7 Ways to Leverage Analytics in Every Corner of Your Distribution Business

Distributors who have embraced business intelligence are making their processes more efficient and uncovering growth opportunities, while distributors that rely on an old-school approach may struggle to keep up.  

Hunches and best guesses are no longer good enough when it’s possible to collect, analyze, and make decisions based on the significant amount of data that distributors generate every day.  

Here are seven ways that distributors can leverage these new capabilities to grow their business: 

1. Inventory Optimization 

Customer demand has traditionally been hard to pin down. Sometimes, it feels completely random. But with the analytical capabilities of business intelligence software, you can stay on top of these fluctuations and move quickly to optimize your inventory. You can identify slow-moving or obsolete items, determine ideal stock levels based on demand variability, and implement dynamic replenishment strategies to minimize carrying costs while making sure you still have enough product to meet demand. On the flip side, you can also determine which products are performing well and move to introduce new offerings based on upward-trending demand. Inventory data is the type of data closest to the heart of your operation, so analyzing it can offer some of the most significant return on investment.  

2. Customer Segmentation and Targeting 

You can further drill down on customer demand and behavior by analyzing purchasing behavior, preferences, and demographics and using the results to segment your customer base. From there, you can tailor your marketing, pricing, and promotions to specific segments, leading to greater engagement and more sales conversions. Casting a wide net may still catch some fish, but it’s nowhere near as efficient as finding the right bait to attract a particular type of fish in a particular part of the sea.  

3. Route Optimization 

 An optimized delivery route could be the difference between a satisfied customer base and a stream of complaints. Data analytics tools can now take locations, traffic patterns, and delivery constraints into account and produce ideal routes that not only ensure consistent on-time deliveries but can also cut down on transportation costs and improve your overall operational efficiency.  

4. Supplier and Supply Chain Analysis  

Distributors are customers, too, and they can use business intelligence to assess their suppliers. Which suppliers are performing well enough to continue the business relationship? Which ones are underperforming the terms of their agreement? Analytics can help give distributors greater leverage at the negotiating table and pivot away from suppliers that can’t hold up their end of the bargain. In fact, data analysis can help distributors manage risk all along the supply chain: If you can anticipate disruptions and demand fluctuations, you can move more quickly to mitigate harm to your operations and your bottom line.  

5. Price Optimization 

Turning our attention outward to the market at large, business intelligence software can give distributors a much better idea of how to price their products and services to remain competitive. You can ascertain your competitor’s pricing strategies, real-time market conditions, and overall market dynamics to develop highly responsive pricing strategies. You won’t get caught under or overcharging and thus miss out on optimal profit if you’re able to pay close and specific attention to the forces that dictate the viability of a particular pricing strategy. 

6. Sales KPI Monitoring 

How well are your products doing, and how well is your sales team doing at moving them? With data analytics, you can set baselines and realistic goals and then track performance relative to those benchmarks. Sales success is extremely quantifiable, but only if you put in the effort to properly quantify them. When a product or rep is lagging, you can move quickly to make strategic adjustments that improve your bottom line and your employee’s success and confidence.  

7. Improved Compliance 

Maybe it’s not the most attractive item on the list, but regulatory obligations still matter, and data analytics can help you stay compliant in an increasingly complex environment. Business intelligence tools automate many of your compliance reporting tasks, and they can also create easy-to-track audit trails and identify any compliance-related processes that could be improved.  

Get Analytical with Enavate 

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers a host of business intelligence tools that can transform your distribution business into an analytics-driven juggernaut. However, properly implementing such a powerful ERP solution takes quite a bit of effort and know-how. Our expert team understands what a distributor needs to take advantage of the business analytics revolution. To learn more, reach out today.