Expanding the Wholesale Industry's Future-Readiness
Skills are in focus as age-in, age-out demographics make a wholesale change.
The wholesale industry relies on a skilled workforce to handle complex orders and deliver excellent business-to-business customer experiences. However, this workforce is retiring rapidly, and currently does not have a stable pipeline to replace them, especially as the industry steadily grows. Organizations must explore new strategies to engage workers, offering skills growth and career stability, as well as continue adopting disruptive technologies and evaluating global markets for expansion.
Risk Factors
2.49
Occupation Risk Score
Wholesale operations primarily depend on the prime-age workforce, which is exiting the roles that are critical to operations across all processes. First-line supervisors of non-retail sales and buyers and purchasing agents are retiring at alarming rates—35% and 30%, respectively. In maintaining financial records, bookkeeping, accounting, and auditing clerks are exiting the workforce at 37%. Shipping, receiving, and inventory clerks are exiting at 11%, while their supervisors are exiting at 26%. These roles align with the 10 occupations that have the highest number of workers over the age of 55, and are not being replaced by incoming workers at nearly a high enough rate to continue operating as before.
2.67
Market Risk Score
Within wholesale companies, operations are often spread across strategic fulfillment locations in “crossroads” areas that connect to interstates that enable widespread distribution. However, larger metropolitan areas are seeing more prime-age workers exiting the labor force than entering. Multilocation strategies can help offset these imbalances, however competition for the general labor force in roles with low barriers to entry is tight nonetheless. As the wholesale market grows, global trade and globalized operations continue to be an integral part of expansion strategies, especially in balancing supply chain issues that may ebb and flow among locations.
3.00
Industry Risk Score
Wholesalers have globalized operations for many years alongside manufacturers in their supply chains, which has been an important component in distributing its workforce. However, wholesalers must provide excellent customer service in business-to-business transactions, making local workforce development critical as this labor force retires. Immigration has been an important source in filling worker gaps; 15% of the workforce is foreign-born (retail and wholesale). While AI assists in inventory, fulfillment, invoicing, and first-touch interactions, it is not yet viable for customer experience or material labor.
2.32
AI Skills Gap Score
Bookkeepers are in short supply, and AI has become a viable solution—yet only with auditors who have verification skills. Additionally, AI has automated many tasks along order placement, inventory management, shipping, and receiving; however, this still requires supervisory roles, which are both in shortage and among roles that are least exposed to AI skills. Sales, buying and purchasing agents, and their supervisors are exposed to AI skills, but are somewhat lagging behind. AI cannot replace an excellent, person-to-person interaction, which is still highly valued among the businesses who are making large purchases and expect white-glove service, but AI can assist in routine administrative tasks.
Wholesale Organizations in the Fortune 1000
In the Workforce Risk Outlook, Lightcast found little correlation between workforce risk exposure and their Fortune 1000 ranking. C-suite leaders must align their workforce strategies with their quadrant position, as opposed to assuming their revenue makes them immune.
High Risk/High Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant face significant risk of being disrupted in their industry, but also have the financial resources to reduce their risk if they are proactive. These organizations should invest in AI-powered demand forecasting, expand workforce training in digital procurement and inventory management, and enhance supplier diversification strategies to reduce operational risk.
High Risk/Lower Scale to Address: Organizations within the riskiest quadrant are lower on the competitive ladder and have less resources to address their incoming risk. These organizations must automate repetitive processes in warehousing and order fulfillment, optimize just-in-time inventory strategies, and explore strategic partnerships with third-party logistics providers to improve scalability.
Lower Risk/High Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant may not face immediate workforce shortages, but should remain proactive to maintain and reduce their exposure to risk. Expanding e-commerce capabilities, focusing on customer experiences, and upskilling employees in data-driven decision-making will help sustain long-term stability and efficiency.
Lower Risk/Lower Scale to Address: Organizations in this quadrant, if they are proactive, have a chance to be the disruptors. Specifically, they can disrupt industry competitors in the High Risk/High Scale quadrant. They should focus on specialized distribution channels, implement AI-driven customer relationship management tools, and explore direct-to-business models to optimize operations and workforce utilization.
See the Full Fortune 1000 List by Lightcast
Ready for Lightcast to prepare you for the storm?
Solving Wholesale Workforce Management
Talent Analyst
Strategies to Expand to the Right Place with the Right Talent
Companies must evaluate multilocation and global market expansion strategies through the lens of balancing labor force shortages across multiple roles. Blindspots of demographics, occupational trends, and skill profiles create conditions where investments could be lost. Talent intelligence enables companies to benchmark against competitors across various locations to identify market opportunities and risks as talent retires, enters the labor force, or can be reskilled—enabling organizations to capitalize on agility and workforce investments to gain or retain market share.
How Technology Wholesalers are Aligning Global Talent
A global technology and electronics distributor is making strides in aligning its workforce with future business needs across key markets, including China, Mexico, and Germany. Lightcast data has guided strategic business decisions by standardizing over 2,500 job profiles, mapping skills to the global market, and identifying skills gaps in critical roles. With a scalable process and measurable reporting, it is pursuing new reskilling opportunities, creating clear pathways for internal mobility and employee development, positioning for long-term global alignment for its talent future.
Talent Transform
Strategies to Rebalance Knowledge Transfer
Among demographic shifts, wholesale organizations must identify critical roles at risk of retirement and implement targeted upskilling or reskilling initiatives. This approach boosts internal mobility and helps to retain institutional knowledge, reducing dependency on external hiring that will progressively come at a premium. Wholesalers also need to pursue upskilling workers on AI that can reduce repetitive tasks, freeing their employees’ capacity for learning and development paths to fill supervisory roles that require advanced decision-making and customer engagement skills.
How Industrial Wholesalers are Cultivating the Next Generation
A leading farming supply wholesaler is adopting a data-driven approach to workforce planning, focusing on bridging skills gaps, and improving internal mobility, attracting specialized talent to provide tailored sales solutions. With insights on demographic shifts, compensation trends, and competitor job postings, the company is optimizing its employer brand for recruitment, while identifying its internal skills of employees approaching retirement, mapping skills to both the external market and its institutional knowledge to build career pathways and strengthen retention.
