What do We Know about Online Wholesale Business?
Not so long ago buying things with only one click was hard to imagine. With the advancement of the Internet, purchasing online has become the easiest way to buy things. Occasionally every one of us does shopping online and this tendency is accelerating its pace significantly. For example, the number of digital shoppers has increased by 12 % since 2010 in the U.S. accounting for 196.6 million online buyers in 2014. Given the same pace 2018 will see a 9 per cent increase in the number of online shoppers implying that online shopping has a rather perspective future in terms of its development. Shopping online is simple, social and convenient – now it is possible to have a free moment from the routine shopping at stores and save your time and money. The need to use products for our everyday lives has not diminished, therefore it is important to create user-friendly and convenient online marketplace, which could enable buyers to purchase durable or nondurable goods at competitive prices and with high level of safety.
Today wholesale business industry represents a significant force in driving trade relations and contributing to the economic growth. At the same time, online wholesale business is taking up its positions quite aggressively. Nonetheless, online wholesale business still requires improvement and upgrading in terms of applying new technologies to boost efficiency and increase profits. Here goes the first major point – to remain competitive on the market it is necessary to apply new technologies, be resilient and not resistant to technological innovations or changes. The world is changing fast and adopting new technologies requires wholesalers, especially online ones, to turn to latest technological tools and operational strategies. For example, today some online wholesale businesses benefit from using cloud technology, aimed at streamlining business processes by providing customized and purpose – built products to clients. Those who remain aloof to such trends will end up being outdated and lacking comprehensive and holistic view of the company, thus affecting effectiveness of decision-making processes. As a result, it is important to be flexible in meeting clients’ needs and demands and be consistent in providing high quality services in the omni channel online wholesale business.
Another key to successful online wholesale business is employing double strategy approach, meaning that B2B services, in fact, should be delivered in B2C style. An online wholesaler should treat its business partners in a customer like manner, providing timely execution of services and making sure that they are empowered to influence their experience. In other words, each business partner should receive timely delivery of services and quick and easy customer experience, regardless of what type of business you might have. The ability to unify your business management and ensure interactive customer experience, using, for example, cloud based technology, helps reduce costs and makes you a wholesaler of the next generation. The cornerstone message here is to provide seamless and engaging client experience with the help of technologies, which ultimately enhance effectiveness of all processes and help expand into new markets. As a result, a client regardless whether it’s businesses or general public receives advanced navigation and search system, decent imagery of the products, integration between store and web through all available online shopping devices, like PC, mobile phones, TV or mail which they can use at various online marketplaces. Therefore, the major purpose of integrating technologies is to make our lives easier, online shopping more exciting, and online wholesaler business more thriving and profitable in the future.
To date, security of online shopping is the matter of great importance, especially, with the increasing number of credit card frauds. Moreover, using a credit card at home is considered to be safer than swiping it at stores. As a result, to retain loyal customer it is extremely important to make sure that customers’ money is protected by software credit card protection systems and upgraded, for example, to ‘chip and pin’ system which prevent hackers from stealing money and personal data of the owner. By maintaining safe environment, online wholesalers ensure regular flow of orders and complete control of all the invoices.
Keeping online shopping social and interactive is one of the most important development strategies in online business industry. If clients see that their opinions are heard and acted upon, they would definitely stay loyal to an online wholesaler. Increasingly, online shopping is turning into a means of social networking, where people exchange their views and clues on certain items. Another point here is the importance of getting clients’ feedback on the quality of services delivered to them, thus enhancing and maintaining business relations. For example, one of the software programs aimed at improving customer relations which is heavily integrated by many online businesses is CRM system, a system designed to manage relations with customers. CRM system provides detailed information on each customer, including information on invoices, number of orders and their status.
Despite various economic conditions, there are still products we cannot do without, namely textile, clothing items, food ingredients, and agricultural commodities. The competition among wholesalers is high, therefore it is crucial to choose profitable niche in entrepreneurial landscape. An online wholesaler can venture into various fields, namely specializing in specific area or industry or become a large wholesaler that sells everything from paper to cars and has unrelated stock of items. At this point it is important to make right steps, i.e. defining customer base, conducting market research and ensuring reliable supplies of products, and, the most important, to find your own niche. There are various options to choose from, for example, a wholesaler can specialize in luxury or day-to-day necessities, but ultimate goal is to excel most and reap the rewards from the money invested by finding the most profitable niche. For example, online wholesaler can easily benefit from reducing cost value of premises by securing exclusive rights to supply products from manufacturers.
Another reasonable and quite innovative approach is to turn to online discount wholesaler business. This market has been largely underdeveloped, it represents a significant interest to all shareholders, willing to venture into entrepreneurial landscape. The major idea is to sell repaired, fixed or refurbished items and/or brand new ones to end customers at a significant discount. Today many online businesses provide such services, for example, DirectLiquidation.com. Basically the online wholesale business, as any other business, is about margin profit, but the fact that you don’t have to pay rent for displaying the goods at stores makes it possible to reduce overheads and increase margin, provided that you deliver high quality service, integrate new technology and maintain user friendly interface for all clients.