Digital Strategy

Because of reduced barrier to entry, distributors of all sizes have now launched or are launching an e-commerce capability. However, a significant percentage of these distributors are seeing very little revenue traction through their e-commerce site, even after several years.

February 2015, State of Distributor E-Commerce survey of more than 400 distributors conducted with Modern Distribution Management. Ongoing Shopping and Buying survey of several thousand end users from multiple distributors.

Last month, we saw Google roll out their well-publicized update that rewarded mobile-friendly websites. That was great news for distributors that had responsive (or other mobile-friendly) sites.

Distributors tend to be experts in products and the market niches they serve. We often see distributors being very good at several aspects of the business. If there is a weakness (from another superhero, think kryptonite), it’s that marketing may not be a priority. Is marketing the kryptonite of your business?

It’s no secret that mobile-friendly sites are important today and will be even more important in the future. Many distributors’ website visitors are in the field and very mobile, so this future change is important.

This article examines the results of the 2015 State of E-Commerce in Distribution Survey and how the industry’s e-commerce offerings are maturing. Part 2 will look at best practices for distributor-integrated marketing approaches to support electronic shopping and buying.

Increasingly, we hear distributors say that their e-commerce site is not getting the revenue traction they expected. The distributor went into the initiative thinking, “Build it and they will come.” But, what really happened was, “We built it and they didn’t come.

Distribution Strategy Group conducted an electronic survey of 305 participants to better understand trends in distribution marketing. This survey was conducted with Modern Distribution Management in July 2014.

The 2014 distributor marketing survey covered several areas of marketing, including planning, objectives, vehicles, channels and organization. Companies are using more digital marketing than they did in the 2011 survey. They consider it more important, and they are staffing accordingly.