I have been thinking about e-commerce a lot lately.  Back in 2016, I said,  “While the argument for Amazon-like eCommerce may make great sense for the distributors falling into the “Logistics” side of the distribution industry, similar investment on the Knowledge-based side of the evolutionary line is likely to be poorly spent.”         For full context, read it HERE .    What a difference seven years and a global pandemic can make!   Today I believe every distributor needs to have an e-commerce platform.  Here are a couple of reasons. Earlier this week my friend Ian Heller over at the Distribution Strategy Group sent me an email promoting a January 18th web presentation called The 2023 State of E-commerce in Distribution .  The email said: Distributors with e-commerce report that 19.7% of their sales came through digital channels in 2022.  That’s compared with: • 14.5% in 2021 • 11.6% in 2020  This is ...

We recently wrote a whitepaper for the Distribution Strategy Group which could be summarized this way: Distributors provide a plethora of services.  Services that involve people are nearly impossible for Amazon (or others) to duplicate.  Some of the services customers expect, like credit or shipping, are available for free everywhere else.   Many services go beyond the “cost of doing business.”  The services most distributors added were put in place without a real strategic plan as to how they fit into the total business.  Distributors lack an understanding of both the internal cost of providing the services and the value to the customer.  Little management oversight is applied to services – sellers control who receives their services and when.   Distributors face significant roadblocks to establishing a strategy for services.  A strategy around services c...

Once again, working with Distribution Strategy Group has been a blast!  If you didn't catch the webinar on Competing and Winning with Value-Added Services, you can watch it >>>HERE<<< . Of course, we realize some people learn better from reading the material rather than from listening.  The webinar material has a whitepaper format that can be downloaded >>> HERE <<<. Special thanks to both Distribution Strategy Group and Epicor for putting on a first-class production!

It has been an honor to work with our friends at Distribution Strategy group again.  We recently spoke about how competition is in a state of flux.  We're no longer vying for the top spot with the typical competitor.  There are now strictly digital players without a name or face.  In this webinar, we tackle how to up the ante in a digital world to become a more strategic partner. Check it out >>>HERE<<< TIP: Frank feels he sounds much better, and possibly more normal, at 1.25 speed.  Give it a shot! Special thanks to Epicor for sponsoring this event.