement still moves through inboxes and spreadsheets, I can show you what a 50% faster cycle looks like. 30-minute call, no pitch.