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Frequently asked questions
Is this for my operation?
What is CWS Platform?
CWS Platform is a B2B Commerce Platform for Governed Negotiation, a negotiation infrastructure for commerce between companies. It is not an online store adapted for B2B: it is the layer where price, delivery, payment, quantity and composition are negotiable within rules the company defines. It is 11 deterministic modules and 6 AI Agents, over 1,029 configurable parameters.
See the platform →What problem does it solve?
The problem that, in complex B2B, a sale is not a click: it is a negotiation over several conditions at the same time. When that negotiation lives in phone calls, spreadsheets and email, three things happen together: the cost of processing each order grows, margin leaks through concessions nobody can add up, and the digital channel is no more than a shop window, because the price it shows is not the price that closes.
See Governed Negotiation →What is the difference between traditional e-commerce and complex B2B commerce?
In e-commerce, price is an attribute of the product and the buyer either accepts it or leaves. In complex B2B, price is the result of who is buying, where the goods ship from, under which payment terms and under which tax rule, and it can still be negotiated. Add to that that credit is usually the means of payment and that the sales rep takes part in the transaction. That is why fixed-price platforms, adapted for B2B, stall on the first operation that genuinely negotiates.
See the Governed Negotiation entry in the glossary →What kind of company does CWS Platform make sense for?
For mid-sized and large B2B operations where price, credit and mix vary by customer: distribution and wholesale, auto parts and aftermarket, agribusiness, construction and materials, wholesale fashion, industry selling to resale. The most reliable signal is not the industry, it is the question: does your price list have exceptions per customer, and does someone have to approve a discount?
See who the platform is for →And what kind of company does it not make sense for?
For a fixed-price operation with a simple checkout, CWS Platform is overkill. If there is no price variation per customer, no sales rep active in the transaction, no inventory across several warehouses and no discount governance, platforms such as Shopify Plus or VTEX solve it better and cheaper. The platform was designed for complexity, and where complexity does not exist it only charges for it.
Talk to us about your case →Why CWS Platform and not another?
What does it do that a B2B e-commerce platform does not?
It treats negotiation as the central concept, not as a capability added later. In practice that shows up in four places: price derived from the context of the transaction rather than from a fixed list; credit as a native means of payment at checkout, with 30, 60 or 90 day terms; the sales rep operating inside the same core as the buyer, with the same price and the same inventory; and discount concessions happening within a limit, with the justification on record.
See Governed Negotiation →How does it compare to VTEX, Salesforce, SAP or Shopify Plus?
They are different categories, and the honest comparison depends on what you need. E-commerce platforms solve storefront and fixed-price checkout very well. CRM solves relationships and pipeline. ERP is the system of record. CWS Platform replaces none of the three: it is the governed negotiation layer between the ERP and the channels, which is precisely the piece that tends to end up in a spreadsheet. Where your operation negotiates, that is where the comparison makes sense.
See the platform →What does configuration over code mean?
It means a change to a commercial rule is a parameter, not a release. A tax rule change, a new discount limit per profile or a payment term for one customer go in as configuration in the Commerce Rules Engine (CDL Workspace) and take effect immediately, with no development queue. That is what moves the commercial team's response time from quarters to the same day.
See the CDL Workspace →Why not build this in-house?
Because what looks like a portal project is in fact a commercial rules engine with everything that comes with it: contextual pricing with taxation, credit at checkout, approval limits, discount stacking prevention, distributed inventory and an audit trail. Each one is feasible; together, and maintained for years while tax rules change, they become a product running in parallel to the business. The useful question is not whether you can build it, it is whether you want to maintain it for the next ten years.
See how we build the proposal →Is there a risk of vendor lock-in?
The data and the rules are yours. ERP integration goes through a mapping layer, so replacing the system of record does not force you to rebuild the platform, and commercial rules are exposed as readable configuration rather than hidden in code. That said, any platform that governs your operation creates operational dependency. What you can demand is data portability and a clear exit in the contract.
See the APIs and integrations →How does this fit my operation?
Do I need to replace my ERP?
No. CWS Platform orchestrates over the ERP, through APIs and webhooks. The ERP remains the vault for the data, and the platform is the commercial layer the channels consult. Publicly associated integrations include SAP, TOTVS, Senior and Sankhya.
See architecture and security →How long does it take to go live?
It depends less on the platform and more on two factors on the customer side: the quality of the catalogue data and the clarity of the commercial rules that today live in people's heads. The governance layer comes in alongside what already exists, without requiring a re-engineering of the ERP, and that is why the first cut is usually a slice of the operation, not the whole operation.
