Pricing has always been one of the most important levers distributors have to protect margins and remain competitive. But as market conditions become more complex, the traditional approaches many distributors have relied on for years may no longer provide the visibility or agility needed to make the best pricing decisions.

Cost-plus pricing, static price matrices and manual decision-making remain common throughout the distribution industry. These methods are familiar and have historically served distributors well. Today, however, fluctuating costs, changing customer expectations, competitive pressures and increasingly complex product portfolios are making pricing decisions more difficult.

The opportunity is not simply to replace those processes. It is to give the people making pricing decisions better information.

Moving Beyond Traditional Pricing Models

Many distributors are still operating at what Infor identifies as Level 1 or Level 2 pricing maturity, where pricing decisions rely heavily on cost-plus models, static matrices and manual processes.

The challenge is that these approaches can make it difficult to respond quickly when conditions change.

Every transaction generates valuable information about customers, products, demand, inventory and purchasing behavior. When that information is spread across systems or requires significant manual analysis, pricing teams may not be able to use it effectively when decisions need to be made.

AI and advanced analytics can help change that by analyzing significantly more information and identifying patterns that would be difficult to uncover manually.

Bringing AI Into the Distributor’s Existing Workflow

For distributors using Infor CloudSuite Distribution and Infor Velocity Suite, AI-powered pricing capabilities can bring those insights directly into the systems and workflows teams already use.

Rather than requiring users to move between disconnected tools or manually analyze large amounts of data, embedded AI can provide real-time insights into areas including pricing, inventory and demand.

That distinction matters.

The goal is not to introduce technology simply for the sake of using AI. The value comes from putting useful information in front of the right people at the point where they are making a decision.

What NSA Is Seeing in the Distribution Market

NSA VP of Sales Mary Bennett recently shared NSA’s perspective as part of Infor’s discussion of AI-powered pricing for distributors.

Across the market, NSA continues to see distributors exploring how AI and advanced analytics can help them strengthen their pricing strategies while reducing the amount of manual effort involved.

Organizations adopting these capabilities have seen promising results. Infor reports that some distributors using AI-driven pricing optimization have realized margin improvements in the 2% to 5% range while also improving pricing consistency and reducing manual work.

For distributors operating at scale, even relatively small improvements in margin can have a meaningful impact.

AI Supports the People Behind the Pricing Strategy

One of the most important aspects of AI-powered pricing is what it is not designed to do.

It is not about removing experienced pricing professionals from the process.

Distribution pricing involves relationships, market knowledge, customer history and business context that technology alone cannot replace. AI instead gives those professionals another layer of intelligence by processing data at a scale that would be nearly impossible to analyze manually.

That allows pricing teams to spend less time gathering information and more time applying their expertise to the decisions that matter.

Turning Distribution Data Into an Advantage

Distributors already generate enormous amounts of operational data. The next step is determining how effectively that information is being used.

AI-powered pricing is one example of how distributors can begin turning existing ERP data into actionable intelligence. Instead of treating AI as a separate initiative, distributors can look for practical opportunities to embed it into everyday processes where it can improve decision-making, productivity and profitability.

For organizations already using CSD, that opportunity may be closer than they think.

NSA Computer Exchange helps distributors evaluate and optimize their Infor environments and identify opportunities to get more value from the technology and data they already have.

To learn more about AI capabilities within Infor CloudSuite Distribution and Infor Velocity Suite, contact NSA at solutions@nsacom.com.