The best ecommerce platforms for UK office supplies dealers (2026)

This guide sets UK ecommerce software for office supplies dealers beside the general platforms and says who each is built for. We opened every vendor page on 29 October 2026; where a price isn’t published, we say so rather than guess.

Disclosure: we build Orbit Commerce, one of the options, so we have a stake in this. Two changes this year: ECI announced on 3 August 2026 that it had acquired Prima (ecisolutions.com, checked 29 October 2026), and in January 2026 evo’s VOW business agreed to take on the trade and stock of Exertis Supplies (printinthechannel.co.uk, checked 29 October 2026).

What is the best ecommerce platform for an office supplies dealer in the UK?

It depends mostly on your back office. If contract prices, stock and invoices live in Horizon or Prima ERP, the webstore built on that ERP (EvolutionX or Prima GO) is the natural first look. If you want back office and webstore from one specialist, set up for you, look at Heart Systems or Evolution Software. Larger resellers selling into procurement-led accounts look at Red Technology’s tradeit. Buying groups and distributors look at CTRL Commerce, which independent dealers can use through Office Power. Orbit fits dealers who want a modern store with public pricing and supplier-fed ranges.

What should an office supplies dealer look for in a webstore?

• Wholesaler and supplier data. Data arrives from wholesalers, from content services such as ECI’s FusionPlus, whose supplier list includes VOW and buying groups such as Nemo Office Club and Office Friendly (ecisolutions.com, checked 29 October 2026), or from a software house’s own hub. Ask whose data it is, how many lines, how often prices and stock update, and what happens when a wholesaler changes hands. Our guide to getting supplier catalogues onto your website covers the routes.
• Contract pricing and trade accounts. Ask whether each account sees its own prices after signing in, whether several people in one company can order under it, and whether you can set spending limits.
• ERP link. If contract prices, stock and invoices live in your back office, the website should read them rather than copy them. Ask which ERP it connects to, and which data is live and which is synced overnight.
• Punchout, if you sell to the public sector or large organisations (next section).
• Reorder. Ask about reordering a past order, favourites and saved lists.
• Card and invoice payment. Trade accounts often pay by invoice on terms or by business card. Check the business card rate too: on Orbit, for example, UK business and corporate cards are 3.3% + 25p on Solo against 2% + 25p for personal cards (rates on our payments page).
• Cost. Ask for a written annual figure covering licence, setup, product data, support and card fees. Typical bands are in what an office dealer webstore costs in the UK.

Do UK office supplies dealers need punchout?

Punchout lets a buyer start in their own purchasing system, open your webstore from inside it, fill a basket at their agreed prices, and send the basket back for approval, after which their system raises the purchase order. Scotland’s public sector purchasing system, PECOS, supports punchout to supplier websites in cXML and notes a one-off cost for the set-up work (gov.scot, checked 29 October 2026). A small dealer needs it when a buyer requires it, so before paying for a connection, ask the council, university or NHS body which system they use and whether it is a condition of the contract. Our guide to what punchout is and when a small dealer needs it goes further.

How do the main options compare?

ECI: EvolutionX, Horizon and FusionPlus

ECI is the incumbent in UK dealer software, and its strength is that ERP (Horizon), ecommerce (EvolutionX) and product content (FusionPlus) come from one provider. ECI says it has supported the business products industry for over 30 years, with over 1,000 dealers on its software worldwide, and lists contract pricing, multi-tiered pricing, procurement controls, quoting, quick lists and punchout among EvolutionX’s B2B features (ecisolutions.com, checked 29 October 2026).

EvolutionX offers checkout by invoice, card or PO number, with saved carts and quick reorders; with Horizon it also shows live pricing and stock and syncs contracts. ECI says hundreds of UK and Ireland dealers use it, and it connects to other ERPs too (ecisolutions.com, checked 29 October 2026). ECI calls FusionPlus the number one product content provider to over 1,000 UK and Ireland business supplies dealers, with over 2 million SKUs (ecisolutions.com, checked 29 October 2026). Prices are not published.

Built for: dealers on Horizon, and dealers who want ERP and ecommerce from one provider, with live account data and the B2B controls larger customers ask for.

Prima GO

Prima GO is the B2B webstore built on Prima ERP for office and workplace supplies dealers. Prima ERP syncs customer accounts, pricing and product visibility to it. Customers see contract lists, favourites, invoices, proof of delivery and repeat orders; you control what each user sees, how much they can spend per transaction and several levels of authorisation; and Prima offers bespoke integrations into customers’ procurement systems for larger clients. Product data comes from suppliers such as VOW and Exertis alongside your own products (primasoftware.co.uk, checked 29 October 2026). In ECI’s acquisition announcement, Prima’s chief executive said: “This acquisition isn’t about changing Prima” (ecisolutions.com, checked 29 October 2026). Prices are not published.

Built for: dealers who run, or plan to run, Prima ERP.

Heart Systems: PulseStore and PulseOne

Heart Systems has supported office supplies dealers and resellers since 2002. Its office supplies page lists product data from over 50 UK and Ireland suppliers through FusionPlus and its own PulseData Hub, fed into its PulseOffice back office and the online store, plus customer contract pricing, online orders and payments, electronic purchase orders, stock checks before ordering and a link to your accounts software. Heart sets it all up, including a custom-designed website (heartsystems.co.uk, checked 29 October 2026). Its home page leads with PulseOne, a web-based system uniting PulseOffice and PulseStore (heartsystems.co.uk, checked 29 October 2026). Prices are not published.

Built for: dealers who want back office and webstore from one specialist, done for them.

