How does your Web site rate?
W.W. Grainger may be intimidating, but you can learn a lot from its Web site
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 8/1/1998
Grainger has done it again. Did you catch the big announcement last month? Not only has Grainger spent millions on its own in-house CD-ROM and Web site activities, it has now partnered with Perot Systems in an Internet commerce initiative.Not that W.W. Grainger's Web site (www.grainger.com) was anything to sneeze at without e-commerce functionality. In fact, the site was recently ranked No. 7 in NetMarketing's Top 200 list. Grainger shared the notoriety with Marshall Industries (www.marshall. com), which claimed the No. 1 spot. Other notables included IBM (www.ibm.com) at No. 5, and Live Picture Corp. (www.livepicture.com) at No. 10.
Grainger's site was chosen because it gives the customer more than just a catalog. Some of its other functions include:
* Online ordering
* Customer-specific pricing
* Product availability
* MSDS online, searchable by part number
* Branch locator service (including a map)
Since 1995, the Grainger Web site has grown in sophistication, adding graphics, product availability and a "what's new" content area. It has also grown in users. The firm admits that about one percent of sales are attributable to the Web.
Also impressive is the advertising Grainger does -- on other sites and on its own site, promoting electronics and safety lines, for example. Grainger understands that advertising and promotion drives Web site visitors.
Probably the biggest advantage Grainger has is its sheer size. I'll bet Grainger uses its field salespeople to demo and teach customers how to use and benefit from the site, something all distributors could do just as easily.
I know what you're going to say. Grainger's huge. You're just a small player in the channel. You barely have time to keep up with conventions, sales calls, sales reps, integrated supply contracts and your competitor up the street. When would you possibly have time to figure out a Web site, much less an e-commerce initiative?
I'll grant you the Grainger-is-huge excuse. After all, it is a $4.1 billion catalog house. But at the same time, it doesn't cost you anything to learn from Grainger. Visit the site. Try what Grainger does with its site, only maybe not as fancy, not as expensive, and with your own customer needs incorporated. And foremost, make your salespeople 'Net savvy so they can educate your existing customers about your own Web site.
As for the Internet commerce initiative between Grainger and Perot Systems, the partnership is expected to be launched later this year. The anticipation has Grainger chairman and CEO Richard Keyser saying that innovation is the key to Internet commerce success: "Many customers will choose to purchase products through more innovative channels," he says. In fact, in an exclusive interview with ID ("What Drives Grainger," June, 1998), Keyser says Grainger's online revenues are "growing at an explosive rate," and that "people who ignore the Internet do so at their own peril."
The initiative will allow for one-stop shopping and will significantly streamline buying for small- to medium-sized businesses. It just goes to show that technology is moving so fast that everyone who has a Web site will eventually have e-commerce. Grainger's just one of the first to do it.
Listen to what well-known industry consultant Bruce Merrifield has to say: "When Grainger's site starts to be interesting to customers it will be a shot heard throughout the distribution channel. It will be a catalyst like Grainger's move into integrated supply a few years ago. Distributors will realize they are too far behind, that they thought in too limited a way by putting up brochures and maybe a simple catalog."
Translation: Watch out for Grainger, but most of all, learn from its site.
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com or call (617) 558-4289.
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