The challenge

PJ Marketing was looking for a way to present their product offering on a public website as an online catalogue. It was important that prospective wholesalers not be able to view pricing or place orders. Once accepted as a reseller, a customer should be able to log into a portal to see availability and pricing, and place orders into their specific account on PJ Marketing’s Pastel Partner. In addition, we needed to provide a way for customers to be able to upload a CSV file for bulk orders.

The goals

• Sync product information to the front-facing website, excluding price and stock levels.
• Create a B2B Trade Store where customers can log in to see pricing and stock levels.
• Provide a streamlined product search, with product segmentation (attributes) uploaded to Stock2Shop.
• Sync wholesale orders into each customer’s dedicated account on Pastel Partner.
• Provide a Bulk Orders function where customers can upload a sheet containing multiple products quickly and easily.

The solutions

A feed was set up to send product data from the PJ Marketing Pastel Partner to their Stock2Shop console. They could then enrich these products with information such as images and long descriptions.

Two different B2B Trade Stores were then set up, with different product selections sent to each. Wholesale customers were then allocated to a particular B2B channel. When they log in to place an order, they are only exposed to products that are relevant to them, and at the correct price. Their orders are then raised directly into their account on Pastel Partner. In addition to the wholesale functionality, a feed of product data was also sent to the front-facing WooCommerce website. This is purely for browsing purposes; ordering on this channel is disabled.

Sync products

• PJ Marketing can manage their inventory and pricing from Pastel Partner, automatically sending updates to their B2B Trade Store in near real time.
• All the Pastel Partner data, together with images and long descriptions that were added to the Stock2Shop console, is synced to the B2B Trade Store and WooCommerce website.

Product segmentation for efficient search

• A product attribute called “Category” was uploaded to Stock2Shop, making it easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

B2B Trade Store The Stock2Shop B2B Trade Store has a useful tool called “layered navigation” where customers can filter by a product attribute such as “Category” to narrow their search. In addition to layered navigation, B2B customers can make use of the following tools:

• Search bar – This elastic search function is likely to bring up the desired product even if the search key is slightly misspelled.
• Quick Order – Entering a SKU code or part of a product title will populate an easy-to-navigate list with the desired product, as well as all related products. Customers can then add what they want to their cart with just a few clicks.