Business account logins
Each buyer signs in to the account her store uses, with the price list and terms set by the sales team.
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Wholesale Maternity Dress Ordering Storefront
A wholesale maternity dress ordering storefront moves boutique and department store buyers off email and spreadsheets and onto accounts with their own prices and case quantities. This page sets out how SIZ Group would build one around the way buyers actually reorder each season.
01
How a buyer moves through the wholesale maternity dress ordering storefront
Most buyers who purchase maternity dresses at wholesale arrive with a list of store-level needs. A boutique buyer may want six black wrap dresses in medium and four in large, while a department store buyer needs a full size run for each style. The storefront has to show the case pack for every style before anything reaches the cart.
Once logged in, the buyer sees the prices agreed for her account rather than the retail list. The minimum order for that account is shown up front, so a short order is caught before it reaches the sales desk and nobody has to call back to fix it.
- Signs in with a business account that the sales rep has approved for net terms.
- Filters the range by style, fabric weight and case pack, then adds three cases of one colorway.
- Sends a quote request for a mixed order that does not fit the standard case quantities.
- Downloads the order confirmation and a PDF invoice for the store's accounts payable team.
02
Fitting in with the systems wholesale maternity dress brands already use
Most maternity dress brands that sell wholesale already run an accounting package such as QuickBooks, or an enterprise system such as NetSuite. The ordering storefront should push confirmed orders into that system with the same customer, tax and item codes, so finance is not keying the same order twice.
Shipping is the other handoff. Warehouses that pick by case often rely on a shipping tool such as ShipStation, or on a warehouse system that reads case sizes from product data. We would map those fields before launch, because a case pack that differs by one unit between systems causes short shipments.
The storefront itself can run on Shopify with its business account features, on WooCommerce or on BigCommerce. We recommend a platform after the scoping call, based on the number of accounts, the price lists needed and the systems the brand already depends on.
03
Rules and standards that shape a wholesale maternity dress build
Wholesale accounts are often exempt from sales tax when a retailer buys for resale. The storefront needs a place to collect a valid resale certificate for each account, and approved accounts must not be charged tax on those orders. Tax settings should be tested against every state where the brand has a physical or economic presence.
Card payments fall under the PCI DSS standard. To keep the brand's obligations small, card details should be handled by the payment provider and never stored on the brand's own servers. Business customers also share contact and billing details, so access to those records should stay with the sales and finance roles that need them.
Product claims matter at wholesale too. A retailer repeats what the product page says, so fabric content and care instructions must match the labels that ship with each dress.
What you get
Key features
Case pack ordering
Products show their case quantity, and the cart accepts whole cases unless the account is allowed to split them.
Quote requests for mixed orders
A buyer who needs a mixed or custom order sends line items and a delivery window, and the rep replies with one fixed quote.
Order exports to accounting
Confirmed orders carry the customer, tax and item codes that the finance team already uses.
04
Mistakes we would steer maternity dress brands away from in wholesale
The biggest mistake is placing the whole wholesale line behind one shared password and a PDF catalog. Buyers then ask for the same file every season, and the sales team spends its time replacing attachments instead of selling.
Brands also set case quantities once and forget them. When a style moves from twelve units per color to six, the order logic changes. If the storefront still enforces the old rule, buyers either cannot order or place orders the warehouse cannot pick.
Another common error is offering net terms to every account. Terms should be granted per customer with a credit limit, and the storefront should show the balance owed before a buyer places a new order.
05
What drives cost and timeline for this wholesale build
Cost follows the complexity of the account structure more than the number of photos. Ten price lists with case rules are more work than a hundred retail products without them, so the scoping call starts with the account types a brand actually uses.
We keep scope under control by separating the first release from the wish list. Quote requests can begin as a simple form that the sales team answers by email, with a fuller approval workflow added later. The written scope and figure come before the build starts.
- Number of wholesale accounts and price lists to configure
- Case pack rules and the number of styles that use them
- Integrations with accounting, shipping and the warehouse
- Quote request workflow and approval steps
06
Rolling out the ordering storefront to sales staff and buyers
A new ordering channel fails when the sales team keeps taking orders by email. We suggest the reps demo the storefront using their own top accounts, so they can see for themselves which orders are faster to place online.
Buyers need a short welcome email, a working login for their account and a clear route to a person for unusual orders. Post-launch support is available, so the first season can be reviewed and the case rules adjusted wherever buyers keep asking for help.
How will a wholesale maternity dress ordering storefront handle our existing accounts?+
Existing accounts can be imported with their price lists, terms and credit limits, so buyers do not start again from zero. We check each record against the sales team's list before the first login is sent. Accounts that need a manual review are flagged for the sales manager rather than guessed at.
Can buyers still request a quote for a mixed order?+
Yes. The request carries the line items and the buyer's delivery window, and the sales rep responds with one price for the whole order. An approved quote can be converted into a standard order, so it flows to the warehouse like any other sale.
Will the storefront enforce our case pack quantities?+
It can. Each style carries its case size, and the cart rounds up to whole cases. Where a particular account is allowed to split cases, that rule is set on the account itself rather than across the whole range.
Is pricing for the wholesale storefront fixed?+
A free scoping call comes first. The account types, integrations and approval steps set the figure, which arrives in writing with the scope before anything is built.
Let's make it happen
Set up wholesale ordering for your maternity dress line
Talk to us on a free scoping call, and get the scope and price confirmed in writing.