> **AI context:** For a structured overview of Express B2B, read [/llms.txt](/llms.txt). For complete product documentation, read [/llms-full.txt](/llms-full.txt). Industrial Heating B2B Portal Case Study | Express B2B — Express B2B What is manual order intake costing your team annually? [ Find out free ](/b2b-ordering-cost-calculator) [Express B2B](/) [Features](/features) [Use cases](/use-cases) [Pricing](/pricing) [Who it's for](/industries) [Case studies](/case-studies) [Developers](/developers) [Sign in](/admin) [ Book a demo ](/#demo) Discover [Features](/features) [Who it's for](/industries) [Use cases](/use-cases) [Pricing](/pricing) Evaluate [ Cost calculator Free ](/b2b-ordering-cost-calculator) [ Free resources Free ](/resources) [Case studies](/case-studies) [Developers](/developers) Get started [ Live group demo Every Tuesday ](/live-demo) [Contact us](/#contact) [Sign in](/admin) Case Study Industrial Manufacturing 12 Hours Saved Per Week — How an Industrial Heating Manufacturer Replaced Phone and Fax Orders with a Self-Service B2B Portal =============================================================================================================================== A US-based manufacturer of custom quartz heating elements, thermocouples, and temperature control hardware replaced phone, fax, and email ordering with Express B2B. The company serves approximately 50 trade accounts, each with unique pricing arrangements — combinations of volume-based, tiered, and fixed pricing per account. After implementing Express B2B, the team recovered 12 hours per week previously spent on manual order entry and pricing lookups, and pricing disputes have been eliminated since launch. Fifty trade accounts. Fifty different pricing agreements. Every order by phone, fax, or email. A coordinator manually cross-referencing pricing spreadsheets for each one. They fixed it without a single line of custom code. 12 hrs Returned per week from order entry 50 Trade accounts, each with unique pricing 5 wks Kickoff to go-live ~Zero Pricing errors since launch The company Custom heating components, complex specifications, and a trade account base that expected to be treated individually -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This US-based manufacturer produces custom quartz and tubular heating elements, thermocouples, RTDs, and temperature control hardware — components that go into automotive equipment, home heating systems, consumer goods, and a range of other precision manufacturing applications. Nearly every order is built to specification. Their trade customer base consists of approximately 50 accounts: engineering and procurement teams at manufacturers who source specialty thermal components on a recurring basis. These aren't one-time buyers — they're long-term accounts with negotiated pricing that reflects volume commitments, product mix, and years of relationship. No two accounts have identical pricing. Some have fixed-price lists for the products they order regularly. Others have volume tiers that kick in at certain quantity thresholds. A handful have pricing structures that combine both — a fixed base rate for standard configurations, with volume discounts layered on top for high-quantity runs. On the back end, the company runs Infor, an enterprise-grade ERP. Every order, regardless of how it arrived, had to be manually entered by staff before it could move to production. The challenge Every order started with a phone call — and pricing was a spreadsheet problem nobody wanted to solve ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With fifty accounts and fifty sets of pricing rules, the ordering process was held together by a small team and a collection of spreadsheets. When a buyer called or emailed with an order, the coordinator needed to identify which account was placing it, pull up that account's pricing reference, manually calculate any applicable volume tiers, and enter the whole thing into Infor by hand. On a good day, this was time-consuming. On a busy day — when several accounts called in the same morning — it was error-prone. Pricing errors were the chronic problem. Not dramatic ones — the team knew their accounts well — but the kind of small, persistent mistakes that happen when a person is juggling a phone call, a pricing spreadsheet, and an ERP entry simultaneously. An order entered at the wrong tier. A fixed-price item accidentally billed at the catalog rate. A volume threshold applied to the wrong product line. Each one meant a correction, an email, and a dent in the relationship. The deeper constraint was capacity. The team's order-entry workload was essentially a fixed ceiling on how many trade accounts the business could serve. Adding buyers meant adding headcount — or telling new accounts to expect slower service. Neither was acceptable. The business had demand it couldn't efficiently fulfill, because the bottleneck wasn't sales, it was the manual process behind every order. ### Pricing errors Fifty accounts, fifty pricing structures. Applied manually under volume pressure — wrong tier, wrong rate, wrong product line. Each error meant a correction cycle. ### Rep time overhead Every order required a phone call, an email, or a fax — and then manual entry into Infor. Roughly 12 hours per week in order intake and data entry alone. ### No path to scale Every new trade account added to the order-entry