With 2024 firmly in the rearview, it’s time to reflect and reevaluate your goals for the year ahead. This is especially true for your rebate strategy, which must continue to grow and evolve along with your business in order to remain effective and mutually beneficial.

Not sure where to start? We’ve examined a few trends from our recent State of Volume Rebates report to see how manufacturers and distributors across the supply chain are looking to improve and overcome challenges this year.

Here are five New Year’s resolutions that can help you take your rebate strategy to the next level in 2025:

1. Work more collaboratively

When it comes to managing rebates, collaboration is the name of the game. However, as 37% of manufacturers and distributors report, far too many teams operate in “silos,” creating serious barriers to communication and the flow of information.  

It’s crucial to collaborate and communicate closely with your trading partners as you work towards mutually beneficial outcomes. That’s why working more collaboratively is one of the most important rebate resolutions you can set for the year to come. Keep your teams and trading partners aligned on your rebate strategies and objectives to make sure everyone’s working towards a unified goal.

2. Prioritize data accuracy

Data accuracy is a big concern for businesses across the supply chain. In fact, 60% of distributors have moderate or low confidence in their rebate data’s reliability, and almost half claim that data accuracy is one of the main challenges they face in managing rebates. Without accurate data, it’s impossible to get a clear view of how your rebates are performing, craft accurate reports, or make truly informed decisions.

With many businesses reporting regular discrepancies and disputes arising from their rebate data, it’s clear that something needs to change. Data accuracy should be a key priority for businesses managing rebates in 2025. With more confidence in your data, you can design more effective rebate programs and strategies, make better decisions, and build trust in your trading relationships.

3. Track performance more closely

Did you know that over a quarter of manufacturers still don’t measure the success of their rebate programs? This is a serious blind spot for businesses managing rebates – if you don’t know how your programs are performing, how can you hope to correct your course when something goes wrong?  

When you fly blind with your rebates, the risk goes beyond ineffective strategies, potentially leading to costly overpayments and disputes with trading partners. That’s why it’s so important that businesses track their rebate performance closely in the future.

4. Leave manual processes behind

From calculations to claims, rebate management is full of time-consuming processes. Many businesses elect to handle these tasks manually, but as the impact and amount of their rebates grow, often find themselves overwhelmed. In fact, more than half of manufacturers and distributors believe that manual processes are a key obstacle standing in the way of a rebate’s true strategic value.

That’s why businesses across the supply chain are turning to automated rebate management platforms to leave manual processes – and the associated delays, discrepancies, miscommunications, and human error – behind in 2025.

5. Build out your rebate tech stack

Rebate management has at least two things (possibly more) in common with repairing a racecar. One, you have to start with the right tools, and two, it’s best when those tools allow you to work fast. This is unfortunately not the case for the more than 50% of manufacturers and distributors still relying heavily on spreadsheets for rebate management.

Spreadsheets are versatile, but for something as complex and dynamic as rebate management, they simply aren’t the right tool. If you’re struggling to keep up with the complexities of rebate management, it may be time to start building a more robust tech stack for rebate management. Rebates are best managed in an ecosystem of integrated, collaborative tools, allowing you to share data seamlessly between systems and trading partners.

Find out how to build a tech stack for rebate management.

Get More Out of Your Rebates in 2025

The new year is the perfect time to evaluate your performance and rethink your rebate strategy. There’s always room to improve in rebate management – opportunities to boost your performance, strengthen your trading relationships, or make things easier on your team. With a set of clear objectives for improvement and the right tools at your disposal, you can set your team and your rebates up for even greater success in 2025.  

Looking to stay ahead of the curve in 2025? Our guide explores the year’s top trends that you should be aware of.