John Carte, CEO, Relevant Industrial

Relevant Industrial designed and launched the B2B ecommerce site “as a testament to our commitment to innovation and customer-centricity, CEO John Carte says. “We are excited to offer our customers an easier, faster, and more efficient way to access the high-quality products and solutions they need to succeed in their operations.”

Relevant says the new ecommerce provides such features as detailed product information, real-time inventory updates, and streamlined ordering processes. Relevant didn’t immediately return a request for information about the site’s technology infrastructure, but according to BuiltWith.com, it runs on the Magento ecommerce platform.

“The ecommerce platform is designed to cater to the unique needs of our industrial customers, featuring advanced search capabilities, intuitive navigation, and personalized account management tools,” Relevant says. “Customers can easily and purchase products from top brands, track their orders, and manage their accounts all in one place.”

Online Shop Relevant Assistant

Relevant distributes products from such brands as Honeywell, Parker and Ingersoll-Rand, plus Relevant-owned brands including 505 Industrial Supply, Rawson & Industrial Controls and J&W Instruments. Among its customer-oriented features is a drop-down “Shop Relevant Assistant” interactive menu, which prompts customers to click for information on such topics as pricing, product lead time, creating an online account and looking up past orders.

In addition to self-service features for buyers, the new site also supports Relevant’s sales team, the company says.

“Our sales team is thrilled about the launch of the new ecommerce platform,” says John Butts, senior vice president of sales. “This platform not only enhances our ability to serve our customers more effectively but also provides us with valuable insights into customer preferences and purchasing behaviors, allowing us to tailor our offerings and services to better meet their needs.”

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Steve Brass, president and CEO, WD-40 Co.

In a recent earnings call, he said the manufacturer and marketer of industrial and residential lubricants, degreasers and cleansers is making progress on its four “must-win” competitive market battles:

• Geographic expansion worldwide.
• Increasing premium product sales.
• Growing its Specialist product line for mechanics and other professionals.
• Accelerating digital commerce.

Although Brass listed ecommerce fourth on the company’s must-win list, he said it was critical to the other three.

“We see [ecommerce] as an accelerator for all our other must-win battles, as it improves brand awareness and online engagement, leading to an improved customer experience and sales across all our trade channels,” Brass said on a recent earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha.

He added, “Some of our key objectives within this must-win [ecommerce] battle are to build our brand digitally, grow and develop the ecommerce pure play channel, accelerate growth of the omnichannel, and continue capability-building for our employees.”

Brass went on to note that WD-40’s digital commerce strategy resulted in an 18% company-wide year-over-year ecommerce sales increase through the first nine months of its current fiscal year, “with double-digit growth across the company’s three trade blocks of EIMEA (Europe India Middle East Africa), the Americas, and Asia-Pacific.

The company said total net sales rose 9.4% to $155.05 million for the fiscal third quarter ended May 31; net income increased 5.0% to $19.84 million from $18.90 million.

For the nine months ended May 31, net sales increased 9.5% to $434.57 million from $396.80 million as net income rose 7.0% to $52.86 million from $49.42 million.

Growing sales through online distributors

The company has said its sharpest growth is via ecommerce sales through such business-to-business ecommerce sites as Grainger.com, MSCDirect.com, GlobalIndustrial.com, Fastenal.com and MotionIndustries.com and such online retailers as Amazon, Ace Hardware and Aubuchon Hardware. WD-40 customers can link directly to these ecommerce sites from WD-40.com.

WD-40 is also taking other steps with digital technology to build on its online interactions with customers and drive up operating efficiency.

An online contest WD-40 launched in 2021, Repair Challenge, has invited customers across more than 40 countries — including “doers, makers, fixers and builders” — to show how use WD-40 lubricants and other products to extend the lifespan of their tools, bicycles, cars and other items. Brass said that, so far, the contest has created over 0.5 billion online marketing impressions worldwide.

WD-40 is also “making foundational investments in systems and  data that will allow us to grow faster,” Brass said. For example, he said WD-40 had rolled out Salesforce Inc.’s CRM technology in the U.S. and will be expanding it in the near term, “driving sales efficiencies and effectiveness.”

