The B2B Trap – Don’t Fall In!

In Fashion wholesale, there are very few topics as hot as B2B systems, and the efficiencies that they can represent in connecting boutiques and major retailers with designers’ sales.  These systems bring it all… fantastic high quality portals for order creation and entry, mobile integration for assisted buying, enhancement of image during market week, the promise of streamlined processes… all for the low, low price of… well that depends.

But do these systems actually represent the panacea to wholesale sales woes that they promise?  The reality is that in most cases no, they do not.

The Good

On the plus side, there are a multitude of systems out that are currently available to perform these functions. Many do in fact look great, run smoothly, and present a far more streamlined and sophisticated image for the designer.  They allow the sales team to assist the buyers in a closer, more conversational fashion, since orders can be selected, set up, modified, tweaked and otherwise manipulated to the heart’s content, usually side by side with the buyer on a sleek mobile device.

Additionally, many of these systems present a web portal that provides those buyers who cannot attend market week with a great view into the line.  They can order right through the portal, have a view into inventory available for purchase, and in some cases even garner a technical understanding of garment or accessory construction and materials used. 

All in all, this probably sounds pretty good, right?  But now lets take a look at;

The Bad

While this portal based sales process is going on, the sales team is not interacting with the buyer to a great extent.  This can result in tremendous disconnects between what the designer is producing, and what the buyer needs.  Some labels can get away with this type of approach, buy many cannot, and producing a line within a demand informational vacuum is a fairly risky proposition.

Worse, most of these types of systems are essentially ‘out of the box’ platforms that your technical staff will have to feed information into.  Depending on the approach taken, these systems can be frequently incorrect as pertains to availability data and other crucial components of the sales process, cannot suggest substitution, and of course since they’re not human, cannot engage in the conversational process necessary to bring satisfaction to any transaction in which substitutions or stock availability issues do occur. 

(For instance, if a buyer purchases 200 of a garment through your portal, and it shows that stock available when in fact it isn’t, the buyer is going inevitably feel cheated, or relegated, whenever your sales staff has to call them to explain the error.)

But this isn’t even the worst of it. There are much more far reaching issues involved which can only be described as;

The Ugly

Why do we turn to software and computer systems within business?  It is because they must invariably

represent an efficiency which we cannot achieve for the same cost through human means.  That is of course a logical statement, and one which any technologist reading this article will very likely agree.

Unfortunately though, in the fashion industry’s rush to embrace the promises that this particular technology represents, many have failed to perform the analysis necessary to actually ensure that efficiency and a measurable ROI have been achieved!

This has lead to dysfunction and disconnects between the B2B platform and the wholesale ERP system.  Many of the B2Bs out there lack the technical integration points necessary to fully converse with the ERP backend.  This frequently results in as much, or even more, manual work involved in entering and processing orders, ensuring fulfillment, and dealing with customer dissatisfaction related to scenarios similar to the one described above.

Imagine, you go through the expense and headaches of a new system implementation only to find out that those great interactions that your sales team is fostering during the market week buying process are offset by that entire team having to turn around and enter all of that data into your ERP manually, discovering inventory shortfalls, and being forced to go back to those very same buyers shame-faced and asking for substitutions... that's a recipe for cancelled orders!

So sure, they look great, and certainly they promote an image of technical sophistication, but I think that it becomes clear that the wrong move in this area can ultimately lead to lost sales, buyer dissatisfaction, more work and a negative ROI... all if which damage your business.

So What Can I Do?

Before taking meetings with companies producing such software, and before looking at the aesthetic of what they offer, first make a prioritized list of the goals which you hope to achieve through the implementation of such as system.  Then, when you’re performing your evaluations, you can have formulated a set of direct and to-the-point questions with which you can gather the facts that will more effectively drive your decision process.

Also, it is very important to understand the exact nature of the answers that you receive to those questions as well.  For instance, if you ask a perspective provider if they integrate with your ERP, you need to look for the details in their answers.  Don’t accept “Yeah, we do that!” or “Oh, we integrate with everything!” or "Our (framework/API/webcall) architecture supports whatever method your ERP requires!" These aren’t real answers, they’re jargon. You need to be able to see the real-world examples, to gain an understanding of just how much work, customization and complexity is involved in making the two systems speak to each other from both ends, and to understand the feasibility of the final result.  Otherwise, post purchase, when you’re in the weeds of implementation you may find yourself compromising on those goals because you failed to pursue the information necessary to a successful product selection ahead of time.

It is as a technologist and professional of many years that I recommend that anyone seeking to perform such a selection engage business technology consultation in order to ensure that these investments bear the required fruit... and that if you are already in this situation that you seek similar counsel in order to make the adjustments necessary to gain more from the system than you've been getting. 

I don't usually plug my company in this way, but this sort of topic is near and dear to me, so it is in the spirit of enlightened self-interest that I point out that my firm, SoHo DigiTech, specializes in this area of expertise. We can provide the guidance and expertise needed to perform proper systems selections, recommend and implement systems architecture changes, and perform deployments, so that you can gain the greatest benefit from each piece of technology within your business, while minimizing your spend, promoting a positive ROI, and avoiding the pitfalls that poor selections and implementations will ultimately represent. 

We call this "profit technology", give us a call to see what it can do for your bottom line!