New Trade Distributors Available On Stock in the Channel
As we get closer to the end of the year, we're happy to share the latest trade distributors who are now listed on Stock on the Channel. We are continually working to onboard further suppliers and have even more planned for the new year.
With brilliant new listed suppliers from Europe, the USA, Mexico and Canada, we hope you enjoy reading a small amount about each distributor below. Visit their individual pages for instructions on applying to work together.
CT International is one of the largest and preferred IT distributors in Mexico. With 27 years in the market, CT now have 52 branches and serve more than 33,000 value-added resellers - selling over 200 brands' products from a wide range of categories.
Find Out More About CT International
Canadian-based BlueStar is a leading global distributor of solutions-based digital identification, mobility, point-of-sale, RFID, digital signage, and security technology solutions. BlueStar works exclusively with value-added resellers, providing them with complete solutions, business development and marketing support.
eduthing is a Platinum ASUS Partner and the largest education-focused stockist of ASUS Chromebooks in the UK supplying devices B2B and direct to schools on a national level. Additional services such as the supply of Google for Education Licenses and white label fulfilment services also available.
Stone began in 1991 and have since assisted thousands of organisations in adapting and thriving throughout the continually changing technology landscape. Now one of the UK’s leading education and the public sector technology suppliers, Stone deliver highly personalised service and provide accredited, trusted IT support.
Discover Group Inc. is a US wholesale distributor of brand-name office supplies, consumer electronics, computer hardware, and accessories, as well as high-quality OEM imaging supplies. Discover Group have a decades-long record of competitive pricing, excellent service, best order fill rate, and fast shipping worldwide.
Find Out More About Discover Group
For more than 20 years, US-based Jelco has delivered quality, innovative, cost-effective audiovisual case solutions for mobile professionals. With a penchant for innovative design, Jelco is recognised as a pioneer by developing a wide variety of industry-first products and features for many projectors, LCD and plasma displays, interactive whiteboards and other AV products.
Digital Red Square are a relatively new distributor focussed on mobile phones, tablets and accessories. They enjoy offering competitive pricing and hold a large inventory of new and refurbished phone and mobile accessories, which allows Digital Red Square to dispatch purchase orders the same day.
Find Out More About Digital Red Square
Eurostar Global is a growing SME with big ideas, aspiring to become Europe’s first choice specialist partner for wireless devices. Eurostar Global stock and supply products from the world’s leading manufacturers backed up with a personal service.
Find Out More About Eurostar Global
Exclusive Networks is a global provider of cybersecurity and cloud solutions for their partners in over 25 countries. They offer global IT services and opportunities through various different services such as logistics and field services, professional support services, financing, leasing and much more.
Find Out More About Exclusive Networks
Genee Group (G Tech Innovation Ltd) are specialist manufactures interactive touchscreen devices in the UK. With products and services falling into four main categories, Genee is able to offer streamlined support for resellers in need of Interactive Touch Screen Displays; Registrar Visitor Sign In / Sign Out Systems; Touch Tables and Play Screens For Early Years; and Visualisers / Document Cameras.
Tradesupply offer over 4,000 product lines including copier toners & drums, inkjets, franking consumables, maintenance kits & fusers as well as Bio-based cartridges, a range of unique products offering great environmental benefits. They have a strict trade-only policy and offer a 5-year warranty on all toner cartridges.
Find Out More About Tradesupply
With headquarters located in Taipei, Taiwan, Transcend now has 13 offices worldwide, and has become a leading global brand for storage, multimedia and lifestyle products. Over 2000 products are designed, developed, manufactured, marketed and sold by in-house teams, upholding the highest quality and professional service.
If you are a distributor looking to expand your reseller base, click here to find out more about listing your inventory on Stock in the Channel.
Magento 2.3 Migration Now Available For All Webstore Users
We are delighted to announce that Stock in the Channel’s Product Import extension is now compatible with Magento 2.3. The update is now available for both hosted webstores as well as self-hosting customers.
Important Information About Magento Version Updates
When Magento version 2.3 was released, the way that product and categories were set up within Magento changed dramatically. This meant that our previously existing product import extension was no longer compatible.
As a result, our customers were not able to upgrade to the newer versions. As time goes on and security patches are released, this means that any sites stuck on Magento 2.2. became increasingly out of date. Magento has now ended support for Magento 2.2 so customers running Magento 2.2. should upgrade as soon as possible.
Transitioning to Magento 2.3
In addition to the changes to how products and categories are handled, Magento 2.3 introduces a number of changes which may mean that themes need updating and other 3rd party extensions may no longer work. Consequently, this is not an automatic update and customers need to be prepared for this.
For those customers hosting on our turnkey solution: we will manage the migration to version 2.3 on your behalf. Please contact support@stockinthechannel.com and they will arrange a time for the upgrade and assistance in solving any of the issues that may arise.
For self-hosting customers: the extension is available for downloaded from https://github.com/StockChannel/SinchImport
If preferred, it can also be installed from Packagist using the following link https://packagist.org/packages/stockinthechannel/import
Looking To Upgrade Your Webstore? Meet Modern Selling
For those looking to take their online store to the next level, Stock in the Channel has a range of upgraded features designed to streamline sales and give your customers an experience like never before.
