The first edition of B2B Next: Wholesale 2.0

Last week, we opened the doors of the Orderchamp office for something new.

Not a trade show. Not a webinar. Not another standard product presentation.

This was the very first edition of B2B Next by Orderchamp Cloud: an evening for brands to step away from the day-to-day, come together in person, and talk honestly about what is changing in wholesale right now, and what comes next.

With 30+ attendees, 80 slides, and countless valuable conversations, the first edition already felt like the beginning of something bigger.

And that was exactly the point.

A room full of brands, one shared question

The main theme of the evening was simple: Wholesale 2.0.

What does it take to future-proof your wholesale business in a market that is moving faster, becoming more digital, and asking more from brands than ever before?

That question shaped the entire event. From the kickoff to the final drinks, the focus was not just on what is difficult in today’s market, but on what ambitious brands can do next.

We invited a group of brands to our Amsterdam office, including names such as STËLZ, Lepelclub, and Bazar Bizar, for an evening built around conversation, insight, and a closer look at where wholesale is heading.

The setting was intentionally personal. Smaller scale, more direct, and designed to create the kind of discussions that usually happen only after the “official part” of an event is over.

Built around the topics brands actually care about

Before the discussions started, attendees could scan a QR code and vote on the topics they wanted on the table. That made the event feel less like a fixed presentation and more like a room shaped by the people in it.

That approach matched the agenda of the evening: a welcome moment, a kickoff by Joost, CEO of Orderchamp, Hidde’s (Head of Sales at Orderchamp) session on “Wholesale 2.0: Future-proof je groothandel,” an open discussion on market opportunities and challenges, a guest presentation by Sander van den Broek from Optiply on building a smarter supply chain with AI, and a closing networking session.

In other words: enough structure to guide the evening, and enough openness to make it worth attending.

Wholesale 2.0: future-proof your business

One of the central moments of the evening was Hidde’s presentation.

The presentation focused on the bigger shift happening across retail and wholesale, and what brands need to do in order to stay competitive and agile.

That also means responding to what the market is doing now. Expectations are changing faster than ever. Sales processes are moving. The balance between control on margins, digital efficiency and effort of maintaining personal relationships is adjusting too.

This sparked a lot of interesting discussions.

We also looked back at the evolution of Orderchamp Cloud over the past year: what has changed, how the product has developed, and where we are heading next, and how it's addressing wholesale 2.0.

We have never been about just adding features for the sake of it. We're about helping brands build a stronger, smarter wholesale operation around the way they actually sell, integrated in a smarter way in their often 'traditional' business.

A first glimpse of what’s next

We also shared insights on two recent larger new solution developments: the Sales App and AI Order Convert.

We're announcing a larger update to the broader audience next week, but safe to say it sparked exactly the kind of conversations we hoped for. Because for many brands in the room, the question is no longer whether wholesale should become more digital. It is how to make that digital layer work in a way that still feels practical, flexible, and human - and is affordable in times where margins are under pressure.

That balance came back throughout the evening.

The future of wholesale is not less personal. It just needs better tools behind the scenes.

Serious conversations, informal atmosphere

Of course, no good brand event survives on slides alone.

There were drinks, a room full of familiar and new faces, and yes, a highly respectable number of bitterballen. 160, to be exact. We are not saying the event’s success depended on them, but we are not ruling it out either.

That mix of substance and atmosphere is exactly what we wanted B2B Next to be.

An event where brands can talk seriously about margin pressure, sales strategy, digitisation, retail expectations, and supply chain complexity, without it ever feeling heavy or overproduced.

The best conversations were often the ones that happened in between the official moments anyway: after a slide, during a refill, or when one brand recognised the same challenge in another brand’s story.

Why this matters to us

At Orderchamp, we work with brands and retailers every day. We see the questions that come up. We hear where teams get stuck. And we also see how much ambition there is in the market right now.

That is exactly why we started B2B Next: building a space where brands can get early access to ideas, product developments, and conversations that actually feel relevant. A place where the discussion is honest, the group is curated, and the takeaways continue long after the evening ends.

The first edition confirmed what we hoped: there is real appetite for this.

This was only the first edition

B2B Next by Orderchamp Cloud is designed to grow into a series, and that is where its real value lies.

By bringing together a carefully selected group of brands, each edition builds on the last, creating a clearer, shared understanding of where wholesale is heading and how to navigate it.

It is not just about what was discussed on the night itself, but about building an ongoing dialogue. One where ideas are challenged, perspectives are sharpened, and the direction of modern wholesale becomes something we shape together.

But more than that, it was the start of something.

A first group.
A first dialogue.
A first look at what Wholesale 2.0 can become.

And for those who were there: thank you for helping shape it.

For those who were not: there will be a next one.