eCommerce for Distribution Companies: 5 Reasons for Distributors to Get on the eCommerce Train

As a distributor, you may think that the new wave of B2B eCommerce does not relate to your business or has no effect on your competitive advantage.  However, in order to remain competitive in today’s market, eCommerce for distribution companies is a must. If you do not jump on the train while it’s in the station, you could likely be left in the dust. So why should you change the way you have been doing business for decades?  

Here are five good reasons to look into eCommerce for distribution:

1) Gen Y – The new generation of professionals is shaking up the way we do business.  As time goes on, your current customers are getting older and they will be replaced by a “gen y-er”. This new generation of professionals has been brought up in a fast paced, tech savvy, ecommerce world where nothing exists unless it can be googled, tweeted, face-booked, etc. They prefer to do their shopping and purchasing on a tablet, phone, laptop, or other device.

These young professionals are your future customers, if they prefer to shop online, you need to be there or you will lose your competitive advantage and market share. eCommerce for  distribution is the way to stay in front of your audience at all times.

2) Your competition is online - At this point you can still jump on the train, but the whistle is blowing and they are doing the final boarding call. The point being, your competition is likely to have already gotten the ball rolling with their eCommerce business - get your ball rolling before your current and potential customers Google them!

3) Buyers are more impatient - The world we live in now is so much different than the world you probably began doing business in. customers wants everything now, they want it quickly, they want it on their terms, and their time. We have all just become more demanding and harder to please since the advent of email, social media, iphones, etc. with eCommerce for distribution you can ramp up your efficiency while cutting costs so you can offer customers a fast and simple way to get their order placed.

4) Increased competition - The internet has leveled the B2B playing field significantly. 10 years ago you only had to worry about what the guys down the street were doing; today you need to worry about what they are doing, but also what the rest of the country, even the rest of the world is up to. An eCommerce platform will allow you to serve customers outside your geographic area.

5) Amazonsupply.com – The recent release from the online giant aims to “offer earth’s largest selection of essential products for business, labs, workshops, and factories.” Does that worry you?  With a proven track record of ecommerce success, free 2 day shipping options, corporate credit lines, and touting a collection of more than 750K products that grows daily, it should make you, at the very least, blink.

Before you get to overwhelmed, you can compete with AmazonSupply and you can absolutely come out on top, but in order to do that you need to have an eCommerce platform to compete with.

Doing more B2B eCommerce reading? Download our free whitepaper:  “13 Reasons Why B2B eCommerce Storefronts Are Different than B2C”

About e2b teknologies:

e2b teknologies operates three business units – e2b anytime apps (www.e2banytime.com) e2b enterprise (www.e2benterprise.com) , and e2b calibration (www.e2bcal.com). e2b enterprise develops custom cloud-based business applications and resells leading ERP accounting software, CRM, HRMS, and other enterprise business software applications from Sage Software, Epicor, Intacct, Sugar CRM, and other publishers. e2b anytime apps is the publisher of Anytime Collect, Anytime Assets, Anytime 500, Anytime Commerce, and related Anytime brand products. E2b calibration is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited calibration and repair laboratory providing a full scope of services (traceable to NIST) for most popular calibration, test, and measurement instruments.

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