Talk to us about your case →What if we are not ready for this yet?
There is no maturity prerequisite, there is an entry point. The Digital Maturity Roadmap has four levels, from a classic B2B portal to AI-powered trading, and each level activates layers over the same platform. What goes in at the first level still holds at the fourth, with no rebuild, so choosing an entry point is a reversible decision, not a bet.
See the Digital Maturity Roadmap →What is my team's role and what is CWS Platform's role?
CWS Platform delivers and sustains the platform; the customer runs the commercial side and the relationships, which is where they are irreplaceable. The two meet in configuring the rules: those rules are the translation of the company's commercial policy, and nobody from outside can write them alone. A project that gets this wrong ends up as installed software with no operation behind it.
See the CDL Workspace →Who operates the platform day to day?
The customer's own commercial and catalogue teams. Daily operation is configuration and curation, not development: adjusting a pricing rule, reviewing a registration, following up on a pending approval. IT comes in for integration and access governance, not for the everyday flow.
See the Sales Hub →How much autonomy do I have to change a rule without calling CWS Platform?
A great deal, and that is the point of the model. Approval limits, discount policy, payment terms, rules per customer profile and tax parameters are all configuration in the Commerce Rules Engine. Every change requires a Reason Code, so the change carries an author, a date and a motive, which is what makes the autonomy auditable rather than risky.
See the Reason Codes entry in the glossary →What is the billing model?
SaaS with a predictable fixed price, no fee on GMV in the Core. AI Credits per agent action and a configurable take rate on the Marketplace. The design is deliberate: cost should not punish growth, otherwise the platform starts charging more precisely when it is working.
See pricing →Does the platform support international operations?
The architecture is multi-tenant, multi-brand and multi-currency by design, and the site runs in Portuguese and English. It is worth noting that Brazilian tax complexity, with ICMS varying by state and industry-specific rules, is more demanding than most markets, so the tax engine was born solving the hard case.
See the platform →What you should also ask
Limitations, trade-offs, and the objections that usually go unanswered.
Does CWS Platform have an app ecosystem like VTEX or Shopify?
No, and it is a real gap. There is no plugin marketplace or developer community at the scale of those platforms. What exists instead is native depth, with 1,029 configurable parameters covering through configuration what other platforms need extensions for, plus an open API layer for whatever is specific to your operation. If your selection criterion is a third-party app catalogue, this is a point against us.
See the APIs and integrations →Does CWS Platform appear in the Gartner or Forrester quadrants?
Not today. It is a positioning gap rather than a product gap, and it can be a blocker for organisations that require analyst validation as part of procurement. What we can offer instead, immediately, is an in-depth technical conversation and contact with current customers for reference.
Ask for a technical conversation →Are there public cases with customer names?
Yes, with numbers. Tracbel, a Volvo CE dealer, recorded around R$ 122 million in digital revenue in 2025. Imdepa, an auto parts distributor founded in 1960, activated 153 customers and processed around 60 thousand orders in 3 years. Circuito de Compras took a multi-brand wholesale portal live. Not every customer authorises disclosure, so the public list is smaller than the base.
See the cases →How much of my business ends up depending on AI?
Less than the category suggests, and that is an architecture decision. The core is deterministic: the 11 modules execute rules in code, at zero inference cost, and the agents sit above that core and query it. If an agent proposes something outside the limits, Approval Workflows block it, and Pre-Submission Guardrails keep the order from ever being created. The difference is between a platform where everything depends on AI and one where AI amplifies a core that works without it.
See architecture and security →Is the platform mature enough?
The company was founded in 2012 and the platform has been in production since 2013. That is fourteen years on the same problem, in three phases: a B2B auto parts marketplace until 2016, the pivot to SaaS and the expansion into agribusiness and construction until 2022, and AI with guardrails from 2023 onwards. Transaction cost in complex commerce has been the thesis since day one, not a recent repositioning. Product maturity is not the only question, though: it is worth also asking how long we have been in your specific industry, and that answer varies.
See the company history →What if my sales reps sabotage the portal?
It is the most common objection and the most legitimate, because it is usually right: when a portal is designed to replace the sales rep, the rep pushes back, and they have the means. The design here is the opposite: the rep operates inside the same platform, with the same pricing and inventory the customer sees, and stays compensated for orders that flow through the digital channel of their own account base. The portal takes the reorder typing away, not the account.
See the assisted selling portal →Still have a question?
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