Grainger, Airgas improve Web offerings
W.W. Grainger's Daniel Hamburger: "Our customers' time is valuable."
By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 1/1/1999
Newton, Mass.--There's no question that shopping online got a lot of exposure over the recent Christmas holiday. W.W. Grainger, Inc. and Airgas, Inc., two of the largest distributors in the industrial sector, are hoping recent enhancements to their Web sites cause purchasers to look online as much as consumers have.Grainger, No. 1 in ID's Top 100 (See ID, June, 1998), announced last month that it now accepts credit cards for payment on its Web site, grainger.com, providing purchasers with flexible payment options.
"In the MRO industry, 95 percent of purchasing transactions are completed using open accounts. Although most consumer catalog sites accept credit cards for payment, open accounts have always been standard in our industry," says Daniel Hamburger, vice president and general manager of Internet commerce for Grainger. "The idea of using credit cards on the Internet is something that other MRO sites don't offer and is very new to MRO purchasers. Our customers' time is valuable, so grainger.com strives to make transactions as convenient and expeditious as possible."
The grainger.com site will employ Secure Sockets Layer technology -- a low level encryption scheme used to encrypt transactions in higher-level protocols. It includes a security protocol that prevents tampering or message forgery over the Internet.
Meanwhile, Airgas, announced the release of a newly expanded Web site (www.airgas.com), developed to enhance customers' ability to use a variety of new and planned features.
"It's all about doing business," said Sandy Goldstein, vice president and chief information officer at Airgas. "We want our Web site to be viewed not only as an information resource, but as a dynamic environment that simplifies and enhances the process of doing business with Airgas."
"Local, individualized service has always been a key marketing strategy for us," says Pat Visintainer, vice president, sales and marketing. "We feel that the Internet and electronic commerce can help bring us even closer to our customers, giving them the information they need to make informed business decisions, streamlining their workflow and helping facilitate our national resources in fulfilling customers' needs." m
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