For UK wholesalers, distributors and manufacturers
What your 'how to order' page should tell trade customers
A trade customer should find, on one page, every way to order, the cut-off for next-day delivery, when your desk is staffed, the minimum order and what to send for a quote. Of the 209 UK supplier websites we read, 89 say nothing about how to order at all.
If we don't find anything worth doing, we'll tell you and leave.
Why it matters
Every question the page doesn't answer arrives as a phone call or an email.
"What time do I need to get it in by?" "Did you get my order?" "Who do I send the drawing to?" Each of these lands on the people who key the orders and price the quotes. Of the 108 distributors and wholesalers in our study, 17 publish a cut-off time, desk hours and a minimum order. 39 publish none of the three. Among the 101 manufacturers, 69% say nothing about how to order.
The checklist below is drawn from the websites in the study that answer a customer's questions before they ask. Most items carry the figure for how often UK suppliers publish it. The full figures are in our research note on how UK suppliers take orders and quotes.
The checklist
Ten things to put on the page.
- Every way you take orders, with the one you prefer first. 79 of 108 distributors offer online ordering, and 38 of those still ask customers to phone, email or order through a rep as well. Say which route suits which kind of order.
- The order cut-off time, and every exception. 38 of 108 distributors publish one, and 19 of those give more than one time, by product, region or channel. If phone orders close earlier than online orders, say so: only 2 sites in the study do. See what cut-off times UK wholesalers publish.
- When the order desk is staffed, and a number for urgent changes. 34 of 108 distributors publish their desk hours; 16 of 101 manufacturers do.
- An email address for orders only. 15 of the 209 suppliers give one. Orders sent to a general address wait behind every other enquiry.
- What a complete order looks like: account number, product codes, quantities and units, delivery date and address, and a purchase order number if the customer uses them. A one-line example saves a phone call.
- The minimum order, and what delivery costs below it. Half the distributors publish one (54 of 108); 14 of 101 manufacturers do.
- How and when you confirm an order. If confirmations go out by email within the hour, say so; it answers the "did you get it?" call before it is made.
- For quotes: what to send and when the customer will hear back. Drawing, quantity, material, finish and the date needed. 6 of 80 printers, packaging makers and engineering firms say how fast they quote; see quote turnaround times.
- How to open a trade account, as a form on the website. 59 of 108 distributors have one online; 11 of 101 manufacturers do.
- Whether you still take orders by fax. 26 of the 209 sites list a fax number, and 4 tell customers to order by fax. If the number is only there out of habit, remove it or say what it is for.
Figures from our study of 209 UK supplier websites, October 2026: 108 distributors and wholesalers, 101 manufacturers. Counts of websites, not of orders.
Making the page
One page, easy to find, and changed the day anything changes.
Give it a plain address such as /how-to-order and a plain title: "How to order". Link it from the main menu, the footer, the account application and every order confirmation email. Put the cut-off and desk hours near the top, because those are the questions asked under time pressure.
When a cut-off or desk hour changes, change the page the same day. A wrong cut-off is worse than a missing one, because customers plan around it. If you run several depots or ranges with different times, a short table beats a paragraph.
What it costs you today
The questions your page leaves out are paid for in desk time.
Each "did you get my order?" call takes a few minutes from the same person who keys orders. The order desk calculator works out what keying orders and pricing quotes costs you a year from your own figures. It doesn't guess at savings.
A clear page should mean fewer calls. It doesn't change what happens when an order arrives as an email, a PDF or a photo of a handwritten sheet: someone still reads it and keys it.
What Harrowell builds
Orders and quote requests read and checked, waiting as drafts for your team.
We build AI into one division of a business and are measured on that division's own numbers. Order emails, PDFs, photos and texts are read and checked against the customer's prices and stock, and wait as a draft order for one click. Quote requests are read against your own rate tables and wait as a draft quote for the estimator. Your people approve every draft before anything goes out.
More on AI order entry and quote automation.
Questions
How to order pages: common questions.
- What should a how to order page include?
- Every way you take orders, the cut-off time and its exceptions, desk hours, an orders-only email address, the minimum order, what a complete order looks like, how you confirm it, what to send for a quote and when to expect it, how to open an account, and whether you still take faxes.
- How many suppliers publish their order cut-off time?
- 38 of the 108 UK distributor and wholesaler websites in our study, and 6 of the 101 manufacturers.
- Should we have a separate email address for orders?
- If orders come in by email, yes. Only 15 of the 209 suppliers in our study give one. A separate address keeps orders out of the general enquiries queue and makes it easy to see what arrived before the cut-off.
- Do we still need to list a fax number?
- Only if you still take orders or documents by fax. 26 of the 209 websites in our study list one, and 4 tell customers to order by fax.
- Where should the page live?
- At a plain address such as /how-to-order, linked from the main menu, the footer, your account application and your order confirmation emails.
Next step
Thirty minutes on how your orders arrive.
Tell us what you sell and how orders reach you today. If we don't find anything worth doing, we'll tell you and leave.
Or send us one order and see the draft it becomes.
The Open Build. We’ll build one UK supplier an order desk system, free and in public, measured on its own numbers. Everyone who applies gets a one-page read of their own workflow. Applications close at 5pm UK time on Friday 6 November. See the Open Build.