Wholesale ordering solutions: ALTORE versus paper, ERP and marketplaces

On the last evening of a trade show, a brand heads home with a stack of paper order forms filled in on the stand, the Excel file kept by its agent abroad and a handful of orders that came in through a marketplace. Before production can start, someone will have to re-key everything, check the sizes, prices and minimums, then pass the quantities on to the factories. Yet each of these tools was chosen for good reasons, and none of them is right for every brand. The question is which one covers which need, and at what point a category of solution stops being enough.

How to read this comparison of wholesale ordering solutions

The table compares categories of tools, not products. Within the same category, features vary from one vendor to another: each cell sums up a common situation, not a rule, and reflects a judgement rather than a measurement. “Depends on the tool” means that some solutions offer the function and others do not. “Partial” means that the function exists in a general form, without having been designed for fashion.

Four categories are set against ALTORE:

• Paper / Excel: the printed order form or carbon order book, then the spreadsheet kept by the brand.
• Generic ERP / CRM: the sales module of a business management suite, or a customer relationship tool designed for every sector.
• B2B marketplace: a wholesale marketplace where many brands present their collections to professional buyers.
• Generic B2B platform: online ordering software between businesses, designed for all types of products and not specialised in fashion.

The move from paper to digital is covered in detail in the comparison of paper, Excel or a B2B platform; a finer-grained grid can be found in the 12 criteria for choosing B2B order-taking software.

Why the choice of ordering tool matters now

Professional buyers have changed their habits. According to a survey published in 2024 by McKinsey & Company, B2B customers use an average of around ten channels to interact with their suppliers, up from five in 2016. Roughly a third of them prefer digital self-service at every stage of the purchase, in other words being able to order on their own.

On the brand side, the spreadsheet shows its limits as soon as files grow, and this is nothing new. As early as 2008, the review of audits published by Raymond Panko, a researcher at the University of Hawaii, found errors in a large share of the spreadsheets examined in companies, most often invisible to their author. Choosing a tool is therefore no longer a matter of comfort: it affects the reliability of orders and the room left to the retailer.

The comparison table, criterion by criterion

Read row by row, the table mainly shows one thing. Generic categories cover the needs shared by every sector well, such as prices by customer, accounting or prospect follow-up. They cover less well those specific to fashion: the size grid, the trade show, the collection sold before production.

Paper and Excel: free and flexible, but with no checks

A paper order form never runs out of battery and a spreadsheet costs next to nothing. Their flexibility is real: everyone adapts their file to the way they work.

The limit appears with volume. Every paper order has to be re-keyed, with the quantity or price errors that this implies. Versions of the same file multiply. Above all, nothing checks the commercial rules at the moment the order is taken: a minimum order that has not been reached or a discount applied wrongly is only discovered afterwards, when it is awkward to go back to the customer.

Generic ERP or CRM: the reference for management, less so for the stand

The ERP remains the reference tool for accounting, stock, invoicing and purchasing. A generic CRM does a good job of structuring the follow-up of prospects and exchanges with customers.

Their sales module often lets you enter an order, but it is generally designed for a connected office rather than a trade show stand. Depending on the tool, the colour × size grid requires specific configuration, and standard assortments or prepacks and size curves are not always provided for. That is why many brands keep their ERP and connect an order-taking tool to it, which passes the validated quantities on.

B2B marketplace: a discovery channel, a shared relationship

The strength of a wholesale marketplace lies in its audience: buyers who are actively looking for new brands. Some platforms also handle payment or credit risk.

The trade-off can be read in the table. The brand is presented among others, the terms are partly those of the platform, and the relationship with the retailer is shared. The differences are covered in the article wholesale marketplace or brand ordering portal: in practice, the two approaches often complement each other.

Generic B2B platform: a broad scope, little fashion

A generic B2B ordering platform serves a hardware wholesaler as readily as a food manufacturer. It generally offers an online catalogue, prices by customer and an ordering space for retailers, often with many integrations.

What it does not always provide for are the practices specific to fashion: size curves, assortments, collections sold before production, trade shows without a network, agents and showrooms abroad.

When ALTORE is a good fit

ALTORE matches a brand’s situation in four cases:

• You sell collections at trade shows, in showrooms or by video, and your sales reps must be able to enter an order even without a network.
• Your products come in colours and sizes, with standard assortments and quantities to pass on to factories.
• You work with agents, importers or showrooms abroad, with prices by country and several currencies, and agent commissions to calculate.
• You want the order signed on the spot or remotely, with a simple electronic signature and its evidence file (see the electronic signature of a purchase order and its legal value).

ALTORE and your existing tools

ALTORE fits into the way you work without replacing everything. It brings together, in a single customer record, the orders taken at trade shows, in showrooms, by video and on your portal, on your terms, so that every customer orders more, season after season.

It also connects to your ERP: validated orders are sent to it, and general accounting stays in your usual management system.

Check every criterion in a demo

A comparison gives benchmarks; only a demo on your own products lets you decide. Ask each vendor to show the criteria that matter to you rather than ticking boxes. Bring your size grid, your price lists and a real trade show scenario, and check where your data is hosted and how to retrieve it at the end of the contract. For an online service, France’s data protection authority, the CNIL, recommends carrying out a risk analysis before committing, and covering security, reversibility and the return of data in the contract. To estimate the expected gain, see what studies say about time saved.

Where to start before choosing a tool

First, circle the rows of the table that matter in your business. Keep your ERP and look for a tool that connects to it. Finally, book the demos, and only sign once you have read the reversibility clause.