Rebuilding B2B Commerce for 20 Million Product Configurations

May 15, 2024


The problem: A 150-year-old foam and rubber manufacturer needed to replace their rigid Magento setup. Their 9,000+ B2B customers across 42 countries were creating millions of custom product configurations, but the platform couldn't handle the complexity.

Every customer needed personalized pricing. Every organization had multiple buyers. Every integration required workarounds.

This didn't scale.

What We Built

We migrated EKI to Medusa, building a composable commerce system that orchestrates multiple services:

The architecture:

Each system handles what it does best. Medusa connects them through event-based workflows.

Result: Personalized B2B experience with custom pricing, organization-level purchasing, and real-time order tracking.

The Challenge

EKI's customers don't buy standard products. They configure foam and rubber specifications—material type, thickness, length, custom cuts. Over 20 million possible combinations.

Old system problems:

The team needed modular architecture that could:

  1. Replace services without touching core commerce
  2. Support complex B2B features (custom pricing, org accounts)
  3. Make customization straightforward, not a fight

Why Medusa Worked

Modular by design. Each commerce domain (orders, customers, cart) lives in its own module. We kept Medusa's modules where they worked, replaced others with existing EKI systems.

Custom organizations. Extended Medusa's customer entity with an Organization ID. Now multiple buyers link to one company, see shared orders, get company-specific pricing.

Event-driven integration. Used workflows and subscribers to connect systems. When an order is placed in Medusa, webhooks sync it to Odoo. When pricing changes in the configurator, it updates in the cart. No middleware, no data loss.

Framework tooling. Built custom services using Medusa's patterns. Added shipping calculations based on Odoo data. Created price validation against the configurator. Straightforward development, maintainable code.

Personalized B2B Flow

  1. Login → Customer sees products tailored to their organization
  2. Configure product → Select material, dimensions, quantity
  3. Get pricing → Real-time calculation with org-specific discounts
  4. Checkout → Personalized shipping costs from Odoo data
  5. Order tracking → Status syncs between Medusa and Odoo

All pricing, products, and promotions adapt to the organization profile. No generic experience.

What I Learned

Modular doesn't mean complex. EKI's setup connects five systems, but each has clear responsibility. Medusa orchestrates without trying to own everything.

Organization-level accounts are crucial for B2B. Most platforms treat every user as independent. B2B customers are companies with multiple buyers. Get this wrong, the whole experience breaks.

Let systems do what they're built for. Don't force commerce platforms to be ERPs. Don't make ERPs handle carts. Use the right tool for each job, connect them cleanly.

Custom B2B logic needs a framework, not a black box. SaaS platforms give you what they built. Open frameworks like Medusa let you build what customers need.

The Details

EKI now serves their 9,000+ customers through a modern commerce stack that handles complexity they couldn't manage before.

For us at rb2, this project proved that composable commerce isn't just theory—it works for complex B2B operations at scale.

Read the full case study on Medusa's blog.

I worked on this as Solution Architect at rb2. We help manufacturers and distributors build B2B commerce that actually works.