“Use of data analytics and automated tools, leveraging data is increasing and can be a real enabler for the business,” he said. “The foundational work we are doing now around data governance, centralizing our data architecture and data quality management will allow our people to leverage our data quicker and drive better decision-making.”

Brass added that WD-40 has engaged an investment bank to seek suitors for its U.S. and U.K. home-care and cleaning product brands, which account for about 4% of total sales, and expects to sell them in the company’s 2025 fiscal year.

“Post divestiture, WD-40 Co. will be a more focused company with a higher sales growth and gross margin profile,” he said.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Trent Guyler, vice president, digital and marketing, The Grasshopper Co.

But in recent years, the company has realized a pick-up in parts sales following the usual end of its peak season in July, says Trent Guyer, vice president, digital and marketing.

One reason, he says, is the mid-July Amazon Prime Day promotional event. Although designed primarily as a big promotional day for retailers and retail consumers, Prime Day also helps to generate spikes in traffic and sales on the Amazon storefronts and product listings of B2B sellers. Amazon scheduled its 10th annual Prime Day this year for July 16 and 17.

Grasshopper is a manufacturer of high-end grass-cutting equipment used to maintain such properties as corporate campuses and the White House lawn. It sells grass-cutting equipment priced at up to $20,000 or more per mowing unit. It also has a network of about 1,000 North American dealers and has customers in about 42 countries. On GrasshopperMower.com, it displays equipment and parts images and details, a request-a-quote feature and a dealer locator. It sells parts through the Amazon.com marketplace and Amazon Business.

Trent notes that Grasshopper customers don’t typically plan their purchasing around promotional events, because if they need a part, they want it immediately.

Manufacturers benefit from Amazon Prime Day

A Grasshopper mower.

Still, he notes that the extra Prime Day traffic has helped Grasshopper experience some of its strongest July sales days for equipment parts.

“The July Prime Day in 2022 actually helped us to have a best day of that month,” Trent says, adding, “Our sales on Day One of Prime Day 2023 uplift us to have one of our three best days in July of that year.”

Trent says Grasshopper runs ads throughout the year to promote its parts sales on Amazon, but nothing specific to Prime Day events. He adds that the reliable rise in traffic is enough to generate increased customer activity through a “halo effect of just being on the platform on Prime Day.”

Dynabrade takes a similar approach regarding Prime Day promotional activity. It relies on an expected boost in traffic rather than specific promotions. Dynabrade is a pneumatic power tools manufacturer.

B2B sellers capitalize on Amazon Business and B2C sales

Ronald Veiders, global brand manager, says the manufacturer tried running a limited Prime Day promotion a couple years ago for one of its popular SKUs and realized only a minor direct benefit. In addition to referring customers on Dynabrade.com to its distribution partners, the manufacturer sells some of its products through a Dynabrade Amazon storefront. Like Grasshopper, Dynabrade has received advice on Amazon marketplace strategy from Enceiba, a digital marketing agency.

Ronald Veiders, global brand manager, Dynabrade

The Prime Day promotion “wasn’t worth it to us,” he says. “We just like being on Amazon, because we know there’s more eyes. And I guarantee we’ll get at least a couple more sales out of it.”

Veiders agrees that Dynabrade benefits at least somewhat from a Prime Day halo effect. But he figures that the boost in activity sparked by Dynabrade’s Amazon presence is tied in large part to the trend of today’s B2B buyers to search online for Dynabrade products and to seek out deals like Amazon’s Prime two-day delivery service.

“Think about the procurement buyers out there nowadays,” he says. “Their first step is Googling, and Amazon is going to come up first or close to it if they’re looking for one of our products. And they’re going to go there to shop, price and compare. And because we’re FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon), it’s Prime and ready to go … for two-day delivery anywhere in the country.”

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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A Houthi spokesperson stated in December that they would target “ships affiliated to Israel or transporting commodities to Israeli ports” and continue to do so if “food and medicine keep not accessing the Gaza Strip.”

