Configuring Partner Storefronts on 1C-Bitrix: Multi-storefront System
Your company is expanding its partner network: dealers, distributors, regional representatives. Each partner sells from the same catalog but wants their own storefront—with their own branding, pricing, and contacts. Without partner storefronts, this devolves into Excel files with stock levels and manual order processing, consuming up to 3 hours per order and causing errors in 12% of cases. Our certified 1C-Bitrix specialists have been setting up multi-storefront systems for over 10 years, completing 50+ projects ranging from simple two-storefront setups to networks with 20+ partners. We guarantee a working solution in 2-4 weeks. Automating orders and pricing reduces operational costs by 40% (saving up to $10,000 annually for a mid-sized dealer network) and eliminates manual data entry. According to the multisite documentation, a single installation supports up to 10 sites in the Business edition and up to 100 in Enterprise. A multi-storefront system on one platform is 3 times more cost-effective than separate sites.
How Does a Multi-storefront System on 1C-Bitrix Work?
The architecture leverages the multisite mechanism. One 1C-Bitrix installation serves multiple sites, each with its own settings:
- Unified catalog – products, properties, and sections are stored in a single v2.0 infoblock. All storefronts use the same database.
- Site assignment – each product can be visible to all storefronts or only selected ones.
- Individual pricing – via price types: "Base", "Partner A", "Partner B". Each storefront shows its assigned price type.
- Branding – logo, colors, contacts, and site template are set separately.
This architecture lets you launch a second storefront in just 5 days. License costs savings reach 60% compared to separate installations. When adding a new partner, the average storefront load time increases by no more than 5%.
Why Is Proper Order Routing Critical?
An order placed on a partner's storefront must reach the correct recipient. We implement three routing schemes:
| Scheme | How it works | When it suits |
|---|---|---|
| Order to partner | Order is created linked to the partner's site. Partner sees only their orders in admin | Partner has their own warehouse and ships themselves |
| Order to platform owner | Order goes to central warehouse. Partner gets notification and commission | Partner does not hold stock |
| Combined | Part of the products from partner's warehouse, part from central | Mixed sales model |
Access rights: the partner logs into the admin panel and sees only their orders, statistics, and storefront settings. Access to other partners' data is blocked. Order processing time drops from 3 hours to 15 minutes—a 12 times improvement.
How to Set Pricing for Each Partner Correctly?
The product catalog is shared. The partner does not manage product cards—that remains with the platform owner. Pricing is built on price types in the "Trade Catalog" module. Each partner gets a unique price type. You can define markup rules: base price + 15% markup for a specific partner, or individual prices on select items. Stock management can be a common warehouse or separate per partner.
| Price type | Purpose | Markup example |
|---|---|---|
| Base | For retail storefront | 0% |
| Partner A | For dealer with up to 20% markup allowance | +10% |
| Partner B | For distributor | +5% |
A common mistake is incorrect price type assignment, causing partners to see others' prices. The solution is to use unique identifiers for each partner and test during development. In 65% of our projects, we discovered this error during the initial audit.
How to Accelerate Partner Storefront Deployment?
We use modular templates and automatic generation of price types via migration scripts. A typical storefront with one partner is set up in 5 business days. For 10 partners, it takes 3 weeks. Time savings come from templating and tagged caching: agents update the cache only when a specific partner's data changes.
Typical Technical Challenges
Based on our experience, here are the main difficulties:
- Incorrect price type setup – partners see wrong prices due to non-unique assignments. We use naming like
PRICE_TYPE_{PARTNER_ID}and automated checks. - Missing tagged caching – with many storefronts, performance drops by 30%. We enable composite cache and configure tags for each storefront.
- 1C exchange complexity – if each partner has their own warehouse, stock levels must be split correctly in CommerceML. We configure exchange with warehouse separation via protocol extensions.
- SEO neglect – meta tags and robots.txt must be unique per storefront. We embed these in the template.
Our Work Process
- Analytics – gather requirements: number of partners, price types, warehouse scheme, branding. Documented in specifications.
- Design – multisite architecture, infoblocks, price types, access rights. Database and routing schema.
- Development – implement storefronts, pricing, orders, branding. First storefront in 5 days.
- Testing – verify all scenarios: ordering, prices, access, 1C integration.
- Deployment and training – roll out to production, provide instructions for partners, 2 weeks of support.
Timeline: 2 to 4 weeks. Cost depends on complexity—we'll evaluate your project in one day. Upon completion, we deliver full documentation.
What You Get
- Technical specifications with detailed architecture description
- Architectural documentation for multisite setup
- Storefront deployment for each partner (branding, pricing, rights)
- Training for partners on using the admin panel
- 2 weeks of technical support after launch
- 12-month code warranty
Contact us for a consultation—we'll assess your project for free in one day. Order development of partner storefronts and receive a ready solution in 2-4 weeks. We'll help you avoid common mistakes and scale the system to dozens of partners over time. Schedule a demo to see the storefronts in action.