Evolution Software

Evolution Software was set up in 2007 to provide webstores for office supplies dealers, by a founding team of office products dealers and software specialists, and says it now provides webstores to over 300 dealers (evolution.utypia.com, checked 29 October 2026). A 2018 trade report named Evolution among the software houses using FusionPlus content (pitr.uk, checked 29 October 2026). Its About page gives no prices or feature list.

Built for: dealers who want a dedicated webstore from a specialist founded by dealers.

Red Technology: tradeit

tradeit is Red Technology’s UK ecommerce platform for mid-market and enterprise B2B businesses. Version 9.0.0, released on 11 August 2026, added a B2B ordering portal with user roles, approvals and budgets, and Punchout Connect (redtechnology.com, checked 29 October 2026), which uses cXML, has connectors for systems such as Coupa, SAP Ariba and Jaggaer, and runs as a managed service (redtechnology.com, checked 29 October 2026). Office clients include Moorside Office (redtechnology.com, checked 29 October 2026), and Data Direct, a dealer-only printer supplies distributor whose site integrates with Sage 200 and takes a Stock In The Channel feed (redtechnology.com, checked 29 October 2026). Prices are not published.

Built for: larger resellers and distributors whose customers buy through procurement systems and approval chains.

CTRL Commerce

CTRL Commerce is a UK B2B ecommerce, sales and CRM platform for distributors, merchants and buying groups that works alongside your ERP; the ERPs it names include Orderwise, NetSuite, Sage, Xero and Kerridge. It lists pricing by contract and customer, catalogue management from supplier integrations, stock feeds and price files, a PIM, approval flows and credit control. Prices are not published; you request a quote (ctrl-commerce.com FAQ, platform and pricing pages, checked 29 October 2026).

CTRL belongs to EO Group and powers its other brands, including Office Power, which serves over 75 independent resellers (ctrl-commerce.com, checked 29 October 2026). CTRL and ECI’s EvolutionX are both shortlisted for BOSS Platform of the Year 2026 (bossfederation.com, checked 29 October 2026).

Built for: buying groups and distributors wanting ecommerce, CRM and pricing in one system. Independent dealers can use it through Office Power, a dealer webstore and back office on one platform (officepower.net, checked 29 October 2026).

Shopify and BigCommerce B2B

Shopify’s B2B tools are on its Basic, Grow, Advanced and Plus plans, and all four include net payment terms, PO numbers, quantity rules and quantity price breaks. Below Plus you get up to 3 catalogues, and catalogues assigned directly to individual companies need Plus (help.shopify.com, checked 29 October 2026). UK plans start at £25 a month for Basic, and Plus starts at £1,800 a month (shopify.com, checked 29 October 2026). BigCommerce sells a B2B Edition with multi-company hierarchies, custom buyer pricing, quotes, and payment by purchase order, card or net terms per account; its page lists no price (bigcommerce.co.uk, checked 29 October 2026). On either, wholesaler data and ERP links come through apps or an agency’s integration work.

Built for: dealers with a development partner who want a general platform and its app ecosystem.

Orbit Commerce

Orbit is ours, so read this with that in mind. It is built for dealers who want a modern store with public prices and supplier-fed ranges, selling to the public and to businesses from one site.

• On every plan: shoppers switch prices between ex VAT and inc VAT, with UK VAT at 20%, 5% and 0%. Customers can reorder a past order. Xero and QuickBooks plugins (£9.99 a month each) turn paid orders into sales invoices in your accounts.
• Suppliers on Orbit: connect, tick the products you want, and they import with images, variants, brand, category and specs, priced by your markup or margin rules, with stock syncing. When an order is paid, Orbit raises one purchase order per supplier, left as a draft or sent straight to them; Orbit does not move money between you and the supplier.
• Your own data: product CSVs import through a column mapper; Shopify and WooCommerce CSVs import as they are.
• Enterprise plan only (£999 a month, or £749 billed yearly): company accounts with several users and permissions, trade sign-up with approval, per-company price catalogues and per-buyer spending limits. Details on B2B.

Plans, ex VAT: Solo £25 a month (£19 billed yearly), Team £85 (£64), Pro £249 (£187), Enterprise £999 (£749), each with a 14-day free trial. More on the office industry page.

How should you choose, by type of dealer?

• You run Horizon: start with EvolutionX, which reads contract prices, stock and invoices from it.
• You run Prima ERP: Prima GO is built on it. After the change of ownership, ask about the roadmap and your renewal terms.
• You want back office and webstore done for you: compare Heart Systems, Evolution Software and Office Power (built on CTRL Commerce) on data coverage and annual cost.
• You run a buying group or a distribution business: CTRL Commerce.
• You sell into procurement-led accounts that need punchout and approvals: tradeit, EvolutionX or Prima GO, which all describe procurement integrations.
• You have developers or an agency, and like choosing apps: Shopify or BigCommerce.
• You want a public-price store quickly, to win small businesses online: Orbit. The case for it is in independent office dealers vs Amazon Business, plans are on pricing, and furniture dealers have their own comparison.

Questions dealers ask

Can a dealer webstore show each customer their contract prices?

Yes on the dealer platforms in this guide: EvolutionX, Prima GO, Heart and CTRL Commerce all describe customer contract pricing. Shopify offers B2B catalogues, and on Orbit per-company price catalogues are part of the Enterprise plan.

How much does office supplies dealer software cost?

ECI, Prima, Heart, Evolution, Red Technology and CTRL Commerce do not publish prices, so ask for a written annual figure including setup, data and support. Shopify’s UK plans start at £25 a month before apps, and Orbit’s run from £25 to £999 a month ex VAT (both checked 29 October 2026).