Studying the processes of wholesale, wholesale distributors, and wholesale distribution is quite interesting, however there's nothing like experiencing the success behind developing a system of your own. In brief, wholesale distributors have a bit of leeway in running their systems according to the way they see fit. As a wholesale distributor yourself, you're free to tailor specific processes of your system so that it places a unique mark on your contribution to the supply chain. At the same time, you're strongly encouraged to follow conventional models of operation. From the trivial to the profound, you'll need to have a strong handle on every aspect of wholesale distribution in order to not only get your system started, but also to keep it running and to keep it running well. Make necessary changes, introduce new ideas, and get rid of what isn't working. These are just a few ideas of how to brand your business within the lot of working wholesale distributors.
The end results that you can expect may vary, but one thing is for sure: You're solely responsible for how your specialised system functions. Your sole responsibility is just one of the risks involved in developing such a system, however this freedom doesn't quite give you free reign. There are other components of wholesale that will depend on the familiarity of your system. And if you plan on being one of the successful wholesale distributors, then you must take into account the procedures that are followed by others - and why they're followed - before introducing methods that could potentially slow things down for everyone. At any given time, there could be thousands of retailers depending on your system, which in turn, could be responsible for satisfying the demands of millions of customers.
The idea here is to create a system that (1) contributes to the functions of wholesale distributors world wide, and that (2) improves the processes of each subsystem and of everyone involved in those subsystems. Process improvement alone is sufficient enough to brand a system as uniquely different while maintaining function within the entire supply chain. To a very large extent, people make the mistake of innovating a system instead of improving a system when innovation is not the same as improvement. Innovation often involves the introduction of entirely different systems while improvement involves bettering systems that are already in existence. As you can imagine, innovation could inadvertently bring about flow disruption, conflicts, or even worse - complete shutdowns.
It is therefore vital that your role, like the roles of all other wholesale distributors, fulfils the responsibilities of contributing to the complete circuit of supply and demand. Communication with your manufacturers and retailers must be a regular practice and it must constantly assure that your system, while unique, isn't causing the problems described above. As part of a regular quality control check, this is an issue that isn't answerable only in your business -- it is also answerable in the businesses that use your services. |