Features To Look While You Plan Your Wholesale eCommerce Store Online

Wholesale definition simply depicts the clear picture – selling of goods in large quantities and at a cheaper rate as compared to the retail price. Big sharks in the market like BJ’s Wholesale – an American membership warehouse club chain operation on the East Coast of the United States and Midwest Distribution – Electronic Cigarette Distributors in the United States makes it quite challenging for newbies to capture the market. Looking at the emerging online shopping trends, wholesale can be lucrative if you play it right.

Are you having a thought in the back of your mind to plunge into selling wholesale to brick and mortar stores? Well, here are a few quick tips that can make your best eCommerce for a wholesale website a big punch in the market to penetrate.

1. Creating Linesheet and Order Form

Linesheet:

The first and the foremost thing a wholesaler should take care is to prepare a Linesheet. It is merely a compact form of displaying all the products in one go. Or you could say it’s a brochure/ catalog with the list of all products, their wholesale eCommerce price, and the product ID or respective names. It works as a bonus in the wholesale eCommerce platform.

Order Form:

A clear format of the order form should be kept, which makes it easier for the retailer to place the order. It should have a crystal clear Terms and Condition regarding the order placement, replacement, returns, guarantees, and the warranties of the product etc. You can refer to the image below to have an idea about how the Wholesale Information and Order Form should be. Nevertheless, you can have your own unique order form keeping in mind the points discussed here within.

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2. Clear Menubar

There are many store owners that run an online retail as well as wholesale eCommerce store online. Say for example given above; Midwest Distribution spreads its services for individual as well as for the retail prospects. Now, in this case, they have to keep a separate website in both cases.

Informative Menu Bar:

As soon as the customer lands on your online wholesale eCommerce website, they should recognize the type of website it is; retail or wholesale. Clearly defined and retailer target website takes the hit. In order to give a clear picture, the website owner should precisely mention keywords related to ‘wholesale eCommerce’ somewhere in the header or menu bar, so that website visitor can easily make out whether he has landed on a correct store or not. We can have a more clear view from the image shared below.

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FAQ Section:

Apart, from perfect Menubar or Home Page, you should also have an FAQ section to solve most common queries of the retailers before they contact you. Custom tabs can be helpful to wholesale buyers to explore more information. Plugins like Custom Product Tabs can be used to make a quick move with the design structure. This will also help you to make a client base of good retailers and ensures the trust in return.

3. Seamless billing for wholesale ordering

Generally, retailers will make a repeat purchase. If we channelize the repetitive orders, it will help us to streamline the order process from both perspectives. Wholesale eCommerce platform customers know the exact product so, instead of traditionally following the purchase process, Home> Respective Category> Filter > Product > Add to Cart, as a good wholesaler you can create a single page of products (based on previous order).

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In short, the wholesale eCommerce repeat buyers should easily be able to order, in case if the new purchase is the same as the previous order. This will help them to make the purchase process quick and save a lot of time.

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4. Dynamic Pricing Model

Price is the prime factor for each buyer. It will gradually turn into repeat buyers.

Genuine Price Difference:

Initially, wholesale eCommerce buyers will expect a genuine price difference as compared to the retail price. Depending on the product, the price difference could vary from 12% to 60%. Say for example the retail price of a product is $112, then retail buyers would have a set of expectation that the wholesale price would be around $100. So, if the wholesale price gives them a good profit margin, you are sure to hold the customer.

Dynamic Pricing:

Next concern about the price is that it should be dynamic. If you display your wholesale price, it would easy for competitors to penetrate in the market. So, the price of the product should not be disclosed. Depending on the no. of units, a genuine discount could be given to an individual retail buyer.

5. Geolocation and IP address

Currency Recommendation:

Geolocation and IP address can be of great help to recognize the website visitor’s location and make an auto selection of the currency. Say for example, if a retailer logs into the website of Midwest Distribution from the United Kingdom, then midwestgoods.com should recognize the IP address and make a currency recommendation to GBP (£). See the example below.

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Weather Triggers:

Another great idea is to use the IP address and Geolocation is to identify the current weather of the retail buyer’s native and make recommendations on the type of purchase he can proceed. This will halt the retailer, and definitely make a win-win situation at the ends.

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6. Payment Modes

Payments differ slightly in the wholesale market. Often, wholesalers have a good bond with the retailers. They trust them more as compared to the random one time customers. This gives rise to a few different payment options.

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Once the retailer is all set to place the order, keen care should be taken about the payment process. To save on the transaction charge, option for

– Wire Transfer should be given once the order is in process.

– The retailer should be able to Pre Pay or,

– NET 15 / NET 30 / NET 60 payment terms should be there which means the wholesale buyer gets the leverage to pay the invoice every 15 days, 30 days or even 60 days and not at the point of sale.

– In other cases when the payment is done by cash, cheque, or direct deposit, an option for manually marking the order as paid should be there.

– Pre-customer basis can also be developed for customers who do not pay for each order at the time of check out.

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7. Loyalty Program

Customers appreciate when they are given special attention. It is a normal behavioral pattern of each customer. Here, the loyalty program can play a vital role. They can be in a way to follow the concept of Tier Pricing.

Say, for example, a wholesale eCommerce customer is placing an order with your delivery service on a regular basis. In the future, this customer can be offered perks like an additional discount or concession in shipping charges. In another case, the bar could be set on the basis of minimum order value/ minimum quantity ordered for all customers at par. Reward points can be given which the retailers can wave off in making the next/ current transaction.

8. Minimum Order Value/ Minimum Order Quantity

These two factors should be kept as a bar for retailers. It will wave off the small transactions and only get you the genuine wholesale buyer. Now the question is how you can maintain either of?

To make it easy for wholesalers, there are few add-ons that can curb the issue of a minimum order by using it. Here’s the one you can use –  Minimum Order Amount for Checkout It makes the job of wholesalers easier by not letting the customer check out without placing a minimum quantity of order and for wholesalers who do not wish to welcome small order from the store.

These techniques could work magnificently for holding the customers and maintaining the relationships.

Ending Notes

Keeping customers happy is the end goal of any wholesaler or retailer. May it be an online eCommerce store or Brick and Mortar store. Right? The trick that applies here to build a satisfied customer base is that you need a fine blend of your product offering and customer experience.

These are the general notes that can aid the need of Wholesale eCommerce Store as well as Retail.

• Personalization

When you want to target more traffic from all corners of the world – you can focus to customize a few of the features like Currency, Content, Product Description, and Onsite Popups.

• Advanced Product Search

Advanced Product Search is very helpful in grabbing the attention of new footfalls on your website. This makes it easier for them to locate the product easily.

• Pop-Ups

These work best when you have special offers or some new announcements. Nevertheless, customers have the right to close the pop-up and move ahead with surfing. You can definitely try using Pop-ups for reaching more audience for new announcements/offers for them.

There are a lot more things you can do. Share your comments and feedback in the comment section below. Do contact us if you need assistance for designing a sleek design for your store. We have varieties of BigCommerce themes, Shopify themes and lot more to explore with our team of designers and the developers who can build a sleek online store for you.