Nothing is for ever. This isn’t a philosophical statement but a reality in practically every industry including the office supplies industry as also in the office supply dealer software industry. Causing a disruption are many factors right from changes in needs to changes in the way a business is run. We mention below the latest trends in the office supplies industry which ought to best to be recorded and dealt with using the best software for office supply dealers.
1. Complete change in what constitutes office supplies
There was a time when communication meant ONLY paper and varied forms, it’s printing and storage. Paper thus meant papers in the physical sense that had to be stored, printed, sent, received and filed, besides activities including photocopying, and lamination of important documents.
Then came digitization that called for a completely different set of concerns. Communication today is completely through gadgets using the airwaves and cyberworld with precious little in the name of actual paper. The action has thus shifted from everything paper to everything digital. What today constitutes office supplies could be toners, inks, printer-related materials, computer and gadget-related peripherals and so on. Accounting for this change across entities is the office supply dealer software.
2. Complete change in ways of ordering office supplies
There was once a time when ordering meant speaking over the phone. It worked till the time that items to be ordered were limited and people didn’t feel the need to keep tabs of what they ordered (in terms of evidence). Essentially, these were outdated, in-efficient ways of procuring office supplies and staples. With the coming about of office supply dealer software, most computers are today connected to a grid on the internet with accesses to websites where ordering can be done irrespective of quantities and types of items. Adding to that is the fact that almost all gadgets, irrespective of inputting methods, can be used to order office supplies.
3. Change in the scope of industry-consumer relations
B2B is considered a stable though slow form of business with very little in the nature of variations. With consumers themselves being businesses, it can be expected that they order in bulk with some scope for variations and variances. The whole idea is put on its head in the case of B2C where a business has to fulfil the needs of individual consumers whose needs keep varying with respect to immeasurable number of parameters. Take the case of uniforms as an example. B2B sites get orders for standard stuff that are worn by a large number of people with cloth, stitching and sizes being of a set kind. As against this, a B2C site could deal with any number of variations across dresses, cloth and stitching quality, besides everything else.
Now imagine B2B morphing into B2C! Imagine businesses being extremely choosey and nosey with what they want. And that, is one of the most pronounced change in the world of office supplies!