Wholesale distribution

Deliver what your customers need, where they need it, and at the right time using SAP solutions for wholesale distribution.
View down aisles of racks holding cardboard boxes of product on pallets in a large wholesale distribution warehouse

Adapt to the new economics of wholesale distribution

Drive profitable growth and meet evolving customer expectations with intelligent warehouse management and e-commerce solutions with embedded AI.

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SAP Business Suite can help wholesale distributors:

  • Run resilient businesses with unified applications.

  • Adapt to dynamic markets using an extensible warehouse management system.

  • Make fast, confident decisions based on harmonized inventory and pricing data.

  • Innovate with new business models and value-added services.

  • Reimagine how work is done with AI agents and industry-tailored automation.

Future-proof supply chains

Withstand disruptions from global shocks, compliance pressure, and fierce competition by building a resilient, sustainable distribution network that can adapt and recover quickly.

Enhance customer engagement

Provide sales teams with pricing, inventory, and margin insights to accelerate productivity, improve performance, and engage customers.

Bolster sourcing and procurement

Achieve cost-effective, efficient wholesale distribution by building reliable supplier and channel partnerships while safeguarding product quality, traceability, and compliance.

Transform finance

Manage your top and bottom lines more effectively by improving supplier cost recovery, gaining better insights into profitability, and understanding your cash flow position.

Explore how SAP can help your wholesale distribution business run better

Achieve cost-effective transformation and sustainable growth using solutions tailored to the specific needs of the wholesale distribution industry.

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Fast, flexible planning

Evaluate strategies and mitigate disruptions with the ability to:

  • Improve forecast accuracy by unifying finance and operations data.

  • Reduce stock-outs and rush orders using dynamic materials planning.

  • Optimize inventory, customer service, and working capital with AI.

  • Manage backorders, surpluses, and expedited fulfillment costs alerts.

  • Boost uptime and lower costs using service parts planning.

SAP APPLICATION

Demand planning

Manage stock levels and lead times, minimizing stock-outs due to unexpected events.

SAP APPLICATION

Transparency from demand to delivery

Plan across your supply network in real time and evaluate parts inventory based on part volume, velocity, segment, and more.

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Collaboration networks

Work with trading partners on planning, inventory, and quality management.

PARTNER APPLICATION

Infosys Demand Sensing Solution

Improve short-term forecast accuracy by deploying daily level demand sensing with depth, recency of data, and high granularity.

PARTNER APPLICATION

AI/ML Powered Budget Forecast Accelerator by YASH Technologies Incorporated

Improve visibility across the entire supply chain, enhance internal strategic planning, and align volume plans with financial plans.

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Spend visibility

Facilitate information-sharing and visibility into procurement processes to:

  • Protect margins by managing cost recovery for rebates and chargebacks.

  • Act faster and minimize supply disruptions with risk alerts and scores.

  • Source strategically based on insights by supplier, product, and region. Boost compliance and tighten cost control with automation.

  • Cut costs and reduce exceptions by improving supplier collaboration.

SAP APPLICATION

Procurement visibility

Centralize control of requisitioning, purchasing, sourcing, and contracts by consolidating data on one system.

SAP APPLICATION

Strategic sourcing

Manage spend more strategically and achieve new savings by discovering qualified suppliers from a broad supplier network.

SAP APPLICATION

Chargeback processing

Prevent errors and profit leakage by administering, modeling, reporting, and analyzing contracts and chargeback agreements.

PARTNER APPLICATION

EcoVadis Business Sustainability Ratings for SAP Ariba

Augment procurement with solutions that reduce ESG risk across the value chain and offer trusted sustainability ratings for your trading partners.

PARTNER APPLICATION

SAP Incentive Administration by Vistex

Streamline incentive processes to shorten sales cycles, predict revenues better, reduce costs for go-to-market programs, and motivate sales teams.

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Warehouse operations management

Coordinate high-volume warehouse operations with complex logistics processes that:

  • Spot risks, avoid disruptions, and gain transparency via alerts.

  • Optimize inventory and speed fulfillment with directed putaway.

  • Reduce risk with integrated quality, production, and track and trace processes.

  • Gain control of automation equipment through interactive user experiences.

SAP APPLICATION

Transportation management

Manage and integrate transportation and shipping across transportation modes and verticals.

SAP APPLICATION

Global track and trace

Drive performance and customer satisfaction with actionable, real-time insights into inbound and outbound shipments.

SAP APPLICATION

Yard logistics

Maximize your visibility into yard processes and preview planned workloads with a range of visualization and reporting tools.

PARTNER APPLICATION

Optimized Dynamic Pricing by Pricefx

Optimize pricing with tools that quickly respond to market fluctuations, maintaining price discipline to prevent margin loss.

PARTNER APPLICATION

ReturnoTrack: Returnable Packaging Tracking and Optimization

Track, optimize, and reclaim packaging to reduce costs and boost utilization.

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Connected omnichannel commerce

Personalize e-commerce journeys on an adaptive feature-rich platform to:

  • Reduce churn by presenting a unified view to customers across all channels.

  • Increase conversion rates with real-time inventory and tailored pricing.

  • Boost revenue and strengthen loyalty through rebates and incentives.

  • Drive revenue opportunities with specific cross- and upselling offers.

  • Grow share of wallet with customer and product profitability insights.

SAP APPLICATION

Omnichannel customer engagement

Produce measurable results with real-time, scalable personalization.

SAP APPLICATION

Asset performance management

Minimize asset failure risk with AI-assisted maintenance decisions, sensor data analysis, and remote equipment monitoring.

SAP APPLICATION

Product pricing, configuring, and quotes

Empower your sales team and partners to offer complex product configurations, optimized pricing, and appealing proposals.

