Procurement is changing fast. Read our latest blog to see how intelligent purchasing agents will reshape distributor dynamics and what wholesalers must do to stay ahead.
The consumer market is on the brink of a major shift. OpenAI and other leading players are actively developing agentic AI solutions that can browse, evaluate, and order products on a consumer’s behalf – with integrated check-out capabilities to bypass platforms.
It’s only a matter of time before these technologies move from retail into B2B, including wholesale distribution.
The signs of this shift are already visible. In industries like pharmaceutical distribution or IT components wholesale, we already see the early signs of full agentic automation: high levels of price transparency, procurement by strict algorithmic rules, and gross margins falling below 5%. These developments foreshadow what other wholesale sectors will soon experience unless proactive strategies are put in place.
For wholesalers, agentic AI will pressure margins but also open new ways to compete – and win.
Here, we examine the impact on wholesale pricing strategies and recommend how industry leaders can adapt before the rules of the game are rewritten.
The rise of agentic AI: From B2C to wholesale
Agentic AI is an autonomous system that can act on a user's behalf. It navigates websites, makes trade-offs, places orders, and even executes payments. While the first wave of this innovation is targeting consumer retail, its core logic – reducing friction and maximizing value – applies equally to B2B procurement.
Imagine a procurement manager instructing an AI: “Order 50 units of brand X, split across no more than three distributors, delivered within two business days, and keep costs under €2,500.” The system doesn’t just recommend options but executes the entire purchasing process.
This level of automation removes the frictions that still protect pricing power: time constraints, incomplete information, and high manual effort.
Implications for wholesale pricing strategy
These changes will redefine the economics of wholesale. Three areas in particular will put immediate pressure on wholesale pricing strategies.
1. Every product will face price scrutiny
- Every product becomes price-sensitive, not just a few key SKUs.
- Basket-based decision-making grows as AI agents optimize the total cost of ownership, including delivery, discounts, and ancillary fees.
- Static pricing becomes a liability when real-time optimization becomes the norm.
2. Pricing power will erode faster
- AI-powered procurement will quickly reveal the flaws in static discounting, adding to price pressure and margin loss.
3. Private labels need a stronger value story
- Quantifying and communicating the value of private labels becomes even more crucial.
- Investments in structured product and pricing data becomes essential since procurement AI systems cannot interpret brochures or sales pitches.
But while the risks are clear, there are practical strategies wholesalers can (and must) act on today.
Four strategic solutions for wholesalers
To address the incoming disruption, wholesalers will need to go beyond transactional efficiency. Pricing needs to shift from isolated deals to a relationship-driven approach, where purchase decisions are shaped over time through trust, service, loyalty incentives, and value consistency – not reconsidered with every order.
1. Make price comparison work in your favor
- Performance-based pricing: Tie discounts to order volumes or revenue tiers at both the annual and transactional level.
- Minimum order values: Enforce thresholds that ensure transactional profitability and deter micro-optimizations by automated systems.
2. Offer bundled value propositions beyond the unit price
- Product-service bundles: Package consumables, maintenance, and support in ways that reduce pure price comparability.
- Subscription and replenishment models: Introduce service contracts that lock in customers based on convenience, not just unit cost.
3. Build loyalty that outlasts single transactions
- Sales relationships: Encourage direct relationships between account teams and customer stakeholders.
- Service differentiation: Invest in reliable delivery, proper returns management, and digital experience.
- Relationship-based pricing models: Encourage long-term commitment through loyalty systems, partnership incentives, and service-level agreements that align with shared objectives.
- Purchase behavior over time: Move beyond per-order optimization and reward customers for consistent behavior across longer periods.
- Differentiated service levels: Define and price different tiers, turning service excellence into a monetizable differentiator.
4. Use agentic AI to compete with agentic AI on equal terms
- AI-driven pricing engines: Track competitive pricing in real time and recommend optimal price points.
- Agentic pricing automation: Simulate buyer behavior and optimize pricing dynamically.
- Contract and deal management automation: Enforce rebate structures and volume thresholds to protect margins.
- Total supply cost awareness: Monitor and manage the full cost-to-serve for each transaction and flag unprofitable orders early to trigger preventive actions.
Invest in the digital capabilities to compete
Many wholesalers are already seeing procurement teams experiment with automated tools. Staying ahead will require new levels of digital readiness. Agentic AI in B2B will transform procurement, starting with customer behavior and then elevating the entire playing field for digital capabilities.
It is time to invest. Build or acquire pricing intelligence tools, data science resources, and automation platforms that match the sophistication of customers’ procurement agents. The ability to simulate, forecast, and respond dynamically to market changes in real time will become a core competitive advantage.
Prepare today, lead tomorrow
While agentic AI adoption in B2B will take time, the underlying trend is irreversible. As procurement becomes increasingly automated, price transparency will surge, loyalty will be tested, and traditional pricing models will erode.
The winners in wholesale will be the ones that adapt early, create resilient pricing architectures, and reimagine value beyond the invoice.
At Simon-Kucher, we help wholesalers future-proof their commercial models for a rapidly changing market. Let's talk about how your pricing strategy can stay one step ahead of the next digital revolution.
