Home Depot aims to improve distribution to pro buyers | Fastenal continues sales growth in Nov. | Amazon survives supply chain crunch with self-reliance
Home Depot has opened several flatbed distribution centers to better serve professional customers, with plans to eventually have 30 to 35 such DCs. The strategy is intended to relieve direct-to-contractor orders from Home Depot's retail stores and improve last-mile delivery.
Fastenal had total sales of $524.2 million in November, an 18.9% year-over-year increase and a 1.4% increase from the previous month. Daily sales rose for fasteners, safety products and all other items.
Amazon has positioned itself to circumvent today's air and port supply chain bottlenecks thanks to its investments, including leasing long-haul planes, chartering private cargo ships and manufacturing thousands of its own 53-foot shipping containers. SJ Consulting Group estimates Amazon is now shipping 72% of its packages itself, versus under 47% two years ago.
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E-commerce buyers increasingly want contextual product information, which requires using data for search engine optimization, personalization and localization, writes Dean Mueller of Distribution Strategy Group. Distributors should also expect to incorporate and optimize full data sets from manufacturers, Mueller writes.
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Distributors need a proactive process for cost pass-throughs, as well as a solid pricing strategy, to keep sales and profits steady as costs increase, writes Nelson Valderrama, CEO of Intuilize. "While most distributors have an ERP, the number using its pricing capabilities is shockingly low," sometimes because they don't know what's available, Valderrama writes.
Some 44% of business-to-business buyers say "it takes far too long to make a purchase from most of our B2B suppliers," up from 28% last year, according to research by Merkle B2B and B2B International. The study identifies six key customer experience areas that deliver increased spend for B2B companies, including consistent delivery, customizable products and services, quick response times and the ability to adapt quickly.
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The Business Information Industry Association welcomes Creditsafe Group's Chief Data Officer David Walters and others from the industry to discuss how alternative forms of business information can assist in the process of credit risk mitigation. In this session we'll be discussing how Covid-19 has disrupted the traditional methods of ensuring commercial validity and viability and how new, alternative data sources are required to supplement the conventional sources in order to reduce risk and fraud. Call to Action: Join us on Dec. 8, 2021 at 8 a.m. Eastern (US) to find out more. For registration, please follow this registration link.
