Consumer commerce is built on a checkout: the price is known, the buyer pays, the order exists. A large amount of B2B is built the other way round. The buyer asks, someone prices it, and the accepted quote becomes the order. Freight, lead time, substitutions and volume are all negotiated in that gap.
Platforms differ enormously here and the difference is structural rather than cosmetic. Some have a native quote object with its own lifecycle and an API. Some model a quote as a draft order, which works until you need a quote to have an expiry, a revision history and an approver. Some have nothing and expect you to bolt on an app or a form.
The question that decides your platform is not whether quoting is supported. It is what share of your revenue starts as a quote. If it is most of it, quoting is your primary flow and a checkout-first platform means rebuilding your sales process to fit the software, which is exactly the trade this whole library exists to help you avoid.
Why it decides a platform
A platform built around a checkout assumes the price is already known. If most of your revenue starts as a quote, a checkout-first platform means either a bolt-on or a rebuilt sales process.
Also called: request for quote, RFQ, quoting.
Last updated 2026-08-20.