Not enough distributors have destination websites, sites where a customer will visit before or perhaps instead of plugging their product into Google.
Examples of destination websites include Grainger, Ferguson, MSC Industrial Supply and Amazon. The gap between distributors with destination websites and those without a functional e-commerce platform is quickly widening.
Unfortunately, many end-users don’t see a distributor’s website as a place where they can find what they need to make a purchase decision. We’ve surveyed more than 8,500 end-users across distribution segments and documented it in our report “What Customers Want.” In that research, we found that many of the distributors’ customers prefer to shop first on a manufacturer’s website, giving the manufacturer the customer’s mindshare. And there’s no guarantee that customer will come to the distributor next.