FWD survey shows gap between wholesalers’ views and actions

A survey of 34 of the UK’s leading foodservice wholesalers found that 100% view e-commerce as important to the future of their business.

However, only 5.9% of respondents have a dedicated e-commerce team fully established in their business and 31% of those surveyed have nothing in place.

In addition, less than half of those surveyed had set aside a dedicated budget for e-commerce development.

Other key findings from the survey, which was carried out by the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD), Foodservice Online and Mirakl, include:

• More than 82% of foodservice wholesalers felt that demand from foodservice buyers for online services is increasing.
• More than 85% of foodservice wholesalers felt their business was disadvantaged if their competitors had a strong online presence.
• More than 65% of those foodservice wholesalers surveyed wanted to operate their own marketplace.

James Bielby, chief executive of the FWD, commented: “During the pandemic, the foodservice wholesale sector had to evolve at a rapid pace, and those wholesalers unable to deliver digitally faced the very real threat of being left behind when a limited supplier network led to frustrating demand and supply balance issues.

“Those online retailers who were already equipped with an online marketplace of their own at the height of the pandemic were able to leverage the scale and flexibility of their platform to bring together more sellers with more buyers, faster and easier than a traditional linear value chain model ever could.”

Full survey results are included in the white paper Mind The Gap: Why Digital is the Future for Foodservice Wholesale.