Alternatives to a dedicated trade POS: four routes, and who each one suits

“Which product should I buy?” is usually the wrong first question. The better one is which approach fits, because the four approaches below differ far more from each other than the products within each one do.

Route 1: use your order management system directly

Suits: low volumes of direct orders taken in the back office by experienced staff, with simple pricing.

Runs out when: a customer is waiting, or when the person taking the order is not an experienced user of the system. General-purpose order screens are built for correctness and completeness, not for speed with someone standing at a counter.

Route 2: a retail EPOS till

Suits: businesses whose counter is genuinely retail — cash and card at the point of sale, consistent prices, quick transactions.

Runs out when: your counter is trade. Accounts, credit terms, per-customer pricing, delivery to site, quotes that become orders — these are not what retail tills are shaped around, and bolting them on tends to produce a second system that does not talk to your fulfilment. The difference, in detail.

Route 3: a B2B web portal for customers to self-serve

Suits: customers who reorder known items repeatedly and are comfortable online. Genuinely the best answer for that pattern — it moves the data entry to the person who knows what they want.

Runs out when: the order needs a conversation. Portals do not handle “what do you have that will do this job?”, which is most of what a trade counter is actually for. In practice a portal complements counter and phone ordering rather than replacing it.

Route 4: a dedicated trade order tool over your existing system

Suits: counter, phone and field orders at volume, with per-customer pricing, where orders must land in your existing fulfilment pipeline rather than a parallel one.

Runs out when: volumes are low enough that the subscription is not earned, or when your pricing is simple enough that a fast general screen is fine. It is also another integration to keep working — a real, if modest, cost.

How to evaluate whatever you shortlist

Whichever route you pick, check these yourself against the vendor’s current documentation rather than trusting any article: how orders reach your fulfilment system and how quickly; what happens to per-customer pricing; what the tool does when a customer is not in its database; and how long a new starter takes to become useful on it. Pricing and feature coverage in this category move, so confirm the current position at source.

Our position, stated plainly

Trade Order POS is route four, specifically for Linnworks sellers. If you are not on Linnworks, it is not for you. If your direct order volume is a few a week, route one is cheaper and we would say so. Find out more → · Do you need one at all?

Questions, or want a tool we don't have yet? Email hello@grafto.co.uk — a real person replies.