Businesses in the wholesaling industry sell hundreds, if not thousands, of high-demand products with one transaction. Sometimes, these orders come from several channels and customers.
Wholesale distribution businesses often deal with the complexities of the supply chain and manage various multichannel sales platforms. Without the right wholesale ordering system, becomes difficult to stay on top of wholesale orders and inventory.
Key Takeaway: A wholesale ordering system makes it easy to manage wholesale orders from B2B eCommerce and B2C clients. Trying to make a restaurant online ordering platform do the job of a wholesale B2B or B2C ordering system will most likely end in frustration.
Imagine running a successful wholesale distributor marketing campaign, and getting new B2B sales leads, but not having a platform to manage the large orders these new customers place. As your wholesale business grows, wholesale order management systems can help you streamline the online wholesale ordering process.
This article explains wholesale order management, various software tools that streamline online ordering processes, such as wholesale inventory management software, and how you can use them to grow your wholesale distributorship company.
What is Wholesale Order Management System?
Wholesale order management refers to order fulfillment processes between businesses selling to other businesses (B2B) and businesses selling to consumers (B2C). These business operations consist of taking orders, revising inventory, and shipping goods.
A wholesale order management platform manages orders, customer data, fulfillment, inventory visibility, invoice processing, and customer experience management. Additionally, you can track and manage bulk orders, and merge orders from multichannel order management platforms.
You can even synchronize your wholesale orders with the available inventory in your distribution warehouse. A wholesale online ordering platform helps you to leverage the power of your wholesale distribution management software to manage your wholesale business successfully.
The best way to keep productive and organized is by using a wholesale ordering system. It makes it easier for you to manage orders more efficiently and helps you close gaps where orders can be lost. You'll notice better customer retention and team communication with an online wholesale ordering system in place, as well as higher order fulfillment accuracy.
How Wholesale Order Management Work?
Unlike retailers and D2C businesses that sell in small quantities, wholesalers operate on a large scale and sell products in bulk to other businesses or directly to customers. Using manual spreadsheets to enter customer data and order information can lead to errors and waste time.
However, a wholesale order management system will automate the order and inventory management process. It will also make it easy for wholesale clients to place orders, either on your website, eCommerce store, or mobile ordering platform.
So, how exactly does wholesale order management work? Let’s find out.
- Creates end-to-end workflows: An online ordering system manages your workflow from the beginning to the end.
- Synchronizes your services: It unifies all your sales channels and creates an omnichannel customer experience for wholesale customers to continue their purchasing activities on any channel.
- Updates your inventory: Online ordering systems automatically remove items from your system or website when the SKU is scanned.
Download this free SKU generator to create your own unique SKU number.
9 Benefits of Online Wholesale Ordering Platform
An online ordering system offers wholesalers and distributors tremendous benefits. Here are the top nine benefits of using an online wholesale ordering platform:
- Improved Customer Experience
Most B2B customers want to process their bulk orders as quickly as possible. However, for wholesalers that have several sales channels which capture thousands of orders, it may be difficult to completely eliminate backorders, bulk shipping issues, and other supply chain challenges.
Using a wholesale order management system streamlines the ordering process from the very moment the wholesale customer places the order. An online ordering system captures the order and checks in with your inventory management system to ensure the product is still available.
The platform then automates the rest of the procurement process. When integrated with a delivery management system, your online ordering platform can track wholesale orders and optimize delivery routes.
In the long run, customers get their orders delivered seamlessly and faster. This will invariably improve customer satisfaction and make it easier to grow customer loyalty to your brand.
- Efficient Ordering Process
A wholesale ordering system makes it easy for customers to place orders from any location and at any time. It also streamlines order processing for your team.
From having an easy-to-navigate mobile app or web-based ordering system to making intuitive purchase recommendations based on past activities, an online ordering system offers wholesalers more efficient business systems. The platform is also very reliable.
By reducing the number of errors, online ordering can help your company build a reputation for consistency and efficiency. Low error rates also lessen the requirement for manual order verification, allowing you to shorten lead times.
- Better Inventory Management
As soon as the SKUs of ordered items are scanned, the wholesale ordering system will automatically remove those items from your inventory. You can use this information to determine how many products you still have and whether to restock them.
Without having to manually change the units on a spreadsheet, you will also be able to manage several orders from the same customer or even from separate clients. By doing this, inventory distortions that can cause your warehouse to be overstocked or understocked will be avoided.
- Reduced Costs
By preventing wrong shipments, delayed deliveries, and lost orders, a wholesale order management system lowers your costs. An invoice or sales order document is created by the online ordering platform immediately after a customer places an order.
When the order is ready to be processed, the wholesale ordering system routes it to the correct warehouse with the necessary quantity of inventory. The products are then ready for shipping. All of these processes eliminate manual labor, which slows down productivity and increases the chance of human error.
- Streamline Supply Chain Management
You will be better equipped to manage your inventory by centralizing your orders and inventory data. A wholesale ordering system reduces the complexities of the supply chain and streamlines your business process flow.
Not only will you be able to do this for all of your own warehouse sites and storefronts, but also for any third-party logistics (3PL) facilities and marketplace fulfillment facilities you may utilize. You can easily track orders and report on their progress from the time they are initially received through picking, packaging, and delivery.
- Better Growth Opportunities
Having a reliable wholesale ordering system is key to unlocking success. Although such software solutions might not be necessary for a small distributor that has only a few clients, they are crucial in the long run. With the help of wholesale order management systems, a supplier can easily grow their business to other categories or brands. Furthermore, any article on how to run a wholesale business will mention that wholesale order systems give customers the opportunity to better filter and search for the products they need. Restaurants, grocery stores, or other clients that order through wholesale ordering systems need to be able to compare different brands and search for the optimal products.
- Easier Price Management
Wholesale ordering systems like BlueCart can make it easier for suppliers to change their prices. That’s important for produce distributors or other sectors where price fluctuations are normal.
- Improved Marketing
As the markets become increasingly more competitive, businesses often need to increase their marketing and advertising budgets. Popular and renowned wholesale ordering systems give multiple opportunities in that regard. With their help, vendors can easily offer discounts or special offers to their customers. Furthermore, some platforms allow businesses to track revenue and net income generated by their customers and analyze their purchasing patterns.
- Potential for Integrations
Wholesale ordering systems are rarely a one-off solution. Instead, they are part of a bigger and more complex software system that can be integrated with accounting software, inventory management systems, or other solutions. This further streamlines the processes within the business and helps distributors lower their costs and save time.
Frequently Asked Questions About Wholesale Ordering Platform
An online ordering platform offers wholesale customers numerous benefits. It can also improve the productivity and efficiency of your eCommerce team structure. Let’s answer a few questions about the wholesale ordering platform.
What is Online Order Management System?
An online order management system is a platform that tracks and manages orders, sales, fulfillment, and delivery. It also syncs with the inventory management system to keep track of inventory and supply levels.
What is the Order Cycle Time?
The order cycle time is the total amount of time taken to process or complete all orders.
What is Perfect Order Rate?
The Perfect Order Rate KPI tracks how many orders you complete and ship without any problems, such as broken goods, incorrect orders, or delayed shipping. Every supply chain business should strive to achieve a high perfect order rate since it denotes both strong organizational effectiveness and customer satisfaction.
Keeping it Organized
A wholesale ordering system streamlines the way you run your wholesale business. The right wholesale order management software can manage customer orders and automate order processing.
With BlueCart, you have access to D2C business models, a wholesale platform, a subscription platform, and an eCommerce platform specifically designed for wholesalers. Scale up your wholesale business with the right ordering system.