What if your eCommerce store could reflect your actual organizational structure?
For B2B companies and public institutions, purchasing workflows are often much more complex than simply adding items to a cart. Multiple teams, approval layers, and budget control need to coexist without slowing down operations. That’s exactly the challenge Maxoutil, a French B2B tool supplier, faced when scaling their Magento platform.
To address this, we built a custom Parent/Child Account system in Magento, enabling decentralized ordering with centralized control. Giving Maxoutil and their clients the flexibility they needed.
Read the full Maxoutil Magento + Hyvä case study »
The Challenge: Decentralized Teams, Centralized Purchasing
Let’s take a real-world example. Imagine a city hall with multiple departments:
- The green space team wants to order a rake.
- The events department needs tables for an upcoming fair.
- The accounting department must validate all purchases for budget control.
Each department should be able to browse the site, create a cart, and initiate the order. But without the ability to finalize the purchase. The accounting team, as the parent account, needs to:
- Receive notifications when a child account places an order.
- Review and approve or reject that order.
- Maintain full visibility on what’s being purchased.
This kind of workflow exists in enterprise procurement systems like SAP and even in Amazon Business, but few native Magento features offer that level of delegation and control out-of-the-box.
The Solution: Parent/Child Customer Account System in Magento
We developed a tailor-made customer account structure where:
- A Parent Account can manage several Child Accounts.
- Each child account is restricted in its permissions (e.g. cannot place orders, only save carts or wishlists).
- The parent user receives alerts when a cart is submitted and can finalize the order.
- All order history, carts, and purchasing activities are visible to the parent account only.
This custom development was implemented natively inside Magento, building upon:
- Magento’s ACL (Access Control Lists) and customer group architecture
- Custom modules for workflow validation and cart status
- Automated email notifications and approval dashboards
By making it part of the Magento ecosystem, this system is both maintainable and scalable for future business logic extensions.
Related: Discover how we enhanced customer intelligence with a smarter affiliate system for Maxoutil »
Business Impact for Maxoutil
The result? Maxoutil now offers its B2B customers a competitive advantage through:
- Controlled, delegated ordering for large teams or institutions
- Improved budget oversight without compromising flexibility
- A Magento store tailored for enterprise B2B workflows
This functionality is especially valuable for:
- Municipalities and public institutions
- Corporate purchasing teams
- Franchise or multi-site operations
Smarter eCommerce Starts with Your Business Structure
As digital commerce evolves, so should the way platforms mirror the realities of your organization. If your business involves multi-level purchasing flows, we can build the custom logic to make your Magento store work for you.
Want to explore how Sutunam can help optimize your B2B purchasing flow?
Let’s talk: Contact us »
