Independent distributors don't win on scale, they win on flexibility: the rep who builds the order for a busy chef, the driver who makes a second trip when a kitchen runs short, the heads-up that lands before the food show fills up. The latest Storefront updates are built to let distributors offer more of that flexibility without adding more work for their reps and customer success teams.

In our recent webinar I was joined by David Currie, the product manager behind Storefront, for a live walkthrough of four updates: multi-cart checkout, landing pages, second run fulfillment, and a new way to search. 

Here's what we covered:

Multi-Cart: Shopping for Every Part of the Business

Storefront now supports multiple carts per account, and David's first example was a restaurant with a kitchen, a bar, and an attached produce market. Each gets its own cart, and each cart keeps everything customers already rely on: PO numbers, discount codes, cart-level discounts, and order notes that pass through to the order email and, where the integration supports it, the ERP. Every cart also carries its own fulfillment settings, so one can go out on standard delivery while another is flagged for rush, and each is submitted as its own order.

Carts can be set to private while they're being built. A bar manager can assemble an order without confusing the rest of the team, then submit it or share it when it's ready. Once submitted, it joins the account's order history like any other order.

The rep-built cart. While most people think of multi-cart as a way for operators to organize their own checkout, David showed the distributor side: a DSR builds a private cart for a customer, working in the right promotions and a few suggested items, then switches it to public and sends a quick chat message pointing the operator to it. The operator opens the app, reviews the cart, and places the order. As David put it, an order guide is helpful, but a ready-to-submit cart gets the customer much closer to a purchase.

Carts across time, not just locations. Carts can't carry different delivery addresses today, but they can carry different fulfillment dates. An operator on a Monday–Wednesday–Friday schedule can stage carts for upcoming deliveries in advance. David noted the team is looking at ways to draft those future carts automatically.

A few things to know at launch: order minimums apply per cart, not across carts; carts can be searched for specific items but not yet sorted by category or temperature zone; and cart recommendations are based on the account's overall buying behavior rather than each cart's contents. Attendees raised merging carts to hit a minimum and cart sorting, and David asked for more feedback on both.

Landing Pages: A Message Customers Will Always See

Texts get missed and notifications get swiped away. Landing pages give distributors a way to put an important message in front of customers the moment they open the app, without building a promotion or sending a chat.

Distributors pick a distribution center (duplicating a page makes it easy to reuse across DCs, and a select-all option is coming), then target any customer group: restaurants, schools, a specific set of shops, or a prospect list that just got app access. From there, it's a headline, an image with a single aspect ratio that resizes cleanly, and an optional call-to-action link.

Frequency is the key setting. Each landing page runs for a set window, and distributors decide how often a user sees it: once per day, or a fixed number of times per user. David's recommendation was once per day for most messages, enough to reinforce without annoying. One caution I'd add: if the message asks customers to do something, like register for an event, update the customer group once they've done it. Otherwise they keep seeing a request they've already answered.

Landing pages are interstitial by design. Once closed, a customer can't pull it back up. David said the team is exploring pairing landing pages with chat messages and other marketing tools so campaigns can be rediscoverable.

Where distributors can start. David showed a food show registration page targeting all customers and set to appear up to ten times per user. Links open in an in-app browser, so customers can sign up and return to their order without losing their place. That works today with any external form, whether it's HubSpot, Typeform, or a food show site. Future versions will let the call to action point to a specific promotion, cart, item, or search.

The idea to steal first: a welcome series for new customers. Build a new-customer group, create a secret promotion with a discount code, add your logo, and set the landing page to show once. A new account's first time opening the app becomes a small moment of customer appreciation. Speaking as the marketing guy, there's no downside to setting one up.

Second Run Fulfillment: Saying Yes After Cutoff

David opened this section with something every independent distributor already knows: service and flexibility are what set them apart from larger competitors. Second run fulfillment, labeled "rush delivery" in the demo, lets distributors accept orders after the standard cutoff without routing every one through a phone call to a rep.

In the demo, an operator on a Monday–Wednesday–Friday schedule selected a delivery date past its cutoff. Storefront didn't block it. Instead, the date turned orange and a message explained that the order would be treated as a rush and might not be fulfilled. That language is fully customizable through your CSM.

The option is intentionally subtle, so customers don't start treating past-cutoff orders as the norm. Distributors control the economics: second run fulfillment can carry its own delivery fee and order minimum, and it comes through to the ERP as a distinct fulfillment type so the order can be routed through the right process. Like other fulfillment types, it can be assigned per customer, so distributors can offer it free to their best accounts, charge a premium, or leave it off for customers they know can't be accommodated. 

A Sneak Peek at Search

David closed with an early look at a search improvement. Storefront search already covers item names, descriptions, item codes, and other configured fields, which sometimes means too many results. A search for cabbage can surface items that simply mention cabbage in their description.

Short codes now let operators search a single field. Typing "ID:" before a query searches only the item ID field, and a handful of other fields work the same way. It's built for experienced buyers who order by item code and know exactly what they want. It works in Storefront today, not yet in Sales Hub. Next up: the ability to pin a search field through a session, and more structured fields and filters as the team builds out search.

The Takeaway

Much of what's next, including cart merging, sorting, landing page targeting, and search filters, is being shaped by questions from this session. If you have feedback, bring it to your CSM or to the next webinar. And if you want to talk through any of it, reach me at nick.ziech@usepepper.com

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