Buyer’s guide
Wholesale distribution software for teams who still take phone orders
Run per-buyer pricing, credit limits, and a branded customer portal on one system — without a year-long ERP rollout.
What to know about wholesale distribution software
Wholesale distribution software is the operating system for a wholesale book — the place where your reps, your ops team, and your customers all look at the same order, the same price, and the same stock count. The category has two very different poles: heavyweight ERPs (NetSuite, SAP, Dynamics) aimed at enterprises with dedicated implementation teams, and lightweight B2B portals aimed at distributors who'd rather go live this month than next year.
For most small and mid-sized distributors, the second group is the right fit. The failure mode of the first isn't cost — it's the 18-month implementation that ends with half the team still using the old spreadsheet.
Evaluating tools
What to look for
Ask these of every tool in your shortlist — including ours.
- 1
Your customers can place orders themselves
If the core loop still runs through your inbox, software hasn't changed anything. A real wholesale platform gives each buyer a login with their prices, their credit limit, and a view of what's in stock — so the easy orders stop eating your reps' day.
- 2
Your reps can still place orders for customers
Phone orders don't vanish; they just stop being the only path. Make sure a rep can place an order on behalf of a customer from the staff dashboard with the same pricing rules and the same credit check as a self-service order.
- 3
Price lists are structured, not free-text
If you sell to tiers — distributors at Tier A, independents at Tier B, a handful of key accounts on special — those tiers should be a first-class object. Uploading a CSV of overrides and having the platform enforce them per buyer is table stakes.
- 4
Stock is accurate across every order source
A SKU sold on the portal and a SKU sold over the phone have to decrement the same counter — atomically, not via a nightly sync. If two buyers can oversell the same unit, you don't have stock; you have an estimate.
- 5
You can get your data out
CSV exports, a REST API, and (ideally) webhooks on every meaningful event. A platform that makes it hard to leave is one that has stopped trying to earn the renewal.
How Distribu handles it
What you get on day one
A branded storefront at your own slug
Your customers sign in at distribu.app/store/{your-slug} and see a catalog priced for them, with their credit limit and address book already wired up. Multi-user accounts support ADMIN / BUYER / VIEWER roles, so one company can have a controller who approves orders and buyers who just place them.
See the storefront →Reps place orders from the same dashboard as fulfillment
Staff with the right role can create or edit orders on behalf of any customer from the admin dashboard. The order inherits that customer's prices and credit limit; it lands in the same queue as portal orders; the ledger doesn't care which path it took.
Feature tour →Per-buyer pricing and credit limits
Override any product's price per customer, and block new orders server-side when the open balance hits the limit. Finance and sales read the same numbers — no spreadsheet that drifts a week after the last revision.
Pricing docs →An audited stock-movement ledger
Every adjustment — new orders, returns, manual edits, CSV imports — lands in a stock-history row with actor, timestamp, and reason. Finance and production close the books from the same data, and a missing unit always has a row to explain it.
Inventory docs →A REST API and signed webhooks in the base plan
Nine permission scopes per API key, per-key rate limits, and twelve webhook events with HMAC signatures and zero-downtime secret rotation. Anything the dashboard does, your code can do — no upsell required.
API reference →Frequently asked
What is wholesale distribution software?
Wholesale distribution software manages the order book, pricing, and inventory for a business that sells to other businesses — typically distributors, importers, and brands with a wholesale channel. It differs from retail software in handling per-buyer pricing, credit terms, multi-user buyer accounts, and negotiated contracts.
Can I replace my ERP with a wholesale distribution platform?
If you're already live on NetSuite or SAP and your accounting team is bought in, probably not — the switching cost exceeds the benefit. If you're pre-ERP or running into ERP pain, a focused tool like Distribu covers the order and inventory loop and syncs to QuickBooks or Xero for the accounting side.
Do I need separate software for wholesale and D2C?
Not necessarily. Platforms that handle both (multi-channel) trade off depth in each — you get an OK B2B module bolted onto a D2C product. If wholesale is most of your volume, a B2B-first tool with a good API (like Distribu) typically beats a D2C tool's B2B add-on.
How does per-buyer pricing work?
Each customer is assigned a price list or given product-level overrides. When they place an order — through the portal, a rep, or the API — the platform validates that price server-side. Finance reads the same price sales does; there's no spreadsheet to lose.
What about credit limits and net terms?
Each customer has a credit limit and term (Net 15, Net 30, etc.). Distribu computes open balance from unpaid invoices and blocks new orders server-side when the limit is hit. You can override per-order with an approval step instead of a hard block.
See it in your own tenant
14-day trial, no credit card. Or walk through it with us first — 20 minutes, your catalog, your questions.
Built for
Built for
Wholesale distributors
Per-buyer price lists, credit limits, and one shared order queue. Your reps, your ops team, and your customers all look at the same record.
Built for
Small manufacturers
Audited stock movements so finance and production read from the same ledger. Webhooks so your ERP and MRP stay in sync without brittle CSV cron jobs.