Choosing the Right Wholesale Fashion Platform: Key Factors to Consider

In today's digital age, it is crucial for businesses to embrace technology and digitalize their B2B fashion wholesale processes. While the B2C side of the fashion industry has already experienced significant transformation, the wholesale sector has lagged behind. While end consumers reap the benefits of sophisticated ecommerce websites and shopping experiences, digitalization has not fully penetrated B2B wholesale. However, with the increasing need for innovation and diversification in distribution channels, brands must prioritize digitization to maximize their revenue streams. 

By choosing the right wholesale fashion platform, brands can gain enhanced knowledge, speed, and operational efficiency, thereby turning a hyper-competitive environment into a realm of endless possibilities. To help you in selecting the ideal digital wholesale fashion solution, we have prepared a comprehensive checklist that outlines the key features and functions you should consider.

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1. An Advanced and Flexible Virtual Showroom

For reasons ranging from convenience to exposure potential, your business can thrive by having a virtual fashion showroom. A digital wholesale fashion solution should offer an immersive experience of your brand that engages your customers in this new way.

It should include the ability to curate dynamic selections for individual appointments, a seamless, ecommerce-like shopping experience, and automated order management. 

In addition to hosting virtual appointments, you can refer clients to your virtual showroom following a tradeshow or in-person appointment, so they can easily reference your linesheets and efficiently build assortments.

A virtual showroom is an extension of your brand, a fully customizable B2B site where retailers can shop 24/7 from anywhere in the world. To help support confident buying, it’s helpful to have a powerful team of technology partners to provide captivating multimedia to portray your collections in vivid detail.

For a high performance virtual showroom, ask yourself these three questions:

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Does your brand want to support confident buying and generate more orders?‍

If yes, then look for 360° imagery with spin and zoom options, and the capability to post dynamic brand video of runway shows and more. These images and videos provide incredible detail, comparable to seeing brand styles in person.

Is personalization important to your buyers? 

Buyers react positively to curated selections. Ensure you can send them customized shoppable 3D assortments, invite them to personalized virtual collection walkthroughs, and/or collaborate in real time to develop a common vision and finalize looks and orders. 

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Is increasing average order value an important business goal?

This seems like a no-brainer, but many brands don’t realize how much a direct and efficient business model supports this. Look for automated order processing that utilizes bulk tools to communicate and replace dropped styles.

This will not only increase buyer response, it will also give your sales team the ability to stop chasing order confirmations, and refocus on nurturing existing collaborations, and generating new business.‍

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2. A Simple, Digitally Connected Way to Work Faster and Smarter

An ideal B2B wholesale fashion platform improves your entire wholesale process, end to end. It integrates seamlessly with your ERP or backend system, and provides a centralized dashboard view of all your order process and business metrics in real time. It streamlines, automates, and organizes vital tasks so your team can focus on building the collaborative partner connections that will grow your brand’s revenue, and future.

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ERP Integration

Choose a platform built on open-source technology and APIs to share data seamlessly across business functions and departments, and support connectivity with future technology solutions and partnerships. A platform that has partnerships with over 100 ERP systems, offers the benefit of direct data integrations and the highest quality buying and selling experiences.

A pre-built integration with Shopify can be easily configured to meet clients’ needs. The benefit of an exceptional customer service team as well as specific integration consultants ensure that all of your needs are identified and that the capabilities of the integration are fully understood. With a Shopify integration you receive the benefit of:
1. Control over which products, collections, customers, and orders sync 

2. A fully developed integration according to your Shopify configuration with real-time data

Make sure to adopt a SaaS platform that has a simple and clear implementation process, and will integrate easily with your current systems and workflow.

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Your Integrated Payment Solution

And finally, opt for a platform with a seamless payment solution to meet the demands of cash flow management, simplify foreign transactions, and allow you to avoid chasing down payments. JOOR Pay is a seamless embedded payment solution that eases the burden of international transactions by accepting all major global payment types and simplifying the payment process, all while saving value time and money. Buyers can pay in their currency of choice while brands receive payment in their currency of choice, easing some of the challenges of cross border transactions.

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3. A 24/7 Support System

Looking for a team with unparalleled customer service? Onboarding a new technology can be intimidating, it’s best to secure a trustworthy partner who’s available to support you with platform and integration queries, able to anticipate your needs, and invested in seeing your business thrive. 

Within the global community, it’s wise to choose a wholesale fashion partner with offices around the world, available around the clock, and able to provide expedient localized support in a variety of languages. 

What customer service features are important to you?

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‍Do you anticipate needing support outside of working hours?

If yes, then opt for a provider with round the clock 24/7 customer support. 

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Is localized customer support important to you?

Receiving support in your native language is beneficial to all parties involved, ensuring that issues are understood and resolved in the most efficient and effective manager. It would be best to choose a provider with offices around the globe and support in multiple languages. 

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4. A Partner To Go With You As You Grow

With the right B2B digital wholesale platform, your team will work much more efficiently and intelligently, freeing up time, money, and team members to shift out of the day-to-day and invest into strategy and growth.

Collaboration tools are an essential way to work more efficiently and streamline communication between brands and retailers—choose a provider with in-platform messaging, live chat, as well as shared workspaces.

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Data Supports Scalability

Pick a wholesale fashion platform that can scale with you, support your company at every stage and one that easily integrates, allowing data to flow seamlessly. Digitally-driven insights and efficiencies cannot exist within silos. So when it comes to going digital, it’s important to think big while future-proofing your business.

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Digitalized Wholesale Fashion is the Way Forward

Your B2B digital wholesale platform should function as a gateway to new partnerships and opportunities. It should make your fashion wholesale process smoother, smarter, and faster, removing obstacles while driving growth and scalability. In choosing a B2B wholesale platform, it’s important to have access to real-time order data and forecasting, in order to drive insights, growth, and opportunity. Choose a digital wholesale fashion platform that suits you and your goals, your business could depend on it.

Book a demo of the JOOR platform today and see how the right digital wholesale platform can support your business goals.