A bathroom and building-materials wholesaler has 80 dealers. Every morning its LINE groups fill with more than 40 order photos: handwritten part numbers, snapshots of quotes, voice notes saying "same as last time." An assistant spends 3 hours a day retyping them into the ERP, and month-end reconciliation averages 20 discrepancies, usually "I'm on B-tier pricing, why did you charge A-tier?" A dealer ordering portal exists to remove that manual translation.
When It Fits and When It Doesn't
| Good fit | Poor fit |
|---|---|
| 30+ dealers restocking weekly | Fewer than 10 customers, one phone call handles it |
| Dealers on different price or discount tiers | One price for everyone, where a normal store is enough |
| Monthly terms, credit limits or prepayments to control | Every order is a custom quote negotiated by sales |
| 300+ SKUs and frequent part-number errors | An ERP with no export and no API |
Alternatives Matrix
| Approach | Pros | Cons | Cost range |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Forms + spreadsheet | Live in a week, nearly free | No tiered pricing or credit control; still retyped into the ERP | NT$0–20K |
| ERP vendor's dealer module | Data is natively in sync | Dated UI, poor on mobile, per-seat licensing | NT$100K–400K a year |
| B2B e-commerce SaaS | Feature-rich, fast to launch | High monthly fees; custom pricing rules and ERP links often limited | NT$10K–50K a month |
| Custom ordering portal | Pricing, credit and workflow fit exactly | Higher upfront cost, needs maintenance | From NT$280K–600K |
The Full Process
- Weeks 1–2 | Rules inventory: document price tiers, volume discounts, credit limits and statement dates; deliverables are a Notion rules document and a price-list template.
- Weeks 3–4 | Interface design: Figma screens for quick order, favorites, credit display and statements, previewed with three dealers.
- Weeks 5–10 | Build and integrate: Laravel + MySQL for the pricing engine and order flow; orders are pushed to the ERP through a queue with automatic retries; shipping notices go out via a LINE Official Account.
- Weeks 11–12 | Pilot: run 10 dealers in parallel for two weeks, compare portal and ERP totals, and open to everyone only when discrepancies hit zero.
Real Costs, Fully Broken Down
- Portal development: NT$280K–600K, driven mostly by pricing-rule complexity.
- ERP integration: NT$80K–200K; if the ERP only exports files, add scheduled file conversion.
- Hosting and backups: NT$1,500–4,000 a month, with Cloudflare's free plan in front to filter malicious traffic.
- LINE notifications: Messaging API pushes are billed by message volume; 80 dealers usually need a mid-tier plan.
- E-invoices: issued through a value-added provider at roughly NT$0.2–1 each, following the Ministry of Finance e-invoice platform upload rules.
- Hidden hours: 40–80 hours to clean up price lists (usually on the client side) and annual maintenance of about 15%–20% of the build cost.
Reality vs. Expectations
- Expected: dealers will adopt it on their own. Reality: only about 30% order unprompted in the first 30 days; sales reps need to coach them.
- Expected: the price list is clear. Reality: the inventory uncovers 60 verbal special prices written down nowhere.
- Expected: an ERP with an API is easy to connect. Reality: many ERP APIs are read-only; write access is an extra module.
- Expected: block orders over the credit limit. Reality: sales often want to "ship first," so you need a manager-approved exception flow.
Common Traps and How to Avoid Them
- Prices hard-coded in the app → keep them in an admin-editable price table with a change log.
- Stock shown only as in or out → show available-to-promise quantity and expected arrival dates to cut follow-up calls.
- One login shared by the whole dealer → separate order placers from payment approvers.
- Failed ERP pushes go unnoticed → an error queue plus a daily failure report with a named owner.
- Desktop only → dealers usually order on phones in the warehouse, so build mobile quick order first.
Success Metrics and a 90-Day Roadmap
- Day 30: 50% of orders through the portal; reconciliation discrepancies under 5 a month.
- Day 60: favorites and one-tap reorder live; average order time under 3 minutes.
- Day 90: manual orders below 10%; the assistant's retyping time shifts to customer development.
Decision Checklist
- ☐ More than 30 dealers
- ☐ At least two price tiers
- ☐ Monthly terms or credit limits to control
- ☐ More than 1 hour a day of manual order entry
- ☐ More than 10 reconciliation discrepancies a month
- ☐ The ERP can export data or has an API
- ☐ Someone owns price-list maintenance
- ☐ Most dealers use smartphones
- ☐ Willing to pilot with 10 dealers first
- ☐ Budget of NT$280K or more
Frequently Asked Questions
How is a dealer ordering portal different from a B2C online store?
A portal centers on logged-in dealer pricing, credit limits, monthly statements and reorder lists, with no need for consumer marketing features; a normal store charges everyone the same price and takes payment on the spot.
Our ERP is old. Can it still be integrated?
Usually yes. With an API, orders sync in real time; if it only exports files, a scheduled daily CSV exchange with an error report does the job.
What if dealers don't want to use a new system?
Start with mobile quick order and one-tap reorder, pilot with 10 cooperative dealers, and have sales reps coach them for the first 30 days.
How long does it take?
Typically 8 to 12 weeks: 2 weeks of rules inventory, 2 of design, 6 of build and integration, and 2 of pilot.
Next Step
ScriptWalker's Dealer Ordering Portal package starts at NT$280,000 and covers the rules inventory, a mobile-first interface, the pricing and credit engine, ERP integration and LINE notifications. Bring your price list and a week of sample orders, and in 30 minutes we will show you what can be automated:
- Email: [email protected]
- Phone: 0916-224-047
- LINE: @ufv9089p