White Papers Archive - Page 2 of 4 - Modern Distribution Management
White Papers

5 Ways to Digitally Transform Your Warehouse

With the merging of artificial intelligence, robotics, IoT, and other innovative, data-driven technologies, Industry 4.0 is no longer on the horizon — it’s already here.

 

Seizing the value of Industry 4.0 is key for distribution organizations looking to transform their critical infrastructures. But if your warehouse is still dependent on manual processes, outdated technologies and platforms, and spreadsheets, you may be stuck in the past.

 

Failing to digitally transform your warehouse can affect your entire business, resulting in damaged profitability, decreased customer satisfaction, and unsustainable operations. Read on to discover how the industry can capitalize on new technologies to optimize warehouse operations.

How to Drive Adoption for B2B Technology

Amidst the upheaval of recent years, businesses worldwide have been propelled into a new era of decision-making. Now, as the dust settles, it’s time to not only catch our breath but to seize the reins to achieve new levels of digital agility and innovation.

 

This whitepaper will uncover the stories of two pioneering distribution businesses, illuminating the strategies they employed to overcome resistance and foster a collective embrace of digital change. In this narrative lies the blueprint for success—a roadmap forged by those who have dared to innovate and emerge triumphant in the digital age.

 

Business Model Innovation

Discover how leading distributors are inventing and transforming business models to delight customers, disrupt competitors, and drive new revenue. Our comprehensive report, “Business Model Innovation: Delighting Customers and Disrupting Competitors to Drive New Revenue,” is packed with actionable insights and real-world examples from industry leaders.

 

What’s Inside?

 

  • In-Depth Analysis: Explore trends in business model innovation, including how much new revenue distributors are generating from innovation
  • Actionable Data: Access exclusive survey results from nearly 100 distribution executives, highlighting key priorities, challenges, and investment trends.
  • Future Opportunities: Discover the new capabilities and business model types distributors plan to pursue in the next five years.

Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn about the current – and future – state of business models in distribution.

 

Industry Outlook 2023

Nearly three years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, distribution business conditions are still far from “normal,” as in what they were in late 2019. While improved in most areas of pandemic-led disruption, 2022 was the third-straight year that distributors had to navigate major challenges of inflationary pricing, supply chain bottlenecks and a labor pool that has been difficult to attract and retain. Those factors were amid the ongoing challenge of a digital transformation that the entire distribution landscape had already embarked on pre-2020 but was forced to accelerate by B2B buyers’ rapidly evolving preference for a digital buying experience.

 

With 2022 now behind us, let’s look at the current state of forces impacting distributors, what 2023 may have in store and how distributors can navigate conflicting market signals.

 

How and Where Distributors Can Leverage Automation in 2023

As companies have struggled to pivot normal operating procedures over the past few years, automation tools have rapidly emerged as levers to not just manage stretched employee resources, but to support a deeper business model transformation. Automation – often referred to as Robotic Process Automation (RPA) – typically yields the highest and fastest return-on-investment of any technology deployment, especially in early adoption stages.

 

In this report, we’ll examine ways in which distributors are navigating this journey, expanding the use of automation across every area of the business – customer-facing, back-office, warehouse and delivery. We’ll share insights from a distributor that has created transformational leverage through process automation. And we’ll also offer a few tips on how to frame your own successful automation deployment.

 

Revenue Intelligence: The Defining Advantage in Post-Pandemic Markets

Since the onset of the pandemic, Modern Distribution Management has identified key differentiators between distribution organizations challenged to tread water and those able to strengthen profitability and customer loyalty. The biggest differentiator is how the successful organizations effectively use data analytics tools across operations, sales and marketing, while struggling organizations are holding on to the status quo. And the gap is widening.

 

This report distills MDM research from the past two years to provide a roadmap for how distributors can use advanced analytics best practices to drive revenue growth and profit despite (and often because of) a volatile market environment.

 

The State of Digital Platforms in Distribution

As technology, buying behaviors and influence from the B2C market disrupt the distribution industry, models that worked for decades are no longer effective. Distributors are adopting new platforms, ecosystems and tools to ensure they can fulfill demand across a variety of channels and deliver the additional value commercial buyers demand.

 

Download this free report to learn how distributors must innovate to meet the changing landscape.

