Software Built Around Your Business

Rhino LED Lights

A Dealer Portal That Handles Its Own Pricing and Orders

Rhino LED Lights sells through a dealer network, and every dealer has their own negotiated pricing. Orders used to arrive by phone and email, and someone in the office worked out the price and typed the order in. Dealers now log in, see their own pricing and order themselves - and the largest accounts can order straight from their own systems.

The Problem

Dealer orders arrived the way they always had: a phone call, an email, sometimes a list typed out from a conversation. Someone at Rhino then had to find that dealer's agreed pricing, apply the right discount to core products and to accessories, check the order met the minimum, and enter it.

That cost time on both sides and left room for mistakes - a discount applied at the wrong rate, an order entered against the wrong account, or a dealer sitting on their hands waiting for a quote before they could commit.

Dealers who order regularly wanted to do it themselves, at whatever hour suited them. The largest accounts wanted to order straight out of their own systems. And customers looking for a local dealer had no reliable way to find one.

What We Built

Dealer logins with their own account, their own pricing and their own order history
Negotiated pricing applied automatically, with separate rates for core products and accessories
Minimum order amounts enforced at checkout instead of checked by hand
An API so larger dealers can place orders directly from their own systems
A desktop application for dealer staff who order every day
Saved payment methods and live shipping rates inside the dealer checkout
A public dealer locator map so customers can find their nearest dealer

What Changed

  • Dealers place their own orders instead of phoning or emailing them in.
  • Every dealer sees their own pricing the moment they log in, so nothing is quoted by hand.
  • Discounts and order minimums are applied by the system, the same way, on every order.
  • The largest accounts can order programmatically, with nobody re-keying anything at either end.
  • Staff spend their time on dealers who need help rather than on order entry.
  • Dealer orders land in the same system as retail orders, so there is one place to look.
  • Customers can find a nearby dealer themselves instead of asking the office for a list.

What This Could Do in Your Business

Any business that quotes different prices to different customers and applies them manually.
Trade or wholesale customers who could be serving themselves instead of calling you.
Letting your largest accounts connect their systems directly to yours.
Business rules - minimums, tiers, category-specific discounts - enforced in software rather than remembered by staff.
Giving a group of customers their own login and their own view of your catalog.
A public directory or locator built from records you already keep.

What Ordering Looks Like for a Dealer Now

The same process, without the phone call
They log in as themselves

A dealer signs in to their own account and sees the catalog at their pricing - not list price with a discount to be worked out later. Core products and accessories can be set at different rates, because that is how the agreements are written.

They order without waiting on anyone

Orders are placed directly, at any hour, with saved payment methods and live shipping rates. Minimum order amounts are checked by the system, so a dealer knows immediately rather than being told after the fact.

Bigger accounts can skip the screen entirely

Dealers with their own systems can order through an API using their own key, so a purchase order raised on their side becomes an order on Rhino's side without anyone re-typing it. There is also a desktop application for dealer staff who order daily.

Customers can find them

The dealer records that drive pricing also drive a public locator map, so a customer who wants to buy locally can search by location and get the nearest dealer with contact details - no list to maintain separately.

Are your best customers still ordering by phone and email?

Show us how orders reach you today and what pricing each account is on. We will show you what it looks like when those customers place the orders themselves.

Under the Hood

For the technical evaluators: how this was actually built.
Rhino LED Lights 2022 - 2025 In Production

Capabilities in Detail

Custom Pricing Tiers
  • Dealer-specific pricing for core products
  • Different pricing tiers for accessories
  • Volume-based pricing rules
  • Minimum order amount enforcement
  • Automatic price calculation in cart
  • Price visibility controls
Dealer API Access
  • RESTful API with Sanctum authentication
  • API key management per dealer
  • Product catalog with dealer pricing
  • Order placement and history
  • Payment method management
  • Shipping rate calculation
Desktop Application
  • Cross-platform Electron application
  • Windows, macOS, and Linux support
  • Offline capabilities
  • Native app feel
  • API integration for order management
  • Code signing and distribution
Dealer Locator
  • Interactive dealer map
  • Geocoding for dealer locations
  • Search by location
  • Dealer contact information
  • Distance calculation
  • Public-facing dealer directory

Technical Implementation

Backend Architecture
Laravel 10 PHP 8.2+ Service Layer RESTful API Sanctum Auth
Database Design
MySQL Pricing Rules Dealer Accounts API Keys
Frontend & Desktop
Bootstrap 5 Livewire Electron JavaScript
Integrations
Geocoding API Map Services Payment APIs Shipping APIs

Engineering Notes

Pricing Rule Engine

Pricing rules support different tiers for core products and accessories, with minimum order enforcement and price calculation applied consistently through catalog, cart, checkout and API responses rather than at a single point.

API Authentication

A RESTful API with Laravel Sanctum authentication and per-dealer API key management, exposing product catalogs at dealer pricing, order placement, order history, payment methods and shipping rates.

Multi-Surface Delivery

The same API backs the web portal, the Electron desktop application for Windows, macOS and Linux, and direct dealer integrations, so business rules are implemented once and behave identically everywhere.

Geocoded Dealer Locator

Dealer addresses are geocoded and served through an interactive map with location search and distance calculation, driven by the same dealer records used for pricing and account management.

Platform Fit

Built Into the Existing Platform
  • Runs inside the main e-commerce platform, not alongside it
  • Dealer orders share the retail order pipeline
  • Dealer accounts extend the existing customer records
  • Same payment and shipping integrations as retail checkout
Operational Characteristics
  • Authenticated API with revocable per-dealer keys
  • Pricing rules enforced server-side
  • Scales with the dealer list and the product catalog
  • API documentation maintained for dealer integrators

The Capability Behind This Project

If any of that sounded like your business, this is the service it falls under.

Have a customer group that needs its own pricing?

Talk us through how those accounts buy from you today - the pricing, the minimums, the exceptions - and we will tell you what could run without your team in the middle of it.