The online freight-booking and payments platform said it facilitated a 32% year-over-year increase in the number of transactions to 316,500, exceeding management’s Q2 expectations.

Freightos transaction volume in Q2

Freightos said in a statement that it had expected transaction volume to grow between 27% and 29% to a range of 303,000 and 309,000 transactions. It also said the Q2 growth rate of 32% outpaced its long-term targeted growth rate range of 20-30%.

“This significant transaction growth highlights the growing adoption of digital solutions in the freight industry,” Freightos said.

Freightos added that steady freight prices resulted in corresponding increases in its Q2 gross booking value. It also exceeded expectations by growing 31% to $203.4 million. Freightos had expected Q2 booking value would rise only 15%-18% to a range of $178 million to $182 million.

Freightos lets importers and exporters compare freight shipping rates, book shipments and pay for services through Freightos.com. It also provides software for air and ocean carriers and freight forwarders for managing quoting, pricing, bookings and other operations.

An expanding base of buyers and carriers

Despite its prior slower-growth expectations, Freightos prepared in Q2 for more long-term growth by expanding its air and ocean carrier network by 38% to 51 from 37 carriers. In addition, its number of unique “buyer users” in Q2 increased 16% to approximately 19,000.

Freightos notes that its buyer organizations range from small and midsized businesses to large multinational organizations. Its number of buyer users includes all the individuals placing bookings on its platform. A spokesman adds that Freightos has an average of more than 5,000 bookings per workday.

“This growth underscores the ongoing marketplace network effects, where buyers attract sellers and sellers attract buyers,” Freightos said.

Handling spot freight market growth

Freightos also attributed its growth to its ability to serve the spot freight market, or freight shipments handled outside of long-term contracts.

“This momentum represents the continued digitalization of the spot freight market, estimated to comprise 30%-50% of the total air and ocean freight market,” the marketplace company said.

As part of its carrier network expansion, Freightos in June announced agreements with Thai Airlines and Coyne Airways, carriers on Freightos.com that will use the WebCargo by Freightos digital booking and payment platform to manage freight services across areas including Asia, Africa, and the Persian Gulf and Caspian regions.

Barcelona, Spain-based Freightos said it will host a conference call to discuss its Q2 financial results and Q3 outlook on Aug. 19.

Here’s last quarter’s update on Freightos.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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For its fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2024, the fastener distributor grew total sales to $1.916 billion. That’s a 1.8% increase from $1.883 billion in the second quarter of 2023. Net income was $590.4 million compared with $593.1 million in Q3 of the previous.

Fastenal’s digital products and services include ecommerce transactions and sales through Fastenal managed inventory (FMI) programs, including FASTVend internet-connected vending machine programs that the company deploys as part of its on-site sales and services program located at or near customers’ facilities.

Fastenal digital sales guide Q2 growth

As in other recent quarters, digital sales made up two-thirds of all Fastenal revenue.

“On digital footprint, 59.4%, that’s taking all of our ecommerce, all of our FMI, it was 59.4% in the second quarter, actually in June, it hit 60%,” CEO Daniel Florness told analysts. “We had expected that we’d get to about 66% this year. We now think it’s about 63%, and that’s not because we’re not acquiring customers. It’s because customers are spending less, and it shows up in our numbers.”

For the second quarter, using 59.4% and 55.3% of digital as a percentage of all sales, Digital Commerce 360 estimates Fastenal digital sales grew year over year by 1.8% to $1.138 billion from $1.041 billion.

Ecommerce in the second quarter totaled 30.9% of all sales. That compares with digital accounting for 23.3% of all sales in the prior year, Fastenal says. Based on those metrics, Digital Commerce 360 estimates Fastenal web sales grew to $549.89 million in Q2 2024. That’s up 25.3% from $438.73 million in the second quarter of 2023.

“Growth of our e-business reflects both new sales that enhance our growth rate and a shift in existing sales from non-digital to digital processes that improve efficiency,” Fastenal says. “Daily sales through e-business grew 25.5% in the second quarter of 2024 and represented 28.7% of our total sales. In the second quarter of 2024, daily sales through e-procurement and ecommerce grew 30.9% and 11.6%, respectively.”

