In May, the sales of merchant wholesalers — except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices — totaled $666.7 billion. That’s up 0.4% from $654.3 billion in May 2023. And seasonally adjusted U.S. wholesale sales rose 0.7% in the first five months of 2024 compared to the same period in 2023, after declining 1.6% for 2023, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

But for B2B distributors and ecommerce sales, the story thus far this year is a tale of uneven growth. While it may be a fat city in one vertical, times are leaner in others.

Through the first five months of the year, monthly sales of merchant wholesalers, except manufacturers’ sales branches and offices, totaled $3.223 trillion. That compares with $3.299 trillion in January through May 2023, according to the Department of Commerce.

Government data for the monthly sales from distributors and wholesalers trails the calendar by two months, meaning the U.S. Department of Commerce only now just released data for May.

B2B distributor ecommerce sales

Most big public B2B distributors in 2024 are following a common theme of softer sales due to weaker performance in manufacturing productivity and slower overall economic activity.

But some are reporting stronger sales. A case in point is Global Industrial.

Global Industrial Co. started its 2024 fiscal year on a positive note, growing net sales year over year. 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.

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,” outgoing CEO Berry Litwin told investors.

More Charts & Data articles

Check back soon for more Charts & Data articles, like our weekly B2B infographics. Here’s last week’s. We add new content regularly. 

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Albert Nahmad, founder, chairman and CEO, Watsco Inc.

The company said quarterly revenue rose 6.8% year over year. That’s up to a record $2.139 billion for the second quarter ended June 30. And ecommerce grew at nearly twice that rate, at 13%, to $770.16 million.

In Q2, Watsco ecommerce sales accounted for 38% of total sales. Watsco is well-known as a prominent online distributor in the highly fragmented, $64 billion North American HVAC and refrigeration products industry.

“A cornerstone of Watsco’s growth strategy is the acquisition of long-standing, family-owned businesses,” Nahmad said on the Q2 earnings call. He noted that, since its founding in 1989, Watsco has completed 69 acquisitions, “achieving industry-leading scale and preserving many wonderful business legacies into future generations.”

Nahmad added, “Over the last five years, Watsco has acquired eight businesses that today generate approximately $1 billion in annual sales.”

Watsco’s entrepreneurial spirit and ecommerce sales focus

The company’s growth strategy relies heavily on continuing the entrepreneurial spirit of acquired companies, whose executives typically remain to lead their operations.

“Simply put, Watsco’s entrepreneurial culture, which empowers local leaders to make local decisions, continues to perform well,” Nahmad said on the earnings call today.

He noted that Watsco’s long-running strategy of investing in digital commerce technology “continues to have an impact” on financial performance.

“Greater adoption and use of our platforms by a growing number of contractors has produced growth and market share gain,” he added.

Watsco is a Miami-based company that other HVAC suppliers have said they emulate for its digital commerce strategy. It also noted other developments related to its “digital ecosystem of technologies” configured to “transform the customer experience and transform how our industry operates.”

Watsco’s digital ecosystem

The digital ecosystem includes:

• OnCallAir
• Watsco’s HVAC Pro+ Mobile Apps
• Watsco’s product information management (PIM) system

OnCallAir is Watsco’s ecommerce sales platform that lets HVAC contractors digitally engage with homeowners and sell them products and services. It compiled approximately $1.4 billion in gross merchandise value for the 12-month period that ended June 30.

For the six months ended June 30, contractors used OnCallAir to present quotes to about 160,000 households. That’s an 18% year-over-year increase. It also generated a 27% increase in GMV to $743 million.

Watsco’s HVAC Pro+ Mobile Apps provide contractors and their customers with real-time access to ecommerce activity. They also include such information as product specifications, inventory availability, systemwide product matchups, and technical support. For the 12 months until June 30, the number of HVAC Pro+ Mobile Apps users grew 12% to approximately 60,000.

Watsco’s product information management (PIM) system is a repository of rich product data. It provides data on over 1.5 million SKUs to more than 375,000 contractors and technicians who visit or connect digitally with one of its nearly 700 physical locations across the United States, Canada and Latin America.

Watsco is updating its technology systems to “optimize the launch of new GWP (Global Warming Potential) A2L” refrigeration systems designed to be more efficient and sustainable to reduce the adverse effect of refrigerants on climate change.

Though it accounted for 38% of total Q2 sales companywide, Watsco ecommerce sales exceeded 60% in some regions.

