Petroleum Distribution Software

Rebalancing Your Inventory Like Your Retirement Accounts
Most financial advisors recommend rebalancing your retirement accounts on a yearly basis. The goal is to maintain the target mix of investments to achieve optimal performance.

They Call Themselves Jergens Industrial Supply; We Call it Break-Through Innovation
Like many distributors, Jergens Industrial Supply found itself needing to think outside-of-the-box to reinvent its value proposition in the midst of disruptive forces. These included increased competition from industrial supply behemoths with vast order volume and buying power, as well as the need to cater to an uber empowered customer base that recognizes it has many buying options.

All Non-Stock Items Aren’t Created Equal

Just about all distributors do some portion of their sales via non-stock items. For some, it’s very limited and only done when necessary. Others embrace non-stock item sales as a way to provide more value to their customers. On the surface it would appear to be a no-brainer to embrace non-stock item sales. 

To Scan or Not to Scan – That is the Question

I'm always amazed at how varied distributors opinions are towards utilizing bar code scanning in their warehouse operation. Many distributors swear by it, indicating that it’s critical to their business.  

Is the Price Always Right?
The exact dollar amount of the right price is different depending on the perspective. For the customer, the right price is the lowest price. For the distributors, the right price is the highest price. Therein lies the problem: balancing the price the customer wants to pay with the price the distributor needs to charge.

Who Knew There Were So Many eCommerce Options?

When you discuss eCommerce, people immediately think of a web storefront. But for many distributors there are several different aspects for offering an eCommerce omni-channel. Let’s look at a few.

OPs, Up-Tos, and EOQs.. OH My!
Many businesses purchase an ERP system with the goal of automating their purchasing process. Instead of making manual buying decisions, the goal is to use the power of your ERP system to automatically generate purchase orders for the buyer to review and edit as necessary. This frees up the buyers time for more productive tasks like negotiating with vendors, analyzing new product lines, and expediting existing purchase orders. But the problem for many buyers is that the formulas and settings can seem intimidating.

Innovation Paves Way for New Distribution Challenges
I recently came across an article in Time magazine, The 25 best inventions of 2017. The best inventions ranged from shoes engineered to boost performance, a flavor packed guilt-free ice cream that packs fewer calories, mugs that heat your coffee just right, to glasses that give sight to the blind. It seems like today’s efficient electric cars and smart home technologies were introduced into the mainstream a decade ago.

Distributors, Race to Faster Growth Online at Insights 2018

If your growth strategy involves online reach, this year at Insights follow the great conversation happening on digital commerce.   We have a compelling line-up of sessions featuring digital commerce experts from Epicor and fellow customers that have done it already – increasing customer loyalty by driving a branded online presence,  offering rich and deep product choice, accepting orders from any device, and creating compelling experiences to B2B buyers through any channel.

The Art and Science of Inventory Planning and Management – Part II
Demand planning needs to account for many different scenarios such as the following – you’re selling an $8.00 widget – a customer wants to buy these widgets but decides to go with another vendor because your price is $3.00 higher than a competitor. Or lets says the buyer wants 8 and you only have a quantity of 5 on hand – they may buy the 5 or decide not to buy because you can’t fulfill the total quantity of 8. That extra 3 or 8 widgets that could have been sold but will not be needs to be incorporated into the demand forecast.