VIP Supply Co. Scales Fast-Growing B2B Distribution with BigCommerce
Discover how customisable, cost-effective and reliable BigCommerce is and why we built it that way.
- Featured
B2B Edition
Advanced B2B features for enterprise plans.Catalyst
NewCreate stunning, high-performing storefronts that captivate and convert.Feedonomics
Omnichannel feed and data transformation.Multi-Storefront
Manage multiple unique stores from one account.International
Grow your brand across the globe.
- Launch Services
Overview
Chart your path to success with specialised services.Implementation Project Management
Experts to ensure you launch on time and under budget.Solution Architecture
Seasoned advisors to help you best design your store.Data Migration & Optimisation
Expertise on a clean and clear path to migrating your data.Enterprise Launch Package
Personal training on how to set up and launch your BigCommerce Store.
Professional Services Blog Series
Get to know our teams and how they support your success in this Q&A series.
The Global B2B Buyer Behavior Report
This in-depth report provides actionable strategies to help you sell more online.
4
month implementation from contract to launch
1,100+
SKUs launched in less than a year
1,800
restaurants served across independent and regional chains
Key highlights
CHALLENGE.
Shopify could not support multi-user company accounts or complex B2B account structures.
Manual workarounds limited ordering workflows, customer data management, and scalability.
Internal teams lacked efficient tools to manage accounts, quotes, and customer support.
SOLUTION.
Implemented BigCommerce B2B Edition with multi-user company accounts and role-based hierarchies.
Integrated core systems including Fishbowl, QuickBooks, Avalara, and Stripe for unified operations.
Built custom workflows to support mobile-first buyers and custom-print product ordering.
RESULTS.
Launched a fully integrated B2B ecommerce site in just four months.
Expanded into larger regional chain customers previously out of reach.
Built a stronger digital foundation for continued growth.
A stronger digital foundation for restaurant supply distribution
For VIP Supply Co., ecommerce is more than an online storefront. It is a core operating system for managing how restaurant customers buy packaging, gloves, chemicals, and other everyday supplies across locations.
Founded in 2022, VIP Supply Co. serves roughly 1,800 restaurants and continues to expand into new markets. The business supports independent restaurants as well as regional chains, while also building out custom packaging capabilities for customers that need branded pizza boxes, catering boxes, and to-go bags.
That growth quickly exposed the limits of a simpler ecommerce setup. To support more sophisticated B2B buying patterns and create a cleaner customer experience, VIP Supply Co. needed a platform built for how its customers actually work.
CHALLENGE
Moving beyond Shopify for real B2B complexity.
VIP Supply Co. started on Shopify, but the platform quickly showed limitations for a business selling to organisations rather than individual consumers.
Restaurant groups needed:
One company account with multiple users
Shared visibility across orders
Flexibility to manage purchasing across locations
VIP Supply Co. also needed better control over: account structure, order guides, customer data, and custom-print ordering workflows, while ensuring internal teams could efficiently support those accounts.
“At Shopify, we kept running into limitations around multiple users tied to one physical entity,” said Jay Earley, Managing Partner at VIP Supply Co.
These limitations created friction for both customers and internal teams. Sales reps needed to manage accounts more directly, maintain cleaner data, and support customers by entering orders or sending quotes on their behalf, but Shopify made those workflows difficult to manage at scale.
As the business grew, VIP Supply Co. realised it needed a more robust B2B platform that could support regional chains, centralised purchasing, and advanced account management without relying on constant workarounds.
“At Shopify, we kept running into limitations around multiple users tied to one physical entity."
JAY EARLEY, MANAGING PARTNER, VIP SUPPLY CO.
SOLUTION
A B2B platform built for how customers actually buy.
VIP Supply Co. partnered with Access Solutions to implement BigCommerce B2B Edition, selecting the platform for its strong alignment with the company’s business model.
“We didn’t treat this as a lift-and-shift. We saw it as an opportunity to re-architect how VIP operates digitally,” said Brendan Roberts, CRO at Access Solutions.
The platform made it possible to structure accounts around the organisation rather than the individual buyer. A restaurant group could operate as one customer entity while still supporting multiple users, different roles, and location-based hierarchies. That gave chain administrators, local buyers, and sales reps the visibility they needed without breaking the account model.
“BigCommerce B2B Edition lets us structure the company correctly, attach users to that business, and give them different levels of hierarchy,” shared Earley.
VIP Supply Co. also gained stronger control over customer data and ordering workflows. Sales reps can set up accounts, configure frequently ordered items, manage user structures, and log in as customers when needed to place orders or support the buying process. Quoting became part of the digital workflow as well, allowing reps to send live quotes that customers can convert into orders.
