Van Sales is the backbone of the consumer goods supply chain, and many distributors have van sellers on the move, visiting retailers with physical catalogs and taking orders. It has been growing consistently over the years due to fast delivery and cost-effective route management for distributors.

Van Sales helps companies reduce cost-to-serve, optimize resource investments and improve the order-to-cash cycle. However, it is challenging even though the advantages are numerous, a business not equipping van sales with automation is more prone to face challenges. Here are some areas of technology to optimize van sales.

Are Your Van Sellers Operating on Real-Time Data or Yesterday’s Information?

Van sellers need to access real-time product information, prices, stock availability, past orders, and more on the go. Most van sales solutions are not integrated with back-office or ERPs in real-time and sometimes act as a standalone system. With real-time updates on the van sales app, your van sales can be effective and well planned. They allow users to create new sales orders in seconds, view customer information, check credit balance, view order history, all while being with the customer. A good van sales software with real-time updates enables your van sellers to achieve their targets and enhance sales opportunities.

Are Physical Catalogs Still Creating Costs and Constraints Your Business Does Not Need?

We all know the pain points of carrying printed catalogs and the overheads of printing and re-printing. A mobile van sales application should come with built-in digital catalogs to help avoid these costs and ensures easy accessibility of catalogs. They can showcase the product catalog on their hand-held device to retailers and collect orders instantly, promote new products and even explain promotions and offers better.

Digital catalogs built into the van sales application eliminate these costs and risks simultaneously. Reps can showcase the complete, current product range on their handheld device, including high-quality product imagery, detailed specifications, current pricing, and active promotional mechanics — and collect orders directly from the digital catalog without requiring the retailer to handle physical materials. New product launches and promotional offers are communicated to the entire field force the moment they are published, without a printing cycle or a distribution delay, and without the version control failures that physical catalogs inevitably produce across a large field team.

Is Route Planning Optimized — or Are Van Sellers Still Navigating by Habit?

Deliveries have become more specialized, and route planning is essential to ensure that every journey delivers more products in the most efficient time frame possible. As Van Sales is a popular means for transporting perishables and non-perishables, route planning synced with the day’s visits makes van sellers extra productive. Van sellers can save time with better route management and visit optimizations to enable extensive coverage each day.

Is Dynamic Inventory Management Preventing Stockouts — or Discovering Them Too Late?

Out-of-stock (OOS) happens often in the supply chain but failing to hold enough inventory during van sales can be avoided. A sophisticated inventory management solution can systemize the van sales process by allowing you to know your current inventory availability, stock replenishment, and reordering. Sales forecasting of sales for each route can help with van load recommendations to store a safe quantity of stock in the van to keep up with fluctuations in demand en-route and prevent out-of-stock situations. You can prioritize in-stock, analyze the gaps in real-time, and reduce stocks and overstock situations.

Are Order Taking and Invoicing Processes Streamlined Enough to Capture Every Sales Opportunity?

Van sellers can make additional sales as they are coming to drop off the shipments. Order taking and timely invoicing are essential in regulating financial transactions between van sellers and retailers. A solution with faster invoicing and tax sequencing streamlines the complex process of payment collections and can make the printing of invoices and cash collection so much easier.

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Providing van sellers with robust tools to streamline their activities and maximize efficiency helps your business achieve better sales and serviceability. From spot collections of payments to invoicing and coordinating loading and replenishment of goods to stores – your CPG business needs to keep up with the needs of van sales. Save time, money, and resources by investing in a dedicated platform that streamlines your process of handling van sales-related operations.