Why Ghent businesses are investing in B2B and wholesale portals
Ghent is a capital of east flanders province, belgium, where around 273,000 people live and shop, and one of the markets in Belgium where we build B2B and wholesale portals.
The local economy is driven by biotech and tech startups, and commercial activity concentrates around the city centre and Technologiepark.
Logistics are supported by Port of Ghent, which matters when you promise customers fast delivery.
Belgium has SMEs make up 99% of all businesses in the European Union (European Commission). Belgian shoppers expect bilingual Dutch/French stores and Bancontact at checkout. Many still buy from Dutch and French sites, so local stock and fast delivery are a real edge.
Shoppers and trade buyers in Ghent already compare options on their phones; a B2B ordering portal that loads fast, shows accurate stock and accepts Bancontact turns that research into orders.
Local details we build into every Ghent project
A store that works in Ghent respects local habits as well as local law. These are the details we configure first.
Currency and pricing
Everything a Ghent shopper sees — price, tax, delivery fee, refund — is in EUR, written the local way.
Language and content
We localise pages, emails and notifications into Dutch, French and German where your audience needs it.
Local trust signals
Trust is local: familiar names such as Bancontact and Visa and Mastercard and bpost sit next to the buy button.
Domain, phone and contact
A .be domain (or your own) builds local trust and search relevance. Click-to-call and WhatsApp buttons use the +32 calling code so customers reach you without dialling errors.
Talent and partners nearby
Ghent draws on Ghent University, which means plenty of local staff, interns and technology partners to run the store after launch.
Custom-built for how you sell in Ghent
Your B2B ordering portal is planned, designed and coded for your business model — not adapted from someone else's — and it can ship with a customer or staff mobile app on day one.
In Ghent we typically work with wholesalers, FMCG distributors, industrial suppliers and electrical and hardware traders, and with sellers in categories such as fashion, electronics, food and chocolate and home that have strong online demand in Belgium.
Before any commitment you get a free requirements meeting, a demo built on your use case and a proposal priced to your budget.
Features of your B2B ordering portal in Ghent
Nothing here is fixed: modules are switched on, reshaped or built from scratch around how your Ghent business sells.
Business accounts
Registration, KYC and approval, company hierarchies, branches, buyers and approvers with their own permissions. Catalogues come in from spreadsheets, ERP exports or supplier feeds, so your Ghent team keeps its current way of working.
Contract pricing
Price lists by customer, group or territory, quantity slabs, pack sizes, minimum order values and negotiated rates. Checkout is configured for Bancontact, Visa and Mastercard and PayPal.
Quick and bulk ordering
SKU-code entry, spreadsheet upload, saved lists, re-order from history and scheduled repeat orders. Delivery can be booked through bpost, PostNL Belgium and DPD or dispatched by your own riders around Ghent.
Quotes and approvals
Request-for-quotation, counter-offers, purchase-order upload and multi-level approval before submission. Inventory can sit in Ghent, in a partner warehouse or across Belgium, with click-and-collect where customers want it.
Credit and payments
Online payment, credit limits, pay-later terms, outstanding statements and payment reminders where approved. Reports show which products, customers and areas of Ghent drive revenue.
Sales-team tools
Order on behalf of customers, territory assignment, visit notes and performance dashboards for representatives. Pages, search filters and wording are tuned to how people in Ghent look for products, in Dutch and French if your audience needs it.
Getting paid online in Ghent
A store that serves Ghent should let customers pay the way they do offline: Bancontact, Visa and Mastercard, PayPal and Payconiq.
We integrate suitable gateways and providers for your business category and merchant eligibility, handle payment status, failed-payment retries and refunds, and keep sensitive card data with the provider rather than on your servers. All amounts are shown in euro (EUR).
For Ghent customers ordering from the city centre and Technologiepark, cash-on-delivery and pay-on-pickup rules can be set per delivery zone.
- Bancontact
- Visa and Mastercard
- Payconiq
- PayPal
- Apple Pay
- KBC/CBC Pay
Fulfilment options for Ghent orders
Your B2B ordering portal can book shipments and share tracking with bpost, PostNL Belgium, DPD, GLS, DHL and Mondial Relay, or route orders to your own riders and stores across Ghent.
Delivery rules can price by distance, weight, postcode or zone, offer same-day slots in dense areas, and switch on pickup points or click-and-collect where customers prefer them.
