Distributors evaluating B2B eCommerce technology in 2026 hear the same pitch from every direction: a new platform, a smarter search engine, an AI layer, each presented as the investment that cannot wait. Atwix Founder and CEO Slava Kravchuk joined Jason Hein on the B2B eCommerce Association’s B2B eCommerce Show to put those options in an order that holds up against a real ERP and real buyers. The conversation covers who to build for, what has to work before AI earns a budget line, how to vet an implementation partner, and why leaving a working platform alone is a decision with a price.
Start with the customer, then the ERP
Requirements come from two groups, and neither of them is the loudest voice in the building.
“It’s important to not lose sight of who is your customer, who are you building this for.”
Slava’s two groups are the external buyers who will use the site and the internal sales and service staff who assist a large share of B2B orders that will never go self-service end to end. Feature-level questions wait until both sets of needs are on paper. Underneath both groups sits one system that does not move.
“ERP is central, that’s the central system of records. Whatever your experience is, it has to be integrated with ERP.”
Pricing, inventory, order status, and customer terms live in the ERP, which is why he puts the integration ahead of every storefront feature. Atwix connects storefronts to Infor, Epicor, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and SAP Business One through its ERP integration services.
Fix the fundamentals before you pay for AI
AI belongs at the end of the list, after the data and processes it depends on are clean.
“Everybody is now putting AI on the front page, and some of those capabilities that are advertised are just phantom capabilities. They’re not there.”
Slava’s test for any AI feature is the process underneath it.
“Messy process plus AI equals messy AI process.”
Before AI or advanced personalization, he named five things that have to work:
- Site speed, which he called non-negotiable and measurable.
- Search that resolves manufacturer part numbers, internal SKUs, the customer’s own part numbers, and typos.
- Inventory and order status synchronized with the ERP, fast and accurate.
- Omnichannel order visibility, so an order placed by phone or email shows up online.
- A mobile experience built for a buyer in a warehouse or on a job site rather than at a desk with a large monitor.
His delivery advice follows the same logic: launch a focused first release in two or three months, prove value, collect real feedback, then expand. On the data side, Yaro Rogoza’s ERP checklist for distributors and manufacturers covers the validation steps that keep “messy” out of the equation.
Vet the partner as carefully as the platform
A strong platform with a weak implementation gets blamed on the platform, so the partner decision carries as much weight as the platform decision. Slava borrowed the GWC test from the Entrepreneurial Operating System (EOS), which many B2B leadership teams run on.
“Get it, want it, and capable of.”
- Get it: the partner understands your business, your industry, and your customer.
- Want it: the partner is in it for a long-term relationship rather than a single closed deal.
- Capable of: the partner has the platform expertise and engineering depth to deliver.
He was specific about what to verify before signing. Ask for experience with your ERP, because back-end synchronization is invisible on launch day and, in his words, decides whether adoption lands at 2 percent or 20 percent. Ask for experience across more than one platform, because a single-platform vendor will recommend that platform whatever your fit. Then check the proof points you can confirm without taking anyone’s word: reference customers, current clients, certification counts, and public contributions to open-source platforms.
Leaving a working platform alone has a price
The “don’t touch it” instinct protects nothing once the vendors underneath the platform stop supporting it. Slava pointed to Magento 1 merchants who postponed migrating until PayPal’s API changes cut them off. The vendors backing an aging platform stop absorbing its compliance and maintenance cost, whether or not the merchant is ready.
“The earlier you move on from investing into something you know you’re going to throw away eventually, and switch to investing into something that will stay with you and keep compounding on that investment, that’s a big realization once you put the numbers in.”
Jason’s version of the same point was that an elephant is easier to eat in small bites than in one swallow, and deferred upgrades are the elephant.
Connect what sales knows to what the site shows
Jason closed on the customer knowledge B2B companies hold and leave untapped. It sits in a CRM or in the heads of reps who visit customers in person, something no consumer retailer can match. Slava’s answer was to connect that knowledge, wherever it lives, to the people building the digital experience, instead of designing the site in isolation from what sales knows.
“Those who will be smart enough to actually take that route, not be afraid, experiment, and have the right partner to help them along the way, I think they will get ahead of the competition.”
Watch the full conversation with Slava Kravchuk and Jason Hein, or read the B2B eCommerce Association’s episode recap.
Put your own list in order
If you are weighing a replatform, a search upgrade, and an AI initiative against each other, start where Slava did: who you are building for, what your ERP needs, and what has to work before AI gets a budget. If you want a second opinion on that order, bring your ERP, your top buyer accounts, and the age of your current platform. Talk to Atwix.