workload. Growing the buyer base meant growing the team — or telling buyers to wait longer. The decision The pricing complexity that ruled out every generic option ---------------------------------------------------------- The manufacturer already had a Magento website for their broader product presence. Extending it to serve B2B trade accounts was the obvious first consideration. After evaluating it, they set it aside: Magento B2B's pricing rules are designed for consistent pricing tiers applied across segments of buyers. Their pricing model is the opposite — individually negotiated rules per account, with some accounts on fixed lists, some on volume tiers, and some on combinations that don't fit cleanly into a standard B2B pricing template. Replicating that without custom development would have required workarounds that were harder to maintain than the spreadsheets they were replacing. See [how Express B2B compares to Magento for distributors and manufacturers](/compare/magento). What made Express B2B the right fit was that it models pricing at the account level, not the segment level. Each of the 50 trade accounts has its own configuration: the products it can see, the prices it pays, and the pricing logic that applies to it — whether that's a fixed list, a volume-tier schedule, or a combination of both. When a buyer logs in, they see exactly their catalog at exactly their prices. There's no lookup, no calculation, no coordinator in the loop. The system handles what a person was doing manually before. The second factor was the ordering flow itself. Their buyers are engineers. They know what they want, they're comfortable with specifications, and they don't need hand-holding through a checkout. The two-step flow — select your account, configure and place your order, submit — was direct enough that no training was required. Adoption was fast. "Every order used to start with a phone call. Now our buyers log in, configure what they need, and submit — we don't touch it until it's ready for production." — Operations Director, US Industrial Heating Manufacturer Implementation Five weeks — the platform was straightforward, the pricing documentation wasn't ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The implementation ran five weeks from kickoff to go-live. The manufacturer didn't need to involve an IT team or a developer — the platform configuration was handled collaboratively with Express B2B. The internal workload was primarily administrative: gathering and formalizing the pricing rules that existed informally across spreadsheets and institutional memory. That was the hard part. Fifty accounts, each with a pricing arrangement that existed somewhere — a spreadsheet, an email thread, a long-standing verbal agreement. Before any account could be configured in the platform, its rules had to be documented clearly enough to be entered. For most accounts this was straightforward. For a handful with layered volume-plus-fixed pricing, it took a few rounds of clarification to get the rules stated precisely enough to configure correctly. Once they were in, the platform handled them exactly as intended. Buyer onboarding was the easy part. Accounts received login credentials and a short explanation of the ordering flow. Engineers — the primary buyers — needed no formal training. The two-step checkout was intuitive enough that most placed their first orders without assistance. Within 60 days of go-live, 48 of 50 trade accounts had placed at least one order through the portal. Harder than expected Formalizing the pricing agreements. Many existed as institutional knowledge — "Account X always gets this rate" — that had never been written down precisely. Translating those into explicit rules took time, but it was work the business needed to do regardless. The platform just forced it. Easier than expected Buyer adoption. Engineers are self-sufficient — they don't need to be walked through a checkout. The two-step ordering flow required no training, and the feedback was consistent: placing an order through the portal was faster than calling in. The results 12 hours a week back — and a pricing problem the team had lived with for years, gone ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The most immediate change was time. The coordinator who had been processing inbound orders — answering calls, responding to faxes, cross-referencing pricing spreadsheets, entering everything into Infor — recovered roughly 12 hours per week. Those hours were reallocated to account management: following up on orders, supporting new buyers through their first few portal sessions, and handling the exceptions that genuinely needed human attention. The volume of orders didn't decrease. The manual overhead of processing them did. Pricing errors stopped. Not because the team improved — they were already careful — but because the manual step where errors happened was removed. When a buyer submits an order through the portal, the pricing is already correct: it was configured once, at setup, for that account. There's no lookup, no calculation, no opportunity for a wrong number to make it to the order. In the months since launch, the manufacturer has had no pricing disputes that originated from an order entered through Express B2B. The business processed approximately $270,000 in orders through the portal in the first 90 days after launch. That volume was consistent with what the business had been handling before — the difference was how it arrived. Orders came in cleanly, at the right price, with the right account information attached. The team's job shifted from processing to managing. 