A B2B portal for a flower wholesaler is a website for regular trade customers: after logging in, a shop or florist sees their own contract price, the exact stock, goods in transit with an arrival date and their account balance, and places the order without phoning anyone. What separates it from a retail web shop is the link to your stock and accounting. Prices, stock and customers come from the system you already run, otherwise by Friday lunchtime the site shows boxes that left the cold room hours ago.
In short
- A portal removes the early-morning calls and message threads: buyers check stock and their price themselves, and the account manager receives a finished order with lines and prices.
- The must-have parts for a flower wholesaler: catalogue with live stock, personal contract prices, pre-orders for a shipment date, a cart that splits by shipment, a minimum order value and a buyer account with balance and order history.
- The key question when choosing: what comes from your stock or accounting system, how often it refreshes and where a finished order lands.
- Move customers over gradually: the most active ones first, place the first orders together with them, and keep the phone line open.
What a B2B portal is and how it differs from a web shop
B2B means business to business. The buyer is not a passer-by but a shop, a studio or an event decorator who works with you on agreed terms and orders every week. So the site has to work differently.
| Retail web shop | Wholesaler's B2B portal | |
|---|---|---|
| Who buys | Any visitor | Shops, florists and studios with a trade account |
| Price | One price for everyone | Open price for guests, own contract price for each customer |
| Payment | By card at checkout | On invoice, often with payment terms |
| Availability | "In stock" or "out of stock" | Exact stock in bunches plus goods in transit with an arrival date |
| Order | One-off, a few items | Regular, dozens of lines, often a repeat of last week |
| Limits | Usually none | Minimum order value, credit limit, cut-off time for pre-orders |
| After the order | Delivery and a receipt | Shipment on a set date, delivery note, statement of account |
The phrase "supplier portal" is used in two senses. One is a purchasing portal, where a large retail chain collects offers from its suppliers. The other is a sales portal, where a supplier takes orders from its own customers. A flower wholesaler needs the second kind: you are the supplier, and shops and florists are your buyers.
A retail site can still be useful if you also sell to one-off customers. It is easier when both live on one site: a guest sees open prices and the range, and a regular customer sees their own terms after logging in. What a retail florist needs from a site is covered in the article on building a flower shop website.
Why a flower wholesaler needs a B2B portal
A normal Friday without a portal looks like this. From six in the morning the account manager's phone rings and messages pile up: "what have you got in 60 cm roses", "is the white one still there", "send me the price list". The list sent as a photo on Thursday is already wrong: some lines have sold out, some prices have moved. The manager walks into the cold room, counts bunches, calls back and retypes the order into the stock system. By eight the last box of white roses has been promised to two customers, and one of them will drive to the cash-and-carry down the road.
What a portal changes:
- Stock is visible without a call. The "what have you got" question disappears, and the calls that remain are about real issues: substitutions, special requests, delivery.
- The order arrives complete. Lines, quantities and contract prices are already there; the manager checks instead of typing from dictation.
- Prices match. The buyer sees the price from their agreement, so there is nothing to argue about at delivery.
- The balance is visible to both sides. Reconciliation stops being a conversation about two different totals.
- Customers order at any hour. A florist builds the order in the evening after closing, instead of chasing your manager at dawn.
There is money in this as well. Every retyping error means a box coming back or an unhappy customer, and morning calls tie up people who could be picking orders. How a wholesale operation fits together as a whole, from the cold store to deliveries, payment terms and cash, is covered in the guide on how to start a flower wholesale business.
What a flower B2B portal is made of
These are the parts without which a portal for flowers works badly. General B2B solutions built for car parts or building materials often deliver the first three rows and skip the rest, and for cut flowers it is the rest that decides.
| Part | What the buyer sees | What it gives the wholesaler |
|---|---|---|
| Catalogue with stock | Bunch size, stock, filters by shipment, country, stem length and colour | Fewer "what have you got" calls |
| Personal prices | After login, their own contract price; the cart calculates with it | No need to keep several price lists |
| Pre-orders for a shipment date | Goods in transit with an arrival date, which can be reserved in advance | Part of a shipment is sold before it lands |
| Cart split by shipment | Items from stock and from an incoming shipment go as separate orders, each with its own date | Pickers do not hold half an order on a shelf |
| Reservation during checkout | Stock is held for the buyer while they complete the order | No double sale of the last box |
| Minimum order value | The cart shows how much is left to reach the minimum | Small orders do not eat picking time |
| Price on request | For items whose price changes daily, a request button instead of a number | No outdated figure on the site |
| Buyer account | Balance, next shipment, order history, reorder | Fewer questions about balances and past orders |
Use this table to test any solution. Open a demo and walk the buyer's path from search to an order split across two shipments. You can see how this works for a wholesaler on our demo website: the catalogue filters, goods in transit with their arrival date and a cart that splits into shipments.
The trade customer account
The account is the place buyers open more often than the catalogue. It should answer the questions they would otherwise put to your manager:
- Balance and amount outstanding. How much the customer owes and how much room is left before the credit limit.
- Next shipment and goods in transit. What they have already reserved and when it arrives.
- Order history. Including orders placed by phone, otherwise the history is incomplete and the buyer stops trusting it.
- One-click reorder. A neighbourhood shop buys almost the same mix every week, and filling the cart with one click matters more to them than any filter.
