The verdict in three sentences
For a distributor of 25,000 industrial spare parts SKUs in the Greater Toronto Area, a serious B2B e-commerce site costs roughly CAD 60,000 to 135,000 in 2026 and takes 4 to 6 months. The budget is driven less by design than by three integrations: search by OEM part number and cross-reference, live price and stock sync with the ERP, and repeat ordering. Done well, the project moves 25 to 40% of orders online within 18 months and frees inside sales from low-value data entry.
What your 1,800 industrial accounts actually expect
A maintenance buyer at an auto parts plant in Oshawa or a food processor in Mississauga does not browse a catalogue like a consumer. They arrive with an SKF, FAG, NTN or Timken number read off a worn part, often with a photo, and want to know in ten seconds whether you stock the equivalent, at what net price, and when it ships. If search fails, they pick up the phone and the website has done nothing.
The features that matter for this buyer:
- Tolerant search: partial entries, no dashes or spaces, manufacturer prefixes and suffixes (2RS, ZZ, C3) recognised.
- Cross-reference table between brands, fed from supplier files and enriched by your technical sales reps.
- Customer net price shown after login, pulled from contract terms in the ERP, never a list price.
- Stock by branch and estimated delivery date, refreshed at least every 15 minutes.
- Replenishment lists and one-click reorder of previous carts.
- Multi-user accounts with purchasing manager approval above a threshold.
2026 budget: line items for a B2B spare parts site
| Line item | 2026 ballpark (CAD) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery, customer workshops, wireframes | 6,000 to 13,500 | 3 to 5 weeks, interviews with 8 to 12 customers |
| B2B commerce core (accounts, carts, orders) | 15,000 to 33,000 | Off-the-shelf platform or custom build |
| Part number and cross-reference search engine | 10,500 to 24,000 | The line that makes or breaks the project |
| ERP connector (prices, stock, orders, invoices) | 13,500 to 37,500 | Depends on ERP: Epicor, Infor, Acumatica, SAP Business One |
| Import and cleanup of 25,000 product records | 6,000 to 15,000 | Attributes, dimensions, photos, PDF datasheets |
| Repeat orders, lists, approvals | 4,500 to 9,000 | Direct retention gains |
| QA, training, go-live | 4,500 to 10,500 | Pilot with 30 to 50 accounts before launch |
| Total | 60,000 to 135,000 | Excluding platform subscription and hosting |
The low end assumes an ERP with a clean API and already structured product data. The high end reflects an older ERP that has to be queried through flat files, or a catalogue whose technical attributes are scattered across PDFs.
Recurring costs come on top: platform subscription if you pick one, hosting, hosted search, and corrective and evolutionary maintenance. At Kolonell, maintenance is offered at 35,000, 75,000 or 120,000 FCFA per month (EUR 53, 114 or 183) depending on the level; hosting and infrastructure options are quoted on request.
North American platform or custom build: compare before you sign
| Option | Upfront cost (2026 ballpark) | Annual cost | Strength | Limit for 25,000 SKUs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shopify Plus B2B | CAD 45,000 to 90,000 | about USD 27,000 subscription | Fast launch | Technical search and ERP bolted on |
| BigCommerce B2B Edition | CAD 50,000 to 100,000 | USD 20,000 to 45,000 | Solid B2B features | Cross-reference logic still custom |
| Adobe Commerce B2B | CAD 100,000 to 220,000 | revenue-based licence | Rich native B2B features | Cost and scarce skills |
| OroCommerce or ERP-native platform | CAD 60,000 to 120,000 | CAD 30,000 to 60,000 | ERP integration ready | Less flexible search and UX |
| Custom headless | CAD 75,000 to 135,000 | hosting and maintenance | Search and flows built around your buyers | Needs precise specifications |
For a distributor whose real asset is cross-reference know-how, a custom build or an ERP-native platform with a dedicated search engine usually wins. A generic platform forces years of workarounds.
Realistic 4 to 6 month timeline
| Phase | Duration | Deliverable |
|---|---|---|
| Discovery and workshops | 3 to 5 weeks | Specifications, approved wireframes |
| Product data and cross-references | 4 to 8 weeks, in parallel | Clean catalogue, mapping table |
| Development and ERP connector | 8 to 12 weeks | Working site in staging |
| Customer pilot | 3 to 4 weeks | 30 to 50 active accounts, feedback fixed |
| Launch and onboarding | 2 weeks | Campaign to all 1,800 accounts |
Data work starts in week one: it delays most spare parts projects far more often than the code does.
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Mini case study
Mark, VP Sales at a bearings and power transmission distributor in Mississauga, manages 1,800 active accounts and about 60,000 orders a year, keyed in by six inside sales reps. Each entry takes 6 minutes on average, including part lookup.
- 18-month target: 30% of orders online, or 18,000 orders.
- Time freed: 18,000 × 6 min = 108,000 min, or 1,800 hours a year.
- At CAD 55 per loaded hour, savings reach CAD 99,000 a year.
- Wrong-part errors, which caused returns on about 1.2% of orders, drop by half on the online share: roughly 108 returns avoided per year.
With a CAD 95,000 project, payback comes in about 12 months on data entry time alone, before counting add-on sales from cross-reference suggestions and the after-hours orders customers place without waiting for a callback.
FAQ
Should we show list prices or only net prices?
In industrial B2B, about 80% of distributors show net prices only after login. A visible list price can help search rankings, but it creates friction with accounts getting 20 to 45% off.
How long does the ERP connection take?
Plan 6 to 10 weeks for a two-way connector covering prices, stock, orders and invoices. An ERP without an API often adds 2 to 4 weeks and CAD 7,500 to 15,000.
Will our sales reps lose their accounts?
Not if online orders are credited to them in the ERP and count toward their targets. Distributors that do this see adoption grow twice as fast.
What share of online orders should we aim for in year one?
A realistic goal is 10 to 15% at 6 months and 25 to 40% at 18 months, provided launch is backed by reminders and onboarding of the first 100 accounts.
Does SEO matter in B2B?
Yes: thousands of monthly searches target exact bearing part numbers. Indexable part pages can bring 5 to 10% new accounts per year.
Let's scope your project. A one-hour call is enough to map your catalogue, your ERP and a realistic go-live timeline. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
