The verdict in three sentences
For a London food wholesaler serving 600 trade customers, a custom B2B wholesale ordering portal costs between 40,000 and 90,000 GBP (2026 ballpark) depending on integrations. It pays off once phone orders swamp the sales desk and keying errors eat margin every week. A consumer webshop will not do: wholesalers need customer-tier pricing, trade credit accounts and a minimum order value.
Why the phone no longer works
The sales director of a wholesaler near New Spitalfields Market manages 1,500 SKUs: rice, oils, tinned goods, dry stores, cleaning supplies. His 600 customers are convenience stores, independent grocers and restaurants across East and North London. Each morning four telesales staff take orders by phone and WhatsApp from 6 am to 11 am, then re-key them into the ERP.
The symptoms are familiar: missed calls at peak time, wrong quantities, prices quoted from memory, overdue accounts not chased. Management estimates 3 to 5% of monthly revenue is lost or misbilled.
| Process | Phone and WhatsApp | With B2B portal |
|---|---|---|
| Order capture | 4 telesales staff, 6 am to 11 am | 24/7, from the customer's phone |
| Price applied | From memory or a printed list | Automatic by customer tier |
| Credit control | Manual check after the fact | Credit limit enforced at checkout |
| Minimum order | Negotiated case by case | 250 GBP enforced by the basket |
| Keying errors | 4 to 6% of lines | under 1% |
| Delivery promise | Next day to 72 h depending on load | Next day with confirmed slot |
Must-have features and what they cost
A wholesale portal is not just a catalogue. It encodes the firm's trading rules. These building blocks appear in almost every London project.
| Feature | Detail | 2026 ballpark (GBP) |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue and search | 1,500 SKUs, images, pack sizes (case, sack, unit) | 6,000 to 12,000 |
| Customer-tier pricing | Retail, restaurant, reseller, key account lists | 5,000 to 10,000 |
| Trade accounts and credit | Limits, 30-day terms, balance, account hold | 7,000 to 15,000 |
| Payments | Card, Direct Debit, Pay by Bank, invoice | 4,000 to 9,000 |
| Delivery and routing | Postcode zones, slots, delivery notes, driver app | 8,000 to 20,000 |
| ERP integration | Sage, Unleashed or Dynamics: stock, invoices, prices | 7,000 to 18,000 |
| Back office and reporting | Orders, top lines, chasers | 3,000 to 6,000 |
The total lands between 40,000 and 90,000 GBP. At Kolonell, such a scope is priced on quote after a workshop, with maintenance quoted separately. For the catalogue and payment side, see our e-commerce services.
Choices that make the project succeed
First choice: a progressive web app rather than a native app. It installs from the browser, works on any phone and avoids store approval delays. Shop owners order from the till or the van.
Second choice: keep WhatsApp or SMS for notifications. Order confirmations, delivery windows and payment reminders go where customers already read.
Third choice: start with 100 pilot accounts. Three weeks with the most active customers fixes pack sizes and product names before opening to all 600. Telesales staff become account managers who drive adoption and upsell.
Fourth choice: plan for UK compliance from day one. Wholesale accounts must show VAT correctly per line (zero-rated food versus standard-rated cleaning products), keep invoices for six years and handle allergen information on food lines. Building VAT codes and allergen fields into the product data model during phase one costs far less than retrofitting them, typically a few days of work versus several weeks later. It also makes Making Tax Digital submissions from the ERP straightforward, since every order arrives with the right tax treatment.
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Mini case study
James, sales director of a food wholesaler in London, turns over 1,200,000 GBP a month. He estimates errors and missed calls cost 3%, so 36,000 GBP a month. The portal is budgeted at 65,000 GBP plus a monthly support contract. If it cuts losses by two thirds, the gain is 24,000 GBP a month. Two of four telesales staff move to winning new accounts. Payback comes in under three months, before counting the larger baskets that a 24/7 catalogue usually brings.
FAQ
How long does launch take?
Plan 12 to 20 weeks: 3 weeks of scoping, 8 to 12 weeks of build, then a 3-week pilot with about 100 customers. ERP integration is usually the critical path.
Will independent retailers really order online?
Adoption often passes 50% of active accounts within six months if an order takes under 2 minutes and staff help with first orders. A 1% online-order discount speeds up the switch.
How is trade credit handled?
Each account gets a limit and terms, for example 5,000 GBP at 30 days. The portal places orders on hold above the limit and sends payment reminders before the due date.
Do we need a real-time ERP link?
Syncing stock and prices every 15 to 30 minutes is enough. Orders are pushed in real time so picking starts immediately.
Can we start smaller?
Yes: phase one with catalogue, tier pricing and minimum order, then credit accounts and the driver app in phase two. That spreads spend across two financial years.
Let's scope your project. Send us your SKU count, number of accounts and ERP, and we will define phase one and the pilot 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.
