Continuing our Q3 earnings observations, next up is Grainger which is a traditionally a good barometer for the industrial MRO space and lately has been a case study in value proposition, price and fear of Amazon Business. From the earnings call and their slides: Overall \"a solid quarter and there were some positive signs\". Seeing growth coming from their price reduction … [Read more...] about Grainger Turning a Corner?
Technology & Digital
What is Good “Product Content”?
For the past few years electrical distributors have been actively investing (in the hopes of eventually deploying) in commerce-enabled websites. This has necessitated that distributors become acquainted with, focus on, invest in and develop product content (data) to power their systems. And they\'ve had to learn the difference between product content that is sufficient / usable … [Read more...] about What is Good “Product Content”?
2018 Planning Countdown
Electrical industry tradeshows start in 4 weeks with AD\'s North American Meeting, quickly followed by the IMARK Annual Meeting and the NAED Eastern, and not counting national meetings for national chains. And with the meetings comes talk regarding 2018 joint planning. In fact, Electrical Wholesaling\'s August issue was titled \"Marketing Planning.\" The 2018 planning season … [Read more...] about 2018 Planning Countdown
Home Depot Q2 – Pro Insights
Home Depot shared its Q2 results yesterday and, while the company continues to perform well as indicated with over $28B in sales, its Pro business, defined as contractors and its Interline business, outperformed the core business. NAED\'s TED Magazine, through its re-publishing relationship with The Associated Press, shared a credible overview of the company\'s financial … [Read more...] about Home Depot Q2 – Pro Insights
Distributors Need to Evolve from Being Product Companies
Distributors traditionally fought for market share via relationship, service and price. The company with the best people, best service and competitive pricing that could provide their customers with access to credit typically won more business in a market. Since a customer couldn\'t buy everything from one company (due to product lines or credit reasons), they shared business … [Read more...] about Distributors Need to Evolve from Being Product Companies
Channel Marketing and Funding … but for eCommerce Initiatives?
The essence of “channel marketing” infers that members within a channel (manufacturer, rep and distributor) are working together to market products, services and applications to generate demand from customers. The term doesn’t infer whom funds the initiative but frequently there are co-marketing, and hence co-funding, initiatives. At times this is co-op, perhaps MDF or other … [Read more...] about Channel Marketing and Funding … but for eCommerce Initiatives?
Increasing Warehouse Accuracy in an Age of Employee Churn
In talking with senior management and HR managers of distributors, a continual challenge is personnel. While frequently these discussions relate to qualified (industry or skilled) personnel for sales, branch management and/or specialists, a frequent comment is the \"churn\" that they experience in their warehouse as well as with their drivers. Low unemployment and the reality … [Read more...] about Increasing Warehouse Accuracy in an Age of Employee Churn
