Private B2B Marketplace

Who it's for

Manufacturers selling to distributors and retailers Anyone producing goods and distributing through a network of resellers, distributors, or agents typically has differentiated price lists: the wholesaler gets different terms from the retailer, the ten-year loyal customer gets discounts a new buyer hasn't earned yet. Managing these differentiations via email creates confusion, errors, and enormous workload on the orders team. A private B2B marketplace automates this complexity.

Wholesalers and distributors with large catalogs A distributor with 5,000 SKUs, 200 active clients, and price lists that change quarterly cannot manage orders via phone or email without a digital infrastructure. Clients want to order at 7:00 AM before opening their store, not wait for the orders office to open at 9:00 AM.

Companies with high-volume recurring business customers Anyone with clients who order the same products every week or month — office supplies, raw materials, semi-finished goods, spare parts — knows that these recurring orders are nearly all identical. The B2B portal lets the client reorder in three clicks from the previous order, with no need for human intervention.

Food service and hospitality suppliers Suppliers of raw materials, beverages, and equipment to restaurants manage clients who order daily, often with urgent requests and last-minute variations. An order portal open 24/7 with immediate notifications to the logistics office is the answer to an industry that never closes.

Industrial component manufacturers Anyone producing and selling mechanical, electrical, or electronic components to OEMs and assemblers works with clients who have precise technical requirements, specific product codes, and often multi-year supply agreements. The B2B portal lets their procurement teams issue purchase orders directly integrated into the supplier's system, reducing fulfillment times.

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Problems it solves

Every B2B order goes through the sales office, even trivial ones When the ordering process requires a sales rep to receive the request by email, verify the client's terms, create the order in the management system, and send confirmation, you are paying qualified personnel to do mechanical work. In companies with 500 orders per month, this manual operation absorbs 2–3 FTEs who could be focused on commercial development.

PDF price lists become obsolete the moment they are sent Sending a PDF with prices to clients is still extremely common in B2B. The problem is that PDF becomes obsolete at the first price list variation, and clients continue ordering at old prices for weeks. The B2B portal always shows the real-time updated price, eliminating this problem at the root.

Inability to offer personalized pricing on a digital channel General-purpose e-commerce platforms don't natively support multiple price lists per individual client. Plugins can be added, but the result is always a compromise that doesn't handle the real complexity of individually negotiated commercial terms. A bespoke system replicates your pricing logic exactly, however complex.

No data on business customer purchasing behavior Without a digital order portal, knowledge of your B2B clients' buying patterns is limited to what you can extract from the management system with manual reports. A natively digital B2B marketplace collects data on every visit, every product search, every product viewed but not purchased. This data feeds proactive commercial actions.

Business clients want autonomy, not mediation The new generation of B2B buyers is accustomed to consumer e-commerce and brings the same expectations to work: they want to search for the product, see availability, place the order, and receive confirmation without speaking to anyone. Offering this autonomy is becoming a baseline requirement, not an optional advantage.

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Key features

Product catalog with advanced search The catalog is navigable by category, brand, product code, and technical attributes. Full-text search finds products even with partial descriptions or alternative codes. Each product page shows the logged-in client's specific price, real-time warehouse availability, and minimum order quantities.

Customized price lists per individual client Each client logs into the portal with their credentials and sees only their prices: agreed discounts, custom net prices, exclusive products. The system supports multiple price lists with complex calculation rules: percentage discount, fixed net price, tiered quantity discount, long-term contractual prices.

Recurring order management and fast reorder Clients can save frequent orders as templates and reorder in three clicks. The system automatically suggests reordering based on historical purchase frequency and alerts the client when a regularly purchased product hasn't been reordered within the expected period.

Real-time availability verification Warehouse availability is synchronized with the ERP in real time. The client sees how many units are available for immediate shipment, how many are incoming, and the expected availability date. No order is accepted for unavailable quantities without prior communication.

Configurable order approval workflow For clients with structured purchasing processes, the system supports multi-step workflows: the user who fills the cart may not have authorization to finalize the order — this step is reserved for the purchasing manager. The system automatically notifies the supervisor when there's an order to approve.

Documents and invoices accessible in reserved area The client accesses their archive of historical orders, invoices, delivery documents, and credit notes. They can download invoices in PDF or XML format for their own accounting, without involving the administrative office.

Bidirectional ERP integration Orders received on the portal enter the ERP automatically as confirmed sales orders. Availability changes, updated prices, and order statuses are synchronized bidirectionally in real time.

Analytics dashboard for the commercial team The sales manager sees in real time orders received in the last few hours, clients inactive for more than N days, most-ordered products, and highest-revenue generators. This data feeds proactive commercial actions toward clients who aren't ordering as expected.

Automated notifications and communications Automatic order confirmation by email, shipment status updates with tracking numbers, availability alerts for low-stock products, and personalized promotional communications by customer category.

