The Best Wholesale Distribution Software In 2024

Wholesale distributors have lots of products to keep track of at any given moment. Distribution software can improve this process, but only if you get the right program for your needs.

Compare Top Wholesale Distribution Software Leaders

In this article, we’ll review some of the best wholesale distribution software available and its key features. We’ll also discuss some of the software’s benefits to help you understand how it can improve your business process.

Article Roadmap

• The Best Wholesale Distribution Software for Businesses
  • QuickBooks Commerce
  • NetSuite
  • SYSPRO
  • Acumatica
  • JD Edwards EnterpriseOne
• What Is Wholesale Distribution Software?
• Common Features
• Benefits
• Next Steps

The Best Wholesale Distribution Software for Businesses

QuickBooks Commerce

Overview

Formerly known as TradeGecko, this small-to-medium business-focused platform was acquired by Intuit in 2020 and rebranded as QuickBooks Commerce. It offers powerful automations and visualizations to help you manage your products and warehouses, ensuring your supply chain moves smoothly throughout.

QuickBooks Commerce combines various workflows, including manufacturing, sales, order management, CRM and distribution. The system can track different business-relevant KPIs and enables you to monitor aspects such as account balances, orders, late payments and transaction history. The platform also automates the order routing process by aligning sales and inventory information. EDI integration is also available through the B2B E-Commerce portal.

Benefits

• Batch and Expiration Tracking: QuickBooks Commerce lets users assign products to inventory by buckets and create/edit products in batches. The system contains a Stocktake tool, which enables you to adjust and transfer stocks. With this tool, you can also trace products by the customer and see inputs on expiring batches.
• Order Fulfillment: QuickBooks Commerce offers rapid order fulfillment through the execution of workflow action items. The program can integrate with ShipStation and other third-party add-ons to send shipping specifications and returns to 3PLs.
• Accounting: QuickBooks Commerce helps completely automate the accounting process. Multi-currency support is included and can help users develop accurate conversions. It’s also easy to integrate this platform with others under the QuickBooks umbrella and take advantage of its powerful reporting and bookkeeping capabilities.
• Customer Relationship Management: Automate the discounting process by collecting customer information such as postal addresses, billing details, average purchase types and purchase sizes. Users have role-based access to customer and supplier information, helping in shipping management and creating default custom addresses for customers.
• Multi-Channel Inventory Management: QuickBooks Commerce lets you manage orders from all sales channels in a centralized location. The program supports sales from any country and in any currency. Synchronized stock information can eliminate stock shortages.

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NetSuite

Overview

NetSuite is a cloud solution for wholesale distribution software needs that helps centralize, automate and streamline the supply chain. Geared towards medium to large businesses, it manages the full spectrum of ERP needs from finances to inventory from a single dashboard and makes it easy to see the status of any order or item in the process.

The order and billing management functionalities in NetSuite centralize finances, sales and fulfillment to help manage quotes and reduce billing errors. Warehouse management features let you optimize, configure, define and store inventory in multiple locations, and with users in over 200 countries and territories, global organizations can easily benefit from its worldwide connectivity.

Benefits

• Order Management: NetSuite gives you visibility and control over the entire ordering process from the time a sales quote is entered to the time an order is fulfilled. The platform can manage quotes and reduce billing errors through the integration of workflows such as finance, sales and fulfillment.
• Workflow: The program contains prebuilt functionality for omnichannel sales engagement and includes financial management applications with built-in marketing support, enabling you to automate the most tedious bits of the process.
• Source Management: NetSuite offers a real-time supply portal that centralizes the purchasing process and ensures compliance. The system also contains dynamic forecasting and operational planning functionality, with the algorithm continuously forecasting based on any data deviance.
• Warehouse Management: NetSuite can optimize, store, define and configure inventory through aspects such as barcode labeling, warehouse activity dashboards, expiration tracking and shelf-life tracking.
• Customization and Visibility: Organizations can view information related to customers, items, orders and inventory in a centralized location with NetSuite. It can be configured to meet unique business needs by setting rules and managing requirements through the built-in automation capabilities in the solution.

