We built a trade portal, because ordering drinks shouldn’t be this hard
Most pubs still order their drinks off a photo of a stock list. Here’s what we built instead.
Ask around the trade and you’ll find most venues order their drinks in more or less the same way: a photo of a stock sheet sent over on WhatsApp, a text with a few product names, or just trying to remember what they had last time.
Nobody’s doing it wrong, exactly. That’s simply how the drinks trade has always worked. But it has one big problem baked into it, at the moment you’re placing your order, nobody actually knows what’s available. You ask for six cases of something, and two days later you find out it’s out of stock. So you start again.
We’ve spent the last few months building something to fix that. It’s our new trade portal, and this is what it does.
You can see exactly what’s in stock, right now
This is the heart of it. When you log in, you’re looking at live stock, what’s actually in our warehouse today, not a list from last month. Over 270 products from more than 50 independent producers, all in one place, all up to date.
If something you want has run out, the portal doesn’t just leave you stuck. It suggests a similar product, same style, same sort of strength, so you can keep your order moving instead of going back and forth over email. A dry cloudy farmhouse cider that’s unavailable this week will point you to another dry cider we’ve got plenty of.
Small thing, but it saves everyone a lot of messing about.
Ordering takes about two minutes
Once you’re set up, placing an order is quick. You can see your previous orders and reorder from them in a couple of clicks, add delivery instructions, and request amendments through the portal after you’ve ordered rather than having to chase us on the phone.
Everything still arrives the way it always has with us, one delivery, one invoice, whether you’ve ordered cider, beer, or both. The portal just takes the friction out of getting there.
The bit we’re most proud of: festivals
We supply a lot of festivals, and festival ordering is its own particular headache. You’re trying to guess demand weeks in advance, get everything delivered to the right place at the right time, and – the nightmare scenario – not run dry of the good stuff halfway through a busy Saturday.
The portal handles this properly now. Festival organisers can order in advance, schedule their delivery, and then let the system keep an eye on stock in the background. If something they’re relying on is running low ahead of their event, it flags it in time to top up. For a festival bar, that’s the difference between selling out of your best-selling cider and having it there when the crowd arrives.
Behind the scenes, it makes us faster too
Not all of this is customer-facing. The same system builds our pick lists and consolidates orders going out on the same van, so the warehouse team can pick a round far more quickly and accurately. When our drivers are out delivering, they tick off each order as it’s dropped, which means head office knows the moment a customer has had their full delivery, and the invoice can go out straight away.
Less chasing, fewer mistakes, faster service. That last part is really the whole reason we like to deliver ourselves in the first place.
Little touches that add up
A few other things we’ve built in because they make life easier:
- Bespoke product lists. Useful for pub groups who want to keep their sites to an agreed range – rather than every manager scrolling the full catalogue, they see only the lines they’re meant to order, which saves time and keeps things consistent.
- Invoices to the right place. For chains, invoices can go straight to head office while stock goes to the individual site.
- A guide for newcomers. If you’ve never ordered from us before, there’s a quick walkthrough so you’re not guessing.
Still fine-tuning
It’s not finished, there are still bits we’re refining, and we’re taking feedback from the venues using it as we go. But the response so far has been better than we hoped. Most of it boils down to the same thing: “this is so much easier.” Which was the entire point.
Want a look?
If you run a pub, bar, restaurant, café or festival bar and you’d like access, get in touch and we’ll set you up. It takes a couple of minutes, and there’s no long approval wait — you can be browsing the full range and placing your first order the same day.
[CREATE A TRADE ACCOUNT → https://fetchthedrinks.com/trade-portal/]
Cider and beer, from more than 50 independent producers. One delivery, one invoice, and now a lot less hassle.
