2018 State of eCommerce Electrical Contractor & Buyer Insights

Recently Channel Marketing Group survey electrical contractors and electrical buyers within industrial and institutions to gain insight into their eCommerce and online usage. The study was done with support of selected distributors and manufacturers and Electrical Wholesaling. Over 1300 individuals responded to the survey and over 50 interviews were conducted.
The report shares overall insights as well as segments input by contractor, residential contractor, industrial and institutional segments.
Key insights are generated as to:

• % of current purchases that are being placed online
• Key activities that electrical decision makers use on websites
• Their expectations of the impact of eCommerce on their business.
• The importance of various attributes on a site
• Whom they are purchasing from (which may surprise you)
• What product categories they are more open to purchase from online sources
• and more

And while many focus on the online ordering aspect, in this survey we asked about various eOrdering tools such as EDI, eProcurement, vending machines and more.
Additionally, while culminating the order is important, many distributors are ambivalent if the order is consummated online … they want to provide resources to their customers to provide an comprehensive virtual experience that includes product research, ability to download spec sheets, receive / view installation information, check pricing and local inventory, monitor delivery information and more.
This 86 page report shares the survey data, the interview insights and verbatim comments to open-ended questions.  It is available for only $129 via PayPal (which also processes credit cards) or email Channel Marketing Group to be invoiced.
This report complements our State of eCommerce, Distributor Perspective Report which shares activity, observations and insights from over 230 distributors in multiple construction industries with over one-third of the respondents being electrical distributors.  An overview of key findings in this report were published in the February issue of Electrical Wholesaling.