Today, the company manages 302 customer groups along with 219 customer-specific price lists used by more than 500 companies, giving VIP Supply Co. the flexibility to serve a wide range of buyer structures and pricing models at scale.
Integrated operations across inventory, accounting, tax, and payments.
Beyond the storefront itself, VIP Supply Co. needed BigCommerce to work cleanly with the systems already running the business.
The company integrated Fishbowl for inventory management and fulfilment, QuickBooks for accounting, Avalara for tax, and Stripe for payments. Orders flow through BigCommerce, sync into Fishbowl on a scheduled basis for pick, pack and ship, and then move into QuickBooks for invoicing once fulfilment is complete.
This four-system integration architecture created a more efficient operational flow than before. The previous Shopify-to-Fishbowl API setup was limited and incomplete, making it difficult to keep data aligned across systems. During the migration, the team also took the opportunity to standardise and improve data accuracy across the business.
VIP Supply Co. also benefited from more flexible payment processing, with Stripe helping reduce costs compared with the previous Shop Pay setup.
Because sales reps are responsible for setting up many customer accounts, VIP Supply Co. introduced stronger internal controls around data quality. Reps configure accounts and ordering structures, while sales administration reviews and refines that setup to ensure a consistent customer experience.
Custom workflows for restaurant buyers and custom-print products.
VIP Supply Co. also used custom development to optimise the buyer experience at the user level, especially for mobile-first restaurant operators.
Many buyers are chefs, kitchen managers, or restaurant operators placing orders from their phones at the end of a shift. To make that easier, the company worked with Access Solutions to improve the buyer portal, relabel functionality, and simplify how users move between locations within multi-location account hierarchies.
Those improvements also contributed to faster site performance and an average 20% increase in successful product finding, helping customers reorder essential items more efficiently.
“Access Solutions did a top-notch job,” Earley said. “They worked at my pace, and they did a really good job of keeping up with the rate I was feeding them data.”
The team also built specialised workflows for custom-print products. Some customers need access to packaging items created specifically for their brand, such as custom pizza boxes or printed bags. VIP Supply Co. created a controlled experience where those items are only visible to the appropriate buyers, rather than across the public storefront.
This approach allows VIP Supply Co. to support both standard supply ordering and specialised custom-print business within a single ecommerce platform, while maintaining a streamlined and intuitive experience for every type of buyer.
“BigCommerce B2B Edition lets us structure the company correctly, attach users to that business, and give them different levels of hierarchy.”
JAY EARLEY, MANAGING PARTNER, VIP SUPPLY CO.
“Access Solutions did a top-notch job. They worked at my pace, and they did a really good job of keeping up with the rate I was feeding them data.”
JAY EARLEY, MANAGING PARTNER, VIP SUPPLY CO.
RESULTS
Opening the door to larger B2B growth.
Since moving to BigCommerce, VIP Supply Co. has significantly expanded what its ecommerce operation can support.
Most importantly, the new platform enabled the business to work with larger regional chain customers that require centralised purchasing, account visibility, and more sophisticated controls. In some cases, those customers were effectively out of reach on the previous platform.
“BigCommerce opened up a whole new world of customers,” Jay said. “We had several chains that had basically said, ‘We can’t do business with you if Shopify is what you’re doing.’”
The migration also moved quickly. From contract signing to launch, VIP Supply Co. went live on BigCommerce in just four months.
That faster launch translated into meaningful business momentum soon after go-live, helping the company capture new opportunities it could not support before.
While the initial gains were significant, the longer-term impact is even more meaningful. By establishing a scalable B2B foundation, VIP Supply Co. is now positioned to pursue larger, more complex customer relationships without the operational constraints that previously held the business back.
“BigCommerce opened up a whole new world of customers.”
JAY EARLEY, MANAGING PARTNER, VIP SUPPLY CO.
LOOKING AHEAD
Building an even better B2B buying experience.
With BigCommerce now in place as its ecommerce foundation, VIP Supply Co. is focused on expanding what the platform can do for both restaurant supply ordering and custom print.
On the roadmap is a more complete invoice and payment portal, better cross-reference tools to help buyers find products more easily, and more advanced customisation capabilities for the growing print operation, including artwork uploads, packaging previews, and quantity-based pricing.
As the business continues to grow into new markets, BigCommerce gives VIP Supply Co. a platform that can evolve with it while supporting the complexity of modern B2B distribution.
“Ecommerce is now an engine for growth, not a limitation,” shared Roberts.
“Ecommerce is now an engine for growth, not a limitation.”
BRENDAN ROBERTS, CRO, ACCESS SOLUTIONS.
