Here’s How Grainger Is Growing Its Ecommerce Businesses Post-Pandemic
B2B ecommerce is on an upwards trend, especially in the industrial parts business. After two years of stagnation brought about by the global COVID-19 crisis and related shutdowns, industry is coming back with a vengeance.
However, there is no doubting that the landscape has been transformed. The post-pandemic B2B buyer is expecting services more in line with the B2C experience, even in their professional interactions – a fact likely compounded by more people working from home than ever before thus farther blurring the line between work and home life – and professionals have an increased expectation of getting things right first time.
As one of the nation’s premier supplier of industrial parts, Grainger Industrial Supply has come back from the pandemic swinging and is seeing fabulous growth in its ecommerce business.
Ecommerce Growth
While 2021 was not an amazing year for anyone involved in the business of distributing maintenance, repair, and operations products and related industrial supplies, Grainger has been making steady gains in the face of pandemic related pressures. This growth has been made possible through a decisive strategy to make digital commerce a priority.
Back in 2017, Grainger announced that it expected 80% of its sales to comes from ecommerce by 2023 and it seems well on its way to achieving that goal.
Grainger announced in a recent earnings call that its High-Touch Solutions business, which offers more extensive and personalized services and includes its sales through its flagship ecommerce site Grainger.com and its sales reps, increased sales year over by 10.5% to $10.18 billion in 2021 from $9.22 billion in 2020.
"Over the last two years, we’ve developed new product information, publishing, customer information and marketing support systems," said Grainger CEO, D.G. MacPherson said during the call with investment analysts. "We continue to improve our technology capabilities to help us win in the market. Our Endless Assortment segment continues to grow as we made progress on our strategic initiatives."
Endless Assortment includes Zoro.com and MonotaRo.com and is Grainger’s online-only business. The endless assortment business model targets customers with less complex needs with a broad range of products sold online. The Endless assortment business model leverages Zoro for the US market and MonotaRO in Japan.
"We’ve expanded to new customer segments and new categories driving both new and repeat business," continued MacPherson. "And in 2021, MonotaRO opened the Ibaraki distribution center (DC) in Japan, allowing them to stock high demand items locally with plans for another DC Japan in 2022."
The Right Part – First Time
Another big part of the Grainger strategy is to constantly review and update its ecommerce presence and make sure the product discovery and purchasing processes contained within are providing the kind of fast and smooth buying experience modern customers expect.
For example, rather than just figuring the best keywords to search for particular products among the 1.9 million available on Grainger.com, Grainger has been upgrading its search-and-navigation technology to let buyers first choose among their most important criteria.
For a more specific example of how this works, we can look to a product such as threadlockers – materials such as PTFE which coats and protects metal threads in machinery while also providing a stronger seal. When choosing a threadlocker product variables such as the material’s bonding strength, the temperature of the machine that will use the threadlocker, the threadlocker material type (gel, liquid or solid), the time it takes to harden after applying it to machinery, and the type and size of container the threadlocker comes in.
At Grainer.com, when customers search for "threadlocker," instead of just bringing up all the products which match that keyword and expecting them to slowly scroll through every single one until they find the item they need, they are taken to a specific threadlocker buying guide which lets them add additional specific criteria to further narrow down the selection.
Other innovative features include a smartphone app which allows customers to take a picture of a catalogue page to instantly be taken to an image-rich version which contains pricing and technical details not present in the physical catalogue. personalization technology also recognizes the registered buyer when they log in and displays content related to the products and categories they typically purchase.
Final Thoughts
The industrial parts business is coming back from an incredibly challenging period in its history and brands such as Grainger are demonstrating how innovative thinking and digital technology can help provide B2B customers with the kind of B2C-esque experiences they have come to expect in the new normal.
Ecommerce growth in the industrial sector is sure to be a hot topic at B2B Online Orlando 2022, taking place in November at the JW Marriott Orlando Bonnet Creek Resort & Spa, FL.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.