The situation we usually begin with
The conversation rarely begins with the word “e-commerce”. More often, regular customers have ordered by email or phone for years and someone manually re-enters those orders – the same items for the same customers every week. Or an online store is running, but every change takes weeks and costs more than it should.
Underneath is usually the same question: how much of the work currently done by an employee could customers do themselves without reducing service quality? The answer differs between retail and ongoing business relationships.
Orders from regular customers pass through an employee
A partner sends a list of items, a salesperson re-enters it and someone checks terms and availability. It is repetitive work where an error costs most when it is discovered after dispatch.
The store exists, but no longer keeps up
A platform selected years ago struggles with today's range. Every change requires a workaround, and each added feature makes the next change harder.
The partner sees terms different from the contract
Prices, discounts, limits and delivery terms are agreed individually, while the online channel shows everyone the same thing. The partner still has to call their account manager.
What this area covers across the Group
We begin by deciding whether you need a store, a platform for regular customers, or both side by side. This is the most consequential decision in the project, because it determines not only the appearance but what must actually be built.
Sales to end customers
A channel for buyers visiting for the first time or returning without a contract and account manager. What matters is the journey from entry to order and helping customers find what they need without having to ask.
A platform for regular business partners
A place where customers see their own terms, history and limits and can place orders themselves. It is closer to a working tool than a store, which is why it is often custom-built for a specific company.
Changing or developing what already works
Moving sales to another platform, extending the existing one or splitting it into two channels. We begin by checking whether a change is actually necessary.
Who leads such a project
Three Group companies share this area. The order below reflects how often each becomes involved in this kind of project.
Codarius
For online sales and everything behind them: the store, content, visibility and presence in the channels where customers search. Codarius is responsible for e-commerce within the Group.
Codarius ›GOTOMA Software House
When the channel must do what standard solutions do not: individual partner terms, custom order logic, integration with existing business systems or an application built from scratch.
GOTOMA.pl ›GOTOMA GENERAL
When the investment extends beyond the platform itself: scale, infrastructure, data requirements or financing.
GOTOMA GENERAL ›Where AI fits in
AI appears earlier in online sales than in other areas because the channel naturally collects data about what customers search for and where they stop. This is a good starting point provided that product data is organised, because no mechanism can make an accurate recommendation from an incomplete description.
In these projects, we first examine what the channel needs to present and only then what can be supported automatically. This sequence may be the reverse of what is expected and is usually less expensive.
We distinguish from the outset between what the system suggests and what is binding for the customer. Customer-facing content and decisions remain under your team's control. We treat this as a design principle, not a configuration setting.