Wholesalers Need Management Too

Everyone knows retailers need a good management solution. One of the biggest myths about wholesaling is that it works just like retailing but with cheaper prices. From a business perspective, wholesaling is very different from retailing. That’s why wholesalers need their own tools.

5 Components of a Good Wholesale Management Solution

Wholesalers have products, pricing for those products needs to be optimized, and there are logistical challenges just like the retail industry. But similarities are not 100% the same. Here are 5 unique wholesale challenges:

1. Open-to-Sell, Not Open-to-Buy – Open-to-Buy is critical for retailers. For wholesalers, Open-to-Sell is more important. Get real-time data on inventory not sold so you can take action on it right away.
2. Managing Orders – With retail, you buy at wholesale and mark up your prices to realize a profit. With wholesale, you are selling at wholesale prices, but you still need to order your product. A good management system will allow you to manage orders according to vendor and product. You can even manage special conditions more effectively.
3. Productivity Reporting – Sales agents and other commissioned employees can be managed more effectively with the right tools. You can define your own rules for each sales channel in your organization and figure compensation based on complex base and commission schedules.
4. Manage credit  – Receive credit alerts to let you know which accounts are delinquent and who has poor credit ratings. Manage accounts receivables more effectively and set client limits based on your relationship with each client.
5. Discount rules – Establish your own rules for discounts, even down to the individual client. Offer rebates, figure net gross margin, and keep tabs on all the important data to allow you to profit from your discounts.

3 Other Features You’ll Love

ChainDrive’s Wholesale Management Solution is a great tool rich with features every wholesaler will love. Here are three other features you can bank on:

1. Catalogue maintenance – Whether your catalogue is in print or online, you can update it easily and often.
2. Lock/unlock prices – Price management is very important for wholesale operations. Never lose a profit or see a negative ROI with the lock/unlock prices feature.
3. Automated invoicing – The integrated accounting component allows you to schedule automated invoicing on your credit clients. Set the terms for your credit automatically and manage the overall process from one dashboard.

There’s no reason your wholesale business can’t be more efficient.