B2B Catalog Websites: Variants, Spec Sheets, Request a Quote
A manufacturer's website is a catalog, not a shop. How to structure variants, publish spec sheets and run request-a-quote so buyers can specify what they need and you can price it.
A manufacturer does not need a cart. It needs a catalog where a buyer can find the right variant, read the specification, download the sheet and send a request for a quote with the quantity and the deadline attached. Prices depend on volume, finish, lead time and the relationship, so the website's job is to make the request precise, not to take a card. This post covers how to structure that catalog, with a real manufacturer's site as the example.
This post is part of our guide to Catalog-First E-commerce.
Who this is for
Fabricators, component makers, packaging suppliers, furniture workshops, textile mills, food producers selling to trade, and the wholesalers who distribute for them. The common thread: a range with many variants, a buyer who knows what they are looking for, and a price that is set after a conversation. If you sell fixed-price goods to consumers instead, start with catalog website vs online store.
How trade buyers research now
Trade buyers do most of their homework before they contact a supplier. Two thirds of B2B buyers say they prefer to buy without talking to a sales rep, per Gartner, and many now ask an AI assistant to build the shortlist. The catalog gets you on the list; the conversation confirms the order. If your specifications are not on the page, you are not on the list.
A real example: Unika Plastik
Unika Plastik makes PET bottles, jars and caps in Istanbul for cosmetic, medical and food brands. Its site is built with Beste, and it is a good model for a small manufacturer, because it does five things well:
- 125 products, no prices. The price depends on quantity, color and the cap, so the site does not pretend otherwise. Every product page answers the questions a buyer asks before a price: what it is, what it fits, and whether it will run on their filling line.
- A specification table on every product. Raw material, shape, volume, neck size, weight, height, width, units per box and box size, as text on the page. A buyer can compare two bottles without opening a PDF or sending an email.
- Filters that match how buyers search. The catalog filters by volume, weight and neck diameter, the three numbers a packaging buyer starts with, and by product type: cosmetic, medical, food bottles and caps.
- A quote list instead of a cart. Each product button says "Add to quote list". A brand can add a 250 ml bottle, a 100 ml bottle and the matching pumps, then send one request and get one quote.
- A sample request that never leaves the page. A "Request a sample" button in the header opens a short form in a window. Category pages also end with a form and an FAQ that answers minimum order, color matching, labels and lead times before anyone has to ask.
The site runs in Turkish and English, with the same catalog behind both.
Variants: model the product the way the buyer orders it
The first decision is the shape of the catalog. Get it right and every other page follows.
Products are the things in your brochure: a bottle, a gasket, a chair. Options are the attributes a buyer chooses: volume, material, finish, thread size, weight. Variants are the combinations you actually make: 250 ml, 25 g, 24 mm neck. Build only the combinations that exist.
Rules that save you later:
- Name variants the way your order form names them. If the works order says "UK1001", the page should show that code. The buyer will quote it back to you.
- Give each variant its own part number or SKU. Your ERP will want it, and so does Google's variant markup, per Google's docs on product variants.
- A photo per variant where it matters. Color and finish need one. Thread pitch does not.
- Decide what is an option and what is a product. Two weights of the same bottle are options. A different body shape is a new product.
Spec sheets: the page is the sheet
Buyers download spec sheets to compare and to attach to a purchase request. Two things make a spec section useful:
- Put the key figures on the page as text, not only in a PDF: dimensions, materials, tolerances, load, certifications, lead time, minimum order, packing. Text on the page is what search engines index and what an AI assistant reads when someone asks "who makes a 250 ml PET bottle with a 24 mm neck".
- Then offer the files: the downloadable sheet, the CAD drawing, the declaration of conformity, each with a revision date.
When a tolerance or lead time changes, update the page and the sheet together. A buyer who finds two different figures will ask which one is right, and an assistant may quote the wrong one.
