B2B Info Center

For many wholesalers, the process of managing orders is still handled entirely offline. This is, in part, due to a misconception that online order handling is only for B2C companies. In reality, there are now online order management systems made especially for wholesalers and other B2B distributors. These take care of all of the issues that are unique to the B2B industry and make it easy to modernize operations.

Here are some of the things this sort of order management software can handle that aren't usually covered by standard online shopping carts:

Modernizing the wholesale sales process by moving to order management software should be one of your strategic goals for the year.  For years, you've likely used Excel spreadsheets, faxes, and emails to keep orders straight.

In your B2B wholesale business, this worked fine for the times, but you are getting busier and competition has stepped up in recent years. It's possible you're seeing more B2B businesses doing the same thing you are and attempting to take your loyal buyers away.

The rise of cloud-based software, which is run on remote servers and typically entails a recurring subscription, has gotten many people to wonder about its potential benefits. What could be better about this system than one in which software is bought once, or at most once every few years? It turns out that there are many differences that can be found between turnkey software in the cloud and on-premise software.

Here are some of the ones that are bringing more and more people to the cloud:

 As the wholesale market grows steadily, one thing never changes, businesses are always in need of watching costs and growing revenue.  Wholesale order management is one area to focus on and with the help of innovative software that simplifies and streamlines your wholesale ordering process, wholesalers can do both. Finding a feature-rich program that is compatible with your accounting software and also gives access to your customers and staff is one of the quickest ways to bring innovation to your company.

The Old

Think back before computers and the advanced technology integrated so heavily in business today. Paper notebooks, filing cabinets, ledgers, etc...

Order management is a crucial part of any business. Without it, orders get lost, delayed as they pass between departments, or suffer from an excess of transcription errors. For years, it has been typical for small companies just getting started to come up with their own systems for preventing these problems.

Alas, many homegrown systems are put together piecemeal as businesses try to keep up with changing times. The real solution is to invest in a well-built, polished order management system from a development firm that specializes in such programs. This will ensure that the solution not only meets current needs, but continues to meet your needs as you grow.

In this world of constant connection, B2B businesses are expected to run 24/7. Buyers expect to be able to get their orders placed and questions answered anytime of the day.  And if you don’t have B2B order management software that keeps your operations going 24/7, it’s time to get one.

In the age of online ordering, buyers need to have access to product information around the clock to keep themselves competitive and successful.  With order software they can place their own orders and answer their own questions regarding their accounts.

For any business, managing orders is a big deal. After all, orders are where the money comes from. It's important to make sure that everything happens exactly as it's supposed to. From the initial pricing, all the way through the completion of the shipment, everything should be perfect. Unfortunately, that's not always easy. Managing lots of large-scale orders manually can become a very difficult task, but there is a solution, an online order management system.  This can be a cloud based software program that syncs to your accounting software, like QuickBooks, that makes it easy for both customers and your sales team to enter in orders, and check things like pricing, product availability, and tracking numbers.

Here are a few benefits of using an online order management system.

Order management is a big part of the wholesale business. It's often more complicated than it is for B2C companies thanks to the presence of different pricing tiers, multiple sales channels, and the need to keep track of pallets' worth of items instead of single quantities. Fortunately, there's an easy way to streamline the process of handling these needs: online order management.

Unify Order Formats

Companies using traditional order handling methods often have to deal with a wide variety of order formats. This is because they have developed different order-taking methods over time instead of starting with a single system. A company that has been in business long enough may have everything from handwritten orders to Excel spreadsheets all coming in at once. This is confusing and leads to errors and delays.

Wholesalers often take an approach of figuring out how to handle needs as they arise. Unfortunately, after several years in business, this results in a cumbersome and piecemeal variety of methods for doing the same basic thing. For example, a company may start out taking orders over the phone and simply hand-writing them onto invoices. Then, they realize that it's time to have an outside sales force. The outside salespeople, having no direct access to the office, are forced to call in their orders and wait in the calling queue as their customers impatiently wait.

Next, the company might decide that it's time to speed things up, so they give the salespeople a fax number to use when on the road. Now, the company has to handle both phone and fax orders. Finally, some customers may use an Excel spreadsheet and e-mail orders in. This brings in a third format to deal with.  And it can be different for each customer.

As a manufacture or wholesaler, do you often wonder how customer order management software can help increase B2B customer satisfaction? Are you looking to improve your value to your customers? What's so great about switching to a new ordering system instead of using the one that your company has had for years? That's the one that all of your people know how to use.

The Truth

It really comes down to giving your B2B clients a customer order management solution that is easy to use. It can be used at any workstation and on many kinds of mobile devices. With a turnkey software solution, all that you need to get started with it is an Internet connection. Cloud-based software places real-time information in the hands of customers and sales reps. When your B2B customers go to their ordering dashboard, they see what you have in stock and can view custom prices. On your end as a manufacturer, your sales reps can track customer orders and find the whereabouts of each product in your supply chain. This includes tracking, shipping, invoicing, and billing information.