Watsco’s pitch to would-be partners: ‘Come to Miami to see us’

In his earnings call remarks, Nahmad, forever on the lookout for acquisitions, said, “Our proven culture, customer-focused technologies, scale and access to capital provide unique advantages and opportunities.” He added to anyone listening: “If you have an interest in learning more, please come to Miami and see us. We are transforming an industry, and we would enjoy telling you about it.”

Here’s last quarter’s update on Watsco ecommerce sales.

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

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Klaus Staubitzer, chief procurement officer and head of supply chain, Siemens AG

“Recent events, like the Covid-19 pandemic and focus on sustainability, have given us the opportunity to establish procurement and supply chain as a key value function instead of a simple support function,” Klaus Staubitzer, the chief procurement officer and head of supply chain at technology and engineering giant Siemens AG, says in a new report on procurement industry trends from Economist Impact and business software company SAP SE.

But the report notes that living up to that “key value” provider role isn’t easy and requires more coordination among procurement and other business departments as companies deal with ongoing supply chain threats, such as the armed conflicts in sea lanes that arose after the pandemic.

The report, “Across the procurement-verse: changing trends in the procurement function,” is based on a first-quarter 2024 global survey of 2,307 senior executives across various business operations, including supply chains, financial management and human resources as well as procurement.

The report asserts that while most executives recognize that procurement departments have made notable strides in collaboration with other departments, “procurement teams have considerable room to improve collaboration skills.”

“While 75% of executives agree that procurement collaborates effectively with the business on issues of strategic importance (up from 53% last year), only a fraction of these (18%) have high confidence in procurement doing so, and only 14% have high confidence in the application of procurement insights across the organization,” the report says. “Procurement has yet to gain the full trust of stakeholders in this area.”

The report, citing crucial trends in AI and supply chain diversification, also asserts:

• Procurement’s success in digitalization increasingly rests on its ability to adopt and master emerging technologies.

“Accelerating digitalization is the highest procurement priority for the majority of respondent organizations over the next 12-18 months, and AI adoption is a centerpiece of these efforts, cited by 44% as a top technology priority,” the report says. “The respondents make clear AI should play a key role in improving procurement process automation.”

• Procurement teams are seeking a balance between centralized and decentralized operating models.

Asked about procurement operating model changes in the next 12-18 months, survey respondents said their intentions were roughly evenly split between two directions: “One is increasing the role of centers of excellence (CoEs), which support best practices in strategic sourcing, knowledge management, performance tracking and other areas. The other is adopting a center-led model, in which the central procurement team makes decisions in key areas while leaving business units to decide on unit-specific procurement matters. CoEs complement and support a center-led approach.”

• Businesses look to reduce supply chain risk in the long term by prioritizing supplier diversification — a priority cited by 40% of surveyed executives.

“In the shorter term, meanwhile, companies are putting stronger emphasis on supply-base consolidation (26% in 2024 v. 10% in 2023) given the push to build trusted relationships to overcome supply-chain challenges,” the report says.

Procurement and supply chain teams are also using new technology applications to improve how they ensure getting the right products for their organizations.

Pushing procurement’s more valuable role

For example, the report notes that Siemens uses “a digital twin (a digital model of a real-world product, object or process) to analyze, with precision, the material cost of the parts it purchases and how they are produced.”

The report adds that Staubitzer’s  team at Siemens now also uses the tool to determine the CO2 emissions of those parts as well as the carbon footprint of the supplier’s entire operations. The survey uncovered a similar trend, noting that 46% of CPOs “prioritize carbon footprint mitigation, more than any of their counterparts.”

“Our suppliers are sometimes surprised that we have a better breakdown of these details than they have from their own calculations,” Staubitzer says.

Roman Belotserkovskiy, a partner in the Austin, Texas, office of the global management consulting firm McKinsey & Co., says the inflation trends in recent years have provided an opportunity for procurement teams to demonstrate their value and increase their prominence.

“CPOs who did well are those who went and found new sources of supply or who focused on protecting revenues or margin, rather than focusing exclusively on cost,” he says in the report.

Belotserkovskiy has also observed an increase in the number of CPOs presenting to their board of directors — another sign of increased prominence.

“That was very rare two or three years ago,” he says.

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

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Emily Newton

Automated guided vehicles (AGVs) have become more common at supply chain locations worldwide, transporting containers and other loads between ships, trucks, rail cars and warehouses. Why are more leaders using them? Most use cases relate to relieving congestion and improving operations when ports experience record-setting traffic levels. Decision-makers recognize how AGVs can streamline their supply chains, keeping containers moving and preventing costly delays.

