
This means wholesalers have fewer opportunities to influence buyers’ decisions in person. The availability of information through digital channels has made it easier for them to collect information independently.

However, recent research from McKinsey reveals that the B2B buyer has changed. Traditional wisdom held that buying wholesale was too complex to be conducted online, which is why so many suppliers haven’t made an investment in ecommerce just yet. It’s long thought that B2B customers shunned digital channels. With the right B2B ecommerce platform, merchants considering going into wholesale on a large or small scale can automate the process from signup to checkout, offer wholesale-specific pricing, and more. Today, retail ecommerce businesses are selling wholesale to drive growth, without enormous capital investment or high risk. But technology and changing B2B buyer behavior has driven a change in wholesale ecommerce. Wholesale is often thought of as a traditional sales channel with a less than ideal buying experience. The first thought that comes to mind about wholesale ecommerce is mega-sites like Alibaba. It also adds another channel to your sales mix.

By selling items in bulk, you get to take advantage of larger orders and less marketing spend, which generally leads to making more money per unit. The most significant advantage of selling wholesale is that it lowers the cost of doing business. However, there are wholesalers who sell to other wholesalers, and wholesalers-like Costco, for example-who sell directly to consumers.

The most common type of wholesale is between producers (you) and retailers.
