Web Design and Development in Stoke-on-Trent
A ceramics range that exists as a spreadsheet of SKUs, a trade list reprinted once a year and a folder of photographs named by firing batch can be a working trade catalogue in days. Varsuite builds those catalogues, the stores around them and the integrations behind them for manufacturers, distributors and warehousing businesses across Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire, AI accelerated then reviewed line by line by our UK team.
How do you get a full ceramics catalogue online without retyping every SKU?
Most product data in Stoke-on-Trent already exists, just nowhere a buyer can reach it: a spreadsheet of SKUs, a printed trade list that goes out of date the month after it is reprinted, and a folder of photographs named after firing batches. The slow part of getting a catalogue online has never been the website, it is the data cleaning, and that is the part we automate.
We take whatever export you can give us, in CSV, Excel or a feed from your stock system, and use AI agents to normalise it: matching product names to codes, splitting sizes and finishes into variants, filling gaps in descriptions, flagging duplicates and lines that no longer exist. Someone on our team reviews the result before anything is published, because a wrong pack quantity or a mislabelled glaze costs real money.
Structures that work for ceramics, tableware and giftware businesses:
- Ranges, then patterns or finishes, then sizes, so a buyer lands where they expect
- Case packs and pallet quantities shown alongside single units
- Seconds, clearance and discontinued lines kept clearly apart from current stock
- Downloadable spec sheets, dimensions and care instructions per line
- Search and filtering that works on product codes, not just marketing names
A store or trade catalogue build starts at 1,000 pounds one off plus 150 pounds a month. If you are not selling online and simply need the range visible to buyers, a brochure site from 500 pounds plus 100 pounds a month carries a catalogue perfectly well, and [both routes are on our pricing page](/pricing).
Can trade prices stay hidden from the public, and from each other?
Yes. Trade pricing behind a login is one of the most common requests we get from Staffordshire distributors, and it is a standard build.
The usual shape: the public sees the range, the specification and either a recommended retail price or no price at all. An approved trade account signs in and sees its own agreed prices, minimum order quantities and payment terms. Customer A never sees what Customer B pays. Account applications come to you for approval rather than being granted automatically, so a competitor cannot register on a Sunday night and read your margins.
What we build around that:
- Price bands or per customer price lists, loaded from the system you already use
- Order minimums, case break and pallet rules enforced at the checkout
- Quote requests for anything that needs a human price
- Reordering from previous orders, which is what repeat buyers actually want
- Purchase order references and account terms rather than card payment only
Getting orders into your back office matters as much as taking them. Rekeying a trade order into your accounts package is where the errors and the wasted hours are, so we treat the integration as part of the job rather than a later phase. If your system offers an API we use it, and if it does not, a scheduled file exchange does the same work for less.
This is closer to custom software and AI agents than to web design, and starts from 1,000 pounds plus 150 pounds a month. Tell us which system holds your prices and we will tell you honestly whether it can be connected before you spend anything.
Showing live stock and lead times beats call for availability
Call for availability is a phrase that quietly costs Stoke-on-Trent suppliers orders, because a buyer comparing three distributors on a Tuesday afternoon orders from whichever one says what is actually in the racking.
Showing stock does not have to mean publishing exact quantities. Most businesses choose something in the middle:
- In stock, low stock or made to order, with no numbers published
- A next dispatch date rather than a live count
- Real quantities shown only to logged in trade accounts
- Lead times per range, so a twelve week special order is not confused with a shelf line
- Back in stock alerts, which capture the enquiry you would otherwise lose
The mechanics are the same in each case. Your stock system stays the single source of truth, the website reads from it on a schedule that suits you, and nobody keys the same figure into two places. For warehousing and third party logistics businesses along the A500, the same plumbing supports a customer portal: consignment status, pallets held, goods in and goods out, without a phone call.
Stated plainly on a product page, stock status and lead time are also what an AI assistant repeats back when a buyer asks who can supply a line this month (we write our own pages the same way).
We are honest about the limits. If your stock figures are unreliable inside the business, publishing them makes that visible rather than fixing it, so we usually start with status rather than numbers and tighten up once you trust the feed. That conversation is worth having before the build rather than after launch. See the work we take on, or tell us what your stock lives in for a straight answer on whether it can be connected.
What actually changes the price of a catalogue build
The build is rarely the variable. The data is.
A clean export of eight hundred lines, with photographs already named by product code, is a different job to a range held in a twenty year old system, a trade pricing structure with six bands that nobody inside the business can fully explain, and images nobody has opened since the last rebrand. So we look at a sample before quoting rather than after, and we tell you which of those two you have.
The starting points are published rather than kept for a discovery call: brochure sites from 500 pounds one off plus 100 pounds a month, stores, trade catalogues and integration work from 1,000 pounds plus 150 pounds a month. [The full list is on our pricing page](/pricing). The monthly figure covers hosting, monitoring, maintenance and a UK team to contact when something needs changing, rather than a licence fee that strands you if you stop paying.
Where something cannot be done we say so at the quote. A warehouse system with no API and no scheduled export, or half a range with no usable photography, is a real constraint, and it is much cheaper to find on day one than in week six.
Common questions
Yes. We build trade catalogues where prices appear only to approved, logged in account holders, and each customer sees its own agreed pricing. Account applications come to you for approval, so competitors cannot self register and read your margins. Public visitors still see the full range and the specifications, which is what brings buyers to you.
There is no hard product limit, and stores and trade catalogues start at 1,000 pounds one off plus 150 pounds a month, with the full list on our pricing page. What moves the number is the state of your data rather than the count of lines, so send a sample export and we will quote the import against what is actually in it.
Usually yes, and where it cannot we will tell you at the quote stage rather than halfway through. Where your stock system offers an API we read from it directly, and where it does not, a scheduled export file achieves the same result for less. Many Stoke-on-Trent suppliers publish stock status openly and keep exact quantities for logged in trade accounts.
No, not if we integrate the two, and that integration is part of what custom software from 1,000 pounds plus 150 pounds a month buys. Rekeying is where trade orders go wrong: wrong pack quantity, wrong account, wrong delivery date. We push orders into your existing system wherever it allows it, and use a scheduled file transfer where it does not.
Yes, because buyers check you online before they ring, even when the order eventually comes through a rep. A site that shows the current range, pack quantities and lead times shortens the conversation your rep has to have, and stops enquiries going to whichever distributor answered first. It also lets existing customers reorder without occupying somebody's afternoon.
No. Rishton in Lancashire is where we sit, and the work with firms in Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove runs on calls and shared previews. Catalogue exports, pricing rules and stock feeds travel as files, so a Hanley address would change nothing about how the job is done.
We also work with businesses around Stoke-on-Trent
We work remotely with clients across the whole of the UK, so being outside Stoke-on-Trent itself makes no difference to how a build runs.
Send us a sample export from your catalogue
A few hundred lines is enough to work from. Tell us which system it came out of and we will come back with what the import takes, whether your trade price bands can be loaded as they stand, and whether your stock figures can be read live or need a scheduled file.