B2B catalog from an Excel price list: 3 ways that actually work

aiprice blog · for manufacturers, wholesalers and distributors · updated 20 October 2026

In short.

Three routes from an Excel price list to a B2B catalog with a cart: build a webshop, use a catalog builder, or hand the file to a done-for-you service.
For trade customers the deciding questions are: are wholesale prices hidden, does each customer see their own price, does the cart respect case packs and the minimum order, and in what format do orders reach you.
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.

In most small B2B companies the whole product range lives in one spreadsheet: a column of names, a column of prices, photos pasted somewhere in between. That file gets emailed or sent over WhatsApp, and then the familiar routine begins — "can you send a photo of this one", "what's in stock", "I can't open the file on my phone". Orders arrive as voice notes, and someone retypes them by hand.

An online catalog removes that friction: the buyer sees products with photos, adds them to a cart, and you receive a finished order. The only question is how to get from a spreadsheet to that catalog. There are three real routes.

Route 1: build a webshop

The classic answer — Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce — and move the price list in. It's the most powerful option: your own platform, online payments, integrations.

Three traps for a wholesaler, though:

Time and money. A store takes weeks of setup or a developer's budget. Every product has to be created: name, description, photo, category, variants.
Your wholesale prices become public. A shop is indexed by search engines — anyone can see your trade prices, including the retail customers of your own partners.
Every price update becomes admin work. The spreadsheet changed? Back into the dashboard you go.

A webshop makes sense when you sell retail, or when you have outgrown a "catalog for our buyers". For sending a price list to trade partners it's a cannon aimed at a sparrow.

Route 2: catalog builders

Tools like Catalog Machine, Flipsnack or Publitas assemble a catalog from a table. You upload a CSV, pick a template, and get a PDF or a web catalog.

What to know before you sign up:

They can't see photos embedded in Excel cells. If your images are pasted into the sheet itself — the way most real price lists are built — you'll be exporting them by hand and matching them to rows yourself.
A cart is often missing or lives in the expensive tier: the catalog looks glossy, but the buyer still writes the order out as text.
Pricing is typically $20–50/month for the tiers that do the real work.

Route 3: a done-for-you "price list to catalog" service

The third route is to hand over the file as it is and get a working catalog back. That is how aiprice works: you send your Excel price list — photos in cells, merged headers, several sheets, nothing needs cleaning up — and within 24 hours you get a link to an interactive catalog with:

search and categories;
a photo next to every product, including the ones extracted straight from your spreadsheet;
a cart that respects your trade rules: minimum order value, case-pack steps (box of 6, 12), color and size variants;
orders arriving in your inbox as a clean spreadsheet, ready to import into your ERP or accounting system;
a catalog hidden from search engines — only people you send the link to can see your wholesale prices.

Price updates work the same way: send a new file, the catalog is re-priced.

Side by side

	Webshop	Catalog builder	Price-list service
Time to launch	weeks	days (photos by hand)	within 24 hours
Photos from Excel cells	manual	manual	automatic
Wholesale prices hidden	no (indexed)	depends	yes, catalog is private
Cart and emailed orders	yes	rarely	yes, spreadsheet for ERP
Technical skills needed	yes	some	none — you send a file

Where to start

Run the file through the free price list checker: it shows missing prices, duplicate SKUs and hidden sheets in 30 seconds.
Open your price list and answer honestly: how many times a week do buyers ask you for a photo or for stock?
If the answer is "constantly", you need a catalog — not a prettier spreadsheet.
Try the fastest route with no risk: the first catalog at aiprice is free. Send your file to hello@aiprice.com.ua and look at your range through your buyer's eyes.

See it live first. We built a demo catalog with fictional products — cart, colors, case packs and a minimum order. Click through it on your phone: nothing is sent anywhere.
Open the demo catalog →

FAQ

Can I make a B2B catalog from Excel without a developer?

Yes. Catalog builders import a CSV and let you design the catalog yourself; a done-for-you service such as aiprice takes the Excel file as it is and returns a catalog link. Only a webshop or a B2B portal usually needs technical setup.

What if my photos are pasted into Excel cells?

Most builders cannot read them, so you would export and match the images by hand. aiprice extracts photos embedded in cells and keeps each one with its product row.

Will my wholesale prices be public?

Not with a private catalog. aiprice is not an online store and not a CRM: the catalog opens only through your link, is hidden from search engines, and each partner sees their own price by their phone number.

How do orders reach me?

With aiprice, by email as an Excel file ready to import into your accounting software (1C, BAS or another system). There is no direct integration, and you don't need one.

How do I know my price list is ready?

Run it through the free price list checker: it finds missing prices, duplicate SKUs, mixed currencies and hidden sheets in your browser, without uploading the file.

Terms used here, such as case pack, MOQ and private catalog, are explained in the B2B wholesale glossary.