You've invested in a B2B ordering portal. The ROI makes sense. Development is done. You're ready to launch.
Six months later, adoption is 15%. Customers still call to place orders. Your team is maintaining two systems instead of one. The portal is an expensive disappointment.
This happens more often than it should. Not because portals don't work—but because implementation mistakes kill them before they have a chance.
Here are the mistakes that matter most, and how to avoid them.
Mistake 1: Building for Yourself, Not Your Customers
The most common mistake happens before a single line of code is written.
Internal teams design the portal based on what would make their jobs easier. They organise products the way their ERP organises them. They use internal terminology. They optimise for their workflows.
Then customers arrive and can't find anything.
What goes wrong
- Navigation mirrors internal categories, not how customers think about products
- Search requires exact SKU matches that customers don't know
- Product names use internal codes instead of common descriptions
- Required fields ask for information customers don't have
- Workflows assume knowledge of your internal processes
How to avoid it
Talk to customers first. Not after you've designed it—before. Ask:
- How do you think about our products?
- What terms do you use?
- What information do you need to place an order?
- What frustrates you about ordering from us today?
Watch customers try it. User testing reveals problems that internal review misses. Watch actual customers attempt to place orders. Note where they hesitate, where they get confused, where they give up.
Design from the customer in, not the system out. The portal should match customer mental models, even if that means translating to your internal systems behind the scenes.
Mistake 2: Replicating Your Website (When You Should Replicate the Phone Call)
Many B2B portals are built like B2C e-commerce sites. Product listings, shopping carts, checkout flows.
But B2B ordering isn't retail shopping. Your customers often know exactly what they want. They have standing orders, preferred products, negotiated pricing. They don't want to browse—they want to reorder quickly.
What goes wrong
- Customers must search for products they order every week
- No visibility into customer-specific pricing until checkout
- Order history is buried or hard to reorder from
- No support for standing orders or scheduled deliveries
- Generic experience that ignores the customer relationship
How to avoid it
Study how customers actually order today. When they call, what do they say? Usually something like: "I need my usual order" or "Same as last time plus 10 more of X."
Build for repeat ordering. Prominent order history. One-click reordering. Saved favourites. Templates for common orders. Make the 80% case effortless.
Show customer-specific information immediately. Their pricing, their credit terms, their rep's contact info, their order history. Make them feel recognised, not anonymous.
Support B2B workflows. Approval routing, purchase order numbers, multiple ship-to addresses, scheduled orders. These aren't features—they're requirements.
Mistake 3: Launching Without Customer-Specific Pricing
This one kills portals instantly.
Your B2B customers have negotiated pricing. They expect to see their prices when they log in. If they see list prices—or worse, different prices than they've negotiated—trust evaporates immediately.
What goes wrong
- Portal shows list prices because pricing integration was "phase 2"
- Pricing is close but not exact, creating confusion
- Contract pricing isn't reflected for some products
- Customers place orders at wrong prices, requiring manual correction
How to avoid it
Make pricing integration non-negotiable for launch. Not a nice-to-have. Not phase 2. If customers can't see accurate pricing, don't launch.
Test with real customer accounts. Before going live, verify pricing accuracy for a sample of actual customers. Check edge cases: volume discounts, promotional pricing, contract items.
Plan for pricing complexity. Wholesale pricing is complicated. Customer-specific pricing, tiered discounts, promotional periods, contract terms. Your portal needs to handle all of it.
If your pricing is too complex for the portal you're building, either simplify the portal scope or invest in proper pricing engine integration.
Mistake 4: Ignoring Inventory Visibility
Customers place an order. The portal accepts it. Then you call to tell them half the items are backordered.
This destroys the value proposition. The whole point of self-service is avoiding phone calls. If orders still require callbacks, customers will just call upfront.
What goes wrong
- Portal doesn't show inventory status
- Inventory shown but not updated in real-time
- Backorder handling is unclear or manual
- Customers can't see expected availability dates
How to avoid it
Integrate inventory properly. Real-time or near-real-time stock levels, displayed clearly during ordering.
Handle backorders explicitly. If an item is out of stock, what happens? Can customers backorder? Will they be notified when available? Can they choose to wait or substitute?
Set honest expectations. If your inventory data isn't reliable enough for real-time display, say "call to confirm availability" rather than showing wrong numbers.
Mistake 5: Forgetting the Humans
A portal is a tool. Tools require training, support, and change management. Launching without these is launching to fail.
What goes wrong
Internal team isn't prepared. Your staff doesn't know how to use the portal, can't answer customer questions, and falls back to old processes because they're easier.
Customers aren't onboarded. You send a login email and expect adoption. Customers ignore it because they don't see the value or don't know how to use it.
