Work Hours
8:00 am - 6:00 pm UTC+3

Stepan Ovchinnikov

17+ functions of wholesale B2B online store. Interface examples

This article was translated automatically. We are working over improving the translation. 
Please send your questions about the article to info@intervolga.ru


INTERVOLGARU is a competent web integrator. Our specialization is comprehensive support and promotion of online stores on Bitrix

Web integration is the creation of large informational web systems that are deeply integrated into the customer’s business. The goal of such integration is to reduce the cost of working with clients, increasing sales and automating processes.

INTERVOLGARU is a competent web integrator. We can solve all the problems of web integration on our own. Most of our projects are complex, integration.

INTERVOLGARU creates wholesale b2b-cabinets for manufacturing and trading companies

Our principle: to benefit the client’s business through the intelligent use of web technologies.

Today's article is about the wholesale online store, personal account and integration with the accounting system.


What is a wholesale online store?

Say “online store” - what is remembered? Beautiful site for retail sales.

Shopping cart, large photos, “selling card product”, “place an order” and so on.

Thousands of articles have been written about such stores, templates of such stores can be downloaded on the Web or installed along with the content management system.

The owners of such stores integrate them with trading platforms (Google Merchant Center and others), working to increase conversion. The main question is “how to attract? how to sell?

But the online store may be different. The online store can be focused on wholesalers, on regular customers, on interaction with branches and distribution networks.


iv_0000_1.png

At first glance, this is the same. Goods, orders, personal account.

But in fact, the work of a specialist or wholesaler is very different from the one who first visits the site.

The interface of the wholesale buyer needs to be done by others. Only then it will be convenient, it will work, it will save time for the administration and customers of the store.

The client of a wholesale online store, unlike a retail buyer, is a professional. He is well versed in the range.

He has more tasks, less time, he does not need to “sell”, he needs to be serviced quickly and conveniently.

Here the main question is not “how to attract” - a professional buyer and a regular customer already use the store, but “how to make it convenient? how to integrate with other systems? how to simplify workflow? ”

All the features of the wholesale interface described in the article follow from the differences in the psychology of the buyer and the tasks of the wholesale trade.

To illustrate the possibilities of the wholesale online store and its personal account, we will show a universal b2b platform developed in INTERVOLGARU.

Personal prices

Wholesalers buy at different prices. These prices are not only different from retail, they are also different for all wholesalers, sometimes depending on the volume of purchases.

In the simplest case, some prices are obtained from others simply by a fixed discount.

As a rule, in the wholesale online store there are many (sometimes dozens) types of prices for each product, and switching between them is a constant and complicated procedure.


To make personal prices in the online store means to solve many problems:

  • load customer base, divided into groups;

  • give each client a personal login and password;

  • make “types of prices” for each product and put down the correspondence of price types to groups;


  • consider additional conditions such as seasonal discounts or manually set prices;

  • ensure correct update of price types from the accounting system;

  • create a convenient interface for changing and viewing prices.

An example of the implementation of personal prices in the wholesale b2b-online store

We use the standard design of an online store on the Bitrix platform version 18.0 and show how wholesale functions can look in its interface.

We have uploaded the MARVEL electronics wholesale catalog


Here is the main page of the demo b2b online store. Directly from the main page, you can log in under different types of customers.


In our demo store, there are three groups of customers - retail, small wholesale and large wholesale. All customers of the online store are automatically placed in the retail group.


We show all three types of prices. In reality, prices are often available only after entering the password.


A similar presentation of the price of goods is implemented on its page. Please note: we have entered the password for the small wholesale buyer and the current type of prices has changed.


Simplified navigation and quick search

Ordinary stores help customers find the product. From here banners, search with many properties, large images.

The wholesaler situation is different. Often he remembers the exact name of the product, article number or operates with 1-2 key characteristics for the search.

Therefore, the usual “retail” phased navigation will interfere with it.

Navigation and search in the wholesale online store should be thought out especially.

Tabular order form

Wholesalers have big orders. Not only by the amount, but also by the number of positions. If you have a “sheet” for 500 positions, dial them one by one through the basket - torment.

The table order form works well, allowing you to simply enter the required quantity.

If the catalog is large, this tabular form should be combined with the search.

Order by list

Often the wholesaler already has a list of items to be ordered. For example, this is a request from his retail client or a request from managers to replenish the warehouse.

It’s inconvenient to add positions one by one for a long time, even in a tabular interface.

Solution: order by list. The buyer copies the list of positions and the system immediately adds them to the order.

It remains only to put down the number and manually find what was not found automatically.

Examples of simplified quick search and table order for a wholesale online store with a b2b-cabinet

Order by list allows you to insert a list of articles and the number of products from any source - for example, Excel spreadsheets and immediately get a ready order. If there are several hundreds of items in the invoice, this interface allows you to save tens of minutes on each order.


Products without pictures and detailed descriptions

The wholesaler does not need pictures. He knows what he buys and sells. He does not need detailed descriptions. Most often, a rather short (1-2 lines) technical reference for a product (dimensions, modification, year of manufacture), etc.

It turns out that even a separate product page does not need a wholesaler.

“Sell” wholesalers need new product lines, training, service programs. Corporate customer - corporate sales.

Sample alternative product presentation for wholesaler

Search by article with the ability to download the search result in the Excel-file.


