You might think that your brand needs to have all its wholesale solutions in place, from customer management to order capture to fulfillment and logistics. Naturally, you want and expect all these systems to integrate seamlessly. While there are huge benefits to automation and integration, these systems could be more than you need in terms of costs, scope, and requirements. And it’s important to spin up the right systems at the right time as you begin to grow your brand.
Trying to implement everything all at once has the unfortunate effect of delaying the solution that would deliver the most significant impact right away. Here are four reasons why a growing brand should adopt a modern, dedicated B2B platform right away - ahead of any other solutions.
Sometimes, what works for B2C works for B2B.
When building B2C channels, smart brands will implement secondary systems after the path to the consumer has been established. Create the product then implement the system for marketing and selling that product to a customer.
Your B2B should follow a similar path with the prioritization of creating channels between production and wholesale. Adopting a modern B2B platform will help you grow your wholesale channel and reveal the bottlenecks in your process. That information will help you make the right decision about what your next solution should be. And then, as your company grows, your B2B solution will grow with it.
Sometimes, it doesn’t. A dedicated system beats a hack.
You might know of a brand that has tried to repurpose its D2C site for B2B. (Your company might even be that brand.) The logic is easy to see - your product data is already going there and you’re already paying for that solution.
This is a mistake. While it may seem easy to just drop your wholesale buyers into an existing system, D2C and B2C platforms were never designed to solve the B2B problem.
It’s possible that a hack could work for a small group of your retailers, but B2C systems were never designed to handle the B2B problem and can’t accommodate the nuances and complexity of wholesale.
A strategic B2B platform drives growth.
Your software should be more than just a tool with a pretty interface. It should be a growth driver.
Software implemented strategically will facilitate your brand’s growth. The best solutions come with a strategy for growth and a team to help you pull it off. If you give your buyers a better buying experience, coupled with a dedicated space to deliver the knowledge as to why they should buy your product, they will buy from you more often.
Spreadsheets hinder growth and cut your profits.
The allure of spreadsheets is understandable. Familiar, most everyone has access to it, and you can be up and running right away. Careful though, it’s a trap!
Each field on your spreadsheet represents real value in your bottom line. And using a spreadsheet to track your B2B transactions puts that tangible profit at the mercy of an undedicated, error prone system. From accidentally keying in the wrong number to mistakenly messing up a formula in a given cell, you’re putting your entire wholesale channel at risk as every mistake negatively ripples out into your profits.
A modern B2B platform will grow your business from day one. Follow the same path you took with B2C and prioritize establish a sales channel to your buyers at retail. It will deliver an efficient, dedicated process that can scale with growth, strategic content and commerce systems that drive your wholesale channels, and eliminate risk to your bottom line.
The time to implement a B2B is now.