Wholesale ordering
without a phone call and a spreadsheet
Most wholesale ordering still runs on a phone call, an email with a price list attached, and a spreadsheet someone updates by hand. A B2B wholesale platform moves that online: each account sees its own negotiated pricing, places an order against a minimum quantity, and gets an invoice on the payment terms you actually agreed, without a manager re-keying any of it.
What it is and who needs it
A B2B wholesale platform fits a manufacturer, distributor or brand selling to other businesses rather than directly to consumers, where pricing is negotiated per account, orders run in bulk, and payment happens on terms rather than at checkout. It fits a business currently running this process over email and spreadsheets and losing time, and consistency, to it. It does not fit a consumer-facing store, where account-based pricing and net terms are the wrong model entirely.
What is inside
Account-based login where each wholesale customer sees their own negotiated price list, not a public catalogue price. Minimum order quantities and case-pack logic enforced at the product level, so a customer cannot accidentally order a quantity that does not match how the product actually ships. A quote request flow for orders too large or too custom for the standard catalogue to price automatically. Net-terms invoicing that tracks what is owed and by when per account, instead of a manager remembering which customer is on 30-day terms and which is on 60.
How we build it
We start with the pricing and terms model, since every account’s pricing tier, MOQ rules and payment terms need to be represented correctly before the ordering flow is built around them. The admin panel is built with the same care as the customer-facing portal, since a wholesale business lives or dies on whoever manages accounts being able to set up a new customer or adjust a price list in minutes, not by filing a developer ticket. We integrate with existing accounting or ERP systems where one exists, exporting or syncing orders rather than asking your finance team to re-enter them.
What to watch
The most common trap in B2B platforms is pricing logic that works for the handful of accounts tested during development and breaks on an account with a pricing structure nobody anticipated, a customer with per-product discounts stacked on a volume tier, for instance; we test the pricing engine against your messiest real accounts, not just clean example data. The second risk is minimum order quantity rules that frustrate a legitimate edge case, a customer who genuinely needs to order slightly under the usual minimum for a one-off reason, with no path for your team to override it manually; we build an approval override into the admin panel specifically so a rule does not become a wall your own staff cannot get around. Net-terms invoicing is the third area that needs real scrutiny, since an invoicing bug that undercharges or overcharges a wholesale account by even a small percentage compounds across every order that account places; we reconcile invoice logic against your actual accounting process before launch, not just against a spec document.
Timeline and price
| Option | Price | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| MVP | from $8,000 | Account login, single price list per account, manual invoicing |
| Production | from $13,000 | Multiple pricing tiers, MOQ and case-pack logic, net-terms invoicing, admin approvals |
| Full control (handover-ready) | from $22,100 | Everything in Production plus ERP or accounting system integration, architecture documentation, and 90 days of support |
Running cost after launch depends on hosting and, where relevant, model usage, typically $20 to $150 a month for a project at this scale.
What you own at the end
You own the platform, the account and pricing data, and the order history, hosted under your own infrastructure. If you later add an ERP or switch accounting systems, the data export is clean enough to migrate without re-keying every account by hand. This is the same handover standard on every store or marketplace we build: the platform account, every payment and delivery credential, and the full order history stay in your name from the first day, not just after a dispute. A written handover document explains what each integration does and why, so a future developer, ours or someone else’s, can pick up the system without reverse-engineering it from the code alone.
Related
See the development service page for our full build process. This pairs with ERP-lite for small manufacturers, Custom e-commerce platform. For the engineering detail, see B2B wholesale portal with price lists, ERP integration. For a real build, see Factory ERP recovery, self-hosted, Digital goods marketplace automation.
Want this built for your business? Get in touch and we will scope it with a fixed price.
FAQ
How much does a B2B wholesale platform cost?
From $8,000 for a platform with account-based pricing, minimum order logic and invoicing, 8 to 12 weeks. A platform integrating with an existing ERP or accounting system runs $12,000 to $20,000.
Can each customer see different prices?
Yes, pricing tiers are tied to the account, not the product, so two wholesale customers can see different negotiated prices for the same item without either seeing the other's terms.
What is the stack?
FastAPI and PostgreSQL for the backend handling pricing and order logic, Next.js for the ordering portal, with export or direct integration to whatever accounting or ERP system your finance team already uses.
Does it replace our ERP?
Not necessarily. It can sit in front of an existing ERP as the ordering layer customers interact with, or stand alone for a business that does not run a full ERP yet; we scope it to what you actually have.
Who owns the platform and the account data?
You. Every customer account, price list and order record lives in your own database, exportable at any time, with no dependency on us to keep the platform running.