Wholesaling means selling products to those persons or for use includes sale of firms who buy them for resale to ultimate users of in their own businesses. Wholesaling or wholesale includes the sale and all activities directly incident to the products or services to those who are buying for purposes of resale or for business use. If the products or services are sold to the consumers, it can not be called wholesaling. Wholesaling includes sales of any firm to any customer except an ultimate consumer who is buying for personal, non-business use. The Functions Of A Wholesaler are given below:
The Different Functions Of A Wholesaler
1. Buying : Wholesalers act as purchasing agents for their customers whether they are small retailers or industrial users. The wholesaler determines in advance what his customers will want and he has the merchandise on hand wren the customers are ready for it. The wholesaler is the retailer’s buying agent. Wholesalers have a broad knowledge of sources of supply and are able to assemble in one place the products from hundreds of different sources. For all the small retailers to contact the hundreds of individual manufacturers or various products would be impossible. Through the use of wholesalers, the retailers can have access to all these manufacturers.
The wholesaler contacts the various sources of supply from which the needed goods can be obtained. Thus the wholesaler performs a vast buying service for the retailer by contacting a large number of these manufacturers and bringing their products together in one place. In serving as the purchasing agent for retailers and industrial users, the wholesaler also indirectly but significantly aids manufacturers. By ordering enough of a given item to take care of the needs of several retailers, the wholesaler is able to submit a larger order than any of his individual retailers could place. Many operating cost such as order and shipping are therefore lower per dollar of sales. The retailers instead of securing all his requirements from numerous producers, secures through the wholesales who resides in the same town but at arm’s length. The wholesaler meets all the requirements of the retailers.
