Wholesale Inventories, Prices Drop: What Crisis?
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Loading ...by ruebenmarley
Hmmm… these are interesting times indeed. According to President Barack Obama, as he addressed the G8 summit of foreign leaders last week; lasting worldwide recovery “is still a ways off.” What he forgot to mention was the fact that wholesale sales rose 0.2% in May, and they were boosted somewhat by a 4.4% increase in auto sales, the largest gain since December 2006. (Reuters)
What? You mean people are buying cars… and stuff?
That’s right. It also means that the people who used to shop without thinking much about price and value have begun clipping coupons, while the rest of us – the truly savvy shoppers – continue to sniff out the real deals in this period of economic hardship. If you’re in the wholesale business, it could also mean that your personal economy is going to witness some profitable times ahead.
How can you turn this upward trend into something that makes your pockets jingle? Well, if it was easy… everyone would be doing it. However, I would recommend the one place you can turn your focus towards for now is: the Global Banking Community.
The banks are consolidating, even though they call it diversifying.
It looks like big banks around the world are taking a highly protectionist step, as they start putting a bigger squeeze on lending, and more consolidation efforts will make themselves known in the coming weeks. On the other hand, there is a lot of buzz in the international banking community about the ups-and-downs of the market, particularly in the wholesale sector. Hey, why not? It’s money… and banks certainly do love money. Now that it’s positive, you are sure to start hearing a lot more buzz.
Perhaps echoing the blog post Jason Prescott put up here a few days ago, it’s definitely time to start a big push to advertise yourself to the masses, and firm-up those agreements and relationships with manufacturers and distributors. I’m seeing the same thing here myself, in China. While Beijing is giddily announcing a slowdown – and hinting at a turnaround (don’t hold your breath) – of the economic downturn in the PRC, the reality is that I see a lot of people who were spending money like crazy last year… being a lot more frugal now. I’m also hearing a lot of knee-jerk commentary from the ‘luxury-brand pundits’ who feel like they have missed their chance at getting a bite of the apple. Applying blanket statistics to target marketing/branding strategies, and comparing past performance data and recession-battered KPI’s with today’s forecasts seem to be the modus operandi of the losers, while the winners will regard their chosen markets and target those ‘lower profile’ consumers as a unique animal, and treat them with some well-deserved respect.
Wholesale it is, then. Let Daimler struggle with Mercedes-Benz. You should be riding the big wave while the swells are high, so you can be one of the retailers / wholesalers that are enjoying consumer loyalty long after the tide pulls back.
Indeed wholesale market got a considerable rise.. and everyone wants to jingle pockets. Somehow i agree that the Global Banking Community role is praiseworthy but the global crisis really daunts to a distributor or manufacturer.. However the first priority should be planned advertising for targeted consumers and new brand strategies should also be taken into account to increase profit margins..