Odoo For Complex Apparel Wholesales Distribution: Challenges and Custom Features

A lot of wholesalers and distributors deal with various customer groups, large orders, and complex processes. Our client is one of the prominent distribution businesses in Australia, where Odoo customisation was essential to meet their specific requirements.

Below, we discuss how our tailored Odoo solutions transformed their distribution model.

Challenges Of Wholesale & Distribution Businesses

Our recent client operates in the apparel industry, specialising in designing, manufacturing, and distributing high-quality clothing for organisations across Australia. They provide an online platform for organisations to manage orders, and handle daily operations, while the company oversees financial activities and product supply.

Before implementing Odoo and Havi’s custom solutions, our client faced several operational challenges that hindered their ability to manage a diverse customer base effectively. With distinguished customer groups, their existing systems could not meet the unique needs of each group, resulting in inefficiencies and complexities.

• Lack of customisation for B2B needs: Their legacy system was not equipped to handle the specific requirements of wholesale and distribution businesses, especially for managing complex order stages, inventory variations, and pricing structures.
• Inefficient order management: Tracking sales and purchase orders, particularly in wholesale, was cumbersome. The client required detailed tracking of order milestones and delivery processes to ensure timely fulfilment.
• Inflexible e-commerce capabilities: Their previous e-commerce system lacked the flexibility to display products precisely based on customer type or business needs. Tailoring product visibility and pricing to specific customer groups was essential.
• Complexity in managing multiple user groups: Managing diverse user groups with varying access needs, such as product categories and pricing, required a highly customised approach beyond the capacity of their old system.

Our Tailored Odoo Solutions For Wholesale & Distribution

Below, you can explore the key custom Odoo features we developed to address the client’s wide range of customer needs, which includes small locals as well as large businesses.

1. Customisations For Streamlined Order Management

Our team implemented and customised several features within their Odoo system:

• Customised purchase & sales order stages: Custom stages were added to the Purchase Order (PO) lifecycle and Sales Order (SO) process. This customisation allows the client to track each milestone of the order processing, and the delivery process in detail, ensuring smooth and timely delivery management. These statuses are specifically custom to tracking order requirements of wholesale and B2B customers in Odoo.
• Standardised templates for sales documents: We created custom-made templates for Quotations, Sales Orders, and Invoices in the Odoo Sales system. This way, users do not have to enter data manually and all of the documents correspond to the chosen style and align with the brand requirements.
• Minimum order quantity: The minimum quantity feature for customer orders allows users to set a minimum order quantity for selected products. This makes sure that customers cannot place orders below a specified threshold.
• Items specifications display: This new feature enables users to define and display product specifications directly in purchase orders and factory portals. It ensures accuracy in product orders and enhances communication with suppliers.

2. Havi’s Custom E-commerce Solution For Different Customer Groups

The new e-commerce solution provides a more specialised approach to online sales, ensuring that only the right products are displayed to the right customers. This is one of the key requirements in the distribution industry.

Specifically, the custom solution allows the client to manage multiple, personalised storefronts for different buyer groups. For example, products can be grouped and displayed based on the specific requirements of the owners and the needs of each buyer group.

With this bespoke feature, we helped our client gain more out of Odoo’s open-source capabilities. This enables more precise product management and a highly tailored shopping experience for each customer group, all while simplifying backend operations.

3. Our Integrated Wholesale Portal For Custom Shopping & Order Management

To help our client efficiently manage diverse user groups, we also built an integrated portal within Odoo. This integrated portal allows for personalised shopping experiences while enabling precise control over order processing, payment histories, or inventory.

• Custom product access & order management: The portal enables specific users to access personalised data, i.e. a curated selection of products, sales orders, payment histories or other relevant aspects. This ensures that each buyer has access to the information that is relevant to their purchases and streamlines the distribution workflow of the entire organisation.
• Order tracking & inventory management: We implemented a custom feature enabling users to place orders based on product availability. Additionally, the portal allows users to select and order flexible variants of the same product. This feature helps manage bulk orders efficiently while maintaining clear visibility of stock and delivery timelines.

By integrating the needs of different users into one integrated solution, our client gains a comprehensive system to manage personalised access, and order tracking, all while ensuring seamless inventory and order management.

Why Should You Choose Odoo For Wholesale And Distribution?

Odoo stands out because of its modularity, where all apps are fully integrated and customisable to fit the wholesale and distribution industry. Its versatility enables companies to accommodate difficult issues such as handling mass orders, variable prices, and distributed stock. Additionally, Odoo is very affordable, especially for growing companies that want to optimise their processes into a single software solution.

Get Help To Tailor Odoo For Your Distribution Business

With our customisation expertise, Odoo enabled our client to provide a customer-friendly experience, efficiently track inventory, and manage B2B transactions. This has positioned them to expand their market reach and serve diverse customer groups effectively.

At Havi, we develop unique Odoo systems that deliver efficient organisational solutions and help businesses step up their game, increasing customer satisfaction and gaining more profits. Are you willing to transform your business? Partner with us to optimise your business with Odoo.