Imagine how a workplace would look like if there are no desks, chairs, notebooks, pens, PCs, printers, photocopy machine and any other office supply that one requires in his/her daily office routine! None of us would like to work in a corporation where there is a dearth of such basic amenities for employees. As a consequence, the work efficiency of the employees of such corporation will automatically slow down.
The corporate culture of any company is highlighted by such small and basic amenities they provide to their employees in order to add to their productivity and efficiency. So, corporations usually look for one-stop-solutions that can provide all the basic office supplies ranging from paper to print cartridge, stationary to chairs and desks, and technology products to even corporate gifting. Manufacturers providing these supplies generally operate through distributorship model and offer great opportunities for like-minded entrepreneurs to join in the venture.
Need for One-Stop Solution Reshapes the Market
Traditionally, the market for office supplies and furniture was very cluttered and unorganised. Many corporations relied heavily upon local vendors that dealt with one or two products, for instance, getting paper and pens from one place and cartridges from somewhere else. This way of ordering supplies was difficult to monitor for the corporations, hence they seek one-stop solutions so that monitoring becomes easier. Added advantages of one-stop solutions for the corporations are: over 20 percent savings, business credit, standardisation, and supplier reduction, spend management and transparency.
As mentioned earlier, the market was hugely unorganised. With the increasing demand for one-stop solution, players started to get into a more structured format to cater to the growing demand, hence disrupted the organised market. Statistically speaking, the office supplies market in India is around Rs 2000 crores, out of which not even 1 percent is organised. This creates a niche for organised businesses in the field and gives distributorship opportunities to aspirants. Even though the market is yet dominated largely by the unorganised player, the organised market is set to grow significantly in the near future. With a lot of players coming into the organised market seeing the burgeoning demand for one-stop solutions, they are creating dealership and distributorship opportunities in order to reach the end-consumers, i.e., corporations.
Lucrative Business Model in Office Supplies Distributorship
The umbrella term ‘Office supplies’ has so many products under it. Products ranging from printing supplies, mailing supplies, paper-based stationery products, tea-coffee machines, fans, to writing and marking instruments. With such a wide variety of product categories, office supplies market offers a wider range of distributorship opportunities to the aspirants. There are distributorship opportunities available in all these product categories and are lucrative business opportunities to start with entrepreneurship.
Talking about the business model, brands offer quite high margins to distributors in this business. Generally, the distributors can get 15-20% of margins or commission on the sale of the company’s products and get profitable returns on investments. However, as corporations order the office supplies in bulk, the distributors can earn quite well. To give you an idea of investment in this business, here is the general information about a distributorship opportunity in office supplies:
Investment Required: Rs 1-2 Lakhs
Space Required: 100-150 sq ft.
Distributorship Level: State level
Office supplies distributorship is definitely a lucrative business model with a high demand.
