Wholesale Automation: choosing a B2B portal 

Automation of wholesale trade optimizes sales processes, from placing an order to creating an invoice and completing a transaction. Let’s see how wholesale and retail trade automation is carried out, what is a B2B portal and whether a mobile application is needed for trade automation. 

How does wholesale work 

Business owners engaged in the wholesale use the already-known and trusted mechanism of working with customers. Depending on the niche, it can be very short (3 stages) or very long (8 stages). In most cases, the mechanism of working with customers includes 6 stages: 

• Managers contact customers by calling them, writing in messengers or sending emails. Discussing all the nuances of goods delivery takes a lot of time. 
• After receiving accurate data from the client, the manager looks through the stock balances. It also takes some time. 
• Then, the manager calculates the cost of products for this particular buyer, taking into account all discounts and special offers. 
• The next step is forming an invoice and sending it to the client. 
• Having received an advance payment, employees start forming an order, and then send it. 
• After the delivery is done, the client and the company exchange signed documents. 

This mechanism covers all links in the supply chain. And it highly depends on the human factor, as it can lead to errors in documentation and sending wrong products. There are 5 main problems that arise to the mechanism of working with customers, when this approach is used: 

• Dependence on the employee’s expertise. The manager may take a long time to reply to the request or need additional help. This may cause a decrease in the number of sales and customers. 
• Errors when forming an order. An employee may make a mistake when forming shipments, as some products may have similar parameters. The result is the customer’s dissatisfaction. 
• Continuous training of managers. Every new product requires training employees on how to sell a new product. This requires additional administrative costs. 
• Theft or a flaw. Lower cost of goods or overestimation of the quantity of goods delivered is one of the ways to increase employees bonuses. However, it leads to great issues. 
• Challenging calculation of personal discounts. The exact discount can be hard to count, since they are different for different customers. 

The lack of automation of wholesale sales causes errors that have a negative impact on the revenue. The main solution to the above problems is a B2B portal. It helps automate a large number of manual processes and analyze the entire sales chain in detail. 

B2B portal 

The B2B portal is an online platform for sellers and businesses where they can communicate and carry out their business operations. Automation of wholesale business with the help of a B2B portal is aimed at: 

• Effectiveness 
• Speed 
• Accuracy 
• Reliability 
• Cost reduction 

The main goal of B2B portals is to ensure business safely and convenience. Full automation of wholesale business begins with a B2B portal. 

How wholesale sales work on the B2B portal 

Digitalization of wholesale trade is a new trend. The B2B portal helps simplify the process of interaction between suppliers and buyers. Let’s check the main characteristics of such a portal: 

• To enter the workspace, each employee of the buyer company should have their own username and password. They have different access rights to different information.  
• A catalog is available in the personal account, where only products that are in stock are displayed to the buyer. Prices for goods are shown taking into account the personal discount of the buyer. 
• After the order is formed, the user must pay the generated invoice. 
• The current processing statuses are available in the “Orders” section. There is no need to call the manager and specify when the delivery will be. 
• The client can get all the necessary documents signed in the section “My documents.” Any document can be downloaded with an electronic digital signature. 
• If there are any difficulties, the client can contact their personal manager.  

Digitalization of sales increases the profit of distributors by minimizing the human factor. The B2B platform optimizes all sales processes. So, which B2B solution is better: off-the-shelf or individually customized? 

Choosing a B2B portal 

Individual and boxed solutions have different advantages, and also require different time and costs for project deployment. To choose the right solution, you need to clearly understand the specifics of using both. 

Individual development of a B2B portal 

Individual development implies the creation of all modules of the B2B portal from scratch and is suitable for large projects. 

• This option has many advantages, the most significant is that the system works stably and without failures. Another advantage is that an individual B2B portal provides high data security, excellent performance, load resistance, the capability to implement additional functionality, the flexibility to integrate with other external systems. This solution is developed specifically for the client and implements all the logic that the company needs.  
• Among the disadvantages, it requires more time for development, company should have their own IT infrastructure, and the cost would depend on the logic that needs to be implemented. 

B2B portal boxed solution 

The boxed solution is suitable for simple projects where there is standard logic and where there is no need to invent anything. 

• A ready-made solution allows you to quickly deploy your project depending on your requirements and the quantity of goods. The main advantages of such a solution are the ability to get started quickly and the ability to host a B2B portal on its own platform. 
• As for the disadvantages, you will have a limited functionality and customization capabilities. Boxed solutions can provide poor data protection, load resistance and performance. 

Mobile application for digitalization of wholesale sales 

In addition to the web version, you can develop a mobile application for a B2B portal. Thanks to a mobile application, a company can increase the number of products ordered. Potential customers will approach the QR codes of the goods, scan them, study all the information provided and order the required quantity. 

Digitalization of trade means not only a convenient format of work, but also a revenue growth and many other advantages: 

• Increasing convenience for partners 
• Increase in employee productivity 
• Reducing customer churn 
• Trade optimization 
• Automation of all reporting 
• Improving communication between departments 
• Increase the visibility of important information 
• Improving purchasing decisions 
• Optimized levels of inventory balances 
• Reducing the number of administrative errors 

If you are still unsure where to start, reach to our automation team. MD Cloud will be happy to provide you with a consultation on your project.