“E-business rose about 25%. The e-procurement side is really the driver of that. Our ecommerce side is okay,” Florness told analysts. “It’s not great, but some of the things we’re doing with AI is intended to improve that over time on the unplanned spend side.”

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The new Digital Commerce 360 report, B2B Marketplace Growth Strategies, covers the growth strategies of these and other companies and is available for free download.

B2B ecommerce can be complicated for both buyers and sellers.

The spirits industry is a good example.

Advanced Spirits, a Houston alcoholic beverage distillery and services company, has launched Barrel Hub, an ecommerce platform for the wholesale bulk whiskey market.

Like other marketplaces featured in the DC360 report, Barrel Hub offers online tools designed to smooth out the purchasing process.

“From our soft launch, we know one of the most pressing questions that buyers and sellers have is around purchase price,” says Advanced Spirits president Rob Arnold. “What is the current value of this whiskey barrel?”

But he adds: “The lack of transparency in the wholesale bulk whiskey market makes this question hard to answer. Therefore, Barrel Hub has introduced a bid feature, so that buyers and sellers can collectively set fair market values.”

At Science Exchange, “our supplier orchestration platform sits on top of P2P [peer-to-peer] and ERP [enterprise resource planning] systems and includes a powerful workflow engine and integration platform, automating the entire process of collaborating with suppliers from intake to payment,” says CEO Elizabeth Iorns. “This improves how life sciences companies collaborate with suppliers, enabling faster project execution, improving compliance, significantly reducing costs, and ultimately bringing therapeutics to market faster.”

Science Exchange features include:

• Users can access Science Exchange’s existing network of 3,800 suppliers under a standard legal agreement and synchronize existing suppliers they use daily.
• Automated guided buying tools also help each transaction comply with purchasing and third-party risk management (TPRM) policies.
• Configurable workflow automation supports purchasing and compliance requirements across sites, teams and purchase categories, among other areas.

The B2B Marketplace Growth Strategies report also covers statistics on marketplace industry growth and provides an inside look at marketplace strategies in case studies on OnlineMetals.com, electronic components and hardware distributor Bisco Industries, and the apparel business FashionGo.

In addition, the report also covers how the used-vehicle marketplace is using AI and computer vision technology to help buyers evaluate vehicles online before  purchasing, and how a new AI-powered catalog management tool from marketplace technology company Mirakl expedites how online sellers list their products.

B2B Marketplace Growth Strategies  is available as complimentary download.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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The post What’s behind the rapid growth of B2B marketplaces appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

Citing preliminary Q3 financial results, MSC said net sales fell as much as 7.3% year over year to about $980 million. The company will webcast its Q3 results on July 2.

Erik Gershwind, president and CEO, MSC Industrial Supply Co.

The delayed website enhancements, which were designed to foster online commerce with MSC’s core manufacturing customer base, resulted in setbacks in marketing efforts as well as online features for helping those customers find the right products at the right price, CEO Erik Gershwind said on a preliminary Q3 earnings call.

“We had several programs, all lined up towards the core customer,” he said, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha. But he added: “Not having the website ready for prime time really had a ripple effect” in delaying other related programs … “Without launching the marketing and web price realignment, it’s hard to get as much traction as we want” with customers.

Gershwind added that MSC had mostly completed work on its ecommerce platform, or transactional engine, but pointed to a bigger problem in the delayed search upgrade. “What we’re counting on for revenue growth is the search and product discovery function, and it’s running late,” he said.

Gershwind also noted that MSC  was experiencing a delay in a planned web price realignment effort to improve gross profit margins. “This was a highly complex project hinging on highly complex pricing and discounting systems,” he said on the preliminary earnings call. “Our testing during the pilot phase did not sufficiently surface all of the pricing anomalies that we saw during the rollout.”

Eyeing website progress later this year

Nonetheless, MSC expects to begin realizing more website improvements in its current fiscal fourth quarter and complete the projects in the “early stages” of fiscal 2025, which begins this September.