Agent and representative management If you work with agents managing subsets of clients, each agent accesses the portal with their reserved area showing their clients' orders, can enter orders on behalf of clients, and monitor sales performance for end-of-month commission calculation.

Customizable catalog per client cluster Not all clients need to see all products. You can create reserved catalogs per customer category: large distribution clients see shelf products, professional resellers also see spare parts and technical kits. Products outside a client's catalog simply don't appear.

Mobile-first for buyers who order on smartphones The portal interface is optimized for mobile use, because modern buyers often order from smartphones during site visits or at point-of-sale locations. The mobile ordering process is as smooth as on desktop.

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Typical workflow

Early morning: the client orders before you open the office At 7:30 AM, the owner of a hardware store accesses your B2B portal from their smartphone while opening their shop. They scan the barcode of a nearly out-of-stock product, see availability in the portal (22 units available, shipment tomorrow), add 12 units to the cart with one click on the saved order template, and finalize the order.

Your system handles the order automatically The order enters the ERP immediately. The warehouse receives the pick list on the picker's terminal. The client receives order confirmation by email with the order number. No human intervention needed.

10:00 AM: the sales manager reviews the dashboard The manager opens the dashboard and sees 23 orders received since 6:00 PM yesterday. They notice a client they were negotiating an annual contract with just ordered for €3,400 — a positive signal. They also notice a regular client hasn't ordered in 18 days — they call to understand what's happening.

A client requests a modification to their order The client wants to add two products to this morning's order before it ships. They access the portal, see the order in "being prepared" status, and use the order modification function. The system verifies the order hasn't already been picked and automatically updates the pick list in the warehouse.

Month end: purchase analysis by client and product The sales manager extracts the monthly report from the portal: which clients increased purchase volume, which reduced it, which products are growing in popularity, and which are declining. This data feeds commercial strategy for the following month.

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Integrations

ERP systems (SAP Business One, Sage X3, Microsoft Dynamics, custom) Bidirectional integration: the portal reads client data, price lists, and availability from the ERP and writes received orders as confirmed sales orders. No double data entry.

Warehouse management systems (WMS) Real-time stock synchronization: when the WMS updates availability after each picking operation, the portal immediately updates the quantities visible to clients.

Accounting and invoicing software Invoices generated by the ERP after shipment are automatically published in the client's reserved area on the portal. Clients download their invoices whenever needed without contacting the administrative office.

B2B payment systems (bank transfer, direct debit, corporate cards) The portal supports various B2B payment methods: debit against pre-approved credit line, advance payment by corporate credit card, 30/60/90-day payment for clients with defined contractual terms.

Carriers and shipment tracking (DHL, UPS, FedEx, regional carriers) Integration with main carriers for automatic shipping label generation and tracking number communication to the client by email and on the portal.

CRM platforms (Salesforce, HubSpot) Orders and portal browsing behavior feed the CRM with valuable data on client activity. Sales reps see recent purchases in the CRM before a visit or call.

Business Intelligence systems Purchase data exported from the portal feeds company BI dashboards for profitability analysis by client, product, and sales channel.

REST APIs for custom integrations The portal exposes documented REST APIs for integration with any external system: larger clients can send purchase orders directly from their ERP to your portal without accessing the web interface.

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Custom software vs off-the-shelf

Magento and Shopify Plus are powerful platforms for B2C e-commerce and B2B with simple logic. When commercial logic becomes complex — individually negotiated price lists, differentiated catalogs by cluster, multi-level approval workflows, deep integration with legacy ERP systems — the cost of adapting a generic platform quickly exceeds that of developing a bespoke portal. Graffico has developed B2B marketplaces for manufacturing producers, food wholesalers, and component distributors managing hundreds of clients with entirely different commercial terms.

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Timeline, budget and process

Phase 1 — Commercial and technical analysis (weeks 1–2) Mapping of per-client pricing logic, catalog structure, order approval workflow, and required ERP integration. Workshop with the commercial and IT manager to define functional specifications.

Phase 2 — Core development and ERP integrations (weeks 3–8) Implementation of the portal with catalog, price list management, and order workflow. Development of bidirectional ERP integration. This phase includes testing sessions with real users.

Phase 3 — Client reserved area and advanced features (weeks 9–12) Development of the client area with order history, documents, and reorder functionality. Integration with payment systems and carriers.

Phase 4 — Client onboarding and go-live (weeks 13–16) Configuration of client profiles with customized price lists. Onboarding sessions with key clients. Post-launch support period.

Indicative investment A base B2B marketplace (catalog, custom price lists, orders, ERP integration) starts from €20,000–35,000 one-time. Systems with advanced features (multi-step workflow, multi-level catalogs, advanced analytics, multi-ERP integration) fall in the €35,000–70,000 range. The ROI calculation is straightforward: if automating 500 orders per month frees 2 FTEs from the orders office (annual cost €60,000–80,000), the payback period is under 12 months.