As technology and demand evolve, wholesalers keep facing unique challenges. In today’s climate, these challenges are more pressing than ever.
For starters, there’s the matter of the global pandemic. It’s hard to deny that COVID-19 helped accelerate the trend toward online shopping. This rapid change in consumer preferences has many retailers struggling to keep up.
The pandemic also affected the way we look at sales. These days, making wholesale sales is likely to involve disintermediation. This process cuts out the middleman from the distribution chain, making you deal with customers directly.
As tough as these challenges seem, they aren’t insurmountable. Here are ten strategies that can help you increase wholesale sales in this digital era.
1. Offer Special Deals
Let’s start with the obvious one: building extra savings into your daily or weekly offerings. Instead of going to your competitors, B2B buyers will wait for these specials. With some luck, this should result in a boost in orders.
You can also go with the tried-and-true bulk discount method. Alternatively, consider offering special deals beyond the initial wholesale discount. To make sure these incentives are worth it in the long run, do a cost-benefit analysis.
2. Make Order Recommendations
Whenever a customer places an order, consider suggesting extra merchandise. This process can be automatic or handled by a live customer service representative. Think of it as the wholesale version of upselling.
The obvious comparison for this strategy is Amazon. Not only do they offer related merchandise during checkout, but they do it on product pages as well. As a result, many customers end up buying more than they planned.
Your field reps can employ a similar strategy with the help of a mobile ordering app. The app allows them to sell smarter and more efficiently.
3. Automate Where You Can
How much time do you spend on order management and distribution? If the answer is “a lot,” automate some of these processes. Devoting fewer resources to manual labor will make your customer service more efficient.
As for how to leverage automation, you have plenty of options. You can use it for wholesale ordering, calculating sales tax, and processing payments. It’s even possible to automate adding items to your sales channels in real-time.
4. Reward Your Referrals
All your customers have their personal networks. Tap into these connections by offering rewards for referrals. This involves offering discounts to both the new customer and the customer doing the referral.
Before settling on a referral program, find the balance between cost and opportunity. In this case, adding a middleman could be beneficial. If the program turns out to be successful, you’d be in line for a big pay-off.
5. Streamline Your Operations
Efficient business owners expect efficiency from the suppliers as well. Are you maximizing operational efficiencies at your business? This can involve anything from inventory control to supply chain management.
Fortunately, there are many solutions that can help you with this task. For example, you can personalize your B2B storefront to offer a buyer-specific experience. This allows buyers to browse your extended catalog, check stock availability, and more.
6. Advertise Free Gifts
When it comes to how to increase sales in the wholesale business, few things are as effective as gifts. Specifically, gifts that go along with first purchases.
One thing you can do is offer different gifts based on order size. That way, you’re encouraging a first-time buyer to make a larger purchase. Of course, you’ll want to make sure that the gift provides value to the buyer.
When choosing your gifts, don’t go with products that sell well on their own. Instead, gift something that you have an overstock of. You can also opt for something that should sell more but isn’t getting enough traction.
7. Create an Engaging Campaign
In wholesale, content is king—but aesthetics aren’t far behind. Use contrast, color, and professional design elements to create a compelling marketing campaign. Use solid copy and CTAs to make ads as effective as possible.
You can use the same principles for other parts of your marketing strategy. For example, look at what Amazon is doing with email campaigns. During holidays, they send “merry” messages designed to market their products.
8. Give Discounts to New Buyers
A one-time discount for new buyers is always an effective way to attract traffic. It incentivizes potential customers to give your business a chance. Since they’re getting a discount, the risk is minimal.
There are plenty of ways you can go about this, from free shipping to a percentage of sales value. This mostly depends on whether the customer is a consumer or a retailer. Test different promotions to see what works best for you.
9. Provide Good Customer Service
If a retailer decides to purchase your products, go the extra mile for them. If you have to refuse a request, do so with courtesy and professionalism. This is the best way to ensure loyal, high-volume customers.
Cultivating relationships with buyers is particularly important for a direct sales strategy. In this case, establishing loyalty allows you to personalize your upsell offers. Plus, it’s an easy way to figure out the most effective incentives.
10. Have Limited-Time Offers
Once you have a retailer’s attention, it’s essential not to lose it. To get your prospect to go from “maybe” to “yes,” consider building deadlines into your offers. Exclusivity is a great way to make buyers feel like special customers.
In the short term, this has the obvious benefit of increasing sales and order numbers. Plus, you may capture new customers interested in a good deal. This is also a good way to get rid of inventory that you’ve been holding on to for a while.
Wholesale Sales Made Easy
The more you know about wholesale, the better equipped you’ll be to implement these strategies. The tips we outlined above are a good starting point, but you’ll need to keep track of market trends as well.
Salesforce automation/order entry app solutions for field sales reps like OrderTaker offer an advanced trade promotional module that can allow you to setup special deals on select items, offer free gift items from a selective bundle, discount new customers, provide discounts on orders that exceed a specific size and much more. OrderTaker’s custom B2B eCommerce web portal can be personalized to the needs of your buyers and provide an exceptional user experience to allow them to place self service order directly to a Wholesaler, Manufacturer or CPG. Finally, OrderTaker can automate a variety of functions, including the ability to integrate all orders into your back-office accounting/ERP system, eliminating the need for administrative staff to manually enter orders in and the costly order entry errors that ensue.
Want to know more about how a mobile ordering app can help you increase your wholesale sales? Check out our detailed guide right here!