Gershwind also referred on the earnings call to the recent resignation of John Hill as MSC’s chief digital officer, asserting that Hill’s departure “really does not have an impact” on the timeline of website project completions. Gershwind did not further comment on the resignation of Hill, who was named MSC’s first chief digital officer in April 2022.

Gershwind added that MSC will rely on a combination of internal and outside third-party technology experts to complete its website projects. He added that Brian Bello, a veteran MSC IT leader, “is assuming the Interim Lead” of the digital operations and that Alan Yang continues as MSC’s chief technology officer.

“We are taking action to accelerate progress on the website rollout and hence unlock the path to core customer growth,” Gershwind said.

The CEO added, “This is an area that’s near and dear to my heart. I go back a long way with the early days of our website … I have no doubt we can — and we will — fix this.”

MSC’s parent company is MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc., but MSC generally goes by the name of its primary unit, MSC Industrial Supply Co.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Global Industrial revenue was $323.4 million for the first quarter ended March 31. That’s an 18.1% increase over $237.8 million in Q1 2023.

Ecommerce sales were particularly strong, the distributor said, even as the industry faced continued economic challenges.

“Our performance reflects a continuation of the cautious customer purchasing behavior we have seen for the past several quarters,” CEO Barry Litwin said in a written statement. “E-commerce was once again our leading channel and we are seeing strong growth in our enterprise business as it benefits from new account generation and healthy retention rates,” he continued.

The maintenance, repair and industrial (MRO) distributor is based in Port Washington, New York. The company says it has a catalog of hundreds of thousands of products shipped from five distribution centers across the U.S.

Global Industrial Q1 results

The distributor acquired business solutions provider and distributor Indoff in May 2023 for $69.2 million. Global Industrial credited much of its revenue growth to the acquisition. However, excluding Indoff’s additions, revenue still grew 4.2% in Q1, the company said. That makes Q1 2024 the third consecutive quarter of organic growth.

“Order and volume trends were solid and partially offset by continued price headwinds,” Litwin said. “We remain pleased with gross margin performance, which was essentially flat on an organic basis for both the prior year and sequential quarter.”

Global Industrial reported gross profit of $110.9 million in Q1. That’s up from $98.4 million in Q1 2023. At the end of March, it had total working capital of $160.8 million.

Executives were optimistic about growth potential going forward. “The industrial distribution market remains highly fragmented, and we have numerous opportunities for growth as we drive sales enablement across our channels, expand current relationships and acquire new customers,” Litwin told investors.

Global Industrial ecommerce

The company noted ecommerce as a particular area of growth in Q1. More than 60% of sales take place online, it said, continuing trends from fiscal 2023. B2B customers tend to use the ecommerce channels heavily, it said.

“We usually don’t call out the e-commerce channel separately, but it has been a solid channel for us,” Litwin said in the call. “As you know, we’ve made some improvements over the last couple of years, some changes in the navigation experience. And I think that’s having a positive effect relative to overall conversion rates and the overall customer experience that people have moving through the site. So that has certainly helped us going forward.”

Going forward, Global Distribution plans to introduce ecommerce capabilities to Indoff’s business. That should improve margins in upcoming quarters, Litwin added.

Global Industrial earnings

For its fiscal Q1 ended March 31, Global Industrial Co. reported:

• Revenue increased 18.1% to 323.4 million.
• Gross profit increased to $110.9 million from $98.4 million in the year-ago period.
• More than 60% of sales took place online.

Check back for more earnings reports. For reference, here’s last quarter’s update on Global Industrial sales.

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D.G. Macpherson, chairman and CEO, W.W. Grainger Inc.

“Amid a slow but steady demand environment,” Grainger produced “solid results,” he said.

Grainger’s web-only Endless Assortment business — comprised of Zoro.com and Japan-based MonotaRo.com — posted a 3.7% sales increase to $751 million.

By comparison, Grainger’s High-Touch Solutions segment — which includes the full-service sales through Grainger.com and the company’s sales team — grew 3.4% to $3.405 billion. Grainger is a prominent distributor of maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) products that businesses need to operate their facilities.

Total net sales gained 3.5% to $4.235 billion.

