In the beginning, you likely relied on Excel spreadsheets, phone calls, and emails to manage your wholesale orders. Like many smaller B2B enterprises, you probably had a pile of printed invoices ready to pass on to your warehouse team for order fulfillment.
Long ago, retail stores and other B2B customers typically bought many items at once and then stored them in warehouses until they were almost out. Then, they'd restock with enough items to keep them in stock for months or even longer. This practice made it so that their wholesale suppliers didn't have to be too speedy when filling orders, and in some industries, it was typical for delivery to take several weeks.
Inventory management varies significantly across businesses, departments, and products. It hinges on your current practices, capabilities, the skills and availability of your team, and the specific demands and expectations of your customers.
In the dynamic landscape of modern business, equipping B2B sales reps with tools that streamline their workflow and strengthen customer connections is essential. Online ordering systems have transformed sales operations by providing real-time data access, minimizing errors, and speeding up the sales cycle. Let’s delve into how these systems empower sales reps to elevate their performance with confidence and efficiency.
B2B eCommerce is becoming one of the most efficient ways for wholesalers to reach customers. Even smaller companies can afford to benefit from the opportunity that B2B eCommerce software offers. Giving your customers and sales reps an online order management system will ensure your wholesale business is poised for growth.
With the Holiday season just over the horizon and Black Friday peeking at you from behind the curtains, now might seem like the exact wrong time to try to implement an ecommerce option for your customers. However, setting up an ecommerce option for QuickBooks has never been easier for manufacturing and wholesale businesses.
When the holiday season is here, and as a wholesale supplier, you’re probably already deep in the weeds as your customers start stocking up in preparation for the biggest shopping days of the year. You need to be prepared so that you can get your books as far into the black as possible before the end of the fiscal year.
Many established B2B businesses are stuck in a rut. They’ve offered the same things, the same ways, for years – sometimes decades – and they don’t see why they should change.
B2B ecommerce is no longer “cutting edge” or “the latest craze.” For manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and importers who haven’t made the jump to digital yet, I only have one thing to say:
Any good B2B ecommerce strategy is going to be built on a solid foundation, but that foundation will crumble if it doesn’t take the needs of its customers into account.