Online Services from Wholesalers Becoming More Common
In the last few years it has been refreshing to notice that along with the boom in the use of ecommerce for selling wine by retailers, wholesalers in this industry are taking advantage of the efficiencies of the Internet. There is competitive advantage to be gained by highlighting a wholesaler’s strengths, offering additional service to customers and support to salespeople online.

In the past, salespeople in particular had been fearful of the threat posed by a web service that allows their accounts to place orders without them. Our industry relies on salespeople to grow market share though building relationships; the opportunity has been to use the Internet to support salespeople by adding greater value for an account, rather than acting as a glorified order taker.

A Multitude of Benefits
Some smaller boutique wholesalers have recognized the advantages of using a website to promote their products. In some cases these wholesalers are affiliated with import companies and a shared website can be the primary source of supplier information online. Wine education has always been a priority for these operations and with less market penetration on the ground some have done well by promoting their brands online. Current and prospective trade accounts can search the Internet for a product and by finding the wholesaler website can place an order by calling, or for trade-only access to their ecommerce site. In some cases, savvy consumers use these sites to gather information they can relay to their retailer of choice. This can result in sales and sometimes new accounts for a salesperson to approach. A wholesaler website that makes marketing materials widely available to salespeople and their accounts ensures these selling tools are more widely distributed.

If a salesperson can be freed from the task of visiting each account to collect orders, there is more time in the day to add value that grows market share. The cost of processing an order can be reduced by directing retailers and restaurants online for transactions that don’t require oversight. If web orders are then integrated with the order board’s computer system, hours of data entry and potential for error can be eliminated. For wholesalers with customers who leave unintelligible orders on the answering machine late at night, this is the opportunity to save on inefficient customer support. If the order board closes at 5pm on Friday, having a password protected ecommerce site can allow salespeople to deliver orders after hours.

More Aggressive Goals
Indeed, there are wholesalers with more ambitious technical goals that have begun to offer services online so that both salespeople and their customers have better tools to manage the account. At some wholesalers, salespeople can track their quotas and bonuses online, and order custom wine lists for restaurants or promotional posters, which also allows the sales department to track these marketing costs effectively.

Beverage Media offers B2B ecommerce through the bevnetwork.com website, but has also made this ecommerce engine available to wholesalers for use on their own websites. Given that product listings are already maintained for the printed book, maintaining them on a website powered by the Beverage Network doesn’t require any additional integration. Adding ecommerce to a wholesaler website is a great first step to getting a better understanding of the advantages of using the Internet to support your salespeople and your customers.