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Outdoor Products E-Commerce Platform
A wholesale ordering platform and public website on Microsoft Azure, built so specialty outdoor retailers can restock from one source without picking up the phone.
Business goals
The client is a wholesale distributor of technical outdoor gear, supplying specialty retailers with products from many brands. Store owners buy in the middle of a busy selling season and need to know what is in stock before they commit. Phone and email orders tie up sales staff on routine restocks. The client needed a web channel that dealers would trust for live ordering, and a website that explained the business to shops considering an account.
Project overview
Hexagon delivered an e-commerce platform and website for the client, hosted on Microsoft Azure. Dealers sign in, see their own pricing, browse a large catalog by category or brand, check stock and place orders. A public website presents the business to prospective dealers. Staff manage products, dealer accounts and incoming orders from one admin area. The catalog, accounts and orders share a single backend.
Challenges faced and solved
A distributor's website is a working sales counter, and shop owners stop using it the first time it lets them down.
Selling at wholesale without exposing wholesale
A distributor's prices are for approved shops only. If anyone can see dealer cost online, retail partners lose confidence and the distributor has a pricing problem it created for itself.
We put pricing behind dealer sign-in. Visitors can browse the public site, while approved accounts see their own prices and can place orders.
A catalog too large to browse by hand
Climbing hardware, stoves, paddles and ski accessories all come in sizes, colors and pack quantities. A buyer restocking fifty items won't scroll through pages of near-identical listings to find them.
We organized products by activity, brand and category, with search and SKU lookup, so buyers who know the part number can skip browsing entirely.
Orders placed against stock that isn't there
Nothing frustrates a shop owner more than building a seasonal order, then learning days later that half of it is on backorder. It costs the distributor trust and the shop its sales.
We show availability on product and cart pages, so dealers can see what can ship and adjust their order before they submit it.
Sales staff tied up on routine restocks
When every reorder comes by phone or email, experienced reps spend their day keying in part numbers. That leaves less time for advising dealers on new lines and larger seasonal buys.
We gave dealers self-service ordering, reorder from history and order status, so routine buying moves online and reps can focus on the conversations that need them.
Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| Dealers | |
| 1. Dealer Sign-In | Approved shops log in to a private account. Pricing and ordering stay out of public view. |
| 2. Account Pricing | Each signed-in dealer sees the wholesale price for their account, so nobody needs to call to check cost. |
| 3. Activity and Brand Browsing | Products are grouped by activity, such as climbing, camping and paddling, and by brand. Buyers can shop the way their own store is laid out. |
| 4. Search and SKU Lookup | A buyer can type a name or part number and go straight to the item, which matters when working from a stock list. |
| 5. Product Variants | Sizes, colors and pack quantities sit under one product, so a buyer can pick the right mix without opening separate listings. |
| 6. Stock Visibility | Availability shows before checkout, which keeps a seasonal order from turning into a backorder surprise. |
| 7. Quick Order | Dealers enter several SKUs and quantities on one screen, which suits a shop owner restocking from a shelf count. |
| 8. Reorder From History | Past orders can be pulled back into the cart, so regular restocks take a few clicks. |
| 9. Order History and Status | Dealers check what they ordered and where it stands without phoning their rep. |
| 10. Account Details | Buyers keep shipping addresses and contact details current in one place, which reduces misdirected shipments. |
| Prospective dealers and visitors | |
| 11. Public Website | Pages explain who the client is, what it carries and why a shop would buy through a single distributor. |
| 12. Brand Pages | Each carried line has its own page, which helps retailers see the depth of the range before opening an account. |
| 13. Dealer Application | Shop owners can request a wholesale account online, giving the sales team a clear starting point. |
| 14. Contact Paths | Visitors can reach a sales contact directly, which keeps a person available for questions the site can't answer. |
| Client staff | |
| 15. Catalog Management | Staff add and update products, images, specifications and categories without developer help. |
| 16. Dealer Account Administration | Staff approve new accounts and assign pricing, so access is controlled from one screen. |
| 17. Order Management | Incoming web orders appear in one queue, with the detail staff need to process them. |
| 18. Content Management | The team can update website pages and announcements, keeping news of new lines current. |
| 19. Reporting Views | Staff can review web orders and account activity to see how dealers are using the channel. |
How the platform is put together
Each layer has one job.
The result
The client gained an online wholesale channel running on Microsoft Azure, with dealers able to browse, check stock and order for themselves.
| Area | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| Placing an order | Routine restocks relied heavily on phone and email | Dealers order online with quick order and reorder from history |
| Checking availability | Buyers often had to ask a rep what was in stock | Availability shows before checkout |
| Wholesale pricing | Pricing needed careful handling outside a private channel | Account pricing behind dealer sign-in |
| Hosting | No dedicated cloud home for the new platform | Website and store hosted on Microsoft Azure |
How we took it from idea to launch
Good software follows a process. Here are the six stages, and what happens in each one.
Discovery & Requirements
Goal: Define the product vision, target audience and core business requirements.
Key activities- Stakeholder interviews
- Market and competitor research
- Defining user personas
- Drafting technical specifications or a Product Requirements Document (PRD)
Design (UX / UI)
Goal: Create an intuitive user experience and visual interface.
Key activities- UX design: information architecture, user flows and wireframes
- UI design: high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes in Figma or similar tools
- Design system: colors, typography and component libraries
Development: Frontend & Backend
Goal: Build the functional application using agile sprints.
Key activities- Backend: set up databases, design APIs (REST, GraphQL), implement server logic, and configure authentication and authorization (OAuth, RBAC)
- Frontend: build responsive interfaces and connect components to backend APIs
- Version control: manage code through Git and GitHub
Security & Optimization
Goal: Harden the application against vulnerabilities and boost performance.
Key activities- Security: address the OWASP Top 10, including injection, XSS and CSRF, enforce encryption in transit and at rest, and implement rate limiting
- Optimization: code splitting and lazy loading, database indexing, API caching and load testing
- QA and testing: unit, integration and end-to-end tests
Beta Release
Goal: Deploy to a controlled group of real users to catch edge-case bugs and gather feedback.
Key activities- Set up staging and production CI/CD pipelines
- Launch a closed or open beta with real users
- Monitor errors through observability tools
Public Release (Launch)
Goal: Roll the software out to the general public.
Key activities- Final production deployment
- DNS configuration
- Marketing and onboarding rollout
- Post-launch performance and security monitoring
Business benefits
Routine reorders move online, leaving reps free to advise dealers on seasonal buys.
Dealers see availability before they commit, so expectations are set at the point of order.
Wholesale cost is visible only to approved accounts.
New brands and products go into a structure built for a large catalog.
Conclusion
Wholesale e-commerce has different rules from a consumer store. Buyers know what they want, order in volume, and care more about stock and account pricing than about banners. Hexagon built the client's platform around those habits and ran it on Microsoft Azure, with a public website to bring in new dealers. If you distribute to retailers and too many of your orders still arrive by phone and email, we'd be glad to talk through what a dealer portal could look like for your business.
Talk to us about your projectRelated services: e-commerce development · custom software development
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