The industrial sector’s four biggest e-commerce obstacles

While representing one of their largest opportunities, e-commerce also continues to be one of the biggest challenges for manufacturers and the industrial sector alike.

These obstacles are exacerbated by the fact that – depending on where a company falls – e-commerce carries equally positive competitive advantages and damaging disadvantages.

An effective e-commerce platform requires that a number of significant demands be satisfied. Some in this marketplace have embraced these tasks, while others have been reticent in allocating the necessary resources.

Industrial sector e-commerce: The biggest challenges – and opportunities

The following list reflects four of the biggest obstacles that more in the industrial sector must overcome if they wish to reap the rewards e-commerce can provide.

1. A lack of urgency. While this group has a very strong understanding of potential e-commerce benefits, a legacy of personal relationships has hindered some from championing more aggressive e-commerce implementation. One could argue that a dependence on these relationships has instilled a somewhat lethargic attitude when it comes to investing the time and resources required for creating and maintaining e-commerce platforms. On the flip side, this lack of urgency is excellent news for early adopters of e-commerce and the gains these distributors and manufacturers have realized.

2. Product data. Although this would seems to be the simplest of all issues to address, the reality is that it continues to challenge the industrial sector for a number of reasons. Leading the list is the number of parts that comprise data for a single product. At a minimum this includes a description, image or images, and technical specifications. Add application notes, schematics, reference information, downloadable spec sheets and pricing, and the process of gathering, organizing and cross-referencing all this product data, and their associated systems, becomes extremely daunting – especially for distributors.

And while most have this data available via a printed catalog, finding the time and expertise for transferring this information and reformatting it to fit on hundreds of web pages continues to prove difficult. Throw in search capabilities, product comparison features, multiple languages and links to associated products and systems, and this becomes a significant undertaking for a marketplace this is only beginning to appreciate the validity of e-commerce.

Finally, many in this sector have invested heavily in designing websites that are well-suited for informing customers and suppliers about the company. In other words, they’re set up for selling the enterprise as a business partner, but the backend content management or product management system may not support e-commerce at the appropriate level. This means further investment would be required and the site as a whole might need to be re-built.

3. Pace of change. When it comes to the changing face of offerings in the industrial sector, there are a number of factors that keep product line-ups in constant motion. Advances in material composition, new regulatory compliance standards, updated internal sustainability measures, and increasing product application demands all challenge the industrial sector’s ability to keep inventories in sync with market demands. Keeping catalogs and inventory management systems up-to-date is an on-going challenge that has and will continue to carry over into e-commerce initiatives.

4. Support. Selling products on a website does not make one a viable provider of e-commerce. To their credit, the industrial sector understands this and therefore, generally speaking, has not rolled out e-commerce platforms that lack the proper support mechanisms.

At this time, priorities have not been placed on developing tools that could include: communication portals that are optimized for mobile devices; customized web displays based on purchase history; online customer service; or seamless integration between the site, sales reps or stores.

Essentially, many in the industrial sector are rightfully leery of their ability to match the traditional sales experience with an electronic interaction. While this group has been slower than others to embrace e-commerce, it should also be noted that is a collective of problem-solvers, innovators and continuous improvement experts. In time, they will transform these obstacles into opportunity, and realize the potential e-commerce holds in reaching more customers in more geographies with more products and services.