Accelerating the Movement of Goods

The supply chain’s persistent labor shortage can cause staffing crises that are particularly impactful during peak periods. Some leaders have deployed AGVs for material handling tasks, finding that such efforts help them maintain high productivity.

One example came from China’s Ganqimaodu land port. Each AGV moved between this port and a Mongolian coal stockyard, carrying two standard containers of imported products along a 1.86-kilometer route. An AGV takes 50 minutes per round trip and travels up to 25 kilometers per hour.

The AGV operator using them in China has 30 in its fleet, using 24 each weekday. They move 10,400 tons of coal daily during 160 total round trips. Additionally, there are 30 AGVs in Mongolia. Supply chain managers believe that using all 60 simultaneously will allow for achieving a 15-million-ton transport capacity.

To provide perspective on the overall coal-related activity at the port, leaders said each arriving truck holds up to four standard containers and makes four to six round trips per month. This initiative was the first instance of AGVs used at a land port for cross-border transportation, showing the potential of such applications.

Examples such as this show how AGVs can minimize supply chain staffing shortages, keeping each port as productive as possible during those challenging times. Moreover, AGVs can support other automation projects to relieve labor needs.

Japanese officials plan to address the labor shortage with a conveyor belt from Osaka to Tokyo. The so-called Autoflow-Road project would include infrastructure above and on the sides of roads, as well as tunnels underneath major highways. Estimates suggest this system could move loads equal to that of 25,000 trucks daily, and that each container placed on the conveyor belt would hold up to 1 metric ton of goods.

Facilitating Improved Forecasting

Multiple partners often handle goods moving through supply chains, especially when those loads require multimodal transport solutions. Clients understandably want progress updates on their container loads so they can plan associated operations accordingly. Managers frequently deploy connected technologies to meet those needs.

For example, the United Kingdom’s Port of Dover has an advanced digital twin that predicts the associated tidal flows and weather conditions, supporting safe arrivals and departures. That tool complements a landside digital twin that optimizes traffic flows and port operations while supporting decarbonization and energy efficiency efforts. Such visibility enhances predictions and reduces the reliance on guesswork. Supply chain clients benefit by passing on more accurate information to their customers, increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

People worldwide have warmly embraced online purchasing, appreciating its convenience and efficiency. In 2023, U.S. B2B ecommerce sales surpassed $2 trillion and U.S. retail ecommerce sales topped $1.1 trillion. And analyses suggest global retail ecommerce sales will surpass $8 trillion by 2027. Shoppers who receive correct estimates of incoming parcels can adjust their schedules accordingly, remaining available when they arrive.

Improving Resilience

Supply chain experts frequently assess their business models, identifying new ways to protect their networks from shocks that could severely disrupt their operations. Many search for process improvement options, knowing that even small tweaks can significantly improve outcomes.

These professionals must focus on the things within their control to minimize the effects of those that are not. Then, they remain better equipped to handle the various fluctuations common to their industries.

Freight indexes are nearly 10 times higher than pre-COVID-19 levels. However, leaders who use AGVs and other automated tools to strengthen their supply chains have more oversight and influence over the impact of supply chain fluctuations. Improvements could free up money in the budget for aspects outside their control.

Decision-makers may implement AGVs as part of more-extensive automation strategies, knowing targeted improvements will keep them competitive and profitable. A logistics company did that to prepare for Singles Day, which has become one of China’s most notable online shopping days. Business leaders created a robust, end-to-end system to support the supply chain from first-mile pickups to last-mile deliveries.

That all-encompassing effort allowed the enterprise to deliver more than 200 million parcels to customers who shopped for the occasion. AGVs played a significant role in the success. A single Thailand warehouse has 100 of the machines, which collectively reduce employees’ walking time by 90%. This example shows that AGVs can support higher efficiencies along the supply chain.

Planning AGV Utilization

Today’s supply chains pose increasing challenges, but automated guided vehicles can overcome many of them. However, any AGV-related plans must carefully consider worker training, traffic flow, tech infrastructure and other necessities.

Addressing those matters early in the process boosts the chance of success and provides a strong return on investment. Getting inspired by supply chain partners currently using AGVs in their processes is an excellent way to explore what is possible.

About the author:

Emily Newton reports on how technology disrupts industrial sectors. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Revolutionized, covering innovations in industry, construction, and more.