A separate question is where the account gets this data. If the balance and history live in your accounting system and the account shows only web orders, the customer sees one total online and another on the statement from your bookkeeper. An account is only worth having when its balance and history come from the same system your accountant works in, or when every order, web or phone, is entered in one place.
B2B portal integration: what must come from your system
The link to your stock or accounting system is the main question when you choose. A good B2B portal does not keep a separate catalogue: products, prices, stock and customers with their terms come from the system you already use, and nothing is entered twice.
What to ask any vendor before signing:
- Which system they connect to. "We integrate with everything" guarantees nothing. Ask them to test with your actual data and your actual price structure.
- How often stock refreshes. For cut flowers, once a day is not enough: by lunchtime the site shows what sold out in the morning.
- How personal prices travel. Contract discounts should come from your system, not be set up a second time in the website admin.
- Where an order lands. Straight into accounting as a document, or with a manager who checks it and posts it. The second route lets the manager catch substitutions and damaged stock before the shipment, but the workload stays with them.
- Who fixes the integration after your system updates. If the answer is "you, at extra cost", put that in the budget.
As an example of how it works in Petala: the catalogue is kept either in the Petala CRM or comes from your own CRM or accounting system through Excel/CSV or an API, and prices and stock are taken from that system. A logged-in customer sees their own contract price. The order arrives with a manager in the CRM with every line and price, and posting it into your accounting stays with your team as before. How purchasing, the warehouse and cash look on the manager's side can be seen in the CRM for flower wholesalers.
B2B portal development: custom build, adapted web shop or ready platform
There are three routes, the same as for a retail site, with more complexity on top.
Custom development. Built exactly around your processes, but the B2B layer, meaning personal prices, pre-orders, an account with balances and the integration, is the most expensive and slowest part of any project. As a rough guide in autumn 2026, a custom portal with an integration typically runs to a five-figure euro sum or more and takes three to six months. After launch the integration needs maintenance.
Adapting a ready-made web shop or general retail system. Cheaper to start, but everything specific to flowers, such as stem length, bunch sizes, goods in transit with a date and shipments by date, has to be written on top, and each change costs money and time.
A ready platform for flowers. What a wholesaler typically needs is already there; you pay a subscription and receive updates. Petala is set up for €129 once and then costs €129 a month, or €107 a month billed yearly, with no commission on orders. Custom logic or your own layout is done on request and quoted after a call; details are on the Petala pricing page.
Compare the whole first year, not the launch price, and include your own time for writing the brief and testing. How to choose the system behind the portal is covered in the article on flower shop software.
How to move trade customers to online ordering
Your customers have ordered by phone for years, and a website alone will not change that. A gradual move works.
- Start with the ten or fifteen most active customers. The ones who order most and call most. The portal saves them the most time, and they will tell you fastest what is awkward.
- Hand out access personally. The manager calls, sends the login and places the first order together with the customer over the phone, looking at the same screen.
- One price everywhere. The online price must match the phone price. If the site is dearer, people stop using it in the first week.
- Give a reason to log in. Pre-orders for a shipment are easier online, where the arrival date is visible, and a one-click reorder is faster than any call. A small discount for online orders also works if your margin can carry it.
- Keep the phone line open. But when someone asks what is in stock, answer and show them where to see it on the site.
- Track the share. Once a week, check what share of orders came through the portal, and call customers who logged in once and never came back.
The move takes months, not a week, and not everyone will switch on their own. Do not start it in the run-up to Valentine's Day or Mother's Day: nobody learns a new tool in a peak week.
A B2B ordering app: needed if you already have a website?
A florist builds the order at six in the morning on a phone, between buckets. A good mobile site handles that, but an app is more convenient for customers who order every day: the login is remembered, favourites are at hand and a reorder takes two taps. A wholesaler with a dozen customers can manage with the site. When there are many customers and many order daily, the app becomes noticeably more convenient for them.
What matters is whose developer account the app is published under. If it sits under the contractor's account, you lose both the app and the installs on your customers' phones when you change contractors. In Petala the app is part of the subscription, shows the same products, prices and pre-orders as the website, and is published under your name in the App Store, Google Play and AppGallery, where it stays yours.
Frequently asked questions
What is a B2B portal in simple terms?
It is a company website for its regular business customers. After logging in, a customer sees their contract prices, stock, their own orders and balance, and places orders without calling. For a flower wholesaler it replaces morning phone calls and price lists sent as photos.
How much does B2B portal development cost?
Custom development with an integration into your stock or accounting system typically costs a five-figure euro sum or more and takes several months, and features such as personal prices and an account with balances add to the estimate. Ready platforms work on a subscription. Compare the total for the first year and ask who maintains the integration.
Can a B2B portal connect to our ERP or accounting system?
Yes, and for a wholesaler that is the right way to do it: products, contract prices, stock and customers come from your system instead of being typed in again. Before signing, check whether the vendor will test with your data, how often stock refreshes and where orders land.
How does a trade customer get access to their account?
Usually the wholesaler issues it: a manager creates a login for a customer who has an agreement and sends the details. A guest without a login sees open prices and the catalogue; their own price, balance and history appear only after logging in.
Should prices be hidden from visitors who are not logged in?
Not necessarily. An open price helps new buyers judge your level and come back with a first order. What should stay private are individual terms: contract discounts, payment terms and balances are visible only to the customer after login.
Starting outHow to start a flower wholesale business: stock, supply, buyers and cash
Website & softwareFlower shop website: which one you need and how to choose the route
Website & softwareFlower shop software: how to choose it and switch without losing data