Duration: 4–6 weeks

Most manufacturers lose revenue and sales capacity because their digital ordering path is unclear. Customers email reps. Quotes sit in inboxes. Pricing and product rules live inside ERPs that are hard to expose online. Sales, operations, and IT often carry different assumptions about what ecommerce should handle and what should stay manual.

Stage 1 fixes that by creating a complete, business-aligned ecommerce and marketplace plan your leadership team can act on.

This phase removes guesswork and defines exactly how orders, pricing, quoting, and systems should work together before any development begins.

What Happens in Stage 1

Over 4 to 6 weeks, we map how buyers place orders today, identify where friction slows sales, and design how ecommerce and marketplaces should support real buying behavior.

We focus on the areas that have the biggest impact on revenue and execution:

• Customer and Rep Ordering Flow
  How customers and sales teams place orders today, and how digital ordering should reduce touches, delays, and errors.
• Platform Direction
  Side-by-side evaluation of platforms such as Shopify Plus, BigCommerce, and others, with recommendations based on pricing rules, ERP requirements, catalog structure, and workflow complexity.
• Catalog and Product Data Structure
  How products, part numbers, and customer-specific assortments should be organized so buyers can reorder without digging up old quotes or emailing reps.
• Quoting and RFQ Workflow
  How quotes are created, approved, converted to orders, and tracked so repeat business flows through digital channels instead of inboxes.
• Marketplace Role and Channel Strategy
  Where marketplaces fit into your GTM mix, how they should support sales goals, and how to prevent them from pulling focus without return.
• Build Specification
  A developer-ready blueprint outlining workflows, integrations, pricing logic, and data needs so developers can scope accurately and build without rework.
• Developer Cost Range
  A realistic cost band for implementation so leadership can plan budgets and timelines with confidence.
• 6 to 12 Month Execution Plan
  A phased roadmap with priorities, milestones, and KPIs to move from blueprint to launch to performance improvement.

What You Walk Away With

Stage 1 gives your team:

• A full operating blueprint for ecommerce and marketplaces
• Clear platform and architecture recommendations
• Mapped order and quote flows aligned with sales behavior
• A catalog structure built for repeat buying
• Developer specs that prevent misquotes and rebuilds
• Predictable cost expectations for implementation
• A 6 to 12 month plan tied to revenue and operational impact

Why Stage 1 Matters for Manufacturers

Most manufacturers jump straight into development. That usually leads to:

• Platforms that cannot support pricing or account rules
• Incorrect assumptions about how sales teams actually sell
• Conflicting developer proposals
• Cost overruns and change orders
• Delays that push revenue gains out by months

Stage 1 prevents those outcomes by aligning systems, sales workflows, and channel strategy before any build starts, so ecommerce and marketplaces support how your business actually sells.