B2B portal (customer ordering platform)
A B2B portal is a site where a trade customer logs in and places the order themselves, seeing their own prices, discounts, stock and purchase history. The order lands in the system as data, so nobody re-keys it from an email or from a note taken during a phone call.
For a wholesaler the portal mainly changes who types the lines. Today the customer sends a spreadsheet or a photo of a list, and the sales rep copies the item codes into Subiekt or Comarch. In the portal the customer picks goods from a catalogue that already carries their price list, so a typo in an item code never happens.
The value sits around the basket rather than in it: availability or a clear "made to order" flag, the supplier's minimum order quantity, one-click repeat of the last order, shipment status with the tracking number, invoices and the account balance. A large share of the calls that reach customer service are about exactly those things.
The portal does not replace the ERP and does not push the sales rep out. Product records, prices, stock and invoices stay in Comarch ERP XL, enova365, Subiekt, WAPRO or Streamsoft, and the portal shows them and writes the order back. Larger buyers and retail chains usually prefer EDI, so both channels run side by side.
The classic trap is launching a portal on a catalogue nobody cleaned up: no photos, names like "ELBOW 50 NEW 2", prices that differ from the ERP. The customer comes in once, fails to find their product and goes back to email. You can tell the topic applies to you when the same customers order the same things every month and somebody still re-types their lists by hand.