The verdict in three sentences
Showing the right net price to every customer across 18,000 SKUs is the core of a B2B catalogue, and also its most expensive part: CAD 18,000 to 52,000 for price synchronisation from the ERP alone. The right architecture combines a precomputed price cache for display with a real-time ERP call at cart time, keeping response times under 300 ms. Manufacturer part number search and quick order by file are the two features that make industrial buyers adopt the portal.
Three ways to compute customer prices, three cost levels
A technical parts supplier (bearings, fasteners, pneumatics, power transmission) serves aerospace, industrial maintenance and construction customers across the Greater Toronto Area and Southern Ontario. Each account has family discounts, contract net prices on a few hundred items, quantity breaks and sometimes pricing indexed on raw materials. All of it lives in the ERP (Epicor, Acumatica, SAP Business One, Dynamics or Sage).
| Architecture | Principle | Performance | Price freshness | Indicative cost (CAD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ERP call on every display | The site queries the ERP for every item viewed | Slow (1 to 4 s per page) | Perfect | 12,000 to 22,000 |
| Nightly price matrix export | ERP exports customer × item prices every night | Fast | D-1 | 18,000 to 30,000 |
| Rules engine in the site | Discount rules recoded on the web side | Fast | Real time if rules stay in sync | 30,000 to 60,000 |
| Precomputed cache + ERP call at cart | Display from cache, ERP check at checkout | Fast (under 300 ms) | Near real time | 27,000 to 52,000 |
A full nightly matrix export grows fast: 800 customers × 18,000 SKUs = 14.4 million rows. In practice you export only the exceptions (net prices and specific discounts) and compute the rest from the list price and family discounts.
The full B2B catalogue budget
| Work package | Scope | Indicative cost (CAD) |
|---|---|---|
| Item and stock sync | Records, technical attributes, stock per warehouse, every 15 min | 12,000 to 27,000 |
| Customer price sync | Exceptions, family discounts, breaks, cache | 18,000 to 52,000 |
| Technical search | Manufacturer part number, cross-references, dimension filters, typo tolerance | 9,000 to 22,000 |
| Quick order | Entry by part number, CSV or Excel import, paste from CMMS | 6,000 to 13,000 |
| Multi-buyer accounts | Several users per customer, spending limits, approval | 7,500 to 18,000 |
| Orders back into the ERP | Order creation, status, invoice, packing slip PDF | 9,000 to 21,000 |
| Project total | Depending on ERP and data quality | CAD 61,500 to 153,000 |
| Maintenance and hosting | Flow monitoring, minor enhancements | CAD 900 to 2,250 / month |
The search engine (Meilisearch, Typesense or Algolia) costs CAD 0 to 600 a month for 18,000 SKUs. Indexing manufacturer numbers and cross-references is often underestimated: plan 3 to 5 days of data work.
Features that change behaviour
- Manufacturer part number search: the maintenance buyer types "6205-2RS" or the SKF number, not your internal code. Without a cross-reference table, 30 to 40% of searches fail.
- Quick order by file: a buyer restocking 60 lines imports the file in 1 minute instead of 25 minutes of typing.
- Price and lead time shown together: in stock at the Mississauga warehouse, within 48 h from the central depot, or supplier lead time.
- Technical documents: PDF data sheets and drawings attached to each SKU, avoiding calls to the technical desk.
Mini case study
Daniel, IT director of a technical parts supplier in Toronto (CAD 33M revenue, Epicor, 18,000 SKUs, 800 active accounts), sees his 6 inside sales reps spend 40% of their time quoting prices and availability by phone.
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Chosen project: precomputed cache with ERP check at cart, manufacturer number search, file import. Budget: CAD 102,000 plus CAD 1,500 a month. Conservative assumption: 35% of price requests move online by month 12, freeing 0.84 FTE (6 × 40% × 35%). At CAD 78,000 fully loaded, the gain is CAD 65,500 a year, redeployed to prospecting. Add 2% extra revenue on accounts active online (about CAD 225,000 of revenue at 28% margin, i.e. CAD 63,000 of margin). Payback: CAD 120,000 in year one against CAD 128,500 in gains, about 11 months.
FAQ
Should ERP pricing rules be recoded in the site?
Avoid it if you can: two pricing engines always end up diverging. An exceptions cache plus an ERP check at cart gives 99% consistency for CAD 27,000 to 52,000.
How often should prices update?
Syncing exceptions every 15 to 60 minutes is enough in most cases. Prices indexed on raw materials can be recalculated at each index change, usually monthly.
How long to launch the catalogue?
Allow 4 to 6 months for 18,000 SKUs, including 4 to 6 weeks of item data cleansing (attributes, manufacturer numbers, photos).
Should the portal handle payment?
Open accounts pay on invoice at net 30 or net 45. Offer cards to new and occasional customers: CAD 2,250 to 5,250 to integrate a PSP.
Which ERPs are hardest?
Older versions without a REST API (legacy on-premise ERPs, in-house systems) force file-based or staging-database integration, adding CAD 7,500 to 18,000 to the budget.
Let's scope your project. We scope your B2B catalogue with customer pricing and ERP integration (pricing architecture, technical search, quick order, CAD 61,500 to 153,000, 4 to 6 months). 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.
