Grainger embraces mobile to help workers in field, back office

W.W. Grainger Inc. reports that mobile traffic to its website in February 2013 equaled 10 percent of its total web traffic.

In fact, the retailer of hardware, building maintenance and office supplies found that half of its customers spend most of their time at a job site or on the shop floor—in other words, away from the office and their laptops.

Grainger launched its mobile commerce website in 2011 and iPhone and Android apps in 2012.

Data meets search to fuel the future of commerce

“Customers in the field, the guys on the roof, the guy fixing HVAC units, they frequently have need to order products,” Geoff Robertson, vice president of e-commerce strategy and planning, tells Internet Retailer.

“They would pick up the phone and call back to the office and say, ‘I need this hammer or light bulb’ and spend a lot of time describing the exact product they are looking for, and the person on the other end is looking through the catalog. So the field technician is now e-mailing a product from the mobile store to the back office or placing an order and putting it into workflow.”

Grainger is making smart, strategic decisions based on their customer data, and using that information to bring their services directly to that consumer in the way they need it to be delivered—be it in the office, in the field or up on a rooftop—and their boosting their bottom line at the same time.

That’s what we call a win-win.