Doudlah Farms is building a dedicated B2B WooCommerce site to streamline wholesale ordering for their network of regional grocery and co-op accounts. As of the October 2025 sync, the site build was essentially complete with account setup and pricing configuration underway. The platform needs to handle tiered pricing per wholesaler, multi-contact account management, order notifications, printable invoices, and payment tracking against net-30 terms.
This article captures the key decisions, open questions, and workflow requirements surfaced during the build-out process.
Each wholesaler gets a single account login rather than individual logins per contact. This simplifies management and preserves order history across staff changes.
Several wholesalers (e.g., Basics in Janesville, Epic, Willy Street Co-op) have high contact turnover. Recommended approach:
- Use a shared ordering or invoicing email (e.g., ordering@wholesaler.com) where available
- If a personal email was used and staff changes, the email address can be updated on the backend in under a minute
- Order history remains intact on the account regardless of login credential changes
Where a single company has separate buyers for different product categories (e.g., bulk vs. branded shelf items), Lucy will add separate rows in the wholesaler spreadsheet with a note clarifying each contact's role. The account itself remains unified.
Not all wholesalers are on the same price list. Accounts requiring custom pricing as of this call:
| Wholesaler | Price List |
|---|---|
| L&L | Blue list (new) |
| Piggly Wiggly | Blue list (new) |
| Marty (Down on the Farm) | Blue list (new) |
| All others | Standard list |
Lucy will annotate the wholesaler spreadsheet with which price list applies to each account and resend the updated price list file to Karly for direct linking in the backend.
Lucy raised several operational requirements that need to be configured or confirmed with the WooCommerce developer:
Two options under consideration:
1. WooCommerce + ShipStation integration (mirrors the B2C site setup)
2. Automatic order confirmation email sent directly to Lucy whenever a new order is placed
Either approach is viable; decision deferred to developer consultation.
Lucy's current fulfillment process requires:
1. A packing list (order details) printed and brought with the delivery
2. A separate invoice that the receiving party signs at delivery
3. One signed copy returned to Doudlah Farms as proof of delivery; one copy left with the customer
The B2B plugin may already support invoice generation — this needs to be confirmed. If not, a custom solution will be required.
Wholesalers pay via a mix of methods: ACH, check, QuickBooks-initiated transfer. Because payment happens outside the platform, Lucy will need to manually mark invoices as paid and record the payment method. Requirements:
- Ability to mark an order as paid with payment method noted
- Automated reminder email when a net-30 invoice goes unpaid (to be scoped with developer)
- Visibility into outstanding balances per account
Context: Lucy discovered a wholesaler (Wisconsin Food Hub) was 7 months in arrears after manually auditing invoices. Automated tracking is a priority to prevent recurrence.
Mark raised the value of importing historical order data from existing wholesalers (particularly Down on the Farm, managed via Excel by Marty's wife) into the B2B platform for forecasting purposes. This would enable year-over-year sales projections by account and region. Flagged for developer consultation — not yet scoped.