Support channels aren't ready. When customers have problems, there's no clear help path. Frustration builds. They give up and call instead.
How to avoid it
Train your team first. Everyone who talks to customers needs to know the portal cold. They should be enthusiastic advocates, not reluctant explainers.
Create customer onboarding. Not just "here's your login." Walk key customers through the portal. Show them the benefits. Help them place their first order. Make success easy.
Provide clear support. Chat widget in the portal. Dedicated email for portal issues. FAQ covering common problems. Fast response when things go wrong.
Incentivise the shift. Consider policies that encourage portal use: faster processing for portal orders, portal-only promotions, or simply making calling less convenient.
Mistake 6: Launching Everything at Once
Big bang launches are risky. Everything has to work perfectly. Every customer gets the same untested experience. Problems affect everyone simultaneously.
What goes wrong
- Bugs discovered after launch affect all customers
- Support team is overwhelmed by simultaneous onboarding
- Feedback comes too late to act on without major rework
- One bad experience creates lasting negative perception
How to avoid it
Pilot with friendly customers. Start with 10-20 customers who have good relationships and will provide honest feedback. Iron out issues before broad launch.
Phase by customer segment. After pilot, roll out to segments progressively. New customers, then small accounts, then large accounts. Learn and adjust between phases.
Launch with core features. Get ordering working well before adding nice-to-haves. A simple portal that works beats a feature-rich portal that frustrates.
Build feedback loops. Make it easy for pilot customers to report issues. Act on feedback quickly. Show customers their input matters.
Mistake 7: Treating Launch as the Finish Line
The portal launches. The project team disbands. Everyone moves on.
Six months later, adoption has plateaued, bugs accumulate, and the portal slowly becomes irrelevant.
What goes wrong
- No ongoing measurement of adoption and satisfaction
- Bug reports pile up unfixed
- Feature requests are ignored
- The portal falls behind customer expectations
- Competitors launch better portals
How to avoid it
Plan for ongoing ownership. Someone needs to own the portal post-launch. Monitor metrics, prioritise improvements, maintain quality.
Measure what matters. Track:
- Active users / total customers
- Orders through portal / total orders
- Repeat usage rates
- Support tickets related to portal
- Customer satisfaction scores
Budget for iteration. The launch version won't be perfect. Plan time and budget for improvements based on real usage data.
Stay competitive. Customer expectations evolve. What's impressive today is table stakes tomorrow. Continuous improvement isn't optional.
Mistake 8: Poor Integration with Existing Systems
The portal exists in isolation. Orders don't flow to the ERP reliably. Customer data doesn't sync. Inventory levels are out of date. The portal becomes another system to manage manually.
What goes wrong
- Orders require manual re-entry into the ERP
- Customer changes in one system don't reflect in another
- Warehouse teams wait on information that should flow automatically
- Data discrepancies create customer-facing errors
How to avoid it
Integrate from day one. Not "we'll connect it later." Core integrations—orders, customers, inventory, pricing—must work at launch.
Test integration thoroughly. Not just "data flows" but "data flows correctly, handles edge cases, recovers from errors."
Monitor ongoing. Integration that works at launch can break over time. Build alerting for failed syncs, data mismatches, processing delays.
Consider integration when selecting the portal. How well does it connect to your ERP? Is there existing integration or does everything need custom building? Proven NetSuite, CRM, and logistics integrations reduce risk.
Mistake 9: Underestimating Mobile
Your customers aren't always at desks. They're in warehouses, on job sites, in retail stores, on the road.
A portal that only works well on desktop misses a significant portion of use cases.
What goes wrong
- Portal is unusable on phones and tablets
- Key workflows require too much scrolling or typing on mobile
- Customers can't quickly check or place orders when away from their computer
How to avoid it
Design mobile-first or at least mobile-aware. Test on actual devices during development.
Prioritise mobile workflows. What will customers most likely do on mobile? Quick reorder, check order status, look up pricing. Make those work flawlessly.
Consider a native app—maybe. For high-frequency users, an app can provide better experience. But it's additional cost and complexity. A well-designed responsive web portal is often sufficient.
Getting It Right
Portal success isn't about technology. It's about:
- Understanding customers deeply
- Executing implementation carefully
- Managing change thoughtfully
- Improving continuously
The portals that achieve high adoption share common traits: they were designed with customers, launched gradually, integrated properly, and improved over time.
The portals that fail share different traits: they were built internally, launched abruptly, integrated poorly, and abandoned after launch.
Which path you take is a choice, not a circumstance.
Planning a B2B portal? Book a call with our team. We'll help you avoid these mistakes and build something customers actually use.
