E-commerce leaving wholesalers out in the cold

Research shows 47% of global manufacturers are using e-commerce to sell directly to end customers

The research by Sapio on behalf of Sana Commerce, which canvassed opinion from businesses across a variety of industries, also revealed that a further 24% intend to use e-commerce as an additional revenue stream in the future.

559 global B2B organisations took part in the survey, which also discovered that 41% are changing their business model to better utilise e-commerce and 43% are using online web stores as an opportunity to move away from selling across channels. More than three-quarters of global manufacturers want to sell more online, and according to the survey, 63% of distributors see wholesalers as their biggest threat within the market.

Michiel Schipperus, CEO and managing partner of Sana Commerce, comments: “Businesses are feeling increasing amounts of pressure from online competitors as they enter new markets. To remain competitive businesses will need to utilise their e-commerce systems for more than just to generate sales. With constant changes with the marketplace businesses need to consider integrating their e-commerce solutions with their internal systems, such as the ERP system to allow them to keep up with competitors.”

e-commerce research wholesale