How To Succeed At Wholesale

As commerce moves more and more online, many wholesale vendors are finding innovative ways to grow and globalise their businesses. An increasingly competitive market encourages diversifying different business interests. The wholesale distribution industry is full of opportunities for those trying to climb this ladder to success.

Having a good workforce and hiring the right staff is your key to success!

The hiring process can be tedious – for anyone – but is an essential foundational step. It is no different in a wholesale business. There are steps you must take before deciding what kind of requirements you want your staff to have:

Identify your immediate business goals
Define long-term business objectives
What skills are essential for the different tasks you need performed?
Determine company values and culture
Aim to build long-term commitments rather than short-term relationships

Answering these questions will help you evaluate whether or not improvements need to be made to your current workforce, as well as creating a benchmark that each employee needs to perform at, evaluating against that benchmark rather than against other employees.

Prioritise the customer first!

The best way to sustain and succeed in your wholesale business is by identifying the target market and prioritising the needs of the end consumer. Building a profile for each customer, knowing what drives their business and what their needs are, will help guide your relationship with them while giving you a clearer idea of what will attract and better serve more customers like them in the future.

Wholesale distribution being as competitive as it is today, many hope lowering prices and margins will attract more buyers and lead to higher sales. However, this approach can be misleading, as the discount offered to the end consumer needs to be formulated by the lifestyle needs of the targeted product or service user. Your utmost aim to be differentiated from other wholesalers should be to provide both valuable products or services as well as a customer experience that leads to reorders. Wholesalers work with other businesses, so losing even one customer could cost your wholesale business a lot. Building long-term customer relationships should be a priority to grow your wholesale. as acquiring new customers can be expensive. Therefore, following up and keeping the relationship active even after they have ordered will benefit your customer retention.

Have multiple sales channels!

Selling through multiple sales channels not only helps you reach a wider audience but it also provides an opportunity to diversify the type of customers you attract, by providing more services or products. And as previously discussed, listing services and products on a B2B eCommerce platform gives consumers the convenience of ordering online and automating processes, workflows and tools to minimise costly errors.

As your wholesale grows, building a network on top of your B2B platform is ideal. However, each vertical is different – for instance, if you are focusing on fashion and wholesale apparel growth, you also should consider capitalising on social media, e.g. Facebook marketplace or Amazon, as well as various other physical or digital marketplaces.

Also, a great way to sell and create valuable connections can be via trade shows and showrooms, exposing your brand and strengthening your network of professional relationships. In the current retail climate, we recommend using cost-efficient digital showrooms that target a wider audience and help you scale fast. Go global or go home with our Wholesale Accelerator program that helps showcase your brand in the most effective online manner, plus helps you cut the time spent researching international retailer contacts to just a couple of clicks. We at Candid offer a global retailer search tool to help you grow your network of qualified buyers in next to no time.

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Inventory, Batch and Serial tracking

Running a successful B2B wholesale distribution business will only be profitable with a good handle on inventory management. Using intelligent inventory management software is an efficient way to monitor stock levels for all products in your warehouse constantly.

Keeping safety stock on certain products to protect your wholesale if there are any sudden spikes in demand; this may happen in wholesale apparel businesses, as fast fashion and trends come and go. It is vital to be prepared. Always track incoming / outgoing inventory and coordinate it with the fluctuation of demand.

Also, tracing batch lots, serial numbers, and expiry dates is helpful for your wholesale business. Batch & Serial tracking is crucial for global wholesale companies in the food & beverage industry; these usually have short expiry dates and shelf life. We at Candid fully integrate with dozens of stock management systems to help you to monitor your stock levels at all times.

Maintaining your wholesale business cash flow

Managing cash flow is crucial for a wholesale business. It is necessary to help the business run smoothly, pay its bills, meet customer demand and make informed decisions about business operations. When possible, having cash reserves can provide your wholesale business with security – the money needed to cover employee salaries and overhead when there are hiccups in the supply chain or customers fail to pay on time.

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Scaling Your B2B wholesale & sales!

Once your wholesale business has reached a comfortable point in its original market, it is time to scale internationally and seek more innovative routes to trade. It is easy to overlook additional revenue opportunities with current customers. Your existing customers provide a strong market foundation which you can further capitalise through upselling and cross-selling. Existing customers are also more likely to try a new product or service and spend more with larger orders.

Another way to do this is by looking into B2B digital ads, currently a thriving market, and tracking and optimising your sales pipeline. Get in touch with us for more information on our custom-tailored marketing support services.

Fast order fulfilment!

Digitising the order submission process can dramatically increase efficiency in today’s wholesale distribution market. When selling through multiple channels – e.g. field sales and B2B eCommerce portals – processing orders and making sure your order processes are automated and easy to use will lead to fast, error-free order fulfilment. Smart payment terms and prompt collection of receivables will keep things moving in the right direction. Accepting credit cards, invoices and outsourcing collection can help your wholesale business avoid using cash reserves for late payments – having this cash reserve will help keep the business afloat through any rough patches.

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