B2B buyers drive Zoro’s growth

In the Endless Assortment business, Grainger said revenue was driven by Zoro’s core B2B buyers and MonotaRO’s enterprise customers but partially offset by the “continued decrease” in Zoro’s non-core or B2C customers.

Macpherson said on an earnings call today that Zoro has traditionally been effective at acquiring new customers but not as effective as MonotaRO at retaining them over the long term. He added that Grainger and Zoro compare notes with MonotaRO on how to build more repeat business.

“It’s a lot of marketing science, looking at what to present to customers after the first order, how to understand who those customers are, and presenting the right products and the right offers after we get that first order,” Macpherson said.

He added that total Endless Assortment sales were adversely affected by the lower value of the Japanese yen and noted that, on a daily, constant currency basis, the web-only division’s sales were up 10%.

The division’s gross profit increased 2.8% to $220 million, but its gross margin slipped to 29.3% from 29.6%. Grainger attributed the lower margin to an “unfavorable product mix” at Zoro, “which was partially offset by freight efficiencies at MonotaRO.”

Grainger said the Endless Assortment business unit ended Q1 with a 13% year-over year increase to 14.581 million registered customers, including 5.322 million at Zoro and 9.259 million at MonotaRO. The unit’s number of active SKUs increased 10% to 13.2 million.

Looking ahead, Grainger said its total company revenue guidance for this year is an expected growth rate range of 4.3% – 7.3% to total sales of $17.2 billion to $17.7 billion.

“We feel good about our ability to gain share, become more productive, and to make sure we entice customers in the long term,” Macpherson said.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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Dan Florness, president and CEO, Fastenal Co.

Digital sales transactions in various forms continue to grow steadily at Fastenal Co., accounting for 59.2% of total sales in the first quarter, up from 54.1% a year earlier, Fastenal said today.

The industrial products distributor said its total digital sales, which it refers to as its “digital footprint,” grew 11.5% year over year in the quarter ended March 31 to $1.895 billion, up from $1.859 billion.

Fastenal’s digital products and services are comprised of ecommerce transactions and sales through Fastenal managed inventory (FMI) programs, including FASTVend internet-connected vending machine programs that Fastenal deploys as part of its Onsite sales and services program located at or near customers’ facilities.

Fastenal sells industrial products in three main categories: fasteners used in original equipment manufacturing and maintenance, repair and operations (MRO) work; safety supplies; and other products ranging from metal-cutting tools to janitorial supplies.

Ecommerce daily sales grew 33.6%

The company’s ecommerce business includes sales through Fastenal.com and other web verticals, online technology integrations and EDI. “Daily sales through ecommerce grew 33.6% in the first quarter of 2024 and represented 28.6% of our total sales in the period,” the company said.

On a Q1 earnings call today, president and CEO Dan Florness said “ecommerce continues to get nice traction. And our digital footprint continues to expand. We’re approaching 60% of sales. And our anticipation is, sometime this year, that number will hit the mid-60s — 66 is our target. And ultimately, we believe that ends up being 85% of sales.

Fastenal says its overall digital sales transactions provide the information the company needs to foster ongoing growth.

Digital data drives more business

“We believe the data that is created through our digital capabilities enhances product visibility, traceability, and control that reduces risk in operations and creates ordering and fulfillment efficiencies for both ourselves and our customers,” the company says. “As a result, we believe our opportunity to grow our business will be enhanced through the continued development and expansion of our digital capabilities.”

A Fastenal inventory manager at an Onsite vending machine.

In addition, Fastenal noted the continued growth in the number of Onsite locations are helping to expand sales through the company’s vending machines.

For the first quarter, Fastenal also reported:

• Q1 daily sales through ecommerce grew 33.6%, accounting for 28.6% of our total sales.
• Net income inched up about 1% year over year to $297.7 million.
• Gross profit rose 1.3% to $861.1 million; profit margin was 45.5%, compared with 45.7%.
• 1,872 active Onsite locations sites on March 31, an increase of 11.8% from a year earlier.

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. paul@digitalcommerce360.com.

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