Best Distribution Management Software in 2026: What Actually Works for CPG Distributors

Running distribution in 2026 is an entirely different beast. You are responsible for orders coming in from various sources, including field reps, customer portals, phone calls, and EDI feeds. 

Inventory tracking in multiple warehouses. Coordinating with your sales team. Managing varying pricing for each customer type. And somehow keeping margins while everyone expects better service for less money.

Most distributors still rely on duct tape and prayers, with an ERP handling accounting, a separate CRM that no one really uses, inventory tracked in spreadsheets, and field reps using whatever app they downloaded themselves

The right distribution management software changes this. That’s why in this blog post, we are going to cover the top 6 options for SMB and mid-market distributors, and SimplyDepo wins for CPG.

Let’s get started!

Key Takeaways 

• Understanding the actual need for this software 
• Uncovering proper evaluation metrics 
• Looking at the top 6 best platforms Exploring how to pick the best one as a business owner 

What You Actually Need This Software to Handle

Let’s skip the feature lists and talk about what you need to get done:

Get Every Order into One Place

Orders hit you from everywhere. Field reps are visiting accounts and writing stuff down. Customers are placing orders through your portal. Telephone calls are coming into the office. Perhaps your larger customers will use EDI. These are most likely currently scattered around until they are manually combined.

If your sales team enters an order that your warehouse team then re-enters somewhere else, you’re paying twice for the same work and creating opportunities for mistakes.

Know What You Actually Have in Stock

There’s nothing worse than promising a customer something you don’t have. Or finding out you sold the same inventory twice because nobody updated the spreadsheet. Manual tracking across warehouses and delivery trucks doesn’t cut it anymore.

You need to know what’s available right now, updating as orders come in and trucks leave.

Let Your Field Team Sell

Your reps are out there visiting accounts. They should be able to pull up customer history, place an order on the spot, and follow a route that makes sense. If they’re still writing orders on paper and calling them in later, you’re losing deals and wasting their time.

Field sales today means mobile tools that work in the real world – warehouses with bad WiFi, rural routes with no signal, retail stores during busy times.

Stop Pricing Mistakes

Different customers get different prices. Wholesale accounts vs retail. Volume discounts. Seasonal promotions. VIP pricing. Managing this in spreadsheets is asking for trouble – either you leave money on the table or you quote wrong and lose customer trust.

Pricing rules should just work automatically so your reps always quote correctly.

Cut Out the Busy Work

Every hour spent entering the same data twice, fixing mismatched information between systems, or tracking down what went wrong is an hour not spent on growing your business.

The right software handles the tedious tasks automatically, allowing your team to focus on customers.

Good distribution software should give you total clarity. At any moment, you should know exactly what’s happening across your whole operation.

Interesting Facts
Growing demand for electricity, renewable energy integration, and smart city developments are driving the adoption of Advanced Distribution Management Systems (ADMS).

How We Actually Evaluated These

We looked at what matters for CPG distributors running real businesses:

Does it cover the core jobs – orders, inventory, sales, pricing – or just pieces? Will your team actually use it or is it so complicated they’ll work around it? Can field reps take orders, or is this just office software? Does it handle real distribution complexity or just the simple stuff? Can you get running fast and scale up without hitting walls? Does the value match the investment for companies your size?

The Top 6 Platforms

#1 SimplyDepo  –  Built for Distribution, Period

G2 Rating: 4.7 out of 5 Works for: Beverage, food, beauty, CPG distributors. Multi-warehouse operations. Teams tired of juggling systems.

SimplyDepo takes the top spot because it’s the only one built from scratch for distribution. Not an ERP trying to do distribution. Not a CRM with some order features bolted on. Actual distribution software.

Why it wins:

It gets how CPG distribution works. Repeat orders, route selling, customer pricing, multiple warehouses, pack sizes, delivery schedules – all the stuff that makes distribution different from generic B2B sales.

What it handles:

Every order ends up in one place, no matter where it came from. Inventory updates in real-time across all your locations. Field reps have mobile tools that actually work. Pricing rules apply automatically, no mistakes. The whole order-to-invoice-to-payment flow runs itself.

What makes it different:

Everything’s in one platform – orders, inventory, field sales, the works. Not five tools trying to sync data. Your reps use the same system as your warehouse team. Everyone sees the same information at the same time.

The mobile app is useful for field reps who have not received training. People adopt it because it makes their jobs easier, not more difficult.

Customers can reorder themselves through the portal, cutting down the phone calls to your office.

Most teams are up and running within days. You start seeing benefits immediately instead of waiting six months for some consultant to finish configuring everything.

The interface is clean. Less training needed, fewer mistakes made.

Connects directly to QuickBooks, Stripe, Zebra scanners – the stuff you’re already using.

Here’s the thing: Most distributors drop 3-4 separate tools when they switch to SimplyDepo. The field sales app, the ordering system, and sometimes the whole CRM.

#2 Pepperi  –  Powerful but Complicated

G2 Rating: 4.4 out of 5 Works for: Big companies with IT teams

Pepperi can do a lot. Maybe too much for most teams.