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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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Last December, the company launched Swag.Space as a “white-label” platform that lets promotional product distributors develop online product catalogs and manage production, inventory, orders, distribution and storage. Swag.Space runs on technology and infrastructure developed by Swag.com, the custom-product ecommerce platform Custom Ink acquired in 2021. Through its integration with the Shopify ecommerce platform, Swag.Space lets client distributors offer their customers “the ability to launch company stores.”

David Doctorow, recently named CEO of Custom Ink.

Now, the customized swag company wants to take its digital strategy to the next level with a new CEO steeped in ecommerce-growth experience.

The company has named David Doctorow, who most recently was the CEO of real estate company Realtor.com, as the top executive to succeed co-founder and CEO Marc Katz, who will remain as chairman of the board. Doctorow will take over the reins and join the board next month.

Marc Kattz, chairman, Custom Ink

“Leading Custom Ink and working with such great people has been an amazing 25-year experience,” Katz said in a statement announcing Doctorow’s appointment. “We’ve undertaken major changes since the pandemic to refocus on our digital roots, and now it’s time for a new CEO to lead us to new heights. David is a proven leader with an impressive track record building digital businesses.”

At Realtor.com, Doctorow was CEO between 2020 and 2023 and “led the business to record revenue, profit and customer satisfaction,” Custom Ink says in its statement. In addition, it notes that, prior to Realtor, Doctorow led growth in eBay’s customer acquisition and retention efforts as head of global growth and, as chief marketing and strategy officer of online travel services company Expedia, “helped double” sales and profits.

At Custom Ink, Doctorow says he sees “tremendous potential for further growth” as the personalized products company continues to develop its digital offerings.

Custom Ink is supported financially by Great Hill Partners, its primary growth equity backer.

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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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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Matt Levitt

In the realm of marketing, B2B and B2C strategies often appear worlds apart; after all, you don’t market a software product the same way you market jewelry.

As someone focused on B2B marketing, with experience working with consumer brands, I’ve discovered that B2B marketers stand to gain more insights from their consumer counterparts than they might initially realize. Ultimately, whether it’s enterprise software or everyday products, those making the purchasing decision are still consumers. Companies are increasingly demonstrating that you don’t need to delve into technical intricacies to effectively engage with business audiences.

Here are four helpful principles B2B marketers can learn from B2C:

1 – Market to People, Not Just Businesses

There is a lot to learn from consumer brands that excel at communicating effectively with their audience. Often, marketing assets are not about the product itself but rather the emotion or benefits it can provide.

B2B marketers can take note — not everything has to be down to business. Take HubSpot, for instance. Initially targeting smaller businesses uninterested in or unable to handle the complexities of more advanced alternatives, HubSpot didn’t push the merits of marketing automation and CRM. Instead, they consistently provided valuable content addressing various business and marketing subjects, addressing the real needs of their audience.

This technique mirrors the strategy of makeup brands offering tutorials on platforms like YouTube, Instagram, or TikTok. Viewers seek education, and through this process, they discover and trust brands that offer solutions to their problems.

2 – Lose the Lingo

Business services and technology offerings can be a challenge to communicate, especially concisely. It requires skillful wording and sometimes an outsider’s perspective to strip away industry jargon and deliver a clear message. Even among knowledgeable audiences, content overloaded with unexplained acronyms or industry terms risk alienating rather than engaging.

3 – Expand Beyond Traditional B2B Channels

LinkedIn and Google aren’t the only way to reach your audience. If you ensure the right targeting, any channel can be a B2B channel including Instagram, TikTok and press. Since not every B2B company is leveraging these channels, it also offers an opportunity to stand out from the crowd.

If your website already has strong traffic, you can even use these advertising channels only to retarget people that have already been to your site and found you through more traditional B2B channels. A good example of a B2B company using traditionally consumer marketing channels is collaborative work management software firm Monday.com.

On Meta, Monday.com uses a strong mix of content that looks native to Facebook and Instagram, like UGC-style video, in conjunction with more typical B2B ads showcasing the product’s UI and various infographics. Monday.com understands that their audience spends time on Meta and is adjusting their strategy to meet them where they already are.

4 – Don’t Put Your Website on the Backburner

Your website’s impact is substantial; neglecting issues such as slow site speed can hinder users from discovering your offerings effectively. Invest in a website that will impress, regardless of whether your traffic rivals that of direct-to-consumer brands.

By embracing these principles gleaned from consumer marketing, B2B marketers can elevate their strategies and forge deeper connections with their audience. This will ultimately drive success in an increasingly competitive landscape.

About the author:

Matt Levitt is director of strategy at 829 Studios, a B2B and B2C marketing agency.

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