How an Alcohol Wholesaler Moved 70% of Orders to a B2B Portal in 2 Weeks
The Starting Point
A mid-sized alcohol wholesaler based in central Poland was processing around 120 orders per day across 85 active B2B clients. Their catalog included roughly 200 SKUs — spirits, wines, beers, and non-alcoholic beverages.
Orders came in through three channels: phone calls (about 50%), WhatsApp messages (30%), and email (20%). Three staff members spent their entire day taking orders, checking stock, confirming prices, and manually entering everything into the ERP system.
The process worked — until it did not. Pricing errors averaged 4% of orders. Stock discrepancies caused 2–3 failed deliveries per week. And clients who wanted to order after 5 PM had to wait until the next morning.
The Problem in Numbers
| Metric | Before Portal |
|---|---|
| Orders per day | ~120 |
| Staff dedicated to order intake | 3 people |
| Average time per order (intake to ERP entry) | 15 minutes |
| Pricing errors | 4% of orders |
| Failed deliveries (stock issues) | 2–3 per week |
| After-hours ordering | Not possible |
| Client complaints per month | 15–20 |
The 15-minute average included: answering the phone or reading the message, looking up the client's price list, checking stock availability, confirming the order back to the client, and entering it into the ERP. For complex orders with 15+ line items, this stretched to 25 minutes.
At 120 orders per day and 15 minutes each, that is 30 person-hours of work daily — effectively the full capacity of 3 employees.
Why a B2B Portal
The wholesaler had considered two options: hiring a fourth order-intake person or automating the process. The math was straightforward:
- Option A (hire): ~€2,500/month salary + social contributions = ~€3,200/month ongoing cost. Scales linearly — more orders, more hires.
- Option B (portal): €4,500 one-time setup + €60/month. Scales to thousands of orders without additional cost.
They chose Option B.
The Solution
The portal was built with these specific requirements for alcohol wholesale distribution:
- Age verification gate — legal requirement for alcohol sales. Every user confirms they are over 18 before accessing the catalog.
- Excise-compliant product data — product entries include excise duty information, alcohol percentage, and volume as required by Polish regulations.
- Individual pricing per client — each of the 85 clients had their own negotiated price list, synced from the ERP.
- Real-time stock levels — synced every 10 minutes from the ERP to prevent overselling.
- Order history with one-click reorder — most clients ordered similar products weekly.
- ERP integration — orders automatically created as sales documents in the ERP, no manual entry required.
Deployment Timeline
The entire deployment took 12 working days:
- Days 1–2: Requirements workshop, ERP access configuration, product data export
- Days 3–7: Portal build — catalog, client accounts, pricing engine, age verification
- Days 8–10: ERP integration and testing (API-based, the ERP supported REST)
- Day 11: Staff training (2-hour session)
- Day 12: Client onboarding — each client received login credentials by email with a short video guide
The Rollout Strategy
The wholesaler did not force all clients onto the portal at once. They used a phased approach:
-
Week 1: Invited the 20 most tech-comfortable clients (those who were already ordering via email). These clients adopted immediately — 18 out of 20 placed their first order within 48 hours.
-
Week 2: Invited the next 30 clients. The sales team called each one, walked them through the portal in 5 minutes, and placed the first order together over the phone.
-
Week 3–4: Invited the remaining 35 clients. By this point, word of mouth did the work — clients had heard from others that ordering was faster and easier.
By the end of month one, 70% of all orders came through the portal.
Results: Before and After
| Metric | Before Portal | After Portal (Month 1) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orders per day | ~120 | ~125 (slight increase) | +4% |
| Orders via portal | 0% | 70% | — |
| Staff on order intake | 3 people | 1 person (for phone orders) | -67% |
| Avg. time per order | 15 min | 2 min (portal) / 15 min (phone) | -87% (portal) |
| Pricing errors | 4% (~5/day) | 0% (portal) | -100% (portal) |
| Failed deliveries/week | 2–3 | 0–1 | -75% |
| After-hours orders | 0% | 22% of portal orders | New capability |
| Client complaints/month | 15–20 | 3–5 | -75% |
The two freed-up employees were reassigned: one to client development (visiting clients, expanding accounts) and one to warehouse operations. No one was laid off.
The Unexpected Benefits
Beyond the planned improvements, the wholesaler reported three benefits they had not anticipated:
1. Larger average order value. When clients browse the catalog visually, they notice products they would not have ordered by phone. Average order value increased by 12% in the first month.
2. New client onboarding dropped from 30 minutes to 5 minutes. Previously, a new client needed a phone call to explain the ordering process, a faxed price list, and a follow-up. Now: send login credentials, done.
3. Data visibility. For the first time, the wholesaler could see ordering patterns in a dashboard — which products were browsed but not ordered, which clients were ordering less frequently, and which products were consistently out of stock when clients wanted them. This data informed purchasing decisions.
What Did Not Work Perfectly
Honesty matters. Here is what required adjustment:
- 15% of clients never adopted the portal. These were older business owners who preferred phone calls. The wholesaler kept one person on phone duty and accepted that 100% adoption was not realistic.
- Initial stock sync interval was too long. They started with 30-minute sync and had 3 overselling incidents in the first week. Reduced to 10 minutes, problem solved.
- Mobile experience needed improvement. Many clients placed orders from their phones. The initial portal was desktop-optimized. A mobile-responsive update was deployed in week 3.
Financial Summary
| Item | Cost |
|---|---|
| Portal setup (one-time) | €4,500 |
| Monthly hosting | €60 |
| Mobile optimization (week 3) | €800 |
| Total year 1 | €6,020 |
| Savings | Annual Value |
|---|---|
| 2 staff reassigned (not replaced) | ~€64,000/year in salary costs |
| Reduced pricing errors (5/day × €50 avg. cost) | ~€65,000/year |
| Reduced failed deliveries | ~€15,000/year |
| Total annual savings | ~€144,000/year |
ROI: the portal paid for itself in 16 days.
Learn more about our B2B portal for wholesale and what it includes. For details on ERP synchronization that made this possible, see ERP Integration with a B2B Portal.
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