Worldwide Merchandise Inc: Concerns of Wholesalers by Worldwide Merchandise Inc
For well over 100 years, the wholesale industry has served an important role in the distribution process, yet Worldwide Merchandise Inc notices the challenges they face today are raising the stakes as many wholesalers fight to maintain their position on the market. Some of the issues facing today’s wholesalers, provided by Worldwide Merchandise Inc, include:
Worldwide Merchandise Inc: Disintermediation – Over the years, growth of the Internet as a communication and distribution channel has lead many to conclude that wholesaling will lose its importance as manufacturers and final buyers learn to transact directly. This “disintermediation”
Worldwide Merchandise Inc: Facility Location – Wholesalers who are typically heavily involved in product shipment may sometimes spend considerable time evaluating sites for locating facilities. The decision as to where to locate becomes more difficult and more expensive the closer the location is to major metropolitan areas for organizations needing very large facilities. Land costs in some regions of the world have risen so high that utilizing this space for wholesaling operations may not be feasible. Facility location is also affected by access to adequate transportation, such as roads, seaports, airports and rail terminals, in addition to land costs. Areas with available land often lack the infrastructure needed to run wholesale facilities unless expensive and time-consuming improvements (build highway, extend rail line, etc) are made.
Worldwide Merchandise Inc: Transportation Costs – For wholesalers involved in transporting products, the worldwide rise in fuel costs has forced a close examination of how they handle product distribution. Transportation expense can represent a significant portion of overall distribution costs and these higher costs are often passed on to customers in the form of higher product prices. This problem also presents opportunities for wholesalers that work hard to control fuel costs with such methods as: using equipment and delivery vehicles that are more fuel efficient; utilizing computer routing software to determine less costly delivery routes; and offering greater incentives to customers to accept deliveries during less congested times of the day.
Worldwide Merchandise Inc: Adapting to New Technologies –Other technologies that assist the distribution process are offering both advantages and disadvantages to wholesalers in addition to technologies to lower fuel costs. On one hand new technologies, like radio frequency identification tags (RFID) placed on shipped products allow wholesalers to maintain tighter control over their distribution activities. But gaining the benefits associated with these new distribution technologies can be expensive in terms of acquiring and learning to use.
Worldwide Merchandise Inc: Offering Non-Product Assistance – Lately, wholesalers are finding that offering products is not the only thing of interest to their buyers. Many customers also want wholesalers to offer additional value-added services such as employee training support and assistance in managing their operations. Keeping pace with the services in demand by their customers requires constant research and communication with customers.
