Inventory Sharing is the easiest thing industrial distributors can do to positively affect their company's bottom line in 2015.

By taking advantage of the benefits of inventory-sharing solution by WarehouseTWO, distributors can sell more and stock less, while providing better product availability to their end-customers.

What is Inventory-Sharing?

“Inventory-Sharing” is formal collaboration of a manufacturer and its franchised wholesaler-distributors. Separate collections of inventory are virtually combined, increasing channel efficiency. Demand by one party is fulfilled by available inventory owned by another party.

Inventory-sharing is more than dumping dead inventory or living off others’ inventory investment - it is true synergy between peer wholesaler-distributors. For many independent wholesaler distributors, inventory-sharing can be a game-changer.

Inventory-sharing benefits distributors, manufacturers, and end-customers.

Benefits for a distributor: Provide better product availability to your end customers, by leveraging the inventories owned by peer distributors.

• Fewer lost orders and backorders, increasing revenue and decreasing open order management time and costs
• Outlet for slow moving inventory for improved asset recovery and financial health
• Opportunity for incremental revenue from sales to like-franchised distributors

Benefits for customers: Closing backordered items faster results in happier customers, saved time and reduced stress.

• Improved product availability from a local source, reducing PO fulfillment delays and open PO management costs

Benefits for a manufacturer: Help one distributor with a critical backorder by identifying which other distributor has the item in stock and possibly eliminate the high cost of making only one unit.

• Improved brand reputation because of better product availability throughout the distribution channel
• Increased manufacturing efficiency due to fewer small quantity manufacturing runs and expedited delivery crises
• Reduction in unwanted inventory in the distribution channel, reducing the pressure to take it back and improving the financial health of the distribution channel

Is Inventory Sharing Right for You?

Not sure if inventory-sharing is viable for your company? WarehouseTWO has come up with a list of “eligibility factors” for you to consider. The more that apply to your business, the more you can gain from formalized inventory-sharing. Click here for the list of eligibility factors.

Think outside your box!

For more information on WarehouseTWO and successful inventory-sharing contact Mark Tomalonis at WarehouseTWO. Click here for a list of WarehouseTWO Inventory Sharing Communities.

Tribute, Inc. provides ERP business management software for industrial distributors. TrulinX and Tribute Software seamlessly integrate with WarehouseTWO allowing customers to quickly search WarehouseTWO inventory directly from their software system and quickly incorporate that inventory into their quotes/orders. For more information about Tribute, Inc. and TrulinX software, click here.