The good: Strong B2B features, you can configure it heavily, works at enterprise scale.

The bad: Takes months to set up, costs more than you’d expect once you add everything, your team will need real training.

Real talk: If you’re a huge enterprise with people dedicated to managing software, Pepperi works. For SMB and mid-market distributors, it’s solving problems you don’t have while making the actual problems harder.

#3 Zoey  –  Ecommerce First

G2 Rating: 4.3 out of 5 Works for: Distributors where customers mostly order online themselves

Zoey excels at B2B ecommerce, where customers can place their own orders. The positives: Reliable online ordering portals and a satisfactory customer experience.

The bad: Field sales support is weak, route and rep management basically doesn’t exist, not built for mobile selling.

Real talk: Works if your business is mostly inbound online orders. Falls apart if field reps are how you actually grow.

#4 B2B Wave  –  Simple and Basic

G2 Rating: 4.2 out of 5 Works for: Really small operations just getting started

B2B Wave keeps things simple, which is good until it’s not.

The good: Easy to set up, cheaper entry point.

The bad: Inventory handling is basic, doesn’t deal well with complexity, you’ll outgrow it fast.

Real talk: Fine for dipping your toe in. Once you start scaling, you’ll need something more substantial.

#5 Orders in Seconds  –  One Piece of the Puzzle

G2 Rating: 4.1 out of 5 Works for: Teams needing just mobile ordering

Orders in Seconds does mobile order entry and that’s about it.

The good: Simple for reps, works offline.

The bad: Inventory management is limited, pricing gets complicated, you’ll need other systems for everything else.

Real talk: Solves the mobile ordering piece but leaves big gaps in running an actual distribution business.

#6 NetSuite  –  The Full ERP Route

G2 Rating: 4.0 out of 5 Works for: Large companies needing everything

NetSuite is a complete ERP handling distribution plus finance, HR, everything.

The good: Covers all business operations, handles complexity.

The bad: Expensive, takes 6-12 months to implement, needs dedicated admin, way more than you need if you just want to run distribution better.

Real talk: Makes sense for big companies. Complete overkill for most distributors focused on their core business.

What Each One Actually Does

Orders: SimplyDepo, Pepperi, Zoey, and B2B Wave handle this well. Orders in Seconds is basic. NetSuite is comprehensive but complicated.

Inventory: SimplyDepo and NetSuite give you complete control. Pepperi’s solid. Zoey and B2B Wave cover basics. Orders in Seconds barely touches inventory.

Field Sales: Only SimplyDepo has this really integrated. Pepperi has some features. Everyone else either skips it or makes you add another tool.

Customer Portal: SimplyDepo, Pepperi, Zoey, B2B Wave, and NetSuite all offer this. Orders in Seconds doesn’t.

Getting Started: SimplyDepo takes days. Zoey and B2B Wave take weeks. Pepperi takes months. NetSuite often takes half a year or more.

Actually Built for Distribution: SimplyDepo, period. Pepperi works but isn’t specialized. The others are either too narrow or too broad.

Why SimplyDepo Just Works Better

One System, Not Five

Orders, inventory, sales, and routes are all stored in a single location. You are not synchronizing data between systems or determining why the numbers do not match.

Field reps, warehouse staff, office team – everyone uses the same platform and sees the same real-time data.

Gets Distribution

SimplyDepo understands repeat orders, standing orders, customer-specific pricing, pack sizes, delivery schedules, route selling. All the weird specific stuff that makes distribution different from regular sales.

It’s not some generic platform someone tried to make work for distribution. It was built for this from day one.

You See Value Fast

No six-month projects. No expensive consultants. No needing an IT person on staff.

Most distributors are running live within days and seeing improvements immediately. You’re not burning months waiting for value.

What Actual Distributors See

A regional beverage distributor ditched their ERP plus separate field tools for SimplyDepo. Order processing got 40% faster. Pricing errors basically stopped. Field reps could finally process orders right there instead of calling them in.

A specialty food distributor went from spreadsheets and QuickBooks to running everything through SimplyDepo. Orders got more accurate. Inventory became visible in real-time. They scaled from 3 field reps to 12 without adding office staff.

The difference is having one system built for distribution instead of trying to make five generic tools work together.

Deciding as a Business Owner

Start with your biggest problem. If it’s chaos from disconnected systems, look for unified platforms. If field reps can’t sell efficiently, focus on mobile. If inventory’s a mess, prioritize real-time tracking.

Think about total cost – not just the monthly fee. Implementation, training, consultants, ongoing admin time. Sometimes the “cheaper” option costs more when you add everything up.

Where’s your business headed in 3-5 years? Will this platform grow with you or will you hit a wall and need to migrate again?

Get your team involved. Field reps and warehouse staff use this daily. If they hate it, you’ll have adoption problems regardless of what the sales demo looked like.

For CPG distributors, SimplyDepo consistently delivers. Powerful enough for real complexity, simple enough people actually use it, fast enough to implement that you see results in weeks instead of quarters.

The best distribution software is whatever helps you run more efficiently while supporting growth. For modern CPG distributors, that’s SimplyDepo.

Questions People Actually Ask

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