Click on the new features available below to explore the features. Like what you see? Contact sales@stockinthechannel.com to find out more about implementing these upgraded features on your site.
Custom Catalogues, Pricing & Distributor Rules
Bundles, Core Lists & Configurators
Third-Party CRM / PSA / ERP Integrations
Speak To Us About Upgraded Modern Selling Features
Stock in the Channel Integrates with Netsuite
We are delighted to announce Stock in the Channel’s integration with NetSuite, streamlining the flow of data between Stock in the Channel’s Modern Selling solution and NetSuite like never before using SuiteTalk SOAP Webservices.
Our integration with Oracle’s world-leading ERP increases the capabilities of our Modern Selling B2B eCommerce portal; allowing resellers of all sizes to utilise our all-in-one sales solution in a way that works with their existing systems.
How does Stock in the Channel’s NetSuite integration work?
Customers and purchasing teams can place Quotes and Orders on the Stock in the Channel Portal as well as NetSuite, the integration platform now handles the rest to ensure the information is synced seamlessly between the two systems.
“We’re very proud of this integration and how it will be able to transform the capability of our platform for NetSuite users,” said Farshid Eilami, Software Development Manager at Stock in the Channel, “our Modern Selling customer portal continues to unite many popular systems throughout the entire channel”. Please see the full list of our third-party integrations at the bottom of this post.
Stock in the Channel's integration platform synchronises Accounts, Contacts, Addresses, Suppliers, Products, Quotes, Sales Orders, Purchase Orders, Invoices and Item Receipts – so that all required information is available on all systems. Stock in the Channel runs Full Syncs daily, as well as and Delta Syncs every 15 minutes.
These are designed to keep the systems synchronised and provide clarity on the status of all transactions. However, please note that sync tasks can be scheduled to run at any time or frequency based on a customer’s internal processing in order to help with throttling and concurrency.
Finally, our NetSuite integration is designed to be able to support NetSuite Customization. Please contact us if you would like to configure the application in a more specific manner.
Would you like to discuss NetSuite or other integrations?
If you’re an existing Stock in the Channel customer or discovering us for the first time, we’d love to support your business by implementing our NetSuite integration.
Contact sales@stockinthechannel.com to speak to a member of the team, or see a full list of our most popular PSA, CRM and ERP integrations below and contact us by clicking the button.
MS Dynamics CRM
Ms Dynamics NAV
MS Dynamics GP
Xero
Magento
Amazon
Speak To Us About Integrations
Crown Commercial Technology Framework RM6147 Now Live!
19th November 2020. The Crown Commercial Technology Framework RM6147 goes live today. Stock in the Channel is here to support any organisation who have been selected to take part with our straightforward solution to submit products.
Our tried and tested process can be implemented quickly and easily and is charged on a rolling monthly contract basis.
If your company has been selected to take part in this framework, please contact sales@stockinthechannel.com
Setting Up A Crown Commercial Datafeed
The Stock in the Channel Datafeed can be used to set up and manage a personalised catalogue on Crown Commerical.
Our suite of tools lets you enjoy full control of which distributors, categories, brands and even unique product SKUs that are included in your dataset.
Every night our system connects to suppliers and automatically imports your product catalogue.
As a starting point, our pricing engine chooses the lowest-cost available stock (including your margin) and pushes the datafile to the Crown Commercial Mercato FTP site.
Please note this can be overridden based on your own rules.
If you’re a reseller that has been selected to take part in Technology Framework RM6147, talk to us at sales@stockinthechannel.com
6 Ways IT Resellers Can Make Customers Happy
In the last few years we’ve worked with hundreds of IT Resellers, MSPs and VARs, and built a clear understanding of what makes customers happy. Creating a great customer experience is a proven strategy for increasing sales, so we’ve broken our learnings into two groups: what customers do and don’t like, to use as a future checklist.
What Do Customers Like From IT Resellers?
Give customers access to their account information
Customers want to be able to browse both historic account information (such previous quotes and invoices) as well as current, time-sensitive information like shipment tracking. In our consumer lives we expect all these details to be readily-available, all without talking to anyone on the phone. A customer who can self-serve this information from a personalised dashboard will save you time in the short term, and make better purchasing decisions in the long term.
Explore The Modern Selling Customer Portal
Explain product discounts or deals on quotes
Modern customers are cautious of variations in cost (“what is wrong with the business I’m buying from?” “will the price rise next time?”) and therefore any price reductions must be qualified. Arbitrary discounts on a haggled quote price are no longer part and parcel of the B2B sales process, instead the criteria of every deal or additional incentive must be clearly justified. Acting transparently in this way builds trust between the buyer and seller, especially when continued over a sustained period of time.
Offer multiple ways to action tasks on your webstore
Different types of customers want to be able to interact with your webstore in different ways, typically a combination of self-service and assisted actions, all in the pursuit of the same goal. Simply put, your customers need to be able to get whatever they want, however they want, whenever they want - fortunately there are digital tools you can implement to make this happen. Functional webstore Search, implementing Wizards & Configurators to guide users, and creating agreed product Bundles or Core Lists are just a few examples of webstore features designed to support your salespeople; with the option to escalate to phone/video calls as solutions become more complex.
