How we built a custom wholesale operating system for Aykiz — replacing spreadsheets and WhatsApp orders with proper inventory management and a client portal.
The client
Aykiz is a wholesale fashion business supplying independent retailers across the UK. They buy stock in bulk, manage a product catalogue that changes with every season, and deal with a steady stream of orders from their wholesale buyers.
It's a fast-moving business with a lot of moving parts.
The problem
Before this project, Aykiz was running almost entirely on manual processes.
Orders came in by WhatsApp and email. Someone had to read each message, find the right product, check availability (usually in a spreadsheet), reply to confirm, then remember to update the stock count. If two orders came in at the same time, things could go wrong — and sometimes they did.
Inventory tracking lived in Excel. It worked, up to a point. But it meant nobody had a real-time view of what was in stock. Staff had to check the sheet, then check the warehouse, then check again. New wholesale clients had to go through the same back-and-forth as everyone else.
The knock-on effects were real. Hours each week spent on admin that shouldn't have been admin. Fulfilment mistakes that had to be sorted out after the fact. And whenever someone thought about bringing on more wholesale clients, the honest answer was: they didn't have the bandwidth.
They'd looked at off-the-shelf systems. Some were too expensive for a business their size. Others were packed with features they'd never use, and would have taken weeks to set up properly. None of them quite fit.
What was built
A custom wholesale operating system, built specifically for how Aykiz works.
What the system includes:
- Product catalogue with live inventory — every product listed with real-time stock counts, updated automatically as orders are placed
- Order management dashboard — internal staff can see all incoming orders in one place, mark them as packed and dispatched, and track what's outstanding
- Automated stock alerts — the system flags when stock drops below a set threshold, so nothing runs out quietly
- Client-facing portal — wholesale buyers get their own login. They can browse the catalogue, see live availability, place orders, and track the status of what they've ordered — without needing to message anyone
Tech stack: Next.js · Supabase · Vercel
Key design decision: the system was built to be usable by non-technical staff from day one. No training period, no manual to read. The interface is straightforward enough that anyone who can use a website can use this.