Across the globe, the massive disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic has left companies in many sectors scrambling to make up for lost business, and there is perhaps no better example than wholesale going direct to consumer.
As citizens heed officials’ calls to stay inside, many public-facing businesses like restaurants, cafes, caterers, and hotels have shuttered their doors, whether voluntarily or under direct government orders.
This has slowed revenue to a crawl for the suppliers who deliver the goods they craft their wares from. At the same time, as big retail grocery players began hitting the limits of their service capabilities and supply chains, many wholesalers saw an opportunity to step into the gap left in that market and serve customers directly.
2020: The year of ‘the pivot’ for wholesalers
Among the leaders of this trend are large beverage wholesaler LWC Drinks, who ramped up free delivery to households who placed phone orders over a certain value. Fairfax Meadow, a leading meat wholesaler, went the digital route by setting up a dedicated microsite to sell to the public, but also has a hefty minimum order requirement.
One major wholesaler making the leap to direct-to-consumer over the past couple of months stands out for two reasons: The speed at which it was able to roll out a functional new catalog-style storefront and its commitment to helping the most vulnerable citizens in a time of crisis.
Brakes: From wholesale to direct to consumer in one week
This UK-based B2B food delivery service is owned by Sysco, the world’s leading food service business, and has a customer base that include schools, contract caterers, hospitals, hotels, independent dining establishments, and pubs, as well as various large restaurant chains.
Like many other B2B businesses, Brakes had been hit hard by the closure of many of its customers’ businesses. But, rather than bend to the pressure, Brakes joined fellow wholesaler Bidfood and began supporting government programs to get food and household essentials into the hands of Great Britain’s most vulnerable citizens – who were forced to shelter in place for a full 12 weeks.
Ultimately, the company has ramped up its delivery efforts to provide more than 200,000 care packages per week across the country.
Brakes also decided to act proactively to make up its revenue deficit by selling products directly to consumers through a new Web-based B2C channel. Setting an aggressive timeline with its technology partner, KPS, the wholesaler brought the site to life in just 7 days on the SAP Commerce Cloud platform.
But, shifting business models so dramatically in such a narrow timeframe also brought significant risk.
The new B2C site was to run on the same solution and code base as the existing B2B site. However, the company needed to ensure that its existing customers, as well beneficiaries of its philanthropic programs, wouldn’t suffer from poor site performance or service interruptions.
Brakes and its partners collaborated closely to design, test, and implement all required elements of the new consumer-direct channel, including user registration, location, payments, and customer service processes. Brakes can now confidently provide a selection of 6,000 grocery products to 6.8 million households across the UK.
According to Alex Protasiuk, Lead Digital Manager at Brakes, “As a business, we knew we had to respond quickly – which we knew would be challenging, but we have innovative and resilient colleagues at Brakes, so we were able to launch a really great service, in record time.”
