The Golden Rule Of Wholesale Distribution Business

Posted by sanchit sawant on March 4th, 2020

Many businesses turn to distributors with the intention of expanding their reach while aiding certain labour-intensive, logistical aspects of doing business, such as order management, fulfilment, delivery, invoicing, and accounts receivable. When you sign on a distributor, you have to be prepared to give up a lot of control over your brand. It is completely a matter of choice whether you really need them for your business, but if you want to make it big, you will have to engage them at some point of time or the other. However, you cannot expect wholesale distributors to be like magic solutions to all your problems. In fact, distributors are often very difficult to work with since they will behave in a way that makes sense to them, which to you might come across as unreasonable and incompetent.

At the end of the day, the golden rule of wholesale lays down that it can work wonders for your business, if you manage to internalize and apply it to everything that you do. It all boils down to what the retailer needs. Your considerations should be centred around, how can we make the retailer’s life easier. If you are into distribution business, ask yourself- what do my retailers need? If you are hearing many of your retailers complain that working with you is challenging since you only sell direct, then it is time to look into your wholesale food distributors options. If the majority of your accounts are independent shops that are satisfied with buying from you directly, then stick with self-distribution, and stay true to that golden rule within that distribution strategy.

Remember that the easier you are to work with, the more you will stand out from the legions of small wholesale producers, and the happier your buyers will be to produce more of your product. The only sure-fire way to understand a particular retailer’s needs is to ask them. They may have pain points with your case size, packaging, price, demos, etc. by asking, you can show that you are keen to incorporate whatever can be reasonably incorporated into your wholesale program.