The wholesaler makes money when retailers buy their goods or products directly. Growing wholesale sales may seem easy: All you need to do is sell more products to consumers and businesses and revenue will significantly increase. This is easier said than done.

The business-to-business wholesale sales and distribution industry is facing an accelerated shift in customers’ expectations. Due to advanced technology that supports an on-demand economy, business-to-business wholesale customers are expecting the level of service they receive from business-to-consumer sales.

To increase your sales with the businesses or the customer as a wholesaler, try the following options.

Wholesale Trade Shows and Exhibitions

Participating in wholesale events will allow you to promote your products to numerous retailers. Below are a few examples of both events to attend to network with buyers as well as platforms to use to do research.

  • Tradefest (https://tradefest.io/en/home): A platform that empowers marketing and communication teams to successfully plan and execute their event-marketing strategy, allowing them to browse thousands of events and reviews from verified professionals to find the best trade shows and conferences in their industry. You can also find different trade shows/expo events on their website.
  • PPAI Expo (https://expo.ppai.org): The PPAI Expo draws thousands of suppliers, promotional consultants, and industry associates from across the country and around the globe. It’s the largest promotional products tradeshow and the best way to kick start your year and build your business.
  • Wholesale Central (www.wholesalecentral.com): Wholesale Central is a business-to-business directory that helps wholesale buyers find wholesale suppliers and products. When you find a supplier, follow the link to their website where you can do business with them directly.

This directory was recommended by Forbes as a top pick for wholesale buying and selling. There are many online directories and some directories are better than others, however Wholesale Central is worth looking into. They have 413,133 items from over 1000 trusted wholesale stores online.

Ordering and Billing Processes

A retailer can lose revenue if products are out of stock. Product demands should be forecasted accurately to avoid delays in delivery—which can hurt the trust and relationships you’ve built with your customers, causing them to be less likely to order from you again.

To ensure a smooth and reliable ordering process, provide various options to retailers for placing orders—via phone, email, or online.

Automate your ordering and shipping processes as much as you can. Consider using an inventory management system to help you speed up the picking and packing processes, so you can detect any shipping issues and provide appropriate solutions. Offering fast shipping may get you a loyal customer.

Customer Service

Be a courteous and radiant professional. Treat every retailer with empathy and understanding—even if occasionally you have to refuse a request. It may go a long way toward creating loyal, higher-volume wholesale customers.

Make customer service convenient and provide your retailer with multiple ways to contact you. Create an FAQ page on your website with questions and answers about products or a warranty return. This will make your retailers’ business run a bit smoother, free up much needed time, and possibly win you a gold star. Retailers whose questions are addressed promptly will soon prioritize selling your products over a competitor’s brand. Excellent customer service will help you stand out, attracting loyal and high-volume customers, which will translate into more sales and higher profit margins.

Special/Introductory Deals

Savings deals offered on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis will uplift your business at a competitive level. Buyers will watch for these special deals and will appreciate the benefits they receive when they work with you—this means more orders for your business. Provide special savings for retailers that purchase in bulk to encourage large-volume orders.

Offering special deals will also help to cultivate loyalty with your current clientele.

You can also provide customers with free shipping, discounts based on product type or the number of purchases made, or product bundle packages.

Wholesale Promotions and Bulk Discounts

Run monthly offers for your wholesale clients, publicized consistently in email newsletters. Increase the sense of urgency by making a limited-time offer to encourage prospective customers to place an order immediately. Once someone has purchased something from you, they’re more likely to come back and order again.

Selling at the wholesale price usually means you have to narrow down profit margins, so you may be a bit wary of offering additional discounts. But, if that additional discount is only available on bulk orders of large quantities of each product, it becomes worthwhile.

Another effective way to increase your wholesale sales is by implementing incentives for existing customers who refer your products to new customers. The more attractive the incentives are, the more enthusiastic your existing customers will be to help bring more customers to you.

Marketing Campaigns

It is a misconception to think that, as a wholesaler, it is not your responsibility to market your brand. It is easy to assume that marketing becomes the retailer’s job. Design remarkable, desirable marketing campaigns to promote your brand, and in return, they will help to increase the demand for your products. In turn, this helps your retailers to sell faster (and come back to reorder sooner).

Recommendations

Become a valuable partner to your retailers by offering insights on popular products that are selling well with other retailers.

It will help you to increase sales for your wholesale business by getting retailers to order a wider range of products from you and also builds relationships and loyalty as they perceive you as a trusted advisor.

Encourage retailers to try out new wares/stock by offering a bundle discount on the new item along with a product they’re currently purchasing, and provide support to help them cross-sell or upsell this new item to their customers.

Wholesaling can be a profitable business venture if followed with an effective wholesale strategy. These little incentives could be just what you need to boost your business.

Mamta Gholap received her MBA in finance and is passionate about handbuilding with clay.

Topics: Ceramic Artists

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