Providing excellent customer service, whether you’re working within a B2B or B2C focussed industry remains paramount for successful business growth and retention. Embracing an omnichannel approach which allows for a positive customer journey is increasingly being adopted by distributors and wholesalers, who are moving to utilise interim retail resource to create competitive advantage. Georgia Hartley-Brewer, Senior Consultant at people advisory business New Street Consulting Group examines the reasoning behind this upwards industry trend.
For distributers and wholesalers, the emergence of multichannel business access points necessitates price transparency, and price equity. It calls for seamless integration into the category and buying processes and it opens the low-cost option of supplier APIs. This, in turn, makes the old school catalogue look outdated, unfit for purpose, and leaves the business at risk of being outpaced by more forward-thinking competition.
However, the deep, often exclusive customer relationships nurtured by B2B specialist distributors are very different to those that are fostered on the high street or in our retail parks. The product knowledge required by such distributors at both depots and trade counters, with a digital channel acting as a nice to have ‘shop window’, allows direct access to the end consumer. If this digital marketing channel is to be leveraged correctly, then retail-based digital expertise is needed to provide business with a competitive edge.
SPECIALIST SERVICES
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Retail experts supporting big ticket item sales (such as furnishings and life events) understand the power of optimising multichannel in an assisted selling environment. For a bathroom retailer that might be visualising your new suite on your laptop screen; for a carpet retailer it might be ordering swatches; for a car retailer it might be booking a test drive. Regardless, the website isn’t just a direct selling channel, nor is it just a shop window either. It is a digital gateway to the full product assortment, to specialist advice, and to moving one stage along the customer journey. Creating a digital gateway requires experience in technology implementation and in digitising customer services. The latter admittedly can come from the Consumer Banking industry, but the parallels between retail and distribution are more plentiful, as distributors and wholesalers are realising.
PRODUCT & BUYING
Another area garnering interest from distribution organisations is product and buying. Some of these businesses with north of 100,000 SKUs, have little clarity on category strategy, assortment planning, own brand or better buying. Add the current economic climate, and these merchants are facing a real need to diversify their product offering. Again, something that is business as usual for retailers.
Sam Tyrer, Chief Executive Officer at DD Group, agrees how valuable retail expertise is in areas such as product and buying strategies, supply chain optimisation and even in mergers and acquisition, stating: “Retail Interims bring insight into optimising multichannel strategies, and enhancing customer experience, ultimately driving financial impact through improved gross margins, profit and efficiency gains in inventory and distribution. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, the demand for retail skillsets in distribution and wholesale remains high – presenting exciting opportunities for collaboration and innovation across sectors.”
SUPPLY CHAIN & NET PROFIT
More executive managers are looking for Retail Interims to deliver quick wins of enormous financial impact, on gross margin and on profit thanks to the downstream impacts on inventory and distribution costs.
Supply chain, demand planning and inventory are specialisms many retailers have mastered well. Some Interims have a combination of merchandising experience and supply chain/demand planning expertise under their belt, making them uniquely aware of a transformation project’s benefits. One in particular, explains how it made her more able to “sell it” by collaborating with her stakeholders.
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
The number of M&A deals in the UK targeting retailers has risen by 30% since before the pandemic. Companies that manage to sustain good cash flow through a downturn, like the one that emerged in late 2022, can acquire competitors that aren’t able to stay afloat. With challenging commercial conditions across distribution and wholesale, and with private equity sitting on a lot of dry powder, interim retail expertise in M&A, be that a PMO, or a Chief Supply Chain Officer, could be hugely helpful in the Boardroom.
New Street Consulting Group is the UK’s number one interim service provider , and has recently invested in a new Academy to tackle the shortage of Interim Management specialists in recruitment. For more information contact its team of consultants here.
