What's your Web strategy?
Distributors must develop an e-commerce strategy soon
By Sara Procknow -- Industrial Distribution, 5/1/1999
IS IT JUST ME OR DOES IT SEEM LIKE e-commerce fever is sweeping the country? Over the course of the past few months, there have been a plethora of announcements from companies throwing their proverbial hats into the online commerce arena.One of the first companies to burst open the e-commerce floodgates was good ol' W.W. Grainger. Never one to sit still for long, Grainger announced a partnership with Perot Systems, and then unveiled a one-stop Web offering called OrderZone.com, pulling together Grainger, Marshall and others in a pact for an Amazon wannabe site.
The move was followed by Home Depot announcing its own Web strategy; Datastream's release of e-MRO, the company's electronic commerce initiative; Prophet 21's eBusiness solutions that were recently adopted; and Harbinger's announcement that it is unveiling strategic initiatives to accelerate Internet e-commerce goals with harbinger.net. Even software firm Daly & Wolcott changing its name to daly.commerce is indicative of a cyber frenzy occurring in our industry.
It seems everyone wants to sell something online. Is your company next?
If you can sift through all the glamour of this Internet buzz, cyber sales and electronic funds transfer, we do have to remember we are talking about MRO supplies -- abrasive wheels, hand tools, hex-head screws, cutting fluids and safety goggles. These are low-dollar items that often cost more to order than to actually buy. So, behind the lure of online commerce, buyers are merely turning to the Web as a low-cost solution to a traditional high-cost request-for-quotes process.
In fancy terms, they are being told from upper management to "streamline the supply chain procurement process." In other words, purchasing agents have to buy supplies faster, cheaper and more efficiently than ever before. Their jobs depend on it.
What this means for the typical distributor, then, is that it's not enough to just have a Web site anymore. Buyers want to go to a place on the Internet where they can search, source and negotiate price on a whole host of products -- not just one product line, but dozens. They are ready to buy online. Are you making it easy for buyers to do business with you online?
But whatever you do, keep your Web site and e-commerce offering simple. Don't make it harder than it needs to be. If it is a chore to find your Web site, let alone navigate the site and wait to get information, I'm probably going to surf on over to someone else's site before I get around to buying something on yours.
Make your Web site easy to do business with. Customers will do business with you online for the same reasons they do business with you now: because your salespeople help them do their jobs. Think of your Web site as a salesperson and you'll see what I mean. Give the Web site the same responsibilities of a salesperson by setting goals and a strategy. Give it a target sales volume, help it problem-solve and develop its customer-service and technical-information skills. If your Web site, like your best salesperson, is seen as a resource, you can bet your customers will be using it.
Send your comments to Sara Procknow at sprocknow@cahners.com or call (617) 558-4289.
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