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Grainger wasn’t the first distributor to introduce a mobile app, but the app it recently launched is arguably one of the most robust available on the market. The announcement comes as demand for mobile access to product information, availability and order capabilities continues to increase across industries. This article examines the process behind Grainger’s application development, as well as what’s driving more distributors to go mobile.
Have a question? Check your smartphone. We’re no longer required to wait until we get home or until we can connect our computers to the Internet to get the answer. While this has been a growing trend in our personal lives for years, it is now making a major mark in the B-to-B world.
A number of distributors have developed their own targeted apps.
Platt Electric Supply, for one, developed an app with a store locator and mobile access to your Platt account. HVAC distributor Johnstone Supply created a broader “toolkit,” including a duct-sizer and efficiency savings calculators.
Grainger’s new mobile app, released in August, takes the concept even further – aiming to bring the full functionality of grainger.com to the smartphone.
The Grainger Model
Over the past year, mobile traffic to Grainger’s website has increased 400 percent, …
Strategic alliances between distributors should be aimed at improving business for all participants. But this isn’t always the driver of organizations that enable independent distributors to get together.
“Our experience is that it’s often reactive in nature,” says Brent Grover, principal at Evergreen Consulting LLC and author of The Little Black Book of Strategic Planning for Distributors. Grover recently took part in an “Ask the Author” webcast event with MDM, answering audience questions about his new book, which is available at www.mdm.com/littleblackbook.
In his experience, the frequent focus on national accounts …
In the recent MDM Webcast, Managing for Profit: Five Building Blocks of Success, Jonathan Byrnes, senior MIT lecturer and author of Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink, offers strategies in five key areas that can, when applied together, help managers lead companies to a better bottom line. The webcast, the final in a four-part series on managing for profitability, is available on DVD at www.mdm.com/islands.
Even in leading companies, 30 percent to 40 percent of the business is unprofitable. At the same time, 20 percent to 30 percent is highly profitable, enough to subsidize the loss, according to Jonathan Byrnes, senior MIT lecturer and author of Islands of Profit in a Sea of Red Ink. While many business leaders tend to focus on the unprofitable aspects of their businesses in an attempt to fix what’s broken, Byrnes says companies would do well to focus more on those products and initiatives that contribute to the bottom line.
“If you don’t secure that business, you’re really in trouble,” he says.
In the recent MDM Webcast, Managing for Profit, Byrnes recommends leaders focus on five building blocks that, when executed effectively and simultaneously, can …
More than half of U.S. counties have been designated as natural disaster areas after the worst drought in more than 50 years ravaged crops and pastures this summer. As of Aug. 28, 2012, nearly 53 percent of the country was still in moderate drought or worse, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor, released weekly by the National Drought Mitigation Center at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Manufacturers and distributors serving these markets will or already have seen an impact as the drought continues to dampen economic activity.
The impacts have been widespread, from cracking …
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These materials, prepared by Robert W. Baird & Co. for MDM, are for informational purposes only.
Manufacturing expanded in February following a decline in January, and the overall economy grew for the 64th consecutive month, according to the latest Manufacturing ISM Report on Business.
February proved to be a good month in the manufacturing sector as New Orders, Production and Employment contributed to a solid growth scenario, ISM reports. The Inventories Index showed significant reduction in manufacturers' inventories for the second consecutive month, and the Backlog of Orders Index is growing once again.
While the prices manufacturers pay reached their highest level in five months, concern about prices is still minimal due to the small number of commodities indicated as up in price. The trend in manufacturing, as well as the overall economy, ...
New Orders
New orders for manufactured durable goods in January decreased $17.1 billion or 7.8 percent to $203.9 billion, the U.S. Census Bureau announced in a preliminary release. This followed two consecutive monthly increases including a 2.8 percent December increase. Excluding transportation, new orders decreased 3.1 percent. Excluding defense, new orders decreased 7.8 percent.
Shipments
Shipments of manufactured durable goods in January, up five of the last six months, increased $0.5 billion or 0.2 percent to $211.4 billion. This followed a 0.5 percent December increase.
Unfilled Orders
Unfilled orders for manufactured durable goods in January, up twenty of the last twenty-one months, increased $1.0 ...
Market ...
December 2006 sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales branches and offices, were $337.1 billion, up 1.8 percent from the revised November level and were up 8.6 percent from the December 2005 level. December sales of durable goods increased 1.1 percent from last month and were up 7.0 percent from a year ago. Compared to last month, sales of hardware and plumbing and heating equipment and supplies were up 4.2 percent and sales of motor vehicle and motor vehicle parts and supplies increased 2.9 percent. December sales of nondurable goods were up 2.5 percent from last month and were up 10.2 percent from last year.
Inventories . Total inventories of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers' sales ...
Taken from Statistics Canada
Canadian manufacturers ended  ; 2006  ; on a positive note as factory shipments increased for the second month in a row in December, thanks to strength in the transportation equipment sector.
The year-end rally was not enough to offset several months of weak performances earlier in the year. As a result, total shipments for  ; 2006  ; as a whole edged down  ; 0.6% to  ; $587.4  ; billion from the peak level in  ; 2005.
December's increase was widespread, with  ; 13  ; sectors representing  ; 74% of total output improving. On a monthly basis, factories shipped goods worth an estimated  ; $49.7  ; billion in ...
December U.S. manufacturing technology consumption totaled $321.35 million, according to The Association For Manufacturing Technology and the American Machine Tool Distributors' Association. This total, as reported by companies participating in the USMTC program, was down 6.9% from November, and down 0.5% from the total of $322.81 million reported for  ; December 2005. With a year-end total of $3,889.75 million, 2006 was up 26.8% compared with 2005.
These numbers and all data in this report are based on the totals of actual data reported by companies participating in the USMTC program.
2006 was an exceptional year, with the highest U.S. consumption since 2000, says John B. Byrd III, AMT President. Growth should continue in 2007, at a more modest pace, as ...
Summary of  ; MDM Inflation Index for the past 12 months:
December 2006 Index  ; 267.1
November 2006 Index 266.5
October 2006 Index 265.9
September 2006 Index 265.6
August 2006 Index 265.2
July 2006 Index 264.0
June 2006 Index 263.0
May 2006 Index 262.1
April 2006 Index 262.1
March 2006 Index 262.1
Febuary 2006 Index 261.2
January 2006 Index 260.2
December 2005 Index 258.1
Please click below on Related Document to view a print-ready pdf of the  ; MDM Inflation Index for December 2006, listing the ten ...
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