Supplier Eliminates Pricing Errors Across ERP and Commerce

The Operational Challenge

Inside the business, the systems that supported digital ordering didn’t reflect how the company actually operated. Pricing lived inside Epicor P21. Orders arrived through email and phone calls. Sales reps acted as the bridge between customers and internal systems.

The portal existed — but it didn’t connect meaningfully to the workflows that powered the business. This created three growing risks:

• Orders depended on manual entry

• Sales teams spent time processing transactions instead of supporting customers

• Digital ordering never became a trusted channel for repeat business

The company didn’t lack technology. What it lacked was a digital experience built around how its ERP and customers actually worked.

Diagnosing the Real Problem

Leadership partnered with The B2B eCommerce Agency to understand where digital ordering was breaking down.

Instead of starting with a new platform or feature list, the work began by mapping how orders actually moved through the organization — from customer pricing and quoting to order entry and fulfillment inside Epicor P21. That diagnosis revealed the core issue:

The portal had been layered on top of the business.

But for customers to trust digital ordering, the experience needed to be built directly from the ERP outward. In other words, customers needed to interact with the same pricing, terms, and order logic the internal team relied on every day.

Designing a Safer Path to Modernization

With the operational picture clear, the focus shifted to designing a B2B buying experience that reflected the realities of the business. The goal wasn’t to replace Epicor P21 or introduce unnecessary disruption. It was to extend the ERP to customers in a way that felt:

• Familiar to repeat buyers

• Accurate to the internal system of record

• Reliable enough for teams to trust

Once that foundation was defined, The B2B eCommerce Agency implemented the digital experience and integrations needed to support it.

How the Digital Channel Was Rebuilt Around Epicor P21

The resulting B2B portal reflected the real business rules that already existed inside the ERP. Customers could now:

• See real-time pricing pulled directly from Epicor P21

• Access customer-specific catalogs and contract pricing

• Place orders using Net 30 terms and standard B2B payment workflows

• Order through procurement systems using TradeCentric integration

• View orders, availability, and account activity in real time

Most importantly, what customers saw online matched how the business actually ran internally. The portal was no longer a separate system to maintain. It became an extension of Epicor P21 for customers.

What Changed for the Business

Once the system reflected real workflows, customer behavior began to shift.  Routine orders moved from phone and email into self-service ordering. Customers could place orders confidently using their approved pricing and terms. Sales teams spent less time on order entry and more time supporting accounts.

Operationally, the impact was immediate:

• Pricing updates inside Epicor P21 automatically appeared online

• Orders flowed directly into the ERP without manual entry

• Customers had visibility into their own activity and history

The digital channel stopped feeling like an experiment. It became part of how the business operated.

Why This Approach Worked

This project succeeded because the work didn’t start with features or technology. It started with sequence.

By first understanding how Epicor P21 supported pricing, ordering, and fulfillment, the digital experience could be designed to match the business — rather than forcing the business to adapt to the software. Only after that foundation was clear did implementation begin.

For leadership, this reduced the risk that often comes with digital initiatives. For customers, it created a buying experience that felt simple, familiar, and dependable.

Operational Impact

Within months of launch, the distributor saw:

• Higher adoption of online ordering

• Larger average order values

• More repeat orders placed digitally

More importantly, internal teams trusted the system — because it reflected how the business already worked.

Digital ordering didn’t replace relationships. It supported them.