MDM’s most popular blogs of June showed that readers are looking to keep pace with digital innovations. From connecting digitally with customers to the use of voice, image recognition and machine to machine (M2M) connections to place orders, more and more, industrial distributors are making customer expectations a priority. Follow the links below to read MDM’s most popular blogs from June.

1. Will Amazon’s One-Day Shipping Kill the Distribution Industry?

What does this change mean for the traditional distributor go-to-customer model? It entirely depends on the organization’s value propositions, says Alexander Group’s Andrew Horvath. 

2. The Death of the Keyboard in the Online Order

Increasingly, customers are going to use voice, image recognition and machine to machine (M2M) connections to place orders. The proportion of orders originating with humans typing is going to start dropping off rapidly, predicts MDM’s Ian Heller. 

3. The Distributor’s Guide to Getting Started with E-commerce

Start with three main components: customer-specific pricing, product availability and lead times to best connect digitally with customers, says MDM’s Jason Capshaw. The goal is not perfection, but do keep customer expectations in mind. 

4. Fighting the Digital Disruption War: Protect the Last Mile

From the nature of mergers-and-acquisitions activity to the way manufacturer-distributor-customer relationships are defined today, digital disruption has fundamentally changed the competitive dynamics of wholesale distribution. But after 30 years of observing this $6 trillion industry, MDM's CEO Thomas P. Gale thinks there’s a critical perspective to keep top of mind. 

5. Lack of Vision Holding Distributors Back on Digital Innovation

Research for the NAW’s Facing the Forces of Change reveals that most distributors are not using (or even aware of) business innovation practices. When distributors do innovate, it is mostly by trial and error, explains Mark Dancer, founder of the Network for Channel Innovation.