Consumer ecommerce is a well-solved problem. Trade selling is not, because the buyer's requirements are different in almost every respect.

Here is what changes.

Pricing is per customer, not per product

In consumer retail, a product has a price. In trade, a product has a list price and then a matrix of exceptions: a discount band by account, a contract rate for a specific line, volume breaks, promotional pricing for a period.

A trade site must show each customer their price, calculated live, and it must match what your sales office would quote. Any discrepancy destroys trust immediately — a customer who finds the site shows a different price to the phone will stop using the site.

This is the single most common reason trade ecommerce projects need custom work. Most platforms handle one price per product well and customer-specific pricing poorly.

Payment is on account, not by card

An established trade customer expects to place an order against their credit account and receive an invoice on terms. Demanding a card at checkout is, to them, a step backwards.

What that requires:

  • Credit limit checking at the point of order, against the live balance
  • A sensible behaviour when the limit would be exceeded — hold for review, not a bare refusal
  • Purchase order reference capture, because their accounts department will require it
  • Invoices matching their expectations exactly, with their reference on them

Offer card payment as well, for new or cash accounts. Just do not make it the only route.

The buyer is not always the decision maker

In many businesses, the person selecting is not the person authorised to commit spend.

A trade site benefits from: multiple users on one account, roles distinguishing who can order from who can approve, a value threshold above which approval is required, and a basket that can be saved and passed to somebody else.

Building this is not trivial and it is what makes a site usable inside a larger customer, rather than something one person uses when nobody is watching.

Reordering is the main activity

Consumer sites are designed for discovery. Trade sites are used mostly to buy the same things again.

The features that get used daily:

Order history with one-click reorder. The most valuable feature on any trade site.

Saved lists. "Van stock", "the Ipswich site", "monthly consumables". Named, editable, orderable in one action.

Bulk entry by product code. A buyer with a list from a spreadsheet wants to paste codes and quantities, not search for each item.

Previously purchased, filtered. "Show me everything I bought last quarter" answers a question they otherwise ring you about.

A trade customer will use your website only if it is faster than telephoning your sales desk. If it is not, they will telephone, and they are being rational.

Stock and delivery information they can act on

Trade buyers plan work around availability. "In stock" is insufficient — they need quantity available, expected date for anything short, and whether it can be collected today.

That means live stock from the system that actually knows, which is covered in connecting stock and orders. It is more demanding than consumer retail because the consequence of being wrong is somebody's job standing idle.

How much to show the public

Three common approaches:

Public list prices, contract prices after login. Good for search visibility, and everyone can see roughly where you sit.

No prices without an account. Protects negotiated pricing and costs you search traffic and casual enquiries.

Public prices, trade discount applied at login. Simplest, and only works if your discounting is straightforward.

The search consideration is real: pages with no visible content rank poorly. If you hide everything, invest in category and guide content that can be public — see ecommerce SEO.

The integration is the project

A trade site is mostly a front end onto systems you already run. It needs to read customer accounts and their pricing, live stock, credit position, and order history; and write orders back into whatever fulfils them.

If those systems cannot be read programmatically, that constraint defines the project before any design work begins. Establish it early — see what a technical discovery involves.

Getting it adopted

Trade customers change habits slowly and for good reasons.

What works: onboarding accounts one at a time with a real conversation; showing the buyer their own order history on screen, which is usually the moment they see the point; keeping the phone line open and never punishing people for using it; and giving the site something the phone cannot offer, such as immediate stock visibility or downloadable statements.

What does not work: a launch email and an expectation that behaviour changes.

Our ecommerce team builds trade sites for UK distributors and merchants, with pricing and credit driven from the systems that already hold them. Discuss your requirements.