B2B ecommerce: how to sell wholesale online

B2B ecommerce is selling to businesses rather than to consumers. A café orders coffee beans from a roaster. A gift shop restocks from a candle maker. A school buys supplies from a stationer. The buyer is a company, and the person at the keyboard is buying on its behalf.

Here is what changes:

Many wholesale relationships still run on email, phone calls and spreadsheets. A B2B store moves the routine part online, so your sales team spends its time on new accounts and large deals instead of retyping orders.

• A company account with several users. The owner, a buyer and an accountant from the same customer, each with their own sign-in and role.
• Their own catalog and prices. They see the products and prices you agreed with them, and the public sees retail prices.
• Quantity rules. Minimum order quantities, case packs, and prices that drop as quantities rise.
• Quotes. For a large or unusual order, the buyer asks for a price and you respond, sometimes over several rounds.
• Purchase orders and approvals. The buyer references their own PO number, and orders above an amount go to a manager first.
• Invoices and payment terms. Many businesses pay by invoice, for example within 30 days, rather than by card at checkout.
• Fast reordering. Buyers want to repeat last month’s order in a few steps, not search for twenty products again.

You do not need all of this on day one. Start with what your best customers ask for most, which is usually their own prices and an easy reorder. Ask three of them what slows them down today. Their answers make a better roadmap than any feature list.

There are four common ways to price for business customers:

• Price lists by customer group. All wholesale customers see one price list, and distributors see another. Simple to run.
• Tiered prices. The unit price falls at set quantities, such as 12, 48 and 144 units. Buyers see the saving and order more.
• Contract prices per company. A large customer gets its own catalog and prices, agreed once and applied every time they sign in.
• Negotiated quotes. For one-off or very large orders, the price is agreed per order.

Most businesses combine them: a standard wholesale list for everyone, contract prices for the biggest accounts, and quotes for the exceptions. Keep wholesale prices out of public view, either behind a sign-in or on a separate wholesale site.

Card payments work for small wholesale orders, and card fees eat into margin on large ones. Offer bank transfer for bigger orders, and decide whether you sell on invoice terms.

Selling on terms means delivering now and getting paid later. Before you offer it:

1. Check the customer: trading history, references, and how long they have been in business.
2. Decide how much each company may owe you at once, and review it every year.
3. Put the terms in writing: due date, late fees, and what happens to open orders when an invoice is overdue.
4. Send invoices the day the order ships, and follow up on the due date.

Business customers may also be exempt from sales tax when they buy for resale. In the US, collect a valid resale or exemption certificate before you remove tax from their orders, and keep it on file. Some states accept a multistate form. Rules vary by state, so check yours.

You have two ways to add wholesale to a store that already sells to consumers:

• The same storefront, with customer groups. Wholesale buyers sign in and see their prices and rules. One site to run, and the retail site stays the same for everyone else.
• A separate wholesale website. Its own domain, such as wholesale.yourbrand.com, its own look, and only approved companies can sign in. It shares the catalog and stock with your retail site behind the scenes.

A separate site makes sense when wholesale buyers need a different catalog, a different checkout or a plainer design built for ordering fast. The guide to running multiple stores covers how the two sites share one catalog.

A quote is a price you commit to for one order. Buyers ask for one when the order is large, unusual or going to their own manager for sign-off. A fast answer matters, so set yourself a target such as one working day.

• Include shipping and any setup costs, so the buyer sees the real total.
• Give every quote an expiry date, because your costs move.
• Keep the whole exchange in one thread attached to the quote, not in a dozen emails.
• Let the buyer turn an accepted quote into an order without retyping it.

Wholesale buyers order the same products again and again. A buyer who reorders twenty products every month should not have to search for them twenty times.

Show each company its full order history, with a way to repeat a past order and edit the quantities. Let buyers keep their usual products in a saved list. Show stock and delivery dates before checkout, because a business buyer plans around when goods arrive, not only whether they are in stock.

Track a few numbers from the first month, so you know whether moving online helped:

• The share of wholesale orders placed online rather than by email or phone.
• The time from a quote request to your answer, and how many quotes become orders.
• How often each account reorders, and whether the gap between orders shrinks.
• Invoices paid late, by account.

Share the results with the sales team. The accounts that still order by email are the ones to call next.

1. Pick your first ten wholesale accounts, starting with the ones that order most often.
2. Create their company accounts, and invite their buyers.
3. Load their price lists or contract prices, and check five products per account by hand.
4. Decide which orders need approval, and who approves them.
5. Show your sales team how to build a quote and place an order for a customer.
6. Ask the first accounts to place their next order online, and call them after it arrives.