Pricing errors are the fastest way to damage a trade relationship. A customer who has negotiated a contract price logs into your portal, sees the full list price, and either rings your sales team to complain or quietly takes the order somewhere else. Worse, they see a lower price than they should, and you honour it, because arguing costs more than the margin.
For most Australian distributors, the problem isn't that pricing is wrong in the accounting system. It's that pricing lives in more than one place. B2B customer-specific pricing only works online when the portal, the retail store, and your accounting system or ERP all read from the same source.
This guide covers why wholesale and retail pricing drift apart, how to set up customer-specific pricing properly, and how to keep every channel in sync.
Pricing problems rarely announce themselves. They show up as small, repeated irritations:
Each of these costs time. Together, they erode the main benefit of letting customers order online. As we cover in our guide to the best online ordering software for Australian distributors and wholesalers, pricing accuracy is one of the first things trade buyers judge a portal on.
Pricing is maintained in two places. The accounting system or ERP holds the "real" prices, but the website has its own copy, updated by hand. The moment someone forgets to update one, they disagree.
The website only supports one price per product. Many retail-first platforms were built to show one price to everyone. Trade pricing gets bolted on through separate storefronts, coupon codes, or hidden products, and each workaround is another place for prices to drift.
Pricing structures are layered. A distributor might run list prices, price levels by customer type, customer-specific contract prices, and quantity breaks all at once. According to Jiwa's documentation, for example, a debtor price group can calculate a customer's price from the sell price, RRP, or one of ten price fields, with optional quantity breaks on top. If the website only understands one of these layers, it shows the wrong price whenever another layer applies.
Promotions are managed separately. Retail specials set up on the website don't know about trade contract pricing in the ERP, which is how a retail sale ends up undercutting your best trade customer.
Customer accounts aren't linked. If a trade customer's web login isn't linked to their debtor account, the website has no way of knowing which price they're entitled to.
Getting B2B customer-specific pricing right is a structural fix rather than a matter of being more careful. Here's the approach that works.
Every price, whether list, trade, or contract, should be maintained in one system, usually MYOB, Jiwa, or your ERP. For most Australian distributors, that's the system that already produces the invoice. The website and portal should read prices from it, never hold their own copy. If a price has to be changed, it's changed once, in one place.
Each trade customer's web login should be tied to their customer or debtor account in your accounting system. That link is what lets the portal look up their specific price. Web Ninja webstores can auto-link accounting customers to the website, so trade accounts don't have to be set up twice.
Decide which price wins when more than one applies. A common order is:
Your integration should apply the same logic your accounting system does, so the price online matches the price on the invoice.
If you run both B2B and retail on the same platform, be deliberate about who sees promotional pricing. A simple rule is that trade customers always see the lower of their contract price or the current special. Agree the rule, then configure it once.
GST display matters here too. According to the ACCC, businesses selling to consumers must display a single total price, including GST and unavoidable fees. If a business is displaying prices only to other businesses, it doesn't need to include GST in the total price. A combined store in Australia can therefore show GST-inclusive prices to the public and ex-GST prices to logged-in trade customers, as long as each audience sees the right one.
Pricing changes in your accounting system should flow to the website automatically and regularly. Check the sync log after large price updates, such as an annual supplier price rise, to confirm everything came through.
Say a 10L container of cleaning concentrate has a list price of $48.00 (illustrative only).
All four prices are maintained in your accounting system. None are typed into the website. When your supplier puts the price up, you update it once, and every channel reflects the change on the next sync.
A caution: don't try to replicate complex pricing in the website's own admin as a stopgap. It feels quicker, but it creates the exact two-source problem you're trying to remove.
Some businesses can manage with a single wholesale price level. Once B2B customer-specific pricing is part of how you sell, a proper integration pays for itself. It's worth bringing in a specialist when:
Web Ninja's B2B online ordering portals integrate with MYOB, Xero, QuickBooks, and other accounting and ERP systems, and our B2B and B2C webstores include custom special pricing and auto-link accounting customers to the website, so trade customers see their own price when they log in. If you're starting from scratch, our guide to setting up a B2B online ordering portal walks through the full process.
B2B customer-specific pricing isn't really a website feature. It comes from a clean setup: one source of truth, linked customer accounts, and an integration that applies your pricing rules the same way your accounting system does. Get that right, and your portal and retail store will always agree with your invoices.
For distributors and wholesalers across Australia, that means fewer phone calls, fewer credit notes, and trade customers who trust your portal enough to actually use it. If you'd like to see how Web Ninja handles customer-specific pricing with MYOB, Jiwa, Xero, or your ERP, Summon a Ninja.
What is B2B customer-specific pricing?
B2B customer-specific pricing is when each trade customer sees and pays their own negotiated price rather than a standard list price. Online, it works by linking the customer's login to their account in your accounting system, which holds their price.
How do wholesale distributors keep B2B portal pricing in sync with retail pricing?
By maintaining all prices in one system, usually the accounting software or ERP, and having both the B2B portal and the retail store read prices from it automatically. Prices are never edited on the website directly.
Can one website show retail prices to the public and trade prices to logged-in customers?
Yes. A combined B2B and B2C webstore shows retail pricing to guests and switches to each trade customer's pricing once they log in.
Can quantity breaks and contract pricing work together online?
Yes, as long as the priority rules are clear. Decide which price wins when both apply, and configure the integration to follow the same logic as your accounting system.
What happens when my supplier prices go up?
You update prices once in your accounting system. The integration carries the new prices through to your portal and webstore on the next sync, with no website edits needed.
Who can set up customer-specific pricing on my B2B portal?
Web Ninja builds B2B portals and webstores for Australian distributors, integrated with MYOB, Jiwa, Xero, QuickBooks, and other accounting systems.