If your trade customers still order by phone, email and text, you're spending hours re-keying orders and risking a mistake on every one. Moving them online is simpler — and faster — than most distributors think: the software is rarely the hard part. Here's exactly what has to happen, in the order it has to happen, based on doing this for New Zealand distributors with Cognit.
What "selling wholesale online" actually means
A wholesale, or B2B, online store is different from a retail website. It's account-based: each trade customer logs in and sees only the products and the prices that apply to them. They reorder from their own list, you receive the order ready to process, and nobody has to check a price or transcribe a voicemail. The built-in store in Cognit is designed for exactly this.
Step 1 — Get the system stood up
You need somewhere for the catalogue and the customer accounts to live. With Cognit we do this part for you — your own system, your products and customers loaded, your branding on the storefront. See what the system includes, and note what it doesn't do yet; we list both. The setup itself is not where the time goes.
Step 2 — Build your catalogue
Add the products your customers reorder most often — name, code, pack size, unit and a price. You don't need all 100 on day one; start with your core range so you can go live fast, then add the rest as you go. Clear product names and pack sizes make it easy for customers to order the right thing without ringing you to check.
Step 3 — Set your customer pricing
This is what makes it a real wholesale store. As you add each customer, set the prices they've been agreed — so when they log in, they see their numbers, not a public list. Getting this right means customers can reorder with complete confidence, which is what gets them to actually use the portal. This extends to full customer and group pricing tiers as your range and account list grow.
Step 4 — Invite your customers
Add your trade accounts and send them their logins. Start with a handful of your most regular, most willing customers — the ones who'll appreciate ordering on their own schedule. Once they're ordering online smoothly, roll the rest out. A short note explaining the benefit ("order anytime, see your own prices, no more phone tag") goes a long way.
Step 5 — Go live and manage orders in one place
Turn the store on. From here, every order your customers place lands in Cognit's order management, ready for you to pick, pack and dispatch — no re-keying, no transcribing. You'll feel the time saving in the first week, and your customers get a tidy, professional way to do business with you.
Step 6 — Grow into the full ERP when you're ready
The trial gets your customers ordering online. When you want to run the rest of the business in the same system, upgrade to the same Cognit system, which adds:
- Live inventory — stock on hand, reorder levels and tablet stocktakes
- Purchasing and goods receipting
- Invoicing and accounts receivable
- Full reporting on sales and margin
- Unlimited products and customers, plus multiple users
Because it's all one system, and because it's the same Cognit, everything you built during the trial — your catalogue, customers and pricing — carries straight over. Nothing to rebuild. For the bigger picture on starting free, see our guide to free B2B ordering software.
Frequently asked questions
How do I take wholesale orders online?
Load your products, set your customer prices, invite your trade customers to log in, and turn on a B2B online store. The work is mostly getting your catalogue and your agreed prices straight — the software is the easy part. With Cognit we do the loading and setup for you, so a distributor can realistically be trading online in weeks rather than months.
What's the difference between a wholesale online store and a retail one?
A wholesale (B2B) store is account-based: customers log in and see only the products and prices that apply to them, often with trade-specific minimums and reorder lists. A retail store is public, shows one price to everyone and takes card payments. Cognit's built-in store is built for B2B, so each trade customer sees their own catalogue and pricing.
Do my customers need their own logins and pricing?
Yes, and that's the point of a B2B store. Each customer gets their own login and sees their own agreed pricing, so they can reorder confidently without checking prices with you. You set this up once when you add each customer, and Cognit applies it automatically every time they order.
What happens when the online store isn't enough on its own?
The store is usually the first thing a distributor fixes, but it's rarely the last. When you want live stock behind it, purchasing, invoicing and real accounts, those are all part of the same Cognit system rather than another product to buy and bolt on — so nothing you set up gets thrown away. What that costs depends on how much of it you run; we scope it with you rather than publishing a package.
