The pandemic had a very mixed effect on the wholesale market in the past couple of years with medicine, pharmaceuticals, and PPE sectors gaining much traction while many others like the food industry took a hit. The lockdowns in 2021 also left reverberations of a shock to the gradually recovering industry with waves of COVID-19 hitting different countries at different times. The question today is: How will the wholesale industry recuperate this year and make headway in the dynamically changing scenario?
In order to understand and prepare for it, let us have a look at some trends noticed in the wholesale industry in 2022.
3 Trends In The Wholesale World In 2022
From a stark shift from expertise, wholesale orders today largely depend on the sellers ability to supply on time and their preparedness in times of disasters and emergencies (especially after the pandemic strike). Let's see three important trends in 2022 that you should be aware of if you are into the wholesale business:
- Predicted Economic Recovery & Growth: Market forecast has predicted a compound annual growth rate of 7% for the wholesale sector with its value taking a jump to USD 64.334 billion in 2025 from the current USD 49,372 billion in 2021. The numbers look pretty good and it’s time for you to pull up your socks and stock up your inventory.
- Growing Importance of B2B Ecommerce: Against the predominant trend of e-commerce businesses being B2C, a prediction by Gartner pointed out that by 2025, 80% of B2B sales interactions will take place digitally. The cost-effective change is highly likely to benefit the wholesale world with bulk orders being an eminent part of B2B commerce.
- Increasing Competition with D2C: A stiff jolt has been felt in the past few years to the wholesale industry with giants like Pepsi and Nike shifting towards D2C channels. The US itself saw a whopping 45.5% growth in the D2C model in 2020. The wholesale world has to rise up to this occasion in order to sail through the stifling competition.
Keeping Up With The Trends With Better Order Management
Now that we have a clear picture painted before us, wholesale order management in 2022 can be tackled with greater ease and in the right way. What actions are necessary to keep up with the dynamic wholesale atmosphere? Let's find out.
Upgrade to an Automated Order Management System
If you haven't heard it enough already, here's us saying it once more – Automation is the Future! For keeping up with the increasing flow of orders while competing with the D2C segment, the best solution is to rely on technology. An online wholesale order management system allows you to be agile, efficient and reduce the chances of creating human errors by leaps and bounds. With automation in order management, you can spend more time and focus on increasing your sales.
Manage Your Pricing System
The right pricing strategy is key to running your business. You want to strike a balance between too high and too low, which can be quite complicated in the wholesale business where multiple markets are involved. While it is a general rule of thumb to keep wholesale prices at atleast 50% of retail prices, it is not imperative and many times impractical to fix these rates. With OrderCircle, you can easily take control of the pricing offered to retailers based on geographical locations and other factors.
Ensure a Swift Reordering Process
When you are in the B2B e-commerce sector, you want a chunk of your customers to be associated with you for the long haul. Especially, with the forecast pointing towards rising D2C trends, you want to give your customers a swift ordering and reordering experience that makes them want to come back to you time and again. How is that possible, you ask? Adopt a template-based ordering system and fix them for sets of customers. With OrderCircle, you can also take consideration of factors like client ordering history and client credit history to plan your relations with them beforehand.
Track Inventory & Product Demands
Inventory management is almost like a stepping stone to a good order management system. As cumbersome as it sounds, wholesale inventory management should be accurate, which implies counting the entire warehouse inventory for a year or more. Once you have a clear sight and updates about your inventory, you can be well-equipped with information about product availability, demands and restocking requirements. This cleans up your entire order management process, eliminating factors like shortages, unavailability of products on time, etc.
Maintain a Positive Cashflow
Your order management system should, at the end of the day, help you maintain a healthy and positive cash flow by tracking timely payments, credit risks and proper invoicing. When the trends are pointing towards growth in the wholesale market, you should be set to handle the accounts as smoothly as your orders. You can also look for an online order management system that integrates with accounting software that reduces your need to manually track payment and doubles your ability to maintain error-free records of payments. (Psst! We're right here)
Conclusion
You are now all caught up with the trends of wholesale order management in 2022 and the best practices to keep up with them. So, why wait? Go ahead and take the lead in the wholesale sector and for the rest, you can trust OrderCircle. Book a demo call with us at a time convenient to you and get the fastest solutions for your wholesale business order management.
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