Ecommerce is most mature in JanSan, where 50% of responding companies derive more than 30% of revenue from ecommerce, Safety (33%) and Electronics (30%), the survey shows. Bein says companies are most likely to offer ecommerce when the products they sell don’t require extensive configuration and are small enough to be shipped by common carriers, like UPS and FedEx. By contrast, Building Materials, which are heavy and bulky, is among the least mature categories.

Where online distributors get their product data

But he notes that Gas & Welding, a category where ecommerce was not common a few years ago, now leads in adoption, with more than 40% of responding companies selling online. He attributes that growth to distributors in that category working with their trade group, the Independent Welding Distributors Cooperative, to obtain the product data needed to sell online effectively.

The survey found 16% of respondents rely very heavily on trade groups like IWDC for product data and 19% heavily. 42% rely heavily or very heavily on third-party sources for product, while 69% primarily rely on their own product data, the survey shows.

Bein says companies that say they are well satisfied with the ROI from their ecommerce operations are the ones most likely to rely on their own product data, particularly for best-selling items. “Some will get a large volume of data from an association, but for the 10% of SKUs that account for 90% of revenue they will really double down and enrich that beyond what the group or association has done,” he says.

22% of responding companies are very or highly satisfied with their ecommerce ROI, the survey shows, down a tick from 23% last year. The companies most likely to be happy with their results typically launched ecommerce before 2020, have integrated their online systems with their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software and rely more heavily on online sales, with ecommerce accounting for 27% of their revenue versus less than 14% for all respondents.

Sales reps help drive online sales

A notable result of the survey is the important role company employees play in encouraging customers to shop online.

53% of respondents said field sales reps are among the most effective ways to drive ecommerce, with 35% saying the same about customer service reps and 21% about inside salespeople. The only other tactic to score above 20% was SEO/organic search at 22%. Mobile apps and marketing automation were cited by 16% and email marketing by 15% as among the most effective tactics.

While there was a time many believed sales reps for distributors, wholesalers and manufacturers would view ecommerce as a threat to their commissions, Bein says the results show companies have restructured compensation policies to ensure reps get paid regardless of how customers purchase.

The survey also found that the top ecommerce priority by far for responding companies is improving customer experience and ease of use, selected by more than 90% as among the top three priorities. Improving efficiency and productivity ranks second.

Increasing the number of orders was cited by 38% as among the top financial objectives of companies taking the survey and increasing business with existing customers by 28%. But Bein says it’s significant that 30% cited growing business with new customers as a top priority, 15% expanding sales to new geographies and 14% moving into new customer segments.

“You have to have a certain level of sophistication and maturity to go beyond you existing customer base,” he says. “Targeting new customers, geographics and industry segments, that’s a steeper climb. The fact that distributors are doing that now is a market of the maturity of what they’re doing.”

Bein reviewed the results of the survey, offered insights into what investments are driving measurable ecommerce results for distributors and provided benchmarks distributors can use to assess their own progress on a webinar Oct. 22. You can watch the webinar for free by clicking here.