 

5 Big Business Challenges Solved by Business Intelligence Software

Distributors find their most significant business challenges are typically centered in five areas. In this guide we look at 5 big business challenges solved by Business Intelligence software. Like a powerful flashlight, Business Intelligence (BI) can “shine a light” on these areas to reveal trends and the root causes. Business Intelligence will lend powerful insights for solving challenges and help improve business outcomes.

 

BI keeps you on top of trends to solve many modern distribution problems before they start. With BI, you have insightful and actionable information right at your fingertips to solve these nagging business problems. Now you can stop “fighting fires,” to operate more proactively, and focus more of your efforts on growing your business.

 

Download your free guide to learn how you can use BI to solve business challenges from day one.

 

Walking the Value Chain Tightrope: How Wholesale Distributors Will Survive and Thrive

Are you leaking profits? Are your margins so tight there’s no room for error? Are you having trouble balancing upstream and downstream partner demands? You’re not alone.

 

But…there’s a way to ensure this all adds up.

 

Download Vistex’s eBook: Walking the Value Chain Tightrope: How Wholesale Distributors Will Survive and Thrive. Use these actionable ideas and tips to survive and thrive despite the big squeeze. This eBook covers how to:

  • Maximize opportunities with your downstream partners
  • Achieve greater margins by exploiting your data
  • Reduce leaking profits and stem margin erosion
  • Gain an advantage by setting the right product mix

Power Up Your ROI and Conversions with Search

How do digital marketers position themselves in the most effective way to present and sell their products? In today’s cut-throat world, a digital marketing strategy needs an edge that sets them apart from the competition.

 

Dive into our whitepaper where we share the secret weapon that leverages AI and data to increase ROI and conversions.

Prioritizing Profits With Your Pricing Strategy

Less than 20% of your customer base makes up 80% of your profits. Chasing the wrong customers can cost you dearly – in time, resource investment, and opportunity loss.

 

To prioritize profit in your business strategy, distributors need to revamp their pricing strategy. Your sales team can move away from the ad hoc “deal desk” approach to a data-driven approach based on the perceived value they bring to their customers. A customer that values your services will pay more for those services.

 

Pricing has a solid trickle-down effect that goes well beyond winning the deal. A well-orchestrated pricing strategy sets the intention for your business. Eliminate unprofitable business pursuing and focus your efforts on those customers who have the promise to become more profitable.

 

Getting Your Sales Team to Adopt a New CRM Solution

User adoption is the key to achieving the greatest return on investment from your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system and can give you an incredible edge over your competition.

 

You can lead your sales reps to the CRM waters, but how do you get them to drink and, more importantly, continue to come back to the CRM well again and again?

 

Over the years, White Cup has partnered with more than 1,000 companies worldwide to help them structure their CRM rollouts for optimal uptake. This report shares 11 things our experts say make all the difference in creating an engaged, enlightened, and fully CRM-empowered salesforce.

 

Credit Where It’s Due

The worst of the pandemic might be over, but B2B point-of-purchase habits have evolved. And they’re unlikely to revert to what they were before. Data now points to a heightened need for quick, easy and trusted credit-approval options to reflect post-pandemic realities for distributors of all sizes.

 

According to research compiled by MDM and Credit Key, quickly securing lines of credit will be vital to B2B companies moving forward. Flexible financing will help suppliers and vendors stay stocked during eras of sustained growth and times of supply crisis.

 

As distributors have rapidly upgraded their technology, many e-commerce customers have gotten used to convenient, digital purchasing options while increasingly turning away from traditional buying options.

 

Companies now are looking for e-commerce specialists and B2B lenders who offer real-world, real-time solutions that allow businesses to focus on their true goals: offering top-line products and services to their target markets.

 

Winning Strategies for Customer Experience: Benchmarks & Best Practices

In this report, MDM Research benchmarks the state of distribution customer experience delivery and
identifies emerging best practices to keep customers engaged in a noisier and more transparent
marketplace.

Turn Searches into Sales: No More Customers Lost in the Sea of Products

Finding a product on a B2B distributor’s site can be like playing a game of Waldo with no idea what Waldo looks like. To spare customers the headache of sifting through a sea of products, distributors can create a more organized, user-friendly experience.

 

Learn how 3 different distributors have cracked the code to growing sales through search.

 

Download the whitepaper now.

Are B2C Best Practices the Future of B2B E-Commerce?

B2B companies investing in digital are seeing value and gaining share.

