Six Supply Chain Actions That Drive Wholesale Distribution Success

A winning playbook for Wholesale Distributors

Wholesaling: The sale and distribution of merchandise to retailers and merchants, or to industrial, commercial and institutional users, sometimes direct to consumers.

Strategic supply chain optimization is just as important a core competency for wholesale distributors as it is for product manufacturers.

Perhaps that isn’t obvious on the surface. A wholesaler’s network may be more regional than global, with an inventory of predominantly finished goods and a gross margin that’s a fraction the size of a brand manufacturer’s. Still, a distributor’s infrastructure has the same properties as a multi-echelon supply chain. Whether supplying customers with a range of goods, or focusing on specialty products or add-on services, wholesale distributors act as aggregators of demand, buffering manufacturers from small orders and logistics complexity while placing inventory closer to customers for faster delivery.

Efficient inventory management and fulfillment operations are essential for success, and leading companies have long recognized that supply chain optimization techniques (demand planning, supply planning, replenishment planning, transportation management, inventory optimization and sales and operations planning) are keys to gaining a competitive edge—or to hold ground against the competition.

This paper highlights several important supply chain actions that every wholesale distributor should take:

• Embracing a demand-driven business model

• Focusing on inventory optimization

• Buying inventory when it’s needed

• Enhancing inbound transportation capabilities

• Moving to a fact-based operating culture

• Improving long-range planning capabilities