Wholesale units

How many screws does a private client buy at a time? ten? One pack?

The wholesaler will take 20 kilograms.

Similarly, water and chips will be bought not by boxes, but by pallets.

A good wholesale online store can work in those units of measurement that are convenient and understandable to the wholesaler.

This is not a trivial task. For example, try to guess how many 1.5 liter bottles of water in one pallet? And 5-liter?

Multiple orders simultaneously

Sometimes in the process of recruiting one order it is necessary to urgently make another.

Delete and repeat is not an option.

The logical solution: to enable working with several baskets at the same time.

Combine and split orders for easy delivery

When working with the flow of orders will necessarily need the possibility of combining and splitting orders. This task is simple at first glance, in practice, with constantly changing prices, balances, a large number of promotions and discount programs, dozens of collisions may occur when merging or splitting orders.

All of them can be solved if you have experience and prepare well. “By leap” the problem can be solved only very badly.

Personal account with the balance of the account

Often wholesalers place orders with deferred payment. To have obligations to pay for previously made and received orders is normal.

The wholesale buyer should see in the personal account not only the order history, but also the current balance of payments.


Sometimes you also need a payment schedule, the ability to work with an internal account, and so on.

My companies

As a rule, the wholesaler has more than one legal entity, branch, point of delivery and method of payment. A B2B store should be able to maintain a list of “my companies” for its customer.


For each company, it should be possible to view its shipments, payment history and reconciliation reports.


“Talk to your manager”

In a real store, a wholesale buyer often has “his manager”, who leads his order, can change prices, specify deadlines, and carry out an order to the end.

The online store should automate most of these operations, unload the manager.

At the same time, the possibility of contact through a personal account, joint operations, communication - must be left.

A specific manager can be assigned to individual buyers. In our b2b platform, for example, small and large wholesalers have different managers.



Search order history

In b2b platforms, orders are not executed immediately, often many orders are at different stages at the same time. It is useful to have interfaces for searching and viewing detailed information on the order:



Bonus account, sales levels

Sometimes in relations with wholesalers there is a sales plan, target levels, bonuses.

If these tools are used, the wholesale online store should be able to work with them, displaying the current level, goals, the percentage of their achievement, and the like.

Reconciliation acts, invoices, consignment notes, contracts, acts

The usual “retail” online store on Bitrix from documents can only create invoices. At the same time, “in a good way” in the wholesale online store should be able to order and receive a complete set of documents, starting from contracts and invoices, ending with invoices and invoices.

This feature can be implemented in two ways: by generating documents on the fly on the site side or by transferring files from the accounting system.


Order from a remote warehouse

Often, wholesalers can order not from you, but from your supplier or manufacturer.

Such “cross-cutting integration” is not often required, but in some cases it is absolutely necessary.

View balances in regional warehouses, tracking movements

Often when creating a large order it is useful to see in which specific warehouses there is a product or where it is currently moving. This feature requires special customization of integration with the system of warehouse accounting and logistics.

“Documents for retail customers”

Imagine: you sell finishing materials in bulk.

Your wholesale buyers in their outlets can open your website, show the range and form an order for a retail buyer.

And now the fun begins: you need to print documents from the site from the personal account of the wholesaler (for example, an order or an invoice).

Prices should be retail.

If you give this opportunity to your wholesale customers, they will be able to solve all their practical issues with the help of your website, they will be more loyal, and you will tie them to yourself.

“My clients”

The logical development of the previous paragraph - if the wholesaler on your site works with the orders of their customers, sooner or later they will need to make their own cabinet with their passwords and price types.

Of course, in this case, the site will need to create a convenient interface for a retail buyer, but this is not the most interesting.

The most interesting thing is the creation of tools for the wholesaler, with the help of which he will manage his clients, provide them with technical support, conduct orders, etc.

Such opportunities, for example, exist on the sites exist.ru and isnext.ru

Sales Analytics

Full wholesaler work in your account allows you to collect and show statistics on sales and shipments, calculate the allowable amount of commodity credit, analyze the profitability of operations.

As information accumulates, both the customer and the store owner will want to see such analytics.

It is right.

Claims, disputes, complaints, shortages

Some of our clients have tens of thousands of shipments per day. Naturally, not without errors. In the personal account of the wholesale online store should be the tools for processing claims from buyers. Otherwise, you will drown in calls, mail, photos in the vibe and the like.


Integration with accounting system and logistics

Everything described above can make your wholesale online store very good.

Sometimes it is a way to break, change, redo the market.

It is necessary to understand that the implementation of all the described interfaces requires adequate business processes and accounting systems.

Conclusions and assessment

If you do work from scratch, all the described 17 "chips" require individual design and months of development.

INTERVOLGA solved such problems many times, our achievements allow us to save a lot of time and not make mistakes. The integration of such a site with a warehouse, accounting and logistics systems - connecting qualified specialists in web development. We have those and other specialists.

The complexity of each such “chips” - from 50 hours of work, and the cost of the wholesale online store at least 1.5 million rubles.

But it's worth it. Opportunities and options for implementation are presented on page https://www.intervolga.ru/dev/lk/ .

Leave a request, we will hold for you a demonstration of the finished functions of the wholesale b2b-shop.


This article was translated automatically. We are working over improving the translation. 
Please send your questions about the article to info@intervolga.ru
  • 03.06.2019