Wholesaling involves selling products or services to businesses for resale or operational use, differing from retailing by focusing on efficiency in larger transactions and a narrower diversity of offerings. Wholesalers provide essential functions such as risk bearing, financing, and market information, and can be categorized into merchant wholesalers, agent wholesalers, and manufacturers' sales facilities. Merchant wholesalers offer a full suite of services, while agents negotiate sales without taking title to goods, enhancing the distribution process.

2. As opposed to retailing, wholesaling is the act of selling
products or services for the use in businesses. That being said, the
wholesaling diversity is much more narrow than that of the
retailing industry.
Wholesaling is the sale, and all activities directly related to the sale,
of goods and services, to business and other organizations for:
(1)resale
(2) use in producing other goods and services or
(3) operating an organization.

3. Wholesailing is the activity involved in selling goods or
services to those who buy for resale or business use.
Excludes manufacturers, farmers & retailers.
They are also called distributors.
Pay less attention to promotion, atmosphere & location.
Transactions are larger than in retailing.
They are used whenever they perform one of
the following more efficiently: selling & promoting, buying &
assortment building, bulk breaking, warehousing,
transportation, financing, risk bearing, market info &
management services & counseling.

4. FUNCTION OF WHOLESALERS :

5. Wholesalers perform number of functions.
They facilitate the task of producer and retailer by performing one
or more of the following channel functions :
 Merchant wholesalers:
Merchant wholesaler is independently owned business that takes
title to the merchandise it handles. Merchant wholesalers include
Full service, Truck jobbers, Drop Shippers.
 Market information:
Wholesalers give information to suppliers and customers

6. about competitors new product and price developments.
 Management services and advice:
Wholesalers often help retailers train their sale clerks, improve
store layouts and displays and setup accounting and inventory
control systems.
 Full service wholesalers :
Full service wholesalers provide a full set of services, such as
carrying stock, using a sales force, offering credit, making

7. deliveries and providing management assistance.
They are either wholesale merchants or industrial
distributors. Wholesale merchants sell mostly to retailers and provide
a full range of services.
 Risk bearing:
Wholesalers absorb risk of the manufacturers by taking title and
bearing the cost of theft damage, spoilage and obsolescence.
 Financing:
Wholesalers finance their customers by giving credit and they finance
their suppliers by ordering early and paying bills in time.

8.  Selling and promoting:
Wholesalers’ sales force help manufacturers reach many small
customers at low cost. The wholesalers have more contacts and
are often more trusted by the buyer than the distant
manufacturer.
 Buying and assorting:
Wholesalers can select items and build assortments needed by
their customers, thereby saving the consumers much work.

9.  Transportation:
Wholesalers can provide quicker delivery to buyers because
they
are closer than the producers.
 Warehousing: Wholesalers hold inventories, thereby
reducing the inventory costs and risks of suppliers and
customers.

10. Create value for targeted
wholesaler customers
Wholesale marketing mix
• Product & service
Assortment
• Wholesale prices
• Promotion
• Distribution(location)
Wholesale strategy
• Wholesale segmentation &
targeting
• Differentiation & service
position
WHOLESALER MARKETING STRATEGIES:

11. TYPES OF WHOLESALERS :
Wholesalers can be broadly divided into
three broad categories Merchant wholesaler, Agent wholesaling
middleman and Manufacturers’ Sales facility.
Merchant wholesaling Agent wholesaling
middleman
Manufactures sales
Full Service
Manufacturers
agents
Branches
Truck Jobber
Drop Shippers Brokers Offices

12. Industrial distributors are merchant wholesalers that sell to
producers rather than to retailers.
 Truck Jobbers : They perform a selling and delivery function.
They carry a limited line of goods (such as milk, bread or
snack food) that they sell for cash as they make their rounds
of supermarkets, small groceries, hospitals etc.
 Drop Shippers: They operate in bulk industries such as coal
and heavy equipment. They do not carry inventory or handle
the product. Once an order is received, they find a producer
who ships the goods directly to the customer.

13.  Agent wholesaling middleman: It is an independent firm that
engaged primarily in wholesaling by actively negotiating the
sale or purchase of products or behalf of other firms but that
does not take little to the products being distributed.
 Manufacturers Agents: Agents represent buyers a seller on a
more permanent basis. Manufacturers’ agents represent two
or more manufacturers of related lilies.
They have a formal agreement with each
manufacturer covering prices, territories, order handling
procedures, delivery and warranties and commission rates