Amazon will only allow independent sellers to ship high-demand products to its warehouses until April 5 in order to prioritize medical supplies and household staples. The company has also announced that it will hire 100,000 more US employees to meet demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
MSC Industrial Supply is serving current customers first as it faces increased demand, particularly for safety-related products. "As a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19), we continue to see increased demand for safety products such as N95 respiratory masks and a few other related products," a company spokesman said.
Ferguson's profit for the six months ended Dec. 31 declined by 5.7% to $640 million, while revenue increased by 1.1% to $11 billion. The company's demerger with Wolseley is scheduled to be completed this year.
Boosting business by meeting customer needs and expectations in wholesale Wholesale customers want the same kind of convenience and immediate gratification that you want as a consumer. What do businesses need to do to deliver on that? Hear from experts at NetSuite, Logistics Bureau and SmartBrief in this webinar.
The uncertain nature of sales makes it well-equipped to handle today's uncertain times, writes Paul Reilly. While fear can be paralyzing, embracing uncertainty can be a motivator for improvement.
Salespeople often forget what they've learned during training programs, and just 44% of companies offer formal reinforcement activities to help sellers retain information, according to Aberdeen research. Sales coaching, online training, webinars and role-playing activities are just some of the nine ways to reinforce employee learning, writes RAIN Group President Mike Schultz.
State of the Wholesale Supply Chain Industry in 2020 For the third straight year, Blue Ridge asked wholesale supply industry leaders about their challenges, how they're thinking about solving them and how they're dealing with the pace of technological change. One key finding for the 2020 survey is the adoption of new machine learning, such as A.I., which is on the rise as a strategy to combat supply chain disruption. Get the report to read more.
Reorganizing the apps on your home screen, hiding notifications and setting your phone to grayscale can help you cut down your screen time and improve productivity. "Technology is here with us to stay. What we need to do is to use our smartphones in an effective, efficient way for the kinds of purposes that we want to use it for," says Daria Kuss, a psychology professor at Nottingham Trent University.
Old school distribution is about stocking inventory, taking orders and serving demand. New school distribution is about innovating through customer services and working side-by-side with customers in the real world. The future of distribution is about solving problems in your customer's business -- often before your customer even knows a problem exists. Innovate to Dominate provides breakthrough ideas, lessons from leading distributors who are innovating and inspiration to help you lead your customers into the future and sustain your competitive advantage.
In his new post, NAW Institute for Distribution Excellence Fellow and Author Mark Dancer writes: "Distributors may avoid outsider disruption by being human, but only if they make concrete plans to work with customers where they live and work -- in communities. A new mindset is required. Segmenting customers is about selling. Serving communities is about collaborating. Relationships are built on trust, and at its core, building trust is a very human endeavor." Read his post.
