Grainger, five others debut OrderZone.com
Grainger chairman Dick Keyser says OrderZone. com "makes business simple."
By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 3/1/1999
CHICAGO--OrderZone. com. The name has a slight Amazon.com ring to it. And what Amazon.com did for books and CDs, W.W. Grainger and a select group of partners wants to do to industrial supplies with its online business-to-business superstore which was announced Feb. 9 in a live broadcast on the Internet.Grainger, together with five complementary, noncompeting suppliers, including Marshall Industries and Corporate Express, will offer industrial buyers a place to shop online for a variety of business supplies and services. Currently in beta testing with 30 customers, OrderZone.com (www.OrderZone.com) is expected to go live May 15, according to Daniel Hamburger, Grainger's president of Internet Commerce.
"We pride ourselves on staying at the forefront of electronic commerce," says Robert Rodin, president of Marshall Industries. "When we heard about the OrderZone.com venture, we knew right away it was a project that would enable our customers to improve the way they do business."
According to Hamburger, Grainger owns the business, with plans underway to add more suppliers to the site "as customers demand it."
Further, each supplier within OrderZone.com will establish their individual pricing policies. The site also has the ability to allow registered customers to receive pre-negotiated prices with suppliers. Grainger's five partners include:
* Cintas Corp.: uniform programs, entrance mats, sanitation supplies and first aid products.
* Corporate Express: nonproduction goods and services, including office and computer supplies.
* Lab Safety Supply: safety and industrial products.
*Marshall Industries: industrial electronic components and production supplies.
* VWR Scientific Products: laboratory supplies, chemicals and equipment.
"For us, it's a new way to go to market and for our customers, it is a new level of convenience," says Dick Keyser, Grainger's chairman and CEO. "It's about making business simple. We believe companies want to spend less time and less money on purchasing and more time on running their business."
Hamburger says OrderZone.com provides one-stop Internet shopping that will save customers 10 percent or more in procurement costs. Customers using OrderZone. com can use one search engine, place one order on one site and receive a single invoice across multiple product lines and multiple vendors and make one payment. OrderZone.com distributes the order to all the necessary suppliers for fulfillment.
Perot Systems has developed the technology behind OrderZone. com, integrating the six companies and their information systems into one "efficient and powerful digital marketplace," says Ross Perot, chairman, president and CEO of Perot Systems. "In the same way Federal Express changed the way people thought about shipping, OrderZone.com will change the way businesses think about buying."
Perot points to a recent Forrester Research study, which values business-to-business electronic commerce at $1.3 trillion by 2003.
Each distributor in the partnership will maintain individual Web sites because, says Hamburger, OrderZone. com is meant to complement, not replace individual company sites. "It's an additional sales channel," he says.
Currently, the Web product OrderZone.com does not have real-time order tracking and shipping, but it is a feature Hamburger hopes to implement in the near future "as customers demand it."
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