Wholesale eCommerce business case benefits
Part Two in a helpful series of blog posts to make your wholesale eCommerce a success.
Previous:1. Planning and deploying successful wholesale eCommerce
Next: 3. How to integrate wholesale eCommerce with your ERP
In an upcoming article we will look at some key areas where Return on Investment (ROI) can be measured. A successful wholesale eCommerce site can pay you back the annual cost in one month or less while supporting sales and marketing within a business.
The challenges of justifying either purchasing or creating a wholesale eCommerce site are that you are asking management to invest cash for returns that are initially hard to measure. That said, the end-result of successful wholesale eCommerce sites is growth in sales. This growth comes not simply from increased online orders. There are a lot of benefits to introducing wholesale eCommerce as we’ll see by the end of this article.
No doubt, you have existing methods for things like giving your partners product information and the latest price list. You also have existing ways to accept orders and payments. If a partner requests it, you can find a way to provide an order history to your trade customers.
With wholesale eCommerce you can automate and streamline a lot of these methods. For example, managing price list is simpler. Accepting online orders is something you switch on. Letting your partners access to their order history when they login is standard. But with this we are simply scratching the surface.
When building the Wholesale eCommerce business case, there’s some other things worth thinking about. You can improve partner productivity and self-sufficiency. Develop a centralized repository of product and marketing knowledge. Enable more collaboration and communication with partners and create simpler ways for sharing product information.
Among the many wholesale eCommerce benefits, some of the most obvious are:
Reduce the time spent searching
The amount of time that is spent searching for product information can be drastically reduced. When your partners have a central ‘one-stop shop’ for your content, it is easier for them to find what they need. Help your partners to focus on selling your products and placing more orders with you, rather than digging for information.
Faster collaboration on product information
You need to give your partners information. Your partners need to give you information. Remove the ‘back-and-forth’ of phone calls and emails for routine information like SKUs, labelling, promotions and offers and let it all be managed in simple workflows that are fast and one-touch.
Reducing Duplication of Effort
Wholesale eCommerce enables you to create a central environment for product information sharing and partner management. This will minimize duplication of both effort and content.
Promoting Self-Sufficiency
Self-Service tools in your wholesale eCommerce site allow your partners to get work done quickly and consistently. This takes away the delays that occur when waiting for information.
Improving employee and partner satisfaction
Your partners generally feel an increased sense of satisfaction when you have a modern, efficient approach that helps them do their work better. It is also a great way to inform partners about new products, special promotions and offers.
“Every increase in partner satisfaction, leads to better understanding and representation of your products. This leads to more happy and satisfied consumers”
Don’t just use your wholesale eCommerce as an online ordering system tool. Make it do more for you. Use it as a product development tool for collaborating on product ideas with your partners. There are a number of business benefits to implementing product development facilities:
- Increased productivity;
- Improve your products;
- Better partner collaboration;
- Enhanced partner satisfaction and increase sales.
Provide the tools, such as product builders, to share ideas and collaborate on products, in an almost intuitive way.
Replacing Hard Copies
Remove the costs associated with the printing, distributing and maintaining of hard-copy documents like product catalogues and brochures. Furthermore, ensure your partners are accessing the latest product information, prices and promotions.
This is part Two in a series by iStockist wholesale eCommerce.
Previous: 1. Planning and deploying successful wholesale eCommerce
Next: 3. How to integrate wholesale eCommerce with your ERP
