Deal or no deal: what will price-comparison do to wholesale?

The title of this blog is taken from this month’s Better Wholesaling magazine (link below) and the question really is what impact Improve That Price will have on the wholesale/retail industry or if your products are well priced why not be compared?

In the article there are wholesalers commenting about having different prices for different customers especially customers who buy in volume. It seems that some suppliers fear that Improve That Price might damage their business model of keeping the ‘special prices’ for their ‘special customers’. Bellow are three comments by wholesalers taken from the article:

1. IT COULD ENCOURAGE CUSTOMERS TO CHERRY-PICK: Customers could be tempted to buy the cheapest product at the cheapest time, which Landmark suggests could impact margin.
2. SAVVY RETAILERS AND FOODSERVICE OPERATORS ALREADY KNOW THEIR STUFF: Customers don’t have much time to spend on price-comparison sites, when many know the market anyway.
3. CUSTOMERS WANT TO COMPARE MORE THAN JUST PRICE: Retailers, caterers and foodservice outlets want to compare other areas of service, such as availability and deliveries.

When Improve That Price was created it was with the SME’s in mind and if a business can ‘cherry pick’ to stay profitable then this is the right way forward. When I ran my small business, part of the regular tasks was to improve the bottom line, which one would always make time for, and when attempting to do this there are usually two options:

1. Increase prices.
2. Improve your COS.

When a business increases its prices usually it tends to loose a number of customers and therefore the ideal option would be to improve the cost of sales as the profit is in the buying.

It is important that a supplier has good stock availability and that deliveries are regular and on time but should any of these basic requirements be unsatisfactory then users have the ability on Improve That Price to leave feedback for the supplier in order to inform their colleagues and keep the suppliers on their toes.

Improve That Price’s aim has always been to provide the most up-to-date information as possible for the 99% of businesses that do not poses the ability to purchase in bulk or buy in volume but are limited to buying the products they need as price marked. It is in the interest of these SME’s to compare suppliers as they make up the bulk of the sales for many wholesalers.

Keep comparing, keep saving and don’t keep calm!

http://www.betterwholesaling.com/magazine/september-2013/deal-or-no-deal-what-will-price-comparison-do-to-wholesale/

Cash & Carry on Improve That Price

Improve That Price, launched 18 months ago, has since that first day increased its list of suppliers from 3 to 61 and the list is growing, with user numbers also increasing month on month by an average of 50%.

However, its only recently that we added Cash & Cary as we feel that if we are to give a true price comparison of the entire food/drink/catering industry then it goes without saying that Cash & Carry retailers must be included as so many of our users buy from them regularly.

Users are now able to compare the likes of Costco, Bestway and Bookers and understand, at a glance, whether its worth making that trip to the local Cash & Carry, get it delivered or preorder from the distributor and collect.

One has to take into consideration when going to a Cash & Carry additional costs and inconveniences such as: 1. the traffic, 2. travel time, 3. shopping time, 4. queuing at the till time, 5. lifting the goods from the trolley to the till and back and into the van and out. 6. fuel. I am sure there are more inconveniences but if the Cash & Carry are so much cheaper then perhaps this might be worth the effort as it is all about that bottom line and we do for our businesses whatever it takes!

We believe that even in our very traditional industry the internet is the future and when a business owner has the option to go into the stock room, scan with their Improve That Price phone app all the products they want to order for delivery and choose, via the app, the cheapest supplier for that particular order at that moment then that must be the way forward.

The industry is undoubtably moving towards the internet and I am happy that we have a small part in this change for the better.

The entrepreneurs helping small businesses find a price that’s right

On the 19 May 2013 an article in the Sunday Telegraph was published about Improve That Price and how the site is helping SME’s to save money on their regular purchases.

The article also highlighted the fact that some of the companies that are being compared are not happy with having their prices on improvethatprice.com. These companies are substantially more expensive than other distributers. One company even suggested to “take further action” should their details not be removed.

This is positive feedback which we like as it shows that we are doing something right. We want companies to complain about us, we want them to be unhappy that we are comparing them against much cheaper suppliers and we want them to reduce their prices so that small companies also have a chance in this competitive market where its always the big players who manage to negotiate better deals due to the buying powers they have.

SMEs accounted for 99.9 per cent of of all private sector businesses in the UK of which a large number is in food and catering.

Check out the link below to the article in the Sunday Telegraph.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/festival-of-business/10064898/The-entrepreneurs-helping-small-businesses-find-a-price-thats-right.html

How do you know?

Have you ever thought about how you know that your website is giving the service your users want and need?

Of course there are several ways to check the popularity of your site, there are the visits you can count or bounce rates you can check, there are page views and average time on site. These are all really great tools that give you an overall picture of how you are doing and how well your site is being liked.