Connectivity in the area — Port of Ghent — makes regional and national dispatch from Ghent practical.
Selling online legally in Belgium
For Ghent sellers, tax first: Belgian VAT is 21% standard with 12% and 6% reduced rates; B2B e-invoicing via Peppol is mandatory from 2026.
Customer data is handled with the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ePrivacy rules on cookies and marketing consent, enforced by the Belgian Data Protection Authority in mind, and the storefront follows the EU Consumer Rights Directive (14-day withdrawal right), the Digital Services Act and, from June 2025, the European Accessibility Act for online shops and Book VI of the Code of Economic Law.
We build the technical controls — tax-inclusive pricing, compliant invoices, consent banners, terms and return pages, data-access roles and audit logs. We are not a law firm, so final legal and tax positions should be confirmed with your own adviser in Belgium.
Marketplaces vs. your own B2B ordering portal in Ghent
For a Ghent business, Bol, Amazon (FR/NL/DE), Coolblue and Zalando are useful shop windows — but fees, ranking changes and shared customer data limit how far you can grow on them alone.
With your own B2B ordering portal you keep the customer data, set the offers and the packaging, and still push stock to marketplaces from a single admin.
Businesses that use NNT Mart in Ghent
Popular online categories in Belgium include fashion, electronics, food and chocolate, home, beauty and books. Local demand in Ghent is shaped by biotech and tech startups, so we often design catalogues and B2B ordering around those sectors. In Ghent, we most often build B2B and wholesale portals for:
Wholesalers
For wholesalers, we usually start with contract pricing, then add ERP (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Tally, Zoho) once orders are flowing.
FMCG distributors
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for FMCG distributors in Ghent, connected to the systems you already use.
Industrial suppliers
Industrial suppliers get quick and bulk ordering plus credit and payments workflows tailored to their operations.
Electrical and hardware traders
We map how electrical and hardware traders sell today and digitise it end to end — from enquiry and order to payment, dispatch and repeat purchase.
Medical and institutional suppliers
For medical and institutional suppliers, we usually start with sales-team tools, then add credit and payment gateways once orders are flowing.
Dealer networks
Catalogue, pricing and fulfilment rules designed for dealer networks in Ghent, connected to the systems you already use.
Add a mobile app for Ghent customers
A dealer and sales-representative app lets buyers re-order in seconds, scan products, check statements and receive scheme announcements, while reps take orders at the counter even with patchy connectivity.
One backend serves the website and the apps, and the apps ship under your own Google Play and App Store accounts — so what you change once appears everywhere.
Push notifications can be timed to UTC+2 so offers reach Ghent customers when they are awake, and the interface can run in Dutch and French.
- Credit and payment gateways
- CRM and lead management
- ERP (SAP, Oracle, Microsoft Dynamics, Tally, Zoho)
- BI and reporting tools
- Logistics and freight partners
- Warehouse and inventory systems
- WhatsApp and SMS notifications
- Accounting and e-invoicing
Integrations above are examples; we connect any system that offers a suitable API, database access or approved import and export process.
Launch roadmap and success metrics
We launch the journeys that create value first, then add depth. A typical roadmap for a B2B ordering portal in Ghent:
| Phase | What goes live |
|---|---|
| Launch portal | Accounts, contract pricing, catalogue, ordering and ERP order sync. Configured for EUR, Bancontact and bpost from the start. |
| Automate | Quotes, approvals, credit, statements and notifications. |
| Expand | Dealer and sales-rep apps, analytics and new territories. Reviewed against how Ghent customers actually buy. |
We track order-entry time, share of orders placed online, order accuracy, days sales outstanding, repeat-order frequency and sales-rep productivity on a live dashboard from day one, so Ghent results are visible, not promised.
Time zones, language and support
Our team covers UTC+2 — 3h 30m behind India (IST) — through three 8-hour shifts, so a Ghent client always reaches someone during the local working day.
We work in English and can deliver storefront content in Dutch, German and French. NDAs are signed on request, and you get a named project lead plus direct access to the engineers building your B2B ordering portal.
Our head office is in Chhapi, Gujarat, with an office in Hyderabad and representation in Nigeria, South Africa, Ethiopia and Zambia; Ghent clients are served remotely with on-site workshops when the project needs them.
