Amazon and Google are duking it out in the industrial-supply marketplace right now, thanks to the fact that a significant number of manufacturers and distributors are woefully behind in addressing e-commerce and building the appropriate infrastructure.
Jack Keough points out, in an editorial for the website Industrial Distribution, that a hybris software study audited 200 electrical supply websites and found that 40 percent of those websites were lacking adequate e-commerce capabilities.
Amazon Supply stepped into that void, and now Google has followed suit. The vacuum created by the lack of up-to-date strategies and technology is opening the market to others, says Keough:
Just a short time ago I was contacted by a large brick and mortar chain which also has an extensive on-line presence. I can’t reveal the name of this company, but it is thinking of entering the marketplace because of what it sees as a vacuum in e-commerce expertise from industrial distributors.
Another company, supplyden.com, which sells safety, janitorial, packaging, and other products says it is now redesigned its website and is determined to go after the industrial side of the business. Again, they say it because industrial supply sites do not offer the “ease and flexibility that many leading on-line retailers offer.”
Keough’s point could not be more clear: B2B brands that don’t step up their efforts to engage customers in e-commerce will suffer—and those that had the foresight to invest in a robust online presence are winning.
Take Grainger, which is not only heavily invested in e-commerce, but is also leading the way with mobile applications. And the company shows no sign of slowing down its efforts. Plans are in place to hire 300 IT professionals and e-commerce experts over the next several years.
That’s smart investing, with a B2B market that Forrester Research estimates at just about $570 billion. For some perspective, the B2C market is valued at under $170 million.
That’s a huge piece of the pie, just waiting to be gobbled up by Amazon and Google. It’s time to set the table and take your share.