The best way to know if your site is successful, is it making any cash?

I get it, but I myself am not happy with it because I always think to myself “why is the bounce rate so high” or “is this all the time they spend on my site???” It could and should be always better, right? It also could and probably should also make more cash!

In my my opinion, nothing beats speaking directly to our users, getting firsthand feedback, watching them actually using the site and making notes as to where they click or don’t.

You can’t buy this kind of information and even if you could how could you be sure that the feedback you are getting is relevant to your particular site?

Improve That Price was designed for small businesses and helping them get the best prices possible in these really hard times. I had a small business and know how difficult it is to try and compete against the big players and the leverage they have over suppliers. We aim to level things a little, making the wholesale market more transparent. Showing SME that they can also get good prices to tempt the customers they lost back.

We ar doing this by offering a service which is tailored around the needs of small business. We are able to do this as this is our background meaning we have been there our selves and understand their needs.

Unilever Food Solutions use Improve That Price to launch new Knorr product

Recently launched Improve That Price has been chosen by Unilever Food Solutions to launch a  product from one of their major brands, Knorr.

With annual sales topping €3 billion, Knorr is Unilever’s biggest-selling brand.

The product is featured on Improve That Price’s homepage and has been extremely well received by the over a thousand chefs and restaurant owners who regularly use the site. Improve That Price is the first price comparison site for the catering industry with user numbers growing by 50% each month.

We compare over fifty suppliers in food, drink, catering equipment, cleaning and hygiene with other categories being added soon.

Improve That Price is an extremely useful tool if you own or work for a restaurant, bar, convenience store or catering company and want to make sure you are getting the best prices from your suppliers.

Are you prepared?

In business, as in life, anything can happen, and it usually does!

It is for this reason that as a business owner it is key to have the right tools available to make sure that should the unexpected occur then you are as prepared as possible.

Improve That Price aims to be one of the tools in the arsenal of a business to be used to increase profitability and make sure there is a cash cushion available in times of need.

Of course Improve That price is not the only solution but it’s certainly a way to help reduce one of the largest cost and if one can achieve that the the battle against rising costs is certainly winnable.

Are you prepared?

For all your Coca Cola needs

For all your Coca Cola needs

colacoke.co.uk is a website dedicated to assist users who are looking for competitive deals on their Coca Cola purchases. It offers a direct link to www.improvethatprice.com, the price comparison site for all your wholesale catering needs including food and drink.

For all your coca cola needs

For all your coca cola needs

http://www.colacoke.com is a website dedicated to assist users who are looking for competitive deals on their Coca Cola purchases. It offers a direct link to http://www.improvethatprice.com, the price comparison site for all your wholesale catering needs including food and drink. 

The more the better!

Improve That Price is a price comparison site as you may know should you been following these blogs. Our aim is to help small business improve the prices they are getting from their wholesale suppliers. We started with catering equipment, food and drink and there are several more categories in the planing, some will be going live soon.

Our team is made up of people from the food industry and we understand the difficulties of running a business really well, with high costs being the one massive headache.

It is really important for us to keep business up to date with new developments on our site as we believe that if you want to stay ahead of the game you need information. The more information we can provide the better your decision making will be. We will continuously update ITP with good quality, relevant and useful information to help business make those decisions.

The latest news at Improve That Price is that we have just added a major new food and drink wholesale supplier, AtoZ catering supplies.

The reason for these blogs is to spread the word as we feel small business needs to wake up to the fact that saving money is possible even if you are not a multi national company with big buying powers.

The market is changing and becoming more transparent so if you want to save you must compare your suppliers. The more businesses compare their suppliers the more the suppliers will have to compete for YOU, the customer.

The more the better!

Why Compare?

When you are a business owner it often happens that you can loose sight of some areas of your business. This may perhaps be due to the fact that you rely on certain people in charge of certain roles within in your business to care and perform well, but as we know this is not always the case. There are suppliers who you and your employees build relationships with over the years and you assume that you are being well looked after and in some cases this may be true but I know that when it comes down to my business, I want to know exactly where my money is going to and know that I am getting the best price possible. We know what happens when one assumes! http://www.improvethatprice.com makes comparing your suppliers as easy as possible and gives the business owner the tools to be able to achieve the best possible deal for his business. If, for example, a business owner is looking to buy Coca Cola cans, currently the most searched for and clicked product on improvethatprice.com, then there are several prices to choose from ranging from £7.36-£8.50. These are massive differences. Below is a link to that page: 

http://www.improvethatprice.com/product-comparison.php?ProductMasterID=13770

Improve That Price also offers a catering equipment category which is certainly not a category used daily by businesses but the savings can be substantial. From the hand stick blenders to the kitchen sink its pretty much all there.

There is also a food category and several more are being currently developed. Will keep you posted.