PARTNER APPLICATION

DataXstream OMS+ Cross-Channel Order Management Solution

Manage complex commerce across channels to increase sales, reduce order errors, and onboard new assets efficiently.

PARTNER APPLICATION

Zilliant Price IQ

Apply predictive models to quantify potential profit and revenue trade-offs from price changes and deliver optimal, deal-specific prices.

PARTNER APPLICATION

TeamViewer Frontline Augmented Reality

Enables deskless workers to digitalize industrial processes and workflows for logistics picking, assembly, quality assurance, maintenance, and field service.

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Integrated, AI-enabled processes

Transform end-to-end processes and apply analytics that enable you to:

  • Cut days sales outstanding, bad debt write-offs, and costs via automation.

  • Examine cash flow, manage payments, and mitigate financial risks with AI.

  • Offer advantageous payment terms and identify discounts through analytics.

  • Close faster with real-time profit and loss insights and smart workflows.

SAP APPLICATION

Travel, expense, and invoice management

Gain visibility into spend by managing expenses, tracking travel, and staying ahead of vendor payments from anywhere.

SAP APPLICATION

Workforce management

Optimize staffing, control labor costs, and stay compliant with automation, real-time insights, and seamless integration.

SAP APPLICATION

Human capital management

Support your workforce with unified data, smart insights, and automatic updates.

PARTNER APPLICATION

Paradox Text Recruiting Automation and Conversational AI

Enable AI-driven interviewing and onboarding to simplify applications and scheduling for candidates, shrinking time-to-hire.

PARTNER APPLICATION

SAP Content Stream by Skillsoft

Boost skills and productivity with curated content about leadership, technology, risk mitigation, and other high-demand skills.

PARTNER APPLICATION

SAP Workforce Forecasting and Scheduling by WorkForce Software

Optimize employee productivity and workforce scheduling while forecasting and planning workforce requirements.

Discover SAP Business Suite

See how SAP cloud ERP applications, SAP Business AI, and SAP Business Data Cloud come together to deliver exceptional value for your organization.

Learn more

See how customers are succeeding with SAP solutions for wholesale distribution

See what analysts are saying about wholesale distribution

Deliver growth with technology and innovation

Learn from Oxford Economics how midsize wholesale distribution companies are working to achieve continued and sustained growth.

SAP named a Leader in Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Source-to-Pay Suites

Find out why SAP has been recognized as a Leader for our ability to execute and completeness of vision in the 2025 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Source-to-Pay Suites.

SAP named as a Leader in financial planning

SAP is recognized as a Leader in the 2024 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Financial Planning Software.

Resources

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SAP Business AI for wholesale distribution

Hear how Business AI can help you personalize B2B customer experiences, improve sales decisions, and streamline operations.

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Service and solutions for wholesale distribution

See how differentiating product services empower field technicians and call center agents to increase productivity.

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Marketing and sales for wholesale distribution

Learn how your sales team can accelerate revenue growth, productivity and sales performance, and informed decision-making.

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Supply chain execution for wholesale distribution

Learn how to optimize operations by gaining visibility, aligning distribution and fulfillment processes, and collaborating with logistics partners.

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Connect with SAP industry experts

Get advice on how to drive cost-effective transformation and sustainable growth with our innovative industry solutions.

Explore packages and pricing

Choose modular, AI-enabled solutions tailored to your business priorities—finance, supply chain, HR, procurement, or sales—and grow at your pace.

See what's ahead with SAP road maps

Browse upcoming strategies and advancements across SAP products and industries—and get the insight you need to plan your strategy with confidence.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, our global partner ecosystem  lists complementary solutions for you to purchase on the SAP Store. These applications are certified by SAP, integrate seamlessly into your SAP environment, and support the end-to-end business operations. Hundreds of available applications support wholesale distribution—from supply chain planning and execution, to price optimization and order management, to sales performance—while more general extensions and add-on products support general business processes.

Wholesale distributors can engage with SAP and other customers through several SAP customer communities and Global User Groups. For example, the Americas’ SAP Users’ Group hosts regular meetings, interest groups, and peer-to-peer learning and networking events.

 

SAP Industries Live also hosts SAP Advisory Councils, where licensed customers discuss emerging technologies, software products, and market trends affecting distributors with SAP business experts. Contact your SAP sales representative for more information.

SAP Business Suite is an integrated system of mission-critical applications, real-time contextual data, and embedded AI. It connects every core process in your business and extends across the value chain of the wholesale distribution industry: planning, procurement, and execution, as well as marketing, sales, and service.

SAP Business Suite for Wholesale Distribution offers solutions for end-to-end processes, including demand planning, supply chain execution, yard logistics, warehouse management, order management, logistics, transportation management, price optimization, and B2B e-commerce. Complementary AI capabilities include Joule copilot and Joule Agents. SAP Business Data Cloud pulls everything together with capabilities that support your most casual users to data scientists. Learn more.

Yes, our robust partner ecosystem includes a wide range of business process extensions, such as enhanced price optimization and order management. Our services partners support distributors of all sizes with planning, implementation services, and post-go-live support. Explore the full catalog of extensions on the SAP Store, or search for service partners on SAP Partner Finder app.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Source-to-Pay Suites, Micky Keck, Kaitlynn Sommers, Balaji Abbabatulla, Cian Curtin, Lynne Phelan, Chaithanya Paradarami, Martin Shreffler, 24 March 2025.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation.

Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact.

Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

 

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Financial Planning Software, Regina Crowder, Vaughan Archer, Matthew Mowrey, Michelle Carlsen, 18 November 2024.

Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.

 

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