B2B online ordering is growing in the wholesale market. Your customers are starting to demand experiences which mirror their daily lives outside of work, and your competitors are shifting to accommodate them.
Making the change by implementing online ordering might sound like a lot of change management but it's important to note that adopting a B2B Ordering Portal doesn’t mean that you’re giving up on how you already make deals. Rather, you give your sales team another way to connect with your customers, and bring in a tool that helps to reduce costs, make selling more efficient, and help your business thrive.
The Hidden Cost of Fragmented Order Channels
Most B2B suppliers operate across multiple order sources:
- EDI docs/ portals from large retailers
- Email purchase orders from smaller accounts
- Sales reps entering orders on behalf of customers
- Ecommerce sites
- Marketplaces
- Phone orders
The reality is that each speaks a slightly different language and as volume increases, so does the need for corrections to input data into your ERP. The ERP ultimately becomes a bottleneck because it was never designed to orchestrate order data.
ERP Alone Does Not Solve Order Chaos
Many organizations believe their ERP can do it all.
In reality, ERP systems depend on the quality of the data they receive and they're not designed to handle order normalization. When order information arrives in inconsistent formats from multiple channels, the ERP simply stores inconsistency.
Committing to online ordering means committing to clean, consistent data before it reaches the system of record. What sellers need is an orchestration layer that acts as a ERP integration for B2B order management, connecting your ERP to every way orders enter your business while ensuring it matches how your business rules function.
How Online Ordering Reduces Costs for Wholesale Businesses
Reduced order entry time
An order that’s placed online can immediately be entered into your ERP or accounting system, as well as connected directly to your shipping broker. This completely eliminates the need to enter orders manually in multiple different systems just to move your product. With a properly set up online system, you can go from initial order to invoicing without having to touch the data whatsoever.
Reduced order errors
With fewer manual touches on your end and no reason to manually copy data from one system to another, order errors from standard clerical mistakes all but disappear. Human error is more the rule than the exception. By implementing an automated online ordering system, you can remove any chance that you send your customers the wrong product, or miss sending anything entirely.
Faster Fulfillment
A fully integrated and automated online ordering system can cut down on fulfillment time by sending each part of the order directly to the people who need to see it. No more hoping that your shipping department hasn’t missed an email. Each step of the process is automatically managed, cutting down on how long it takes for you to get an order out the door and giving you more space and time to fill more orders.
Lower Customer Service Costs
Online catalogs and ordering systems provide your customers with all the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions without having to constantly call your sales team. With less assistance needed to place their orders, your salespeople’s time can be more effectively used to find new revenue instead of supporting your existing customers.
How Online Ordering Helps You Increase Sales
Faster promotion of new products
With an online catalog accessible to your customers, you can release products whenever you like, without having to worry about seasonal updates or the strict timelines of a print catalog. With the ability to easily release products mid-season or put on special promotions, you can put yourself ahead of your competitors and generate more interest in your products.
Better product exposure
By providing an online catalog with product images and information that your customers are free to browse, you give them time to carefully consider the depth of your inventory. This gives them the opportunity to learn about products they might not otherwise have known about, access deals that work for their company, and otherwise get to better understand the value your company provides to them.
More Sales Opportunities per Order
When your products are online for your customers to browse, they can also submit their full orders. This makes life easier for your sales team and allows them to focus on generating new sales. It also gives your salespeople a new opportunity to generate revenue through your existing customers. By looking at their full orders before approving them to go through your system, your sales team can reach out to your customers and give them suggestions, special deals or discounts on new items to upsell their existing order.
Why Your Business Should Adopt an Online Ordering System Now
The B2B wholesale eCommerce industry is at a turning point. Manual order processing is costly, slow, and error-prone. Customers are already demanding easier ways to buy, and competitors are investing in digital tools to deliver it.
By adopting a modern B2B online ordering system, you’re not just keeping up — you’re giving your business the foundation to scale. Lower costs, faster fulfillment, happier customers, and new revenue streams all flow from one decision: going online.
At OrderEase, we help wholesale suppliers move beyond spreadsheets, email orders, and disconnected tools. Our platform standardizes every B2B order, connects seamlessly with your ERP, and gives your customers the simple online experience they expect without adding complexity to your operations.
Want to see how online ordering can transform your wholesale business? Book a discovery call with OrderEase today.
