Catalogue with enquiries or a full online shop for wholesale?

How do your customers really buy?

Start from your last twenty deals, not from the website. How many of them repeat an earlier order — the same items, the same prices, only the quantities differ? And how many began with a question: "Do you have it, by when, and at what price for three pallets?" The first group are candidates for a cart. The second group want an answer from a person, and a cart will only get in their way. That ratio tells you more than any comparison of platforms.

Prices on request: when it makes sense not to show them

There are good reasons for keeping a price private. It is negotiated by quantity. It follows the cost of the raw material and changes every week. It is one figure for the installer and another for the end customer. In those cases the catalogue shows the item, the code and the stock, and the price comes with the quote. The downside is that some visitors will not ask. So show everything else you can: pack size, minimum quantity, delivery time.

Different prices for different customers

In wholesale there is rarely one price. The distributor has one set of terms, the small shop another, and the long-standing customer a discount agreed years ago. An online shop can cope with that only if it knows the customer: they sign in and see their own prices. That means registration, approval on your side and price levels that somebody maintains. If the terms live only in the sales rep's head, write them down first.

Minimum quantities, cartons and pallets

A wholesale customer does not buy, say, 7 units of an item sold in cartons of 12. The cart has to know that, or every order ends in a phone call to correct it. Check three things: can you restrict sales to whole packs, does the price change with a larger quantity, and what does the customer see when they order more than is in stock? If the rules are many and full of exceptions, an enquiry is the more honest option.

When a cart helps

A cart helps when ordering is routine. A shop owner restocks the same twenty items every Monday. They do not want a quote; they want to repeat the order at ten in the evening, after closing. It also helps when the items are standard, prices follow a price list and stock is visible. Then routine orders do not go through the sales rep's phone, and the rep has time for the conversations where there really is something to negotiate.

When a cart gets in the way

A cart gets in the way when it creates an expectation you cannot meet. The customer orders three pallets and receives a confirmation. Then it turns out that transport is charged separately, the lead time is three weeks and the price was for a different quantity. It also gets in the way with made-to-measure goods, supplies for a whole project and items that are assembled to order. There the order is a conversation, and an enquiry form starts it better than a "Buy" button.

• The price depends on quantity, lead time or transport.
• The goods are cut, assembled or made to order.
• Stock changes faster than the website finds out.
• Orders are often corrected by phone afterwards.

You do not have to choose once and for all

The two approaches can be combined. The catalogue shows everything and collects enquiries, while online ordering is opened for approved companies and for items with clear prices. What matters is that both read from one place — the warehouse program — so you do not maintain the products twice. For example, SellM8 Catalog shows the goods from the warehouse and takes enquiries, and in SellM8 Shop approved companies see wholesale prices and buy by the carton. Both work with the same warehouse.