As mentioned last week, one of the topics of various sessions, and with distributors, was eCommerce and eSales. The companies that are viewed as more progressive, perhaps more profitable and who are positioning for future growth are driving their business this way. Some of discussion at the NAED National may be due to Amazon stating that Amazon Business crossed the $1 billion … [Read more...] about Driving Your eSales Rate
Contractors
Liening Up
Yes, we\'re talking about liens! They types that accounting / credit people like, not \"lean\" as in \"lean processes\" which we\'ll touch on in the near future when we discuss innovation. Why liens? Basically because a couple of weeks ago two pieces of information were received mentioning them. The first had information about a cloud-based lien rights management platform … [Read more...] about Liening Up
Industrial Margins Declining?
Feedback from manufacturers and distributors indicate a rather significant drop in sales but recent conversations indicate that margins could be even more significantly impacted. While industrial margins typically are higher than contractor / construction business, this quickly could become a memory. We\'ve heard of: Contracts / blankets going for \"low teens\" (i.e. … [Read more...] about Industrial Margins Declining?
Increasing Pressure and Competition in the Industrial MRO Market
Grainger and WESCO are typically good industry benchmarks to get a sense of the industrial MRO market. Grainger also sometimes provides insights into the institutional market, so let\'s look at their end of year / quarterly reports where they also shed 2016 guidance. Grainger While their January headline was good \"up 4% for the month\", this included 4% for a UK acquisition … [Read more...] about Increasing Pressure and Competition in the Industrial MRO Market
