Your retailers can’t sell what they don’t have on the shelf. And they can’t stock their shelves if they can’t see what is available to order.
Giving retailers easy access to your available products, in real time, is a must. Typically this has been very difficult for brands to pull off. However, a modern, wholesale B2B platform will offer ecommerce automation solutions that eliminate this problem.
Historically, retailers have had to jump through hoops to get access to inventory numbers. They would have to get in touch with their rep via a phone call, or an e-mail, and then often wait to hear back. The rep would have to dig up the numbers, then get back to the retailer with that data. By this point, it’s not uncommon that the information would no longer be entirely accurate.
This lack of access to a brand’s inventory has a definitive, negative impact on sell-though for retailers, and can hold your season back.
Accessing Inventory With eCommerce Automation
Your B2B platform can alleviate this problem, as it acts as a window for your retailers to check inventory in real-time. This allows them to rapidly make ordering decisions and keep the season moving along smoothly.
Since this is often done automatically, behind the scenes through integrations, it also means that your sales and marketing teams gain back crucial time that would be spent updating and communicating inventory levels to their accounts. Reps will also be able to use this inventory data to suggest replenishment orders for their retailers, while offering pro-active support all season long.
In addition, with the right integration and ecommerce automation, retailers can use that inventory data in combination with hyper-localized insights from companies like Locally to delight customers with in-demand products and shop-online-pick-up-in-store experiences.
Surfacing your inventory, in real-time, is a critical piece of building a strong relationship with your retailers, and enabling them with the powerful digital tools they need to sell the season. Your brand doesn’t have to waste time with phone calls and emails and other outdated methods of accessing that data. A modern B2B platform, with e-commerce automation and strong integrations, will free your teams from the countless small tasks needed to maintain inventory, and give your retailers the information they need to satisfy their community and move your product.
