More and more retailers prefer to shop and make wholesale purchases online. If you fail to address this opportunity, you are losing business … just like if you do not take credit cards. And increasingly, many stores feel slighted, or that you are not serious about wholesaling, if you don’t give them the same online buying options you offer retail customers.
Anytime you enter into ecommerce, you’ll find a HOST of options for building a commercial web site. For our discussion, the type of web site that sells an array of products is often referred to as a “catalog” site – an online analogy to a traditional print catalog. Your catalog site will, of course, need a “shopping cart” system, integrated with a merchant account and/or PayPal for real-time processing.
Operating a basic primary ecommerce website is important for selling your products at retail (direct to end consumers). Retail pricing is where you get the best margins (although the orders are much smaller than wholesale). Even though you are targeting retail customers, wholesale buyers will also find you there, and may call or email you for wholesale information. Of course, you CAN make it easier for them, by pointing them to your wholesale information when they arrive at your retail site.
Over the next weeks, we will be exploring the difference between wholesale and retail websites and how to build a wholesale website.
Hi Sandy! happy to have found you! Do you think a single website can be used to satisy both wholesale and retail customers? My site is currently set up for retail but more and more wholesalers inquire about a website. I was hoping to avoid the expense of a second site!
Hi Eileen,
To answer your question, it depends on how you are using your website. If you are just wanting to share wholesale information with certain stores, it is probably doable. But if you are wanting to have a site where wholesale buyers can place orders, no, it probably won’t work well. Wholesale shipping and terms may be very different from your retail shipping and terms. And if you wanted to promote your site, which target market would you market to: wholesale or retail? Just a few things to consider before making your decision.
Good luck!
Sandy
hi sandy,
I’m facing this exact challenge on my website now. I’m targeting both segments (retail and wholesale) and I’m facing a huge dilemma on how to re- design my hompage. Should i do a pop-up window for wholesalers or should i place a huge text somewhere or this or that, lots of questions. I have already implemented the e-commerce functionality for both segments though, but i find the re-designing part is quite challenging.
Hi Yassin,
I strongly suggest that you set up a form for wholesale customers with a prominent link on your homepage. On the form, make sure to ask for their store name and reseller number along with the contact info. After you receive the form, direct them to a password protected part of your site that lists the wholesale pricing and terms. This way you can monitor and screen your wholesale accounts. Have you figured out how you will handle the shipping for wholesale orders via retail?
Good luck!
Sandy