How Social Media Impacts Wholesale Businesses
Just as with every other industry, the advent of social media has directly affected the way wholesale customers do business. While industry catalogs and other forms of traditional advertising still have their place, the unlimited potential of customer outreach, as well as the cost savings benefits associated with the use of social media, has lead wholesale distributors and their customers to the internet in droves.
Consumer habits have changed dramatically, and it starts with how and where they get their information.
A quick look at some numbers
In 2013, 163.5 million people in the United States, are confirmed social network users. That is more than half the population of 316 million people. Almost 1 in 4 people worldwide use social media to share ideas, communicate and shop. That’s 1.7 billion people and an incredible increase of 18% over 2012.
In the first quarter of 2013, U.S. consumers (end users) spent over $50 billion online, not including autos, auctions, or large corporate purchasers. U.S. merchant wholesalers reported total e-commerce sales of $1.6 trillion in 2011 (latest U.S. Census year available), up 10.2% from 2010. U.S. e-commerce sales were 24.3% of merchant wholesalers’ total sales in 2011.
What do these combined end user and wholesale purchase statistics mean? They mean that the outreach from wholesale suppliers to wholesale customers, and the method by which wholesale customers are receiving their information and making their purchasing decisions, have evolved. Wholesale customers are turning to social media sites such as Facebook to find the best deals and forge strong networking connections.
A quick look at Facebook will give insight as to why any business looking to expand, or any wholesale customer looking for simplified and convenient ways to find products, will build profiles and use social media sites to engage buyers and sellers.
Why use Facebook as the example? Without a doubt, Facebook is THE social media site for any business looking to sell and/or purchase wholesale products. With over 1.1 billion registered accounts, and it’s simple to use interface, Facebook makes it easy for wholesale customers to find what they are looking for with one simple search.
If a business wants to look for a company that sells wholesale t-shirts, for example, the keywords ‘wholesale t-shirts’ would be entered into the search bar, and any company with a Facebook account that sells wholesale t-shirts will pop up in the search results. It’s that easy. Not only that, but Facebook allows companies to link their Facebook accounts to all of their other social media accounts.
For example, any savvy wholesaler will have their Facebook page linked to a well-developed (and FREE) Pinterest account that has their products photographed, described, and cataloged. They will also offer a link to their company’s website on their Facebook page, if they have one, where the wholesale customer can find even more information, including how to order products.
Social Media and Wholesale Markets
There are so many incredible, and free, social media sites, such as Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, StumbleUpon, and Reddit that, when utilized and connected properly, can provide a wealth of free advertising for any wholesaler.
Just as importantly, these social media sites have become a one stop shopping source for wholesale customers who have discovered the power of social media sites, and how they can save their businesses a lot of time and money when it comes to purchasing their wholesale products. In the last 10 years, social media has had emerged as an entity that even its biggest supporters and propagators did not expect.
The general attraction of social media coupled with the rapid advancement in technology has led to social media instruments like Facebook, Twitter etc. being used in even the most remote regions of the world. For an average American, a day is not completed without logging on to Facebook once a day. Furthermore, the use of social media has been made easier through the invention of smart phones and other such gadgets, making social media always accessible.
Like everything else, the wholesale industry is also heavily affected by social media. Traditional geographical boundaries do not exist anymore. Consumers can evaluate and compare prices and quality of products between wholesalers not only in their immediate vicinity but all over the world. This also provides consumers with more options to choose from.
Social media breaks the conventional bounds of the notion that buying and selling is a one-way process where buyers buy the product and sellers sell it. This does not happen anymore. Through social media, buyers are in contact with sellers who ask them for feedback. This very feedback helps to establish the sellers online, and provide future customers with an impression of transparency on how the seller conducts themselves in business transactions.
Lastly, social media provides a vast array of information to consumers. Since most wholesale consumers fall under the category of cognitive consumers who look to seek information before making a decision, social media plays a vital role in their information gathering and subsequently their buying process.
When it comes to the main social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, it is estimated that approximately 60% of their users are middle-aged males and females who very well could be the target customers that you have been seeking out. What’s even better for companies that are interested in wholesale and liquidation, is that all age groups are on average, about 70% more active on social media than they were 5 years ago. That is a number that can be quite significant when you are looking to bring in more customers.
In this modern age, social media can make or break a business, and the wholesale and liquidation business is no exception. Anyone who is in the wholesale and liquidation industry knows that the internet has greatly changed the way business is done .