Pandemic Shines Light on a Distributor’s Need for E-Commerce 

Log In

Pandemic Shines Light on a Distributor’s Need for E-Commerce 

Digital offering for customers is one of the four levers that distributors can pull to help them take share during the pandemic — or amid any disruption.
Internet business and basket design, blue digital shopping cart on black background
Author
Date

Myriad challenges have emerged across distribution in recent years, including how to compete with Amazon, how to meet evolving customer expectations and how to pivot to digital capabilities in today’s rapidly changing business landscape. 

But with the coronavirus crisis ravaging the U.S. economy over the last six months, those problems have hit distributors harder than ever before. And they all hit simultaneously. 

“What’s happened in the last few months with this pandemic has accelerated all of those trends into a trifecta of a perfect storm,” Ranga BodlaVPfield engagement and marketingNetsuitesaid on the recent MDM Spotlight, Levers to Create an Agile Distribution Team. “But the distributors that are thriving during this are the ones that were already paying attention to those trends and have started executing on those plans to meet today’s challenge.” 

Bodla joined MDM CEO Tom Gale on the latest installment of MDM’s popular video series to discuss how distributors can build a more agile organization to leverage the disruptive market conditions that the pandemic has accelerated in 2020. 

The levers that any distributor hoping to take share during this crisis must pull include a cloud-based system to allow teams to work remotely; analytics to react quickly to changing trends; and the right talent to take companies to the next stage. 

But one essential lever that the pandemic has exposed is the need for a robust e-commerce offering. Many distributors told MDM in our recent trends survey that they are either adding or bolstering e-commerce capabilities amid the pandemic, and Bodla explained why during the Spotlight. 

“Five years ago, e-commerce was a ‘nice to have,’” he said. “Three years ago, it had accelerated past ‘nice to have’ and you needed to have a phase one website. Two years ago, you started to get into ‘musthave’ territory. Now, you’re not going to be able to survive if you don’t have an e-commerce presence.” 

‘Win the Day’ with Your Customers 

E-commerce is one of the critical levers for distributors during the pandemic — or, really, any economic disruption — because many B2B buyers are working from home and need to get product delivered quickly. If they can’t peruse your site and place an order, they’ll quickly look elsewhere for their product needs. 

“Right now, that loyalty aspect has gone out the window,” Bodla said. “They just need product. And in the industrial distribution space, in particular, buyers are going to go wherever they can get the product. E-commerce demand has surged.” 

But e-commerce is about much more than just ordering via an online portal. Customers now expect to engage with their distributors in all ways digital, Bodla added, from digital marketing to social media to online delivery tracking. 

“It’s not just the expectation of your consumers or your buyers,” he saidIt’s one of the only ways in which they can interact with you and get product. And there’s an expectation from an inventory perspective, so it’s a little broader than just ecommerce. It’s everything around it — not just how do you sell to customers, but also how do you acquire them? It’s about email marketing, how you store and deliver your productswhether you have your own physical warehouse versus thirdparty logistics. All of those are big topics that we’re seeing, and all of that together is ecommerce.” 

What’s more, he added, a company without that e-commerce lever to pull is vulnerable to a competitor. In today’s competitive landscape, that could mean an existing company or an emerging one. 

“It’s not just Amazon,” Bodla said. “It’s going to be somebody else you’re not even thinking about today. And so, you have to have people who can move and pivot quickly and adapt — because that is what’s going to win the day.” 

Learn much more about creating an agile distribution team — through e-commerce as well as the cloud, analytics and other levers — in the latest MDM Spotlight, sponsored by Oracle Netsuite, which you can watch by clicking here. 

Related Posts

Share this article

About the Author
Recommended Reading
Leave a Reply

Leave a Comment

Sign Up for the MDM Update Newsletter

The MDM update newsletter is your best source for news and trends in the wholesale distribution industry.

Get the MDM Update Newsletter

Wholesale distribution news and trends delivered right to your inbox.

Sign-up for our free newsletter and get:

  • Up-to-date news in a quick-to-read format
  • Free access to webcasts, podcasts and live events
  • Exclusive whitepapers, research and reports
  • And more!

2

articles left

Want more Premium content from MDM?

Subscribe today and get:

  • New issues twice each month
  • Unlimited access to mdm.com, including 10+ years of archived data
  • Current trends analysis, market data and economic updates
  • Discounts on select store products and events

Subscribe to continue reading

MDM Premium Subscribers get:

  • Unlimited access to MDM.com
  • 1 year digital subscription, with new issues twice a month
  • Trends analysis, market data and quarterly economic updates
  • Deals on select store products and events

1

article
left

You have one free article remaining

Subscribe to MDM Premium to get unlimited access. Your subscription includes:

  • Two new issues a month
  • Access to 10+ years of archived data on mdm.com
  • Quarterly economic updates, trends analysis and market data
  • Store and event discounts

To continue reading, you must be an MDM Premium subscriber.

Join other distribution executives who use MDM Premium to optimize their business. Our insights and analysis help you enter the right new markets, turbocharge your sales and marketing efforts, identify business partners that help you scale, and stay ahead of your competitors.

Register for full access

By providing your email, you agree to receive announcements from us and our partners for our newsletter, events, surveys, and partner resources per MDM Terms & Conditions. You can withdraw consent at any time.

Learn More about Custom Reports

Request a Market Prospector Demo

  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.