When we talk to distribution employees, we often hear, in hushed tones: Our CEO just doesn’t understand why we should invest in digital! When we talk to distribution CEOs, we hear their frustration when they tell us: We’ve spent millions on our website and haven’t gotten any kind of return on that investment!
What’s going on here? In our experience:
Successful ecommerce in B2B is wildly more complex than in retail. Multiple users, workflows, e-procurement, punchout, email-to-order conversion and many more challenges make it tough to succeed. Now, add in the problem where “experts” get the requirements wrong and “once bitten, twice shy” CEOs only provide part of the requested funding and you have a recipe for failure.
How do you get around this dilemma? Hear from your hosts Ian Heller and Jonathan Bein as they haggle over the source of the problem and how to solve it so you can taste digital success, too.
Ian Heller is the Founder and Chief Strategist for Distribution Strategy Group. He has more than 30 years of experience executing marketing and e-business strategy in the wholesale distribution industry, starting as a truck unloader at a Grainger branch while in college. He’s since held executive roles at GE Capital, Corporate Express, Newark Electronics and HD Supply. Ian has written and spoken extensively on the impact of digital disruption on distributors, and would love to start that conversation with you, your team or group. Reach out today at iheller@distributionstrategy.com.