Wizard Alliance is a UK B2B wholesaler in the fandom space. They needed a trade-ready platform before going to market—from zero customers to 300+ active accounts—with WooCommerce-quality ordering plus deep wholesale rules, Xero, and a field sales channel that simply did not exist off the shelf.
Industry: UK B2B wholesale — fandom & licensed goods
Six-month engagement: analysis at each stage, full build, integrations, training, and handover. Core platform delivered in approximately four months, with continued support through go-live and stabilisation. Annual maintenance agreed post-handover.
The challenge
- Greenfield trader: no existing website or digital trade channel—scope, priorities, and phasing had to be researched and agreed before build, without over-engineering.
- Full B2B wholesale expectations: manual approval for every retailer registration, prices visible only after login, MOQs and quantity rules, customer- and group-based pricing and shipping, product/category visibility by customer or group, sub-accounts for retailers, purchase orders, and a bulk order journey.
- Finance and ops: Xero was the source of truth for accounts and tax—completed work had to flow into Xero reliably, alongside automated invoice and pro-forma generation and delivery, payment gateway, backorders, and credit.
- Insight and control: sales and inventory analytics for the trading team; speed and reliability mattered given catalogue size and the expected pace of customer growth.
- Field sales: reps needed a dependable way to capture orders on site—reducing errors compared with paper and ad hoc phone follow-up.
What we did
- After requirements analysis and weighing cost vs custom fit, WooCommerce was chosen as the commerce core; Codestern then implemented the full set of B2B behaviours, rules, and customer experiences the client required—much of it beyond native WooCommerce.
- Delivered registration approvals, login-gated pricing, MOQs and quantity rules, customer and group pricing and shipping, catalogue visibility by customer/group, retailer sub-accounts, PO and bulk-order flows, backorders, and credit—plus payment integration and automated invoicing and pro-forma comms.
- Built Xero integration so completed invoicing aligns with how the client runs accounts and tax; added sales agent tooling so field reps can place orders with customers in person.
- Refined UI and UX with the client for their buyer audience after the initial build; used Lighthouse and real-world performance tuning so the site stays responsive under catalogue and traffic pressure.
- Completed features first, then wired integrations and custom APIs; trained employees and immediate stakeholders, monitored performance, and triaged issues through handover. Engaged for six months end to end, with an annual maintenance arrangement in place after sign-off.
Results
Strong early commercial lift
Sales increased materially in the first three months after launch. The client reported roughly an 85% uplift in the first month alone versus their previous legacy paper-and-phone model—establishing digital trade as the primary channel.
Automated accounting and stock visibility
Invoice and financial data integrates with Xero for central accounting; teams gained clearer inventory and sales signals instead of reconciling spreadsheets and manual handoffs.
Cleaner field sales workflow
The sales agent experience cut friction and mistakes when reps take orders on site compared with the old process—fewer issues for buyers and internal teams to unwind later.
We were starting from nothing—no site, no digital trade—and Codestern gave us a proper B2B platform before we opened the door to retailers. They understood wholesale: approvals, pricing tiers, MOQs, and how we work in Xero. Our field team can finally place orders with confidence on site, and the lift in sales in those first months spoke for itself.
Focus areas
- WooCommerce
- WordPress
- B2B wholesale
- Xero integration
- Custom B2B rules
- Sales agent app
- Performance & scale