The Annie Selke Companies today announced three new initiatives designed to support their more than 7,000 business to business (B2B) customers and interior designers.
First, the company will offer free shipping. Widely offered to retail customers, free shipping is rarely offered in the B2B space. By offering this program, Annie Selke's wholesale partners will be able to retain more margin and effectively compete against online resellers.
In line with its decision to better support its wholesale partners and to further enhance the reputation of its brands, the company has decided on a comprehensive reduction of promotions on its own e-commerce site. Explaining this decision Selke said, “We are an aspirational brand and have determined that reducing promotions across the board for both our retail and wholesale businesses, we can better work with our B2B partners and interior designers to focus on the outstanding and innovative products that all our customers love.”
The company has also decided to sever relations with the majority of its online e-commerce customers in order to support its core brick-and-mortar partners. Citing the high level of sales, special offers and promotions offered by these sites as the reason for taking this dramatic step, Selke said, “We wish these retailers the very best and continued success in their endeavors, but we simply can’t align with their promotional activities that negatively impact the perception of the brand and undermine our brick-and-mortar channel.”
The Annie Selke Companies believe that these three initiatives will work together to further strengthen their Wholesale Partner strategy for 2019 and beyond.