Filters and one list of values
A trade buyer filters by specification, not by "new arrivals". The filters should be the options you defined plus whatever decides whether a product fits: material, size, load, certification, lead time.
Filters come from the catalog data, so consistency matters. If "material" is "Stainless" on one product and "SS" on another, the filter breaks. If one product says "24 mm" and another "24 MM", buyers see two values. Pick one list of values per attribute and stick to it. Some industries already have a standard list, such as ETIM for electrical and plumbing products and ECLASS for procurement; if your distributors ask for one, use its names on the website too.
Request-a-quote: the conversion event
The form is the sale. Design it like one.
Single form or quote basket? Use a single form on the product page if buyers usually ask about one product. Use a quote basket if they order lists, as a packaging or fit-out buyer does: one request, one quote, one freight charge.
Fields that belong on a B2B quote form
- Company and contact name, email, phone
- Product and variant, filled in from the page
- Quantity, with the minimum order shown next to the field
- Required delivery date
- Delivery address or country, for freight
- File upload, if you make to drawing
- One free text field
- A data protection consent box, where your law requires it
What happens after submit decides whether the site works. Every request should land where someone sees it within working hours, with the product and quantity already in it, so the reply is a price and not a question. Leads go cold fast; the post on selling through WhatsApp and quote forms covers the reply.
From client work I would add one thing: a form with a stated response time ("we reply within one working day") gets used. One without it gets a phone call instead, and the phone call is harder to track.
Prices: show them, show "from", or hide them
- Show list prices when prices are stable. It builds trust and filters out buyers who could never afford you.
- Show "from" prices or bands when volume discounts are large. It gives an anchor without committing.
- Show no prices when every order is priced to spec, as Unika does. It is normal in many trades. The cost is that your pages cannot show a price in Google's results, which need an offer with a price, per Google's merchant listing docs.
Whatever you pick, say whether a price is per unit, per box or per metre, state the currency, and say whether tax and freight are included.
Your site, marketplaces and portals
Many manufacturers also list on B2B marketplaces and directories: Alibaba for export, Amazon Business, Thomasnet in North America, Europages and Kompass in Europe. They bring buyers who are already searching, but the listing belongs to the platform and sits next to your competitors. Larger suppliers add a customer portal with logins and contract prices. Your own catalog site is the one place that is fully yours: the reference the marketplace listing links to, the page an assistant cites, and where a buyer checks before trusting a new supplier.
Structured data for a trade catalog
Each product page should carry Product structured data. For a product with variants, Google documents a ProductGroup with an entry per variant, each with its own identifier, per its product variants documentation. Google's variant markup recognises color, size, material and pattern, among a few others; variants that differ by thread, voltage or weight still need their own name and identifier.
Pages that sell by quote are eligible for product snippets rather than merchant listings, per Google's documentation. The post on product structured data for small catalogs goes through the properties, and entity schema for small sites covers the company behind the catalog.
Keeping the catalog current
A manufacturer's catalog changes in known ways: a new color, a discontinued size, a lead time that moves. Those updates are routine enough to hand to an AI agent that edits the site from a list, with a person approving before publish. See keeping a website current with an AI agent.
How this works in Beste
Beste holds products, options and variants: you define the options, such as volume, weight or neck size, and Beste builds the variants, each with its own price, stock and photo. A specification table per product sits on the page as text. You choose which attributes become filters, and every product grid on the site uses them, so adding a product never means editing a page. Every product gets a page from a template you design once, with Product structured data included. For pricing by the job, set the product button to the quote basket; for samples or questions, open a form in a window from any button. Submissions are saved in the dashboard on every plan and sent to your email on Pro. If a variant has a fixed price, attach a Stripe payment link to it. Beste does not process payments and takes no commission. Beste builds websites, not apps, so customer accounts and per-customer pricing are not part of it. See Products Catalog and Dynamic Forms.
Sources
Checked in October 2026.