 

See which product discovery, conversion and customer acquisition tools make your competitor’s roadmap and see what the data says about B2C practices in B2B.

 

Download the survey report now.

Metrics That Matter: Key Metrics for Distributors to Drive 2022 Revenue

Throughout history, the distribution industry has looked to specific metrics to understand business performance. By tracking these metrics, organizations know how they are doing, month over month, quarter over quarter, and year over year.

 

But often, organizations fail to review, reevaluate, and adjust their metrics regularly; as a result, organizations can end up paying attention to the wrong metrics or things that are no longer truly meaningful.

 

Get started with five key metrics that distributors should be reviewing, reevaluating, and adjusting to drive 2022 revenue.

 

Download the free report now.

5 Top Trends That Will Drive Distribution Technology Investments in 2022

Among the pandemic-era trends that have impacted distributors, a deeper focus on robust technology investments may be the longest lasting. Read the results and analysis of the technology portion of the 2022 MDM Trends Survey, where you’ll find how distributors expect to make technology investments and ways companies can plan now to get ahead of the next wave of innovation.

 

Download the report now.

Distributors Rethink the Supply Chain in Light of New Challenges

Supply chain disruptions are expected to continue throughout the coming year and beyond. But that doesn’t mean there is nothing distributors can do about it. This whitepaper addresses some of the key issues that are preventing a smooth supply chain and ways that distributors are approaching the challenges. From taking a closer look at near-shoring to investing in more collaborative business partners and technology, three supply chain experts will take you through the latest thinking on the topic.

 

Download the whitepaper now.

The Growth of E-Commerce Investments in Wholesale Distribution

There’s a lot of noise around e-commerce growth in distribution. But where do distributors actually stand on the topic today? This whitepaper explores the progress the industry has made and takes a closer look at statistics around e-commerce revenue generation, areas of investment and what distributors are doing to boost online brand awareness.

 

2021 Customer Insights Survey

Digital technology adoption among businesses has grown dramatically during the pandemic, with some estimates showing that COVID-19 accelerated the average share of customer interactions that are digital by three years. But what does this mean for a distributor? Is e-commerce enough? Is it time to launch a virtual marketplace? What other digital tools are needed to thrive in the new business cycle now emerging? MDM answers those questions and more in a new whitepaper, 2021 Customer Insights Survey, sponsored by Valtech.

 

Download our 2021 Customer Insights Survey whitepaper now to learn what your customers both want and need from their distributor partners and how your company can integrate digital and traditional communication into the customer journey.

 

What Are Distributors’ Post-Pandemic Technology Investment Plans?

When it comes to the bottom line, the pandemic didn’t treat every company the same. Yes, COVID-19 was an equalizer of sorts. Most states went into lockdown, many businesses were closed and quarantining became the norm for millions of people. Distribution, for the most part, was deemed an essential business, but even still, many distributor customers had to shutter their doors for weeks or even months at a time. The impact was both severe and long-lasting.

 

The MDM-Infor Technology Trends Survey 2021 will provide valuable insights into how wholesale distribution navigates COVID, where it goes from here and what preparations still need to happen should another disruption ravage the industry again.

 

Download the report now.

The State of Commerce Experience 2021: A Turning Point in E-Commerce History

In 2020, a whopping 83% of decision-makers reported double-digit growth in digital revenue. In 2019, before COVID-19, only 9% experienced such growth. This is not a moment to let pass you by.

 

For the second year in a row, Bloomreach, the leader in commerce experience™, commissioned Forrester Consulting to conduct an online survey of B2B and B2C businesses and consumers in e-commerce across the US, UK and Germany. 

 

Read on to discover what the study found, and how firms can capitalize on the market share they’ve captured during COVID-19.

 

Download the report now.

Investment Banking Directory

Work with a banking partner that knows your business. Get detailed information on investment banks with expertise in the wholesale distribution industry.

Register for full access

By providing your email, you agree to receive announcements from us and our partners for our newsletter, events, surveys, and partner resources per MDM Terms & Conditions. You can withdraw consent at any time.

Learn More about Custom Reports

Request a Market Prospector Demo

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Get the MDM Update Newsletter

Wholesale distribution news and trends delivered right to your inbox.

Sign-up for our free newsletter and get:

  • Up-to-date news in a quick-to-read format
  • Free access to webcasts, podcasts and live events
  • Exclusive whitepapers, research and reports
  • And more!