A line sheet with handwriting on it
The buying season is on. Boutiques send their orders in whatever way suits them. One replies to your email with a list: 'the Mira dress in navy, 2 of each size, and the Tove top in 8, 10, 12'. Another sends back your PDF line sheet, printed, with quantities written in pen, photographed on a phone. A third calls your sales agent, who texts you the details.
Your wholesale manager types each one into a spreadsheet and then into your stock system, checking styles, colours, prices and minimums as they go. Mistakes creep in: a navy becomes black, a size 14 is missed, a boutique's trade discount is not applied. You find out when the delivery arrives at the boutique and they email to ask why.
Why wholesale ordering is still manual
- Line sheets are PDFs, which cannot be filled in or checked.
- Each boutique has its own terms, discounts and delivery dates.
- Size packs and minimums per style are known to your team, not to the boutique.
- Orders arrive through several channels, including agents.
- The wholesale spreadsheet does not know what stock or production exists.
Wholesale platforms exist and some suit brands well. Many smaller brands still sell to a list of known boutiques, and a full marketplace can feel like too much.
What manual wholesale ordering costs
| Problem | Result |
|---|---|
| Retyping orders | Days of work in buying season |
| Mistakes in colours and sizes | Returns and credit notes to boutiques |
| Minimums not checked | Orders below what the factory needs |
| No link to stock | Promising stock that is committed to the website |
| Terms applied by hand | Wrong discounts and payment terms on invoices |
How we build a wholesale order portal
- Each stockist gets a login to a private order portal with your current wholesale range, photos, wholesale prices and recommended retail prices.
- The form knows your size packs and minimums per style, so a boutique cannot order below them without a clear warning.
- Each stockist's own terms are applied automatically: their discount, payment terms and delivery window.
- Orders are checked against available stock and against production for forward orders, with allocations kept separate from your website stock.
- Your sales agents can place orders for their boutiques through the same portal, so phone orders arrive in the same shape.
- Submitted orders go to your team for approval, then flow into your stock system and accounting, for example as a sales order and a pro forma or invoice in Xero.
- A dashboard shows orders by stockist, style and delivery window, which feeds your production quantities.
If a hosted wholesale platform or your ecommerce platform's own B2B features fit your needs, we set those up instead. We only build a portal where it is the better fit.
Buying season afterwards
Boutiques log in and order the way they would from any website, choosing sizes from the packs you allow. Your wholesale manager gets a notification, reviews each order and approves it with a click. There is no retyping. The production planner sees the total wholesale demand by style and size as it grows, instead of waiting for the season's spreadsheet to be finished.
Reorders and forward orders
Forward orders for next season and in-season reorders from stock are different. Forward orders feed the production plan; reorders come from stock that may also be sold online. The portal treats them separately, so you can choose how much stock is offered to wholesale during the season. Your accountant decides how wholesale invoices and deposits are handled; the portal sends the data in the shape they need.
Is wholesale ordering like this for you?
- Boutique orders arrive by email, PDF and phone.
- Someone retypes each order into a spreadsheet and a stock system.
- Size packs and minimums are checked by hand.
- Stockists' discounts and terms are applied manually.
- Wholesale and website stock are not properly separated.