ARTG: From a shop that didn't deliver to a B2B webshop where AFAS is the single source of truth

Rotterdam-based A&R Textile Group (ARTG) supplies terry cloth and baby textiles to dealers across Europe. Since going live on Marcando, those dealers place their own orders in five languages, with pricing and stock levels pulled directly from AFAS in real time.

About ARTG

Since 2009, A&R Textile Group has been a wholesaler of towels, bathrobes, sauna kilts, hammam towels, and baby textiles. With proprietary brands such as Tummi Bears, Hamamzz, Babiezz, PRINT-Me, and SUBLI-Me, they offer delivery within 24 to 48 hours from their own stock.

The product range is both broad and deep. With over a thousand items, each featuring variations in color, weight, and size, it is exactly the type of catalog you don't want to maintain in two places.

ARTG sells to dealers, each with their own agreements and pricing. This logic is embedded in AFAS Profit, the system the company has used since 2011 across multiple operating companies.

The challenge

ARTG already had a webshop, but it wasn't meeting their needs.

The previous solution was disconnected from AFAS, meaning the product range, prices, and stock had to be maintained in two separate places. This was compounded by poor experiences with previous webshop projects and painful migrations. Furthermore, international customers complained about the available payment methods.

The premise for the new project was therefore clear: there should only be one place where data is entered. Owner John Rietdijk set sharp priorities: B2B first, integrated with AFAS, multilingual, and with as little manual input as possible.

The approach: AFAS remains the source

Throughout the project, AFAS served as the starting point, not an obstacle. Marcando connects directly to AFAS to retrieve:

1. Products and product data. New references, colors, sizes, and descriptions flow from AFAS into the shop, including translations in five languages. One place to maintain everything.
2. Customer-specific pricing. Every logged-in dealer sees their own net price, including agreed-upon volume discounts. Prices are only visible after login, exactly as a wholesaler requires.
3. Stock levels. Current stock per warehouse, visible on the product page. ARTG highlights this on their homepage as a promise: customers can now view warehouse stock levels themselves.
4. Orders. Whatever a customer orders lands directly in AFAS, including the chosen delivery address and payment method. No retyping, no errors in item numbers or quantities.
5. Customers and accounts. New customers register using their VAT number, which is verified against the customer database in AFAS. This prevents duplicate records. Conversely, ARTG can also proactively invite existing customers: since they are already in Marcando via AFAS, a single invitation is enough to bring a dealer on board, with their terms and pricing immediately correct.

How the process unfolded

From the initial meeting to the go-live, the project was executed step-by-step, with regular follow-up calls between ARTG and the Marcando onboarding team. During these calls, the catalog was built and verified: product groups were rearranged, color and size variants were logically structured, search keys were imported, photos were synchronized, and the Italian, German, French, and English texts were reviewed.

Two choices made all the difference:

• ARTG manages the shop itself. Rearranging categories, importing new product sets, customizing invitation emails: John and his team handle these tasks themselves from AFAS and the back office, with guidance where needed. No tickets or developers are required for every change.
• Real customers who placed test orders before the go-live. This verified that price tiers, alternative delivery addresses, and payment methods were correctly processed in AFAS. Not in theory, but with actual orders.

What is live

The shop is set up as a full-fledged ordering platform for dealers, not just an online catalog:

• Five languages. Dutch, English, French, German, and Italian, for the European dealer network.
• Restricted ordering. Registration with VAT number and company details; prices are visible only after login.
• Quote requests. For larger volumes or custom printing, customers can request a quote instead of checking out immediately.
• Product comparison and wishlist. Useful for an assortment where thirty colors of the same item are listed side by side.
• Shipping costs per country, with DPD as the carrier, plus a pickup address.
• Payment mix for NL and BE. iDEAL, Bancontact, KBC, Belfius, Maestro, Visa, Mastercard, and Apple Pay. An immediate answer to the complaints from international customers about the old shop.

The result

Orders come in exactly as they should. The dealer places the order themselves, and it is automatically entered into AFAS. No one has to retype anything, and no one needs to double-check whether the item number, quantity, or price is correct.

Furthermore, there is no longer a second system to maintain. Items, colors, sizes, prices, discount tiers, and stock are managed in AFAS, and the shop follows suit. A new color doesn't need to be added to a webshop catalog separately, and a price change doesn't need to be implemented twice.

And the question "do you still have this in stock" no longer needs to be answered. It's on the site, in the customer's language, with their own specific pricing displayed.

Sound familiar?

Do you work with AFAS and sell to dealers or business customers with their own price agreements? Then this is the pattern: AFAS remains the single source of truth, and the webshop becomes the channel through which your customers can help themselves.‍

Webshop: artgshop.com | ERP: AFAS Profit | Market: The Netherlands and export

‍