Wholesale eCommerce Development: 6 Things to Keep in Mind When Building Your Solution

Wholesale is when you sell products in bulk to other businesses or retailers. It is a B2B (business-to-business) model where you do not sell directly to consumers but acts as an intermediary between retailers and manufacturers.

You sell bulk items at a discount using the Wholesale model, and when you do it online, it becomes Wholesale Commerce. Basically, selling online in the B2B domain is relatively new, but the B2B eCommerce market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 19.7% from 2022 to 2030. Its market size was $6,883.47 billion in 2021.

So, in this article, we will find how you can scale your wholesale business in the competitive eCommerce market. So, let’s get started.

How to Win Over Competitors in the Wholesale eCommerce Market?

The popularity of Wholesale eCommerce is growing with every passing day as more businesses are moving online to run their operations profitably. Here is how you can shine in this domain: 

1. Provide a B2C-like Customer Experience

If you own a wholesale eCommerce business, you must understand the fact that B2B buyers are normal human beings like B2C buyers. Wholesale customers also indulge in B2C transactions several times. For example,

• They might shop for some personal items on Amazon
• They may also search Google for product ideas
• They must be using social media for inspiration

So, keeping all these things in mind, you must get an idea of their mindset. While shopping for their business, they must be looking for the same comfort and personalization that they get when in a B2C transaction. Thus, you must set up a seamless experience for your retailers and provide them with ways and products to stay profitable.

2. Choose a Flexible eCommerce Platform

The needs of B2B buyers keep evolving. Thus, to run your wholesale business successfully, you need a flexible eCommerce platform that helps you accommodate these changing needs quickly and hassle-free, for example, Adobe Commerce.

It is one of the leading wholesale eCommerce development solutions that provide out-of-the-box functionality for wholesalers. Adobe Commerce provides built-in B2B sales tools that make tasks seamless for wholesalers, for example:

• B2B quote option: In a wholesale business, it is always personalized. And you will find this feature built-in with Adobe Commerce.
• Catalog of businesses: Several businesses can create shared accounts with defined roles. It makes corporate purchases easier and also simplifies the management procedure for sellers.
• Quick Order: This is another useful feature for wholesale purchasers that saves time on checkout, and you get paid fast. 

Also, numerous Magento extensions are available for wholesalers that will make their tasks even more effortless. All you need to do is integrate the right ones to do the heavy lifting for you.

3. Do Not Forget to Include Buyer-Specific Information

According to reports, 50% of buyers think personalization is a feature that is crucial for deciding which wholesalers to partner with. Without providing a customized experience to every one of your buyers, your website would just be an online version of your catalog that offers no value to the customers. Thus, it is crucial to add personalization by adding buyer-specific information.

Now, how can you do that?

There are several ways to introduce personalization to the wholesale commerce experience. For example, you can display custom pricing and provide separate profiles for your buyers customized to their product selection and the type of business model they use. 

Some of the other features using which you can introduce customization are robust search, interactive tools, and bulk discounts.

4. Make Use of Loyalty Programs

The best way to scale an eCommerce business is by showing your customers that they matter and wholesale eCommerce is not different. Just like regular consumers, retailers also appreciate such experiences.

So, when a retailer makes several purchases from your business, it is time to reward them. For example, you can ask them to test one of your products for free as a reward. Or, you might waive the delivery fee for them the next time they make a purchase. You need to look for creative ways to test this approach and determine what works for your business. 

By offering different types of loyalty programs, you will not just improve your sales but will also increase your customer loyalty. After collecting helpful data after some time, you can use it to find new brands that might be interested in becoming your clients.

5. Expand Your Online Wholesale Business

You don’t make a lot of money on a single product in wholesale businesses, but you cover up your revenue targets by selling items in bulk. So, if you keep operating your wholesale business in a particular region without expanding, you may never grow.

But thankfully, eCommerce businesses are not bound by physical locations, and the sky’s the limit when you want to grow your wholesale eCommerce business. You can reach out to merchants all around the globe using marketplaces, social media, mobile apps, emails, and websites. 

By providing an omnichannel experience to consumers, you can quickly reach more people and increase your brand awareness. This is a sure-shot way to grow a wholesale eCommerce business without investing in buying or renting physical locations.

6. Automate Manual Processes

Managing a wholesale business can be tedious at times. So, you must automate time-consuming processes to invest your energy in improving sales and other essential operations. You need to choose an eCommerce platform that allows automation to do this efficiently.

You can automate tasks such as inventory management, checkout, and billing with the right platform. As a result, you and your team get more time to focus on customer service and marketing. Furthermore, sales teams can invest their effort in handling more complex accounts rather than handling order processing for bulk orders that can be automated.

Wrapping Up

Wholesalers who use online mediums to deal with B2B purchasers experience many advantages. Also, as an ever-increasing number of wholesale organizations take their operations online, you’ll have to make more customized experiences to stand out in the market – which you can easily do when you have the right platform and development team fueling your needs. Get in touch with experts at Envision eCommerce to develop or upgrade your Wholesale eCommerce Development Solution.