Digital catalog software for wholesale distributors: how to choose

aiprice blog · buyer's guide · October 2026 · aiprice is our product; other tools are described from their public websites

In short.

For a distributor, a "digital catalog" is useful only if trade customers can find a product, see their own price and order without calling you.
There are four kinds of tools: PDF and flipbook catalogs, catalog builders, B2B portals, and private catalogs built from your price list. They differ in ordering, price privacy, setup time and cost.
aiprice is not a CRM and not an online store. It is a private catalog only for your trade partners: it opens only through your link, it is hidden from search engines, and each partner sees their own price by their phone number. Orders arrive as an Excel file for your accounting software.

A distributor's price list is rarely small. Several brands, thousands of SKUs, three or four price tiers, case packs, stock that changes daily. For years the answer was a spreadsheet emailed every Monday, and a phone that rings all week with "do you have this?" and "what's my price on that?".

"Online catalog distribution" is the attempt to replace that loop with one link. Below is how the four main types of software compare from a distributor's point of view, where each one fits, and what to check before you choose. aiprice is our product and one of the options; the others are described from their public websites.

Four kinds of digital catalog software

	PDF / flipbook	Catalog builder	B2B portal	Private catalog from your price list
Examples	Flipsnack, Publitas	Catalog Machine, EasyCatalog	Orderspace, B2B Wave	aiprice
Customers can order	no, or via a form	often in higher plans	yes, with a login	yes, cart on the phone
Own price per customer	no	rarely	yes	yes, by phone number
Trade prices hidden from search	no control once forwarded	depends	yes, behind login	yes, link only, not indexed
Starting point	design work	CSV or webshop	ERP or product data import	your Excel price list as it is
Price updates	re-export and resend	re-import	sync with ERP	upload the new price list
Time to launch	days	days	weeks to months	1 business day

Prices and features change often; check each vendor's current page. Our comparison of eight wholesale catalog tools lists starting prices as of September 2026.

What a distributor should check first

Price tiers and personal discounts. If a shop, a chain and a sub-distributor see the same price, you will either lose margin or lose the customer. Ask how the tool shows each customer their own price.
Case packs and minimum order. The cart should only accept quantities in case-pack steps and show how far the order is from the minimum.
Privacy. A distributor's prices are its negotiating position. A catalog that search engines index, or a PDF that gets forwarded to a competitor, gives it away.
How orders reach you. A finished order your team can import beats a nicely formatted email someone has to retype. Check the format against your accounting software.
How much work an update takes. Distributors reprice often. If each update means editing products one by one in an admin panel, the catalog will go stale within a month.
The state of your price list. Missing prices and duplicate SKUs break any catalog. Run your file through the free price list checker before you start.

Where each option fits

PDF or flipbook: seasonal brochures, trade shows, a range that changes once a year. Weak for ordering and for prices that move.
Catalog builder: you have clean product data or a webshop, and someone on the team enjoys layout work.
B2B portal: large accounts expect logins, order history and live ERP sync, and you have the budget and time for integration.
Private catalog from your price list: your range already lives in Excel, customers order by phone and messenger, and you want them ordering themselves next week rather than next quarter. This is where aiprice fits. It is not the right tool if you need a public webshop, online card payments or real-time ERP sync.

Our own numbers, from one wholesale business. We built aiprice for our own trade first. In the three months after our trade customers moved to the catalog, about a quarter of turnover was ordered by customers themselves, without a sales manager; every fifth order came in during the evening, at night or at the weekend; and the same customers bought 22% more than in the three months before. That is one company's result, not a promise.

FAQ

What is online catalog distribution?

It is how a supplier gets its current range and prices in front of trade customers: instead of emailing a new file every time, customers open one link that always shows today's prices and stock, and can order from it.

Do I need a B2B portal, or is a catalog enough?

If you have a developer budget, an ERP that must sync in real time and large customers who expect logins and order history, a portal makes sense. If your products live in an Excel price list and you want customers to see photos and order by phone, a catalog built from that file is usually enough to start.

How do I keep wholesale prices away from retail shoppers?

Use a catalog that is not indexed by search engines and opens only through your link, and show each customer only their own price tier. A public webshop or a PDF that gets forwarded does not give you that control.

Can different customers see different prices?

Yes, in tools that support price tiers or customer-specific prices. In aiprice each partner sees their own price by their phone number; in portals it is tied to a customer login.

How do orders get into my accounting system?

Portals usually integrate with the ERP directly. Simpler catalogs send the order as a file: aiprice emails it as an Excel spreadsheet ready to import into 1C, BAS or other accounting software, without a direct integration.

How fast can a distributor launch?

A PDF or a builder catalog takes days of design work; a portal takes weeks or months. A catalog built from your existing price list by aiprice takes 1 business day.

See a private catalog from the buyer's side. The demo has made-up products, case packs, a minimum order and a cart. Open it on your phone: nothing is sent anywhere.
Open the demo catalog →