Expense Reduction Trade & Wholesale Solutions

Maximising Opportunities in the Trade & Wholesale Sector

The COVID-19 pandemic has hit the Trade & Wholesale sector in unexpected and unprecedented ways. The impact has caused serious disruptions in global supply chains, influencing product availability and increased delivery times.

However, the pandemic has also created opportunities for the sector. Whilst in the short term we have seen business reduce stocks to lower inventory investment, supply chain disruptions have highlighted vulnerabilities. To remain responsive supply management is changing, creating opportunities for service providers widening supply options and increasing inventory to buffer demand.

Traditionally, the Trade & Wholesale sector bridges supply chain gaps between producers and market supply chains, regulating volumes and timing with distribution needs and providing financial and knowledge support. But the internet is also threatening that position as information becomes more transparent with direct access between end user and producers. Will Amazon and Ali Baba, following their success in consumer markets, disrupt the business to business market as well?

To what extent will that change the competitive arena? How should companies in Trade & Wholesale position themselves in the supply chain, with traditional roles changing? What role should technology and digitalisation play? How should Trade & Wholesale meet the challenge to offer the same service, speed and reliability being experienced in today’s consumer markets?

Download the full Expense Reduction Trade & Wholesale Solutions whitepaper and start exploring answers to these questions, along with tangible insights and actions you can take to strengthen the future sustainability of your business.

The traditional role of wholesale is changing in today’s world

Volume production, general market distribution, with large, stocked inventories was historically the key aspect of a wholesaler’s operations. Over time these features have been replaced by just-in-time deliveries, build-to-order, and customisation.

In a rapidly changing world, businesses must be proactive in leveraging new tools and technologies to keep up with changing consumer expectations. Inside the Expense Reduction Trade & Wholesale Solutions whitepaper, we explore a number of crucial topics including:

Industry Disruption

Retailers are struggling to compete with Amazon, but until recently, wholesale has been relatively unscathed. But could the advent of Amazon Business change that?

Digitalization as Opportunity

While large parts of the wholesale sector are still struggling to identify suitable digitalization strategies and business models, two industries have already seen the opportunities and understood how to use them. The book trade and IT industry were among the first to face the challenges presented by online commerce.

New Providers in Payment Management

The wholesale industry has been providing credit assistance to retailers for many years through generous payment terms on the goods supplied for resale to consumers. As a result, many wholesale companies have developed highly professional and efficient systems for managing payments and receivables.

These are just a few examples of the topics covered inside the whitepaper and there’s plenty of other insights and valuable advice available too.

Areas of Opportunity for Improved Sustainability & Cost Reduction

This list is not exhaustive, but hopefully it helps you to visualise just how much potential opportunity there is in your business to save money, improve cash flow and increase financial flexibility.

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