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SYSPRO

Overview

SYSPRO is a wholesale distribution software solution built for all sizes of business, boasting a partner network of over 1,600 resources and a Microsoft.NET database for saving SQL data. It’s one of the most flexible solutions available, offering both on-premise and cloud deployment options based on your business needs.

SYSPRO’s wide range of capabilities can help you manage orders, inventory, manufacturing, production and most other wholesale supply chain elements from a single dashboard. With global partners in over 60 countries, it’s ideal for businesses operating in multiple territories.

Benefits

• Lot Traceability and Serial Tracking: SYSPRO allows you to assign serial numbers to products and trace them through the entire manufacturing and delivery process in real time. You can also identify where defects occur and quickly work around them.
• Order Management: SYSPRO streamlines the order-to-delivery process, and users can view all operations as they occur. Additionally, the sales order module assists with order fulfillment and processing, and the CRM module enables businesses to connect with customers.
• Sales Analysis and Optimal Pricing: The SYSPRO sales analysis tool helps predict product sales trends and determine revenue per item. This feature also helps measure the profitability of different customers.
• Lean Inventory Management: SYSPRO’s inventory optimization capabilities automatically monitor KPIs and provide a balance between inventory investment and services.
• Cost Tracking: SYSPRO gives you insight into the cost and profitability of each product moving through your supply chain, enabling you to optimize your inventory and focus on the products that make you the most money.
• Product Information: SYSPRO contains an integrated environment for various products in single or multi-warehouse spaces, allowing for the management of large inventories. This tool can also assist in executing and planning warehouse replenishment along with order fulfillment requirements.

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Acumatica

Overview

Acumatica centralizes essential business functions such as finance, distribution, field service, manufacturing and CRM to meet a variety of wholesale distribution software needs. It’s deployable on-site and through the cloud for small and medium-sized companies. Acumatica also offers a robust training program and support system to ensure businesses make the most of their software.

The Acumatica Distribution Management Suite is integrated with the Financial Management Suite to create a robust distribution system that helps manage the purchase requisition-to-payment and quote-to-cash processes. Over 5,000 customers currently use this solution, which makes it easy to share data with your partners.

Benefits

• Requisition Management: Acumatica can organize distribution processes that are complex and involve multiple suppliers and products. It can obtain bids, gather requests, manage purchases, fulfill orders, and create and approve quotes for external or internal needs.
• Advanced Inventory Management: Acumatica lets you view reordering quantities, inventory in transit and inventory costs in real time. It also supports multiple warehouses, inventory sub-items, lots, bin locations and expiration dates. Acumatica manages system-wide inventory to manage distribution operations and any incurred costs.
• Purchase Order Management: Acumatica offers online sourcing to assist with the procurement process from obtaining vendor quotes to paying invoices. It can build, submit and manage purchase orders from various locations along with developing a variety of approval paths that adhere to current operational processes.
• Sales Order Management: Acumatica’s sales order management tool coordinates sales processes such as fulfilling sales orders, entering quotes, tracking prices, creating shipments, checking available inventory and applying discounts, all in a centralized location. It also offers real-time customer service data to assist the sales and service departments.
• Financial Management: Acumatica’s accounting suite is integrated with its distribution management, customer management, manufacturing management, project accounting and field services management product suites.

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JD Edwards EnterpriseOne

Overview

JD Edwards EnterpriseOne is a cloud and on-premise wholesale distribution software option that includes project management, financial management, asset lifecycle management, CRM, manufacturing, order management, reporting and business intelligence, supply chain planning and logistics functionality. It is catered toward small- and medium-sized companies, along with large international discrete manufacturers.

This system is compatible with several databases, hardware and operating systems. It offers a low Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and allows users to configure it to meet their unique needs without writing code. The program offers a manufacturing and distribution module that contains multi-channel order-to-cash visibility through order processing control with an end-to-end lifecycle.

