GuideWhat to know when choosing a B2B dealer ordering system
Where does a B2B ordering system differ from a retail site?
On a retail site everyone pays the same price for the same product. In wholesale that changes: a large dealer gets one rate, a newcomer another, and someone buying many units a better tier. Some customers work with net prices, meaning VAT-exclusive, and some cannot order below a minimum.
Running these rules by phone and spreadsheet invites mistakes as the number of dealers grows. A B2B system lets you define the rules once so the dealer orders on their own. Your job becomes writing the rules correctly and processing incoming orders rather than finding prices, and the repeated questions and corrections fade.
How do group discounts and price lists work together?
For a product you can define two kinds of price: a group discount and a price list. The discount takes a percentage off the retail price; a price list gives the product a direct price and, where it exists, always takes priority. So the discount only applies to products that are not on the list.
The cleanest way is to enter the general discount first and then the special exceptions with a list: for example, giving every dealer the same rate and writing a special price only for certain products. Tier pricing works on quantity; a customer who buys a certain number or more is shown a lower price. You set the figures against your own margin and the system only applies them.
Why does showing prices only to dealers matter?
A wholesale price list is a commercial secret; you do not want your retail customers or your competitors to see it. In a B2B system, prices are visible only to a customer who has been put in a group and logged in. A visitor, or a customer not in any group, browses the site in the usual retail view.
This lets you run both without opening a separate wholesale site. The catalogue, stock and orders stay in one place; the only difference is who sees which price. When you add a customer to a group the change starts for them at once, and when you remove them they return to the ordinary retail view.
A customer belongs to only one group at a time. The panel warns you when you pick someone who is already in another group; if you save, the customer moves to the new group and loses the old group's prices. That clarity stops two different prices from mixing from the start.
How do you move from a spreadsheet to a B2B system?
Most wholesalers keep prices in a spreadsheet and send it to dealers as a PDF or a message. You do not need to drop that routine in a day. First import the product catalogue into the store, then split your dealers into groups by discount rate. Three groups are often enough to begin with: large dealers, medium dealers and new customers.
In the early period bring in a few dealers you trust and gather feedback. You learn early whether the price screen is clear, whether the minimum warning annoys them and whether the payment method suits them. Once problems are fixed, add the remaining dealers to groups and retire the spreadsheet.
How do invoicing, shipping and accounting run after the order arrives?
A B2B order does not end with seeing the right price; invoicing, dispatch and accounting follow. E-Invoice Integration issues the document in the same panel, and Shipping Integrations prepare the shipment and the label. If your stock and product data live in an ERP, ERP & Accounting Integration can feed the store from there.
What each ERP connector can do is visible in the panel, and a trial run without writing anything is possible. That way the chain after the dealer places an order is not re-entered by hand, and your team only sorts out the exceptions.
Every link in this chain stays tied to the same order. When a dealer asks where the invoice is or whether the parcel has left, the answer sits on the order's own screen; nobody has to move between several programs. In a growing dealer network the real gain is that these small calls disappear.
