The business of wholesale is all about efficiency. Selling in bulk to retailers and other businesses is often a streamlined process, at least compared to retail. A B2B model is also usually less complicated, compared to catering directly to consumers that come in all shapes and sizes. Wholesalers have a limited number of clients they cater to, and it’s all about making sure that each step of the fulfillment process goes smoothly. Yet for all the efficiencies that wholesaling comes with, there are still gains to be made by using the right software.

Wholesale CRM software is quickly gaining popularity with wholesale-distributors. According to the National Association of Wholesale-Distributors (NAW), a survey showed that 61% already use a CRM to help manage their workflow. However, this lags behind the overall market as 74% of businesses used a CRM solution in 2019. Typically, those who eschew wholesale CRM software do so because they think that these platforms cater to “customers” that are individuals, and not so much “customers” that are other businesses. They feel the ROI will probably not be good enough.

So can a wholesale CRM software solution help your business? Let’s examine just some of the ways it can bring more efficiency to your brand.

Today, wholesale businesses rely on ecommerce platforms to conduct the majority of their business. Shopify is one of the most popular platforms in this category, not only due to it being robust enough to handle any wholesale website, but also because of its large app store that helps you find the right integrations that work with the platform.

Wholesale CRM software like Endear integrate right into Shopify, making it easy to integrate a CRM solution into your workflow. Owners don’t have to make any changes to their Shopify shop, and they can take advantage of other integrations as well such as Quickbooks.

By finding apps that work in your Shopify ecosystem, it streamlines the entire workflow process so data from your website is fed and stored right in your CRM. And because software like Endear captures first-party data (i.e. user activity on your website), your CRM becomes an important resource of customer activity: what they clicked on, where they browsed to, what products they ultimately purchased, how many shopping carts were abandoned, etc.

Understanding the “why” of the actions on your Shopify site will lead to actionable insights, helping your brand increase online conversions and recommend better products to the shopper.

Speaking of higher conversions…

Wholesalers don’t have to worry about marketing directly to consumers, but they sometimes think that they don’t need to market at all. Yet conducting B2B in today’s visual business place means stepping up your marketing materials to position your brand and your products above your competition.

Too often today, wholesalers email out catalogs that look something like this:

That seems right out of 2008, doesn’t it? Your wholesale CRM software can do much better:

Endear’s CRM provides brands with easy-to-make Shoppable Stories; visually stunning catalogs for today’s businesses that truly help sell your products to your client. It’s more than a gimmick. Stories have helped Endear clients see increased order frequency by over 100% as well as a near 20% increase in Average Order Value.

By presenting your products in this dynamic way, your wholesale CRM software builds visual marketing right into the catalog you’re sending to your clients. Here is where the ROI of the CRM really starts to speak for itself, more than justifying the cost of the software.

Wholesalers typically spend the bulk of their time managing and tracking shipping. This can take up so much of their day that a key aspect of the business goes neglected: communicating with clients and suppliers.

From reordering reminders, to shipping updates, to marketing messages; every person in the wholesale business knows that the right, targeted communication has a big impact on the success of their business. After all, since it’s generally less expensive to retain a customer than to find a new one, taking the time to make sure your clients feel cared for is important, albeit time-consuming.

That’s why great wholesale CRM software includes tools to manage communications more efficiently. In Endear, automated emails and SMS can be triggered off of Campaigns.

Messages from templates can be automatically triggered by segments and conditions that make it easy to maintain the right communication with clients and suppliers. For example, a Campaign can be crafted around a previous order size of, say, lipstick. If you know that X order size usually starts to run out in 30 days or so, you can set up an automated reordering message to trigger at day 25.

Automated messages can be tagged with individual members of your team, so responses can go right to your team member’s inbox to keep the communication going.

Automatically send out customer satisfaction followup emails, or promotional messages around certain dates and milestones, or even automatically send out a Shoppable Story triggered off their last purchases and showcasing all the related products they may also be interested in. This feature can save hours dedicated to communication, helping your team run more efficiently in the day-to-day.

While Customer Relationship Management software puts the emphasis on the customer, there are also plenty of features built into most CRMs that can help your team collaborate better and increase overall effectiveness.

Having all your data and messaging in one interface helps each of your workers know which accounts belong to which team member, preventing duplicate messaging and making it easy to keep track of correspondence in case multiple team members work on an account.

Endear also has sales attribution and tracking, so your team can know who triggered a sale and what messaging led up to that sale. This way, analyzing what drove success for your team is simplified and obvious, providing actionable takeaways just by looking at the dashboard.

At the end of the day, your wholesale CRM software should more than pay for itself by providing sales insights and saving your team hours of time each week. Endear clients see an average of a 94x return on the cost of a subscription. Ready to get started? Click here to get a free demo of Endear today!