The best order-entry setup for a small wholesaler: phone, email, portal or counter
There is no single best channel — there is a best mix for your customer base, and a worst pattern, which is four channels all handled slightly differently by different people with no shared record.
Count before you change anything
Take one ordinary week and count orders by channel, and the minutes each takes from arrival to existing correctly in your system. Most wholesalers are surprised twice: by how much volume comes through the channel they invest least in, and by how long email orders really take once you include the clarification exchange.
The four channels, honestly
Phone. Highest value per order, because a conversation catches substitutions, upsells and mistakes. Also the most expensive per order in staff time, and the most error-prone if the person is typing into a slow screen while talking. Worth optimising rather than discouraging — see taking phone orders faster.
Email. Feels efficient because it is asynchronous. Frequently is not: an emailed order arrives in free text, needs interpreting, often needs a clarifying reply, and then needs typing in anyway. The fix is usually a structured order form rather than a better inbox process.
Counter. The channel where speed is most visible to the customer and where errors are most expensive, because the goods leave immediately. Also where new or junior staff are most likely to be taking orders.
Portal or self-serve. Best cost per order by a distance, and best for known repeat items. Poor for anything requiring advice, and not every trade customer will use one — expect to run it alongside, not instead.
Where to invest first
Multiply volume by minutes-per-order for each channel. That gives you hours per week per channel, and the biggest number is where to start — not the channel that annoys you most. Usually it is phone or counter, because both are live and both are typing-bound.
The second question is error rate. A channel with modest volume but a high rate of wrong items or wrong prices costs more than it looks, once you count credits, redeliveries and the customer relationship.
The thing all four should share
One destination. Whatever the channel, the order should end up in the same system, in the same shape, with the same pricing rules applied. Parallel pipelines — a portal that feeds one place and a counter pad that feeds another — are how businesses end up unable to answer simple questions about their own stock.
That shared destination is also what makes per-customer pricing consistent: the price a customer gets should not depend on which way they happened to order. Tiered pricing is what makes that true in practice.
A reasonable target state
Portal for the repeat lines of customers who will use one. Fast assisted entry for phone and counter, where the conversation is the value. Email accepted but steered towards a structured form. All four landing in one place.
Trade Order POS covers the assisted-entry half of that for Linnworks sellers — counter, phone and field orders into one pipeline — and takes tier prices from B2B Price Tiers so the price does not depend on the channel. Find out more →
Questions, or want a tool we don't have yet? Email hello@grafto.co.uk — a real person replies.