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The brief: building a B2B WooCommerce online store
CREATING.LV built a B2B online store on WordPress and WooCommerce for the wholesale company Pro-vape.eu, in which only approved customers see prices and prices differ by customer, group and order volume. Building this B2B WooCommerce store meant not just a catalogue and a basket, but controlled access and pricing logic that can be different for each customer.
Pro-vape.eu sells to other businesses, so it needed to decide itself to whom, and on what terms, its products are offered.
In wholesale, one product often has several prices: for a regular partner, a new customer or a large order. If these prices have to be calculated and sent manually, every order requires an exchange of messages. The store needed this logic built in so that, after logging in, customers would immediately see the price intended for them.
Our role
CREATING.LV built the Pro-vape.eu online store on WordPress and WooCommerce with custom-built price management logic and automatic shipping cost calculation. The store was in Latvian and English, and the project was handed over in 2021. Our work covered:
- registration with administrator approval — buyers see prices only after approval;
- prices for buyer groups, individual customers, specific products or product categories;
- prices that change automatically depending on the order quantity or amount;
- shipping cost calculation based on the order’s dimensions and weight, shown in the order summary.
This online store is no longer visible on the current pro-vape.eu site; the description reflects the solution as delivered at handover.
Only approved customers see prices
A new buyer registers in the store, and the registration is approved by an administrator. The administrator assigns an approved partner a price group or discounts. Until approval, prices are not visible; after it, the customer sees the prices that match the terms set for them. This way the company itself decides who becomes a customer, and price information does not reach casual visitors or competitors.
The approval step lets the company check, before revealing prices, whether the applicant is a business it wants to work with. If the company does not approve the application, the applicant does not see prices even after registering.
Our screenshot shows that the store header has separate actions for business customers: partner application, login, B2B order and account. This way the B2B online store shows on the very first screen that it is meant for businesses, not private buyers. The partner application and login are next to each other, so a new company and an existing customer start from the same place: one applies to work together, the other logs in and orders.
Prices by customer, group and volume
Prices can be set for buyer groups, individual customers, specific products or entire product categories. For example, one customer group can have a different price level across a whole category, while a specific partner has a separate price for just a few products.
In addition, the price changes automatically depending on the order quantity or amount: a larger order can have a different price, and the buyer sees it in the basket rather than after a separate quote. This is the main thing that sets a WooCommerce B2B store with custom pricing apart from an ordinary online store where everyone pays the same price. We built the pricing logic individually.
Group prices are convenient when there are many customers divided into a few levels, while an individual customer price suits a specific partner with its own agreement. The category level lets prices be changed for a whole product group in one place instead of editing each product separately. The quantity condition is based on the number of items ordered, while the amount condition is based on the order total: the first suits cases where a different price applies to a larger quantity of goods, the second where the overall size of the order matters.
How ordering works for a business customer
A business customer first applies as a partner and registers. When the administrator approves the registration, the customer logs in to their account and sees the prices set for them in the catalogue. In the basket, the price adjusts to the order quantity or amount, and shipping costs calculated by weight and dimensions are added in the summary. The customer sees the final amount before confirming, and the company does not have to prepare a separate quote for each order.
On the company side, the administrator approves new customers and sets price conditions for groups, customers, products and categories. This way the B2B online store becomes a place where regular partners order by themselves, while the pricing policy stays under the company’s control.
Shipping costs by weight and dimensions
Wholesale orders differ in size, so one fixed shipping price would not work. Shipping costs are calculated automatically from the order’s dimensions and weight, and the buyer sees them in the order summary together with the product total — before confirming the order. The shipping price does not have to be clarified with the customer after the order has already been received.
If you are planning a B2B online store with shipping calculated by weight and dimensions, keep in mind that the calculation is only as accurate as the weights and dimensions entered for the products. That is why this data has to be prepared when products are entered, not after the store is launched.
Technologies
The store is built with WordPress and WooCommerce. The core WooCommerce features — catalogue, basket, orders — are extended with customer approval, custom-built group, customer and volume pricing, and shipping calculation by weight and dimensions. This choice means the B2B logic rests on the WooCommerce e-commerce foundation, and only what sets wholesale apart has to be built on top: access control, pricing rules and shipping calculation. When WooCommerce is enough for a B2B store and when a custom system is the better option, we compare in the article WooCommerce or Laravel.
Who this kind of B2B online store suits
For a wholesaler or manufacturer that sells to businesses, offers each customer or customer group its own price terms and does not want to show prices to unregistered visitors. This solution also suits cases where shipping costs depend heavily on the order weight. Building a B2B WooCommerce online store starts with the question of how the company divides its customers and prices today — this determines which groups and rules the store needs. If you need a B2B online store, start with our online store development service; for more complex pricing and customer logic, see business system development.
If the customer groups and pricing rules are clear, a WooCommerce solution is usually enough. If prices and stock levels have to be synchronised with an ERP or warehouse system, it is worth assessing before development whether an integration or a separate system is needed.
Services we used
Website
Note
This portfolio entry reflects the solution as delivered at handover. The current website may have changed.