Benefits

• Supply Chain Planning: EnterpriseOne’s modules include order promising, demand management and value chain planning. Additionally, the program is prebuilt with connections to supply chain planning modules that add extra capabilities.
• Order Management: EnterpriseOne gives users visibility and control over the order tracking lifecycle along with streamlining order processing by handling elements such as accounts receivable and sales management.
• Financial Management: EnterpriseOne’s financial management tool supports localizations, legal reporting and payment systems for more than 40 countries. It also offers integrated financial reporting, expense management, business intelligence and fixed asset accounting functionality.
• Adaptability: EnterpriseOne lets you leverage customized analysis through the formatting of transactional data into graphs, charts, tables and lists. The system also contains support for different currencies, languages and technology standards.
• Product Visibility: EnterpriseOne allows users to view product and material statuses in real time during the manufacturing, procurement and distribution processes.
• Interoperability: EnterpriseOne is easy to integrate with your business’s existing databases, hardware, software, third-party and legacy products.

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What Is Wholesale Distribution Software?

Wholesale distribution software is a program or set of programs that integrates with your business supply chain to give you complete visibility over your operations. It combines several important business operations into a single software hub, allowing you to automate your workflows and see how goods are moving at any given point.

Some distribution platforms better serve specific business needs than others, so it’s important to compare options and select the right one for your needs.

Key Features

Different wholesale distribution software specializes in different features, and some may work better for your business than others. Here are some capabilities you might want to keep an eye out for:

• Sales Order Management – Captures orders from different touchpoints and manages the sales process from entry to fulfillment
• Procurement Management – Manages the procure-to-pay process, records supplier information and analyzes supplier performance
• Warehouse Management – Contains functionality such as receipt confirmation, inbound processing, slotting, cross-docking and inventory optimization
• Production/Manufacturing Management – Controls production planning and scheduling, quality management, capacity planning and cost management
• Inventory Management – Measures demand, available stock, manufacturing shortages and product pipelines to optimize material ordering and reduce spoilage
• Financial Management – Offers basic and advanced accounting functionality, including receivables management, bank reconciliation, financial planning and analysis, enterprise risk management and cash and liquidity management
• Supply Chain Management – Supports the entirety of the supply chain and connects distributors with relevant parties such as suppliers to improve visibility and facilitate operations
• E-Commerce – Gives customers a digital shopping experience and uses web analytics and customer behavior to optimize sales tactics
• Logistics Management – Conducts carrier booking, freight planning and optimization, freight tendering, freight order forwarding and dynamic route planning

Compare Top Wholesale Distribution Software Leaders

Primary Benefits

Here are some of the most common benefits that wholesale distribution software can have for your business after deployment:

Increase Revenue

Wholesale distribution software can help increase company profits in both direct and indirect ways. For example, improving relationships with suppliers and customers can directly boost revenue by retaining more clients or getting better discounts from vendors who enjoy working with your business. Improving efficiency and cutting down on time with automation, on the other hand, can have an indirect effect on revenue by speeding up the supply chain.

Delight Customers

Using CRM capabilities within your wholesale distribution software helps improve the customer experience, retain existing clients and attract new ones. This contributes to revenue as mentioned above and also helps build your reputation as a business that cares about its customers.

Reduce Manual Errors

Many wholesale distribution software systems can automatically gather and clean information so that employees don’t have to spend time manually looking for inaccuracies. Additionally, by automatically transferring and collecting data from across a company, fewer manual errors will enter your system, making your insights more accurate and freeing up employee time for different tasks.

Increase Productivity

Wholesale distribution software enables you to automate various steps and tasks in the supply chain process, both freeing up employees to work on more important tasks and speeding up the more tedious parts of the chain.

Faster Insights

Through dashboards, graphs and reports, most wholesale distribution software enables you to view and understand your supply chain performance at a glance. Some software also contains machine learning capabilities that suggest changes you can make to your process for optimized performance.

Compare Top Wholesale Distribution Software Leaders

Next Steps

If you’re looking to upgrade your wholesale distribution process, the right software might be just what you need. However, there are still several things to consider in your search, like pricing and budget, necessary features and deployment options.

SelectHub provides an in-depth comparison report to help you create a list of the most important features for your needs and match you with the right vendors. Which distribution software best suits your business needs, and why? Please share your thoughts in the comments. If you’d like more personalized help, email us at support@selecthub.com or call us at 855-850-3850.