B2B eCommerce Search
A B2B ecommerce search solution that understands part numbers, technical specs, and what your buyers mean when they type.
Virto Commerce is a B2B ecommerce search solution that finds products by part number, technical spec, or plain-language description. Each buyer sees only what their account can order, at their contract price, with stock shown. You choose the engine behind it: Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, Azure AI Search, Algolia, or the built-in Lucene provider.
How B2B Search Works in Virto Commerce
Every query passes through the same layers before a result reaches the buyer.
- Intent and wording: AI Intent Search turns a plain-language query into the right filters and categories. A buyer who types "the metric version of the 3/8 fitting we use for line 4" gets the right part with no keyword match.
- Catalog structure: Matches are mapped to your categories, attributes, and units, so buyers can search inside one brand, one virtual category, in-stock items only, or a single attribute such as material.
- Account rules: The account's catalog, price list, and role decide what appears. A procurement manager and a retail buyer can type the same words and see different products and prices.
- Facets and sorting: Catalog managers choose which facets appear, in what order, and the default sort order for each store, in the admin with no developer involved.
- Relevance tuning: With Elastic App Search, merchandisers also manage synonyms, boosts, and curated results, and see top queries and zero-result searches.
Search runs on the same catalog, prices, and permissions as the rest of the platform. There is no separate search tool to keep in step with your contract rules.
B2B eCommerce Search for Complex Product Catalogs with Technical Specifications
Technical catalogs need search that treats part numbers and attribute values as structured data. These are the four situations B2B product search has to handle most often.
The buyer knows the part number. A maintenance buyer types "6204-2RS" or the first characters of a supplier code. Search has to treat part numbers as exact identifiers and still match partial or reformatted entries. In Virto Commerce, buyers can type a SKU or part number straight into the search bar, and autocomplete suggests products as they type.
The buyer knows the spec but not the number. An engineer needs a 24V DC relay for DIN-rail mounting and has no catalog number. Search has to combine a plain description with attribute filters. Intent Search reads the description, then buyers filter by attributes such as voltage, mount type, or material.
The catalog comes from many suppliers in several languages. A distributor receives supplier data in German, French, and English, each with its own naming. Search has to work across that mix without a manual cleanup of every record. Intent Search maps differently worded queries to the same categories and attributes, and buyers in each market can browse multilingual catalogs in their own language.
The buyer is on the warehouse floor. A store manager restocks with a phone in hand instead of a keyboard. Barcode and SKU scanning finds the product straight from a scan with the phone camera, matching on full text or on a specific product property.
Watch Our Interactive Demo for More Information
Explore search configuration along with the rest of the platform in the interactive demo.
Search Engines Virto Commerce Supports
Virto Commerce ships providers for six search engines and connects others, such as Hawksearch, through the same provider interface. You can set the engine per type of data. Facets, sorting, and account filters work with every engine. Synonyms, curations, and relevance tuning come with Elastic App Search.
| Engine | When it fits | Integration |
|---|---|---|
| Lucene | Built-in provider for development and smaller catalogs, with no separate cluster to run | Built in |
| Elasticsearch 8 and 9 | Large catalogs that need custom scoring, semantic search, and AI recommendations | Elasticsearch integration |
| Elastic App Search | Teams that want synonyms, curated results, relevance tuning, and search analytics in a managed console | Module |
| OpenSearch | Self-hosted clusters or Amazon OpenSearch Service | Module |
| Azure AI Search (formerly Azure Cognitive Search) | Deployments that already run on Microsoft Azure | Azure AI Search integration |
| Algolia | Hosted instant search for storefronts with heavy search traffic | Algolia integration |
| Hawksearch | Teams that want merchandiser-facing tools and detailed search reporting | Hawksearch integration |
| Another engine | Any other provider, connected as a custom module through the provider interface | Custom development |
Search at Catalog Scale
Standaard Boekhandel runs a marketplace catalog of 25 million products on Virto Commerce. Read the Standaard Boekhandel case study.
Search is part of what Virto Commerce offers for B2B ecommerce for distributors. For parts catalogs with vehicle fitment and cross-references, see automotive aftermarket ecommerce. Once a buyer opens a product, product ratings and reviews from customers who ordered it help confirm the choice.
Your Questions, Answered
Yes. Virto Commerce search applies the signed-in account's catalog, price list, and role before it shows results. Buyers see only the products their agreement covers, at their contract price. Two accounts can run the same query and get different product lists, without separate search setups per customer.
Virto Commerce indexes catalogs of millions of products on engines built for that scale, such as Elasticsearch, OpenSearch, and Azure AI Search. Indexing runs automatically whenever a product changes, so results stay current, and the engine can be chosen per type of data, so heavy product catalogs and lighter content can run on different providers.
Yes. Part numbers and SKUs are indexed as searchable fields, and autocomplete suggests products from the first few characters typed. A buyer can paste a code from an invoice or an old order, or scan a barcode with a phone, and land on the product instead of browsing categories.
Yes. Catalog managers choose facets, their order, and the default sort order per store in the Virto Commerce admin. Stores on Elastic App Search also get synonyms, boosts, curated results, and reports on top and zero-result queries, all managed without code.
Yes. Product names, descriptions, and properties can be stored in several languages, and the storefront sends the buyer's language with every search. A buyer browsing in German sees German product content from the same catalog English buyers use. This matters most for distributors selling into several markets from one platform.
