Expanding its service, AskmeBazaar has launched AskmeBazaar wholesale, an easy to use online procurement service to assist small businesses in managing their procurement needs from suppliers across the country. The new service will offer significant benefits like searching for suppliers, comparing products, ordering a sample, getting a quote and even ordering online.
On registering with AskmeBazaar wholesale by paying an annual subscription fee of just Rs. 1000 small local businesses like hotels, hospitals, spa’s, salons, small offices, factories etc can now choose and buy from the best suppliers from across the country without leaving their offices. Small businesses can now reduce the time it takes to find the right supplier and managing the service contracts and improve their procurement efficiency to match large business houses who have a large procurement team managing everything.
The new service is very different from existing listing and directory services by enabling direct transactions and communication with suppliers through the internet. All suppliers are listed with full contact details and phone numbers on the portal so buyers can contact them directly if required. Direct transactions were difficult earlier as suppliers have a huge problem managing collections from small businesses across the country and hence there is a network of agents and middlemen who add to the cost and loss of efficiency. askmeBazaar will facilitate collections for suppliers through their network of distributors across the country while shipping is managed by the supplier directly as bulk shipping might require specialized treatment; this reduces the number of layers in the supply chain and leads to greater efficiency in the system.
“We are quite excited about the addition of wholesale to our product suite and are heartened to see the initial response from small businesses and suppliers alike. We have been promoting this concept across industry exhibitions like AHAAR etc and many businesses and suppliers have signed up on the spot. The transaction cycles are longer plus the average invoice amount is larger and hence we are tracking the operations cycle very carefully and will scale up this platform and catalog very soon” said Kiran Murthi, CEO, AskmeBazaar.
Talking about the initiative, Arvind Khanna, Director (The Hotel and Restaurant Equipment Manufacturers Association of India), said, “We are very happy with this new platform which leverages our relationships with local sellers in the hospitality industry and will be a win-win for both the buyer and the seller. askmeBazaar Wholesale has built expertise on selling various products across the sector and has a good understanding of online pricing and managing variety which is a critical competency for this model to succeed”.
Nirmal Trivedi, General Manager, Hotel Ambassador Ajanta Aurangabad and an early AskmeBazaar Wholesale customer said, “We truly appreciate askmeBazaar which has come up with such innovativeand customer friendly product for the wholesale requirement of hospitality industry goods under one roof. I am sure many more sellers & buyers would be benefitted through this wholesale product.
