If your trade customers still order by phone, email and text, you're spending hours re-keying orders and risking a mistake on every one. Moving them online is simpler — and cheaper — than most distributors think. With Cognit's Free plan you can sell wholesale online for $0 a month, with no credit card. Here's exactly how to do it this week.
What "selling wholesale online" actually means
A wholesale, or B2B, online store is different from a retail website. It's account-based: each trade customer logs in and sees only the products and the prices that apply to them. They reorder from their own list, you receive the order ready to process, and nobody has to check a price or transcribe a voicemail. The built-in store in Cognit is designed for exactly this.
Step 1 — Create your free account
Start by signing up for the Free plan. It's free forever, needs no credit card, and gives you the B2B store and order management for up to 100 products, 25 customers and 1 user. That's enough to get a smaller distributor fully online, and you can keep it free for as long as it fits.
Step 2 — Build your catalogue
Add the products your customers reorder most often — name, code, pack size, unit and a price. You don't need all 100 on day one; start with your core range so you can go live fast, then add the rest as you go. Clear product names and pack sizes make it easy for customers to order the right thing without ringing you to check.
Step 3 — Set your customer pricing
This is what makes it a real wholesale store. As you add each customer, set the prices they've been agreed — so when they log in, they see their numbers, not a public list. Getting this right means customers can reorder with complete confidence, which is what gets them to actually use the portal. On the Standard plan this extends to full customer and group pricing tiers as you grow.
Step 4 — Invite your customers
Add your trade accounts and send them their logins. Start with a handful of your most regular, most willing customers — the ones who'll appreciate ordering on their own schedule. Once they're ordering online smoothly, roll the rest out. A short note explaining the benefit ("order anytime, see your own prices, no more phone tag") goes a long way.
Step 5 — Go live and manage orders in one place
Turn the store on. From here, every order your customers place lands in Cognit's order management, ready for you to pick, pack and dispatch — no re-keying, no transcribing. You'll feel the time saving in the first week, and your customers get a tidy, professional way to do business with you.
Step 6 — Grow into the full ERP when you're ready
The Free plan gets your customers ordering online. When you want to run the rest of the business in the same system, upgrade to the Standard plan at NZD $499 a month, which adds:
- Live inventory — stock on hand, reorder levels and tablet stocktakes
- Purchasing and goods receipting
- Invoicing and accounts receivable
- Full reporting on sales and margin
- Unlimited products and customers, plus multiple users
Standard comes with a 14-day free trial and no credit card, and because it's the same Cognit, everything you built on the Free plan — your catalogue, customers and pricing — carries straight over. Nothing to rebuild. For the bigger picture on starting free, see our guide to free B2B ordering software.
Frequently asked questions
How can I take wholesale orders online for free?
Create a free Cognit account, load your products, set your customer prices, invite your trade customers to log in, and turn on the B2B online store. The Free plan costs $0 a month and supports up to 100 products, 25 customers and 1 user, with no credit card required, so you can be taking online orders this week without spending anything.
What's the difference between a wholesale online store and a retail one?
A wholesale (B2B) store is account-based: customers log in and see only the products and prices that apply to them, often with trade-specific minimums and reorder lists. A retail store is public, shows one price to everyone and takes card payments. Cognit's built-in store is built for B2B, so each trade customer sees their own catalogue and pricing.
Do my customers need their own logins and pricing?
Yes, and that's the point of a B2B store. Each customer gets their own login and sees their own agreed pricing, so they can reorder confidently without checking prices with you. You set this up once when you add each customer, and Cognit applies it automatically every time they order.
What happens when I outgrow the free wholesale store?
When you pass 100 products or 25 customers, need more users, or want live inventory, purchasing, invoicing and reporting, you upgrade to the Standard plan at NZD $499 per month. It has a 14-day free trial with no credit card, and everything you set up on the Free plan carries straight over.
