B2B Wholesale

What is B2B Wholesale

B2B wholesale or Business-to-Business wholesale is a business model where goods or services are sold from one business to another in bulk quantities and at a discounted price in comparison to regular B2B  or B2C pricing. 

B2B wholesale transactions often occur between a manufacturer business that sells goods in bulk to retailers or distributors. Retailers, distributors, or other businesses that purchase in bulk often need these products for reselling or to produce some other items.

For example, a t-shirt-making business can buy different qualities of cloth in bulk from a cloth-manufacturing business. Then a retailer can buy these t-shirts in bulk from the t-shirt-making business. In both these cases, the manufacturing brand is the B2B wholesaler.

While wholesale business was predominantly done offline earlier, with the fast digital adoption in the B2B sector wholesale ecommerce is the norm now. B2B websites and marketplaces are facilitating digital commerce and have rapidly accelerated the growth of the business-to-business sector.

What are the different types of B2B wholesale business models

Wholesale ecommerce can be of many types depending on the type of seller and buyer businesses involved in the business. Here are the 3 most common types of B2B businesses that do wholesale:

Manufacturer Model: As it is clear from the name, in this model, manufacturers directly sell their products to other businesses through their B2B wholesale platform. Companies producing core items that can be further modeled into new products or manufacturing specialized products opt for this business model.

Distributor Model: In this model, distributors purchase wholesale goods from manufacturers and then distribute or resell items to retailers or other businesses. Distributors usually have their own warehouses, and logistics and sometimes may have collaborations with the original manufacturer to have separate branding. 

Dropshipping Model: In this model, the drop shipper acts as a middleman and connects the manufacturer business to the other businesses that need products in bulk for their end buyers. The drop shipper brand’s B2B wholesale marketplace has many manufacturers as vendors. It receives bulk orders from its clients and fulfills the orders directly from manufacturers to end customers. The dropshipper does not maintain any inventory and hence saves on a lot of CapEX which makes dropshipping a popular B2B wholesale model.  

Whatever the B2B wholesale business model, enterprise businesses need a feature-rich B2B wholesale platform to set up their online sales channel. StoreHippo enterprise ecommerce platform comes with a comprehensive B2B ecommerce solution to build B2B wholesale marketplaces and websites. Built on MACH ( Microservices, API-first, Cloud-native, Headless) architecture, StoreHippo gives businesses the creative freedom to build tailored solutions for their unique requirements.

What are the main characteristics of B2B wholesale businesses

Wholesale businesses are mainly characterized by high-volume purchases and sales. Along with that here is a list of key characteristics of wholesale businesses:

• Bulk purchases where products are bought in large quantities, usually at a discounted rate. 
• Lower Prices that are usually negotiated based on order volume and frequency of orders. These prices can vary from one client to another based on relationships.
• Business relationships between manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers that can have a significant role in deciding the pricing and negotiations and can also lead to long-term partnerships/collaborations. 
• Customizations in terms of product quality, added features, branding, packaging etc. based on varied needs of diverse B2b wholesale clients.
• Bulk Discounts are a part and parcel of the wholesale ecommerce ecosystem. Usually, price per unit is inversely related to order volume, the larger the order volume, the less it costs.
• Payment Terms for wholesale orders are typically not upfront and involve a mutually agreed payment term where payment can be divided into different parts depending on the order and fulfillment cycle.
• Efficient Logistics Management using automated logistics and supply chain management tools or own fleet of delivery boys of the B2B wholesale marketplace brand.
• Order Fulfillment services to clients which include handling packaging, labeling, and sometimes even shipping directly to the end customers on behalf of the purchasing business.

B2B wholesale businesses have uniquely distinct requirements and hence need a B2B wholesale website builder that can help streamline, manage, standardize and automate ( wherever possible) all the processes of a wholesale business. StoreHippo B2B wholesale ecommerce solutions with 300+ enterprise-grade features and inherent flexibility and scalability make it easy for different wholesale business models to run, manage and grow their business.

What are the must-have features in a B2B wholesale platform

A B2B wholesale platform is a turnkey ecommerce solution that enables businesses to take their business across different digital channels. Here is a list of non-negotiable features in a wholesale ecommerce solution provider:

• Comprehensive B2B features ( bulk order processing, product and order management, vendor management, RFQ, MQM etc.) to manage the end-to-end business processes.
• Agility and flexibility to create a tailored B2B wholesale marketplace for unique business requirements.
• Scalability to handle large order sizes and vast catalogs/vendors/distributors etc.
• Mobile-ready technology to build multi-channel m-commerce engagement for the B2B whole marketplace’s clients. 
• Bulk order management features to easily and seamlessly manage high-volume orders.
• Complete vendor management solutions to manage different sellers, partners or distributors on the B2B wholesale marketplace.
• Tiered pricing to offer different prices for different bulk order volumes and speed up sales closure.
• Customized prices and discounts so different clients can be given personalized quotes and rates.
• Ease of integration to build a completely unique B2B wholesale ecosystem for the brand.
• Payment options so clients can have hassle-free purchases and seamless buying experiences.

StoreHippo B2B ecommerce solutions come with all the above features to help brands create out-of-box solutions for their business. StoreHippo's B2B wholesale ecommerce platform is built on mobile-first principles and comes with a built-in mobile apps builder to create B2B marketplace apps and PWA stores.

Why StoreHippo is the best B2B wholesale ecommerce marketplace platform?

StoreHippo wholesale ecommerce solutions have built tailored solutions for enterprises across the globe.  Built on decoupled headless architecture, storeHippo platform can be tweaked at the front-end as well as backend to build unique eCommerce solutions for wholesale enterprises. Brands can also build an omnichannel presence using the backend logic and APIs to create new customer touchpoints.

StoreHippo B2B wholesale marketplace builder has built-in B2B features that offer a plug-and-play solution that can be easily customized for unique brand needs. A host of B2B features like tiered pricing, bulk order processing, bulk import-export, RFQ, MQM, vendor management, multi-vendor and multi-store solutions, user-based roles, audit log etc. make it  easy to run the business in a secure environment. B2C, D2C, hyperlocal marketplace, multilingual stores, B2B2C and any other hybrid or custom business models that help in creating unique B2B wholesale websites. 

Mobile-ready StoreHippo wholesale ecommerce solutions also offer a range of apps(B2B marketplace apps, admin apps, vendor apps, delivery boy apps etc.) to handle different business processes on the go. All wholesale marketplaces built on StoreHippo can be converted into PWAs, which means these websites look, function and feel like native apps when opened in a browser. 

StoreHippo also offers go-global solutions ( multilingual stores, multi-currency option, tax engine for different tax rules etc.) for brands planning to take their B2B wholesale business to global markets. PCI DSS complaint StoreHippo platform also offers free SSL and a wide range of native security features to keep the online B2b wholesale website secure. StoreHippo's discount engine and a gamut of inbuilt marketing tools like the blog engine, abandoned cart follow-up, upselling, cross-selling and customizable designs, reporting engine etc. help brands in strategic planning for growth. 

Ready to take your B2B wholesale brand online? Explore the amazing features of StoreHippo B2B wholesale marketplace builder by starting your 14-day free trial now.