Choosing the right partner can make or break your company’s logistics, customer service, and repeat purchases. Using a fulfillment center like Shipfusion frees you from navigating the fulfillment landscape with zero stress. Below are some insights on how Shipfusion can take your business to the next level.
Focus On Inventory Optimization
It’s important to keep an eye on your inventory levels, so you don’t waste money on unnecessary materials or have excess stock sitting around for months. Inventory optimization can help you save costs and reduce risks by ensuring enough inventory for demand without too much or too little. Wholesalers carry large inventories of products, so they don’t run out of stock. When running a wholesale, you need accurate data to plan accordingly. That’s why you need inventory management software.
Why do you need an inventory management software for wholesale?
Wholesale inventory management software helps you track sales data, manage orders and automate processes such as order fulfillment and shipping. By using a warehouse management system (WMS) or ERP system, you’ll be able to manage all aspects of your wholesale business more efficiently. With the software, you can automate tedious tasks such as calculating inventory levels and tracking customer orders. Wholesale inventory management software can also help you forecast future sales trends so that you can plan accordingly and prevent yourself from running out of stock unexpectedly.
It will allow you to monitor how many products are being sold each month, which helps you determine whether or not you need more of a certain product to meet demand. If sales are down for one item but up for another, then perhaps it would make sense for you to devote more time and effort to selling the other item instead of focusing so much on one item that isn’t selling as well as expected.
Set Up B2B Ecommerce for Your Wholesale Business
You need an online store if you want to sell products in bulk. The reason is simple — you can’t expect customers to call or email you for each order. You need an easy way for them to buy from your website and pay with their credit cards. Also, having an online store will give you more control over the entire sales process. You can track customer activity and see what products are selling better than others and why. In addition, it will give you valuable information about where your customers are located so that you can tailor their marketing campaigns accordingly.
Give Your Sales Reps All the Information and Resources They Need to Succeed
Sales reps are critical for generating new leads and closing deals with new customers, but they need all the help they can get from their employers to do their jobs effectively. Ensure you provide them with all the tools they need, including training materials and other resources that will help them close more deals and generate more revenue for your company.
How do you boost the performance of your salesforce?
Minimize time spent on administrative tasks
Salespeople should be spending as much time as possible selling and closing deals — not filling out paperwork or entering data into spreadsheets. Salesforce automation allows you to streamline all administrative tasks so that your salespeople can focus on what’s important: closing deals and growing revenue.
By taking care of routine tasks like data entry and reporting, your team can spend more time doing what it does best — selling.
Offer them regular training and opportunities to share best practices
Salespeople need ongoing training to keep up with changes in the marketplace and new products and services. This enables them to stay well-informed about your offerings and better serve customers. It also helps them learn from each other’s experiences to improve their performance.
A lack of training means that your salespeople will go through the same processes every time they need to do something. They won’t be able to take advantage of new technologies or learn how to do things more efficiently, which means they could be wasting a lot of time on mundane tasks. This also means that they can’t use their time effectively, which reduces their productivity and leads to a drop in revenue.
Arm them will collaboration and communication tools
The ability to collaborate with other team members is essential to improve overall engagement. You should ensure they have access to all relevant information to make better decisions when working with customers. This includes having access to data from other departments. They should also be able to communicate through various channels such as email, chat, or video conferencing.
Gauge their performance and offer feedback
Track their performance, identify areas they need to improve and give real-time mentorship on those areas. The extra step of giving them feedback will not just make them more productive. It will also help motivate them by showing that their work impacts the company’s bottom line.
Establish Long-Term Relationships with Customers in Your Wholesale Business
Wholesale customers are often small businesses and retailers who rely on your product offerings for their success. Maintaining strong relationships with them is important because it helps ensure long-term loyalty. You can do this by offering the best possible prices and customer service so that they continue purchasing from you over time. It also helps to develop personal relationships with key customers so that they become more than just another number on a spreadsheet — they’re people who care about what happens at your company.
Offer Special Pricing for Your Overstocked Inventory
Offering discounted pricing on an overstocked item is a great way to eliminate excess inventory and make room for new products. You can also use this strategy to generate more business with existing customers and increase your bottom line.
If you have any extra stock on hand that you cannot sell at full price, consider offering it at a discount to entice more people to buy it. This way, you can eliminate the product, and your customer will feel like they got a great deal.
Embrace a Fact-Based Operating Culture
Many businesses operate under a supply-driven business model, where they stock as much product as possible without considering whether there’s actually any demand for it.
In this age of digitalization, it’s more important than ever for any business to be data-driven rather than relying on gut instinct or experience alone. For your wholesale to operate more efficiently, it’s essential to adopt a fact-based operating culture where decisions are based on objective data rather than subjective opinions. You’ll make better decisions about everything from inventory management to pricing strategies.
By embracing a demand-driven business model, you can adjust quickly when demand changes due to market conditions or other factors affecting your industry or region of operation. It also allows you to respond more quickly when there is an opportunity for growth in an underserved market segment or geographic area with high-profit potential.
Optimize Transportation
One of the biggest challenges for wholesale businesses today is finding ways to reduce their shipping costs while maintaining high customer service levels. One way to do this is by optimizing transportation. This involves looking at all aspects of your business from the perspective of shipping and identifying ways you can reduce costs without sacrificing quality or service levels.
Improved routing and scheduling will reduce transportation costs and avoid instances of angry customers due to delayed delivery. As you know, trucking companies have a limited number of trucks and drivers available at any given time, which means they can only pick up and deliver so many loads per day. Therefore, if they pick up too many loads at one time or deliver too many loads at one time, they will be forced to leave some behind — which costs them money.
To avoid such problems, you need to develop good routing and scheduling policies that allow your company to take advantage of its full capacity while minimizing the amount of equipment left idle at any time (and thus maximizing utilization).
Provide One-Time Deals for New Customers
To enhance sales, you need to attract new customers. How do you go about attracting new customers when you’re working with existing clients?
One way is by providing interesting deals to new buyers. Here are some ways to do it:
Try a percentage off on the first purchase. It can be as simple as offering 10% off on orders over $50 or 25% off on orders over $500. This is a great way to get people in the door and make them feel they’re getting something special. Make sure it’s a deal they can’t refuse.
Offer free shipping or expedited shipping for new customers only. Sometimes, all it takes is an incentive like free shipping or expedited shipping to get them in the door — especially if they don’t plan on buying a lot from you anyway. It is another way that you can entice potential buyers without spending too much money upfront.
Offer a one-time discount code for your website visitors only (or only those who sign up for your newsletter). You can create a unique promo code for every visitor who signs up for your newsletter.
Next Week: How Can You Improve Profit Margins and Cash Flows in the Wholesale?
Shipfusion sets your business on autopilot and combines flexible, reliable fulfillment with powerful, real-time technology. Shipfusion has multiple fulfillment centers across the US and Canada– making it easy to manage your eCommerce business. For more information on how to set your business on autopilot, contact one of our fulfillment specialists today.
