A wholesale online store: how it differs from a retail shop and what it needs
A wholesale shop usually starts as an ordinary online shop with the line "wholesale prices on request". Six months later the sales person is answering the same emails as before: origin, minimum order, pallet price, when it is back in stock. It saved nothing: it was built for a different buyer.
Below: how wholesale buying differs from retail, what follows for the catalogue, prices and accounts, what it costs, and when it is too early.
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How a wholesale buyer decides
A retail customer chooses emotionally: likes it, orders it, has it two days later. A retail shop is built so nothing gets in the way in that minute.
A wholesale buyer spends someone else's money and answers for the purchase, so they research first: origin, harvest, variety, batch size, price by volume, delivery terms. They compare two or three suppliers, work out the margin and come back a week later. The first visit almost never becomes an order.
That is what we built the BODA BODA shop around, a wholesaler of vanilla, coffee and cacao beans: a channel where the buyer studies the range alone, without talking to a sales person. The more they find out by themselves, the shorter the negotiation. That is the return on a B2B shop: not an order at midnight, but a sales person freed from writing the same thing ten times.
The product card answers questions, it does not show photos
Hence the first rule: the card carries the parameters the buyer decides by, not just a name, a photo and a price. Goods without a clear description do not sell; there is nothing to compare.
What the card must hold so the buyer need not write:
- origin and specification: country, harvest or production batch, variety, grade, certificates;
- unit and packaging: kilogram, 25 kg sack, carton of 12, pallet; what you order in and are billed in;
- minimum order per line and per order;
- price by volume: tiers, not one number;
- availability: in stock, in transit, next delivery date;
- delivery time and where it ships from;
- documents: technical and safety data sheets, certificate of origin, samples.
For the card not to lie, the data must come from where it is born: the stock system, or at least the spreadsheet the sales person keeps anyway, imported hourly or nightly, so the shop never offers what is not there. Hand-typed stock goes stale within a week, and a buyer who ordered what does not exist will not return.
Prices in B2B: price lists, minimums, packaging
Retail has one price for everyone. Wholesale has a price for this customer at this volume, and the shop must say so.
Price lists per customer group. A new buyer sees the base list, a regular their negotiated one, a distributor a third. After login the whole catalogue switches, and the cart calculates what is in the contract.
Hidden or "from" prices. Hiding everything until login is safe but drops you out of the comparison: a buyer weighing three suppliers skips the one without prices. The usual compromise: a public "from" price for the smallest volume, exact tiers after login.
Minimum quantities and packaging. The cart must not allow 7 kg when goods sell in 25 kg sacks, and it has to round up to the pack or the pallet itself.
Orders without public prices. The buyer fills a cart, but instead of paying sends a request for a quotation. You price it, they confirm, and the quotation becomes an order without retyping. Right where price depends on volume, exchange rate or the current harvest; for a regular's routine reorder it is a pointless stop, they have a price list.
The buyer account: where a B2B shop pays for itself
Wholesale buying is repeat buying, and on repeats the shop earns its keep. The account has to offer:
- order history with the prices that applied at the time;
- repeat order in one click: the same lines, adjust quantities, send;
- invoices and delivery notes to download, so the bookkeeper does not have to ask;
- several people under one company: purchaser orders, director approves, bookkeeper sees invoices;
- billing and delivery details saved once, including several warehouses.
Same as a client area on a website, with a cart inside. New registrations go through your sales person: check the company ID, assign the price list, then open the prices.
Payment and delivery the wholesale way
A card in the cart is an option in B2B, not the default. A regular pays by invoice with a due date, a new customer by proforma in advance, and bank transfer must be an equal choice, not "write to us". The gateway stays for smaller orders and for those who want it settled at once; how to connect one: accepting card payments.
Delivery: a parcel by courier for smaller volumes, a pallet by haulier for larger ones, priced by the pallet rather than by the weight of one item, plus collection from the warehouse.
What to measure: views mean nothing here
In retail you can partly rely on traffic. In wholesale it is noise: one buyer comes five times before doing anything, ten curious visitors do nothing.
Measure the steps that lead to money: registration, request for quotation sent, order completed, repeat order from the account. At BODA BODA we measure completed orders and enquiries; that says whether the site does its job. How to set up the events: GA4 setup.
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A ready platform or a custom B2B shop
Shoptet, Shopify and WooCommerce put a shop together in a week, and many firms start there. Where they stop:
| Ready platform | Custom B2B shop | |
|---|---|---|
| Start | days | weeks, deadline in advance |
| Payment | monthly, plus plugins, sometimes a share of turnover | one-off |
| Prices per customer | plugin or a dearer plan | built in |
| Minimums and packaging | another plugin | built in |
| Approval inside the buyer's company | usually not | yes |
| Link to stock | through a connector, if one exists | direct |
| Data and domain | on the platform | yours |
The practical test: one price list for everyone and a normal cart, and a ready platform is a sensible start. Prices per customer, minimum quantities, order approval and live stock, and each is another plugin, another monthly fee, another thing that breaks after an update. A fuller comparison: WordPress or a custom website.
Mobile, languages, Google Shopping and the law
Speed on a phone. A buyer browses the catalogue away from the desk: warehouse, road, a customer's office. Five seconds to load, and the person comparing is gone.
Languages for buyers abroad. Slovak plus English or German, depending on where you sell, each on its own URL with hreflang, so Google shows a German buyer the German version, not a translation behind a button.
Google Shopping and Merchant Center. Worth it when prices are public and goods are searched for by name: coffee, packaging, spare parts. Without public prices nothing gets into Merchant Center, and for goods bought after negotiation search ads on the enquiry work better. More in what Google Ads cost in Slovakia and on the advertising page.
The law. Mandatory company details, terms and conditions, data protection, a cookie banner with Consent Mode v2 (why). Selling to companies removes the 14-day withdrawal right but brings in VAT on EU deliveries. The full list: online shop in Slovakia.
When a wholesale shop is not needed yet
Plainly, because it saves money: with ten regular customers who order by email and a new one once a month, a shop changes nothing. A PDF price list with a validity date, a good enquiry form and tidy replies are enough.
A shop makes sense when new buyers keep coming, the sales person spends days on the same questions, or regulars reorder so often that every email is a wasted step.
What it costs
- A custom shop with catalogue, cart, payment gateway, delivery, Merchant Center, the legally required details and purchase tracking: from 5,000€.
- B2B features on top: price lists per customer, orders without public prices, buyer accounts, a link to stock. Quoted individually after the first call, then the price is fixed.
- Changes and extensions: 35€/hour.
Included: 6 months of support, with the domain, hosting and accounts registered to you. A larger shop or portal takes longer than the usual 10-15 working days; the deadline is given in advance. A detailed breakdown: what a website costs.
If you need help
I build wholesale shops on a modern stack: a catalogue that answers the buyer's questions, buyer accounts, a link to stock, measurement and a Google Shopping feed. I do not do product photography, customs, logistics or accounting, and I do not register companies; my part is the shop and what sells inside it.
Over ten years in Slovakia, and I have launched 12+ websites for Slovak companies, among them BODA BODA, TOP SKLAD and Biliardovňa. I work as a Slovak s.r.o. in Bratislava and invoice with an IČO; we can talk in Slovak or Russian.
Details on the web development service page. Shop already there but no orders from it: a free audit, result within 3 working days.
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