Today’s
Ecommerce is radically different from yesterday’s
digital storefront. It has quickly become a multi-faceted, increasingly
powerful spectrum of tools and technologies that distributors must have to
remain competitive and relevant in today’s challenging business environment.
When I joined
NetSuite almost three years ago and assumed responsibility of marketing for the
wholesale distribution and manufacturing verticals, I realized how important it
was for wholesale distribution companies to transform their infrastructure in order to keep up
with the fast-changing market.
In that time,
we’ve already started to see some of those changes. According to an online
survey by Modern Distribution Management of more than 150 professionals in
wholesale distribution and manufacturing conducted last year, 35 percent of
respondents plan to improve their Ecommerce capabilities to drive
revenue growth in the next year. Additionally, Ecommerce and Customer
Relationship Management (CRM) were both listed as priorities
for the next 12 months by 44 percent of respondents.
I shared some of
my thoughts and the experiences of our customers in a guest blog post on how wholesale distributors can level the playing field with technology. It resulted
from an interview I did with UnleashWD, the only innovation summit
created for the wholesale distribution industry. The post coincides with a webinar “Bringing Your Distribution Company Into the
Digital Age.” that focuses on how non-traditional
competitors such as Google and Amazon are using technology to reach customers
and how distributors need to innovate and turn to new markets to compete. As
covered in a previous UnleashWD webinar “Preparing for Google Entry into
Distribution,” these global organizations are looking to dominate the
lucrative B2B Ecommerce market
that’s expected to quickly dwarf that of the B2C market.
-Ranga Bodla, Director, Industry Marketing,
Wholesale Distribution and Manufacturing at NetSuite