What Do Customers Not Like From IT Resellers?
Avoid wasting customers time with unnecessary phone calls
Speaking to the wrong person on the phone really frustrates modern customers, with many customers preferring not to speak on the phone at all. B2B eCommerce offers a brilliant environment for customers to self-educate based on the content you offer, which means they will be able to purchase confidently and independently, or that they will have a clear understanding of the solution they’re looking for before speaking to one of your sales team.
Never give your customers wrong or differing information
The beauty of integrated systems is that ongoing and historic data is all available - for both you and your customer to reference. This provides your team with the opportunity to provide a unified position on quotes - this also means that your customers will be very aware of receiving different costs. Stock In The Channel’s stock and price engine ensures that you have access to consistent, reliable information so that no one is out of the loop.
Integrating third-party CRM, ERP or PSA systems doesn’t just create a smooth experience, it removes the need to repeatedly key-in data, too, which saves a huge amount of time. Even more importantly, this minimises human error, so that your customers never receive wrong tracking numbers or shipment details.
Encourage customers to feel responsibility for their decisions
The sales process has become more complex in a short space of time - with remote working, multiple ways to speak to customers and purchasing touchpoints to bear in mind. Modern customers do not want to be “sold to” instead they prefer to reach solutions collaboratively. This sort of collaboration means working side-by-side with customers, rather than a head-on, transactional sales approach. This is especially important for larger purchases where pricing can be adjusted while still maintaining a healthy margin. Our new Collaborative Quoting tool brings negotiations into real-time with new quote iterations immediately available so that it feels like you and your customers are working alongside one another.
How can Stock In The Channel’s 7 Principles of Modern Selling help resellers?
Achieving best in class B2B eCommerce
Our goal is to help IT resellers digitise all areas of their business according to our principles: Self-service, Transparency, Self-education, Personalisation, Collaboration, Automation and Insight. We have created 25 (and counting) digital features that put these principles into practice to ensure a seamless purchasing experience for your customers, and to streamline the webstore portal management for your team.
Built on the back of the channel’s leading stock and price search engine
Using Stock In The Channel lets you choose from hundreds of distributor datafeeds with accurate, up-to-date stock and price availability. Dropship orders to your customers using our all-in-one webstore platform solution, combining Magento with the power of Stock In The Channel.
Speak to us about B2B eCommerce
New IT Hardware Distributors Available On Stock In The Channel
As Lockdown starts to ease, we have seen a growing number of new IT hardware distributor partners engaging with Stock in the Channel to list inventory on the site.
Whilst we continue working to bring more suppliers online in the coming weeks and months, we hope you enjoy finding out about some of the partners that have joined the platform over the last 3 months.
Clients using our Compare Prices Service, QuoteTool and Datafeed & Webstore services can now request access to pricing these new partners by clicking on the company logos and viewing their overview page, then pressing the “setup pricing” button to begin.
Please Note: Your account admin or purchasing team may need to configure your account to view stock and pricing from these new suppliers so please bring this to their attention (subject to user permissions).
Welcome Stock In The Channel’s Latest Distributors
With 20+ years of experience, Data Select is the only mobile-centric distributor to have operated in the UK mobile market since the outset.
The one we have all been waiting for, Arrow UK are a very welcome addition to the SITC roster. Initial listing focuses on their “In-stock” holding of Lenovo products with the potential to extend to other products in the future.
TRADEiD is the largest trade only ID and access control supplier across the UK and Europe offering brands such as Zebra, Magicard, Fargo and more.
JL Corporate is a distributor servicing the UK, Europe and North America. The business was established in 2010, initially selling our products into the retail sector, and now exclusively distributing our products to resellers around the world.
ProVu is the UK’s leading specialist VoIP distributor. Established in 1999, they were early adopters of VoIP technology and hold direct relationships with many of the world’s leading manufacturers.
For more than 40 years, Katun has been one of the world’s leading providers of OEM-compatible imaging supplies, photoreceptors, and parts for copiers, printers, MFPs, and other imaging equipment. Their full inventory is now on Stock in the Channel for the first time.
Western Solutions bring with them a huge catalogue of software products but also have a dedicated Hardware team able and ready to assist you.
This large reseller based in Ireland, offers surplus stock at competitive rates.
Tempura offer a mix of Network, Voice and Video products delivered with professional service & support.
All ShearGold items listed are physically in stock at our warehouse in South Ruilsip. They are on the International Aid Agencies supplier list to procure and supply for a number of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs).
Eccentric Professionals Limited (ECPROF) is one of UK’s top independent distributors for IT hardware and software and provide cutting edge technology solutions.
Key Introductions is a new trade only supplier leveraging its relationships with leading brands to pass on savings to their reseller customers on a number of key product lines.
We hope you’ve enjoyed discovering the latest additions to our distributors. You can view all distributors available here.
If you’re a hardware distributor and you would like to List Your Stock in front of 55,000+ users, please follow the link and contact us.