12 hrs/wk Returned from order entry $270K Orders in first 90 days 48 of 50 Accounts active within 60 days ~Zero Pricing errors since launch > "Every order used to start with a phone call. Now our buyers log in, configure what they need, and submit — we don't touch it until it's ready for production." Operations Director, US Industrial Heating Manufacturer Features that made the difference Three capabilities that solved the hard problems ------------------------------------------------ Not a feature list — the specific capabilities that this deployment depended on. [ ### Per-account negotiated pricing Volume-based, tiered, fixed, or any combination — configured per account, not per segment. Each of the 50 trade accounts sees exactly their pricing when they log in, with no lookup or manual calculation required. See this feature ](/features#negotiated-pricing) [ ### Two-step ordering Select billing account → configure and pick products → submit. Account selection loads the correct catalog, pricing, and ship-to address automatically. Engineers can spec and submit an order in a single session without calling anyone. See this feature ](/features#two-step-ordering) [ ### Per-account catalog control Each trade account sees only the products it's authorized to order, at the quantities and configurations relevant to its application. Buyers aren't navigating a full catalog — they're working from a curated view that reflects their relationship. See this feature ](/features#account-management) Common questions Questions from manufacturers and distributors with similar trade account structures ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How long did it take this industrial heating manufacturer to go live on Express B2B? Five weeks from kickoff to go-live. The platform configuration itself was not the bottleneck — the time was spent formalizing pricing agreements that had existed informally across spreadsheets and institutional knowledge. Once each account's pricing rules were documented precisely, configuration was straightforward. No custom development was required. What results did this manufacturer see after switching from phone and fax ordering? The team recovered approximately 12 hours per week that had been spent on manual order entry and pricing lookups. In the first 90 days after launch, $270,000 in orders were processed through the portal. Pricing errors — a chronic problem when manual lookups under volume pressure applied the wrong rate — have been eliminated since go-live. How does Express B2B handle per-customer pricing with volume, tier, and fixed rate combinations? Pricing is configured per account, not per segment. Each billing account in Express B2B can carry its own pricing rules — a fixed price list, a volume-tier schedule, or a combination of both applied to different products or order sizes. When a buyer logs in, they see only their prices. There is no lookup or manual calculation at order time. How quickly did the industrial buyers adapt to the new ordering portal? 48 of 50 trade accounts placed at least one order through the portal within the first 60 days. The buyers are engineers — they're comfortable with self-service tools and prefer placing orders independently to calling in. No formal training was provided. Most accounts placed their first portal orders without assistance. Why didn't they use their existing Magento website for B2B trade ordering? Magento B2B is designed around pricing segments — groups of buyers who share the same rates. This manufacturer's pricing model is individually negotiated per account, with some on fixed lists, some on volume tiers, and some on combinations. Replicating that structure in Magento would have required custom development to maintain. Express B2B models per-account pricing natively, without code. Ready to see it? Trade accounts with individually negotiated pricing? ------------------------------------------------------ If your buyers each have their own pricing arrangement — volume tiers, fixed lists, or a combination — Express B2B is built to model exactly that, without custom development. Book a demo and walk through your specific account structure. [ Book a private demo ](/#demo) [ See pricing ](/pricing) ← [Back to all case studies](/case-studies) Express B2B · Book a Demo Step 1 of 3 About you Let's start with you -------------------- We'll use this to personalise the demo and come prepared. Full name \* Work email \* Company \* Your role Select… Owner / Founder VP or Director Operations Manager Sales Manager Technical / IT Other Continue Please fill in your name, email, and company to continue. About your business ------------------- Helps us understand your setup before the call. Industry Select your industry… Educational Supply & Publishing Industrial Components & Manufacturing Food & Beverage Distribution Safety, Facilities & Janitorial Supply Medical & Dental Consumables Office & Print Supply Chemicals & Cleaning Supply Subscription Fulfillment (schools / institutions) Promotional & Branded Products Agriculture & Farm Supply Other distribution / wholesale Annual B2B order volume Select a range… Under $500K $500K – $2M $2M – $10M $10M – $50M $50M+ How do customers currently place orders? Select the main method… Phone or email Spreadsheets or shared forms Existing e-commerce site ERP customer portal Mix of methods Back Continue Your ordering setup ------------------- A few quick questions about your current workflow. How many customer accounts do you manage? Select a range… 1 – 10 11 – 50 51 – 200 200+ Do your buyers ship to multiple locations? Yes No — single location What's your biggest challenge with the current ordering process? Back Pick a time → Thanks, there! -------------- We've got everything we need. Pick a time below — we'll come prepared with your answers so you get a demo built around your business. Scheduling widget Replace with your Calendly or Cal.com embed Prefer to see it first? [Join a free group walkthrough every Tuesday →](/live-demo) Express B2B · Contact Us Get in touch ------------ We read every message and reply within one business day. First name \* Last name \* Work email \* Company Company website Phone Your role Select… Owner / Founder VP or Director Operations Manager Sales Manager Technical / IT Other What's this about? Select… Pricing question Request a demo Partnership or integration Technical question General question Other Message \* How did you find us? Select… Google search LinkedIn Word of mouth / referral Industry event or conference Online ad Other Please fill in your first name, last name, email, and message. Send message Message sent! ------------- Thanks for reaching out. We'll get back to you at within one business day. Close Express B2B · Fit Check Question 1 of 5 Find out if Express B2B fits your operation ------------------------------------------- 5 questions about your current ordering process. We'll diagnose exactly what's costing you — and whether this platform solves it. - Takes under 2 minutes - Personalised diagnosis at the end - No email required to see results Let's find out Question 1 of 5 How do most of your customers send you orders today? ---------------------------------------------------- Don't overthink it — pick the one that happens most. By phone or email My team transcribes them manually Spreadsheets or shared forms Structured, but still manual to process Through an existing site or platform It works, but it wasn't built for B2B A mix — every customer does it differently Different methods, constant switching Continue Question 2 of 5 How much of your team's week goes into manually processing orders? ------------------------------------------------------------------ Think about data entry, confirmations, corrections, and follow-up emails. Less than an hour a week We're pretty automated already A few hours — it adds up Noticeable, but we manage Half a day or more each week It's a real drain on the team It's basically someone's full-time job A whole role dedicated to order intake Back Continue Question 3 of 5 How confident are you that every order goes out at the right negotiated price? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Each customer may have different rates. How is that tracked today? Very confident — we have a reliable system Pricing is centralised and accurate Mostly — but we manually double-check Some process, but still human verification We catch errors — sometimes after they ship Wrong prices reach customers occasionally Not very — it's a real risk for us Pricing errors happen and we don't always catch them Back Continue Question 4 of 5 When a customer ships to multiple locations, how does that work today? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Select all that apply to your customers. Each location orders separately No central oversight — each site is its own account One person manages all locations Lots of back-and-forth, easy to get something wrong It's messy — errors happen regularly Wrong addresses, wrong items, missed locations Our customers only have one location Not a factor in our business right now All of the above apply Multiple of these are true for different customers Back Continue Question 5 of 5 What would you fix about your ordering process if you could? ------------------------------------------------------------ Select all that apply — most operations have more than one. Stop spending time on manual order entry Eliminate the data entry work entirely Make sure pricing is accurate every time Right rates, automatically, no double-checking Give customers a self-service way to order They shouldn't need to call or email us every time Get real visibility into what's been ordered Status, history, and confirmations without chasing All of the above Every one of these is a problem for us Back See my results Analysing your responses… ------------------------- Identifying what's costing you the most Here's what's costing you most: Chat with AI about your results Express B2B AI Coming soon AI chat is in development — we'll notify you when it launches. Send me my results [ Keep exploring instead ](/features) Where should we send them? -------------------------- We'll email your personalised assessment. A team member will be in touch within one business day. Full name Work email \* Company (optional) Phone (optional) Please enter your work email to continue. Back Send my results Check your inbox. ----------------- Your fit assessment is on its way. A team member will be in touch within one business day. 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