An account that used to call regularly gets quieter.
A customer asks why they cannot reorder online. A salesperson tells you competitors are making it easier to check availability or find product information. You suspect you are losing business — but you cannot see how much or where it is going.
Then comes the bigger question: What are you supposed to do about it?
You cannot match Amazon’s scale, Grainger’s catalog, or the technology budgets of the largest national distributors. Building a smaller version of what they already do better would cost a fortune — and still leave you behind.
Stop trying.
Meet the digital expectations buyers now consider normal. Then focus your investment where your product knowledge, availability, and service give you a real reason to win.
That is how a smaller distributor competes online.
You Do Not Need to Out-Amazon Amazon
The e-commerce giants are hard to beat when the customer knows the exact item, price drives the decision, and the order can move through a standardized process.
That is what their systems are built to handle.
You win somewhere else.
You may know which product will actually work in the application — and which one will cause a callback. You may have the right item in stock when downtime is costing the customer money. You may be able to solve a problem that does not fit neatly into a search box and shopping cart.
That matters.
But it does not excuse a poor digital experience.
Customers should not have to call you to find basic product information. They should not wait two days for an answer that could have been available on your website. They should not rebuild the same routine order every month because your system does not remember what they buy.
Personal service is valuable. Making customers depend on personal service for every small task is not.
Buyers now move between digital self-service and human interaction depending on what they need. McKinsey’s 2024 B2B Pulse found that B2B buyers split their time among in-person, remote, and digital self-service interactions.
There is no single-channel customer anymore.
Let customers handle straightforward tasks themselves. Make knowledgeable people easy to reach when the decision requires judgment.
You need both.
Decide Where You Can Really Win
Do not begin by asking how much of your catalog you can put online.
Begin with a harder question:
Where are you genuinely better equipped to help the customer?
The answer may be a particular industry, application, product category, service requirement, or type of transaction. It may be the customers you already serve rather than unknown buyers across the country.
Focus there.
If you understand the demands of a food-processing facility, a construction site, a maintenance department, or a safety program, you can help customers avoid mistakes a broad online seller may never recognize.
You are not merely selling a product. You are reducing the risk around the purchase.
That is a stronger position than “we carry thousands of items.”
Your current customers may also be the best place to start. They already know you. They may not need a completely new way to buy. They need a simpler way to do business with the supplier they already trust.
They may want to:
- Find a previous order
- See their account pricing
- Check availability
- Save a frequently purchased list
- Track a shipment
- Reorder without calling a salesperson
None of this is revolutionary.
That is the point.
Large online sellers have made these capabilities feel normal. Grainger, for example, gives account users access to saved lists, order history, and automatic reordering.
You do not need every feature Grainger offers. You need to know which ones your customers now miss when they buy from you.
Separate potential investments into three buckets.
1. Digital Table Stakes
These are the capabilities customers need before they will consider your online experience credible and convenient.
Examples include accurate product information, useful search, mobile usability, account access, and a clear way to order or request a quote.
2. Competitive differentiators
These make a real strength easier for the customer to use.
That could include application guidance, customer-specific pricing, local inventory, technical support, approved alternatives, emergency sourcing, or an easier repeat-order process.
3. Expensive distractions
These are features, markets, and technology investments that sound impressive but do not strengthen the customer’s reason to choose you.
A platform demonstration will make almost every feature look important.
It is not.
Key takeaway
Meet the digital basics. Then invest where your expertise, availability, and service give customers a real reason to choose you.
Meet the Digital Expectations Buyers Now Consider Normal
Customers should be able to find the right product, understand what they are buying, and see a clear next step.
Many distributor websites fail before the buyer gets that far.
They work only when someone already knows the exact manufacturer and part number. Product descriptions are thin. Specifications are missing. Search results are poor. Availability is unclear.
The buyer reaches a dead end — and leaves or calls someone else.
Help the Customer Make the Right Choice
Your product and category pages should answer the questions standing between the buyer and a decision:
- Is this right for my application?
- How does it differ from the other options?
- Will it work with what I already have?
- Is there an acceptable alternative?
- What should I do if I am still unsure?
Depending on what you sell, the answers may require specifications, technical documents, compatibility information, application guidance, related products, availability, or access to someone who understands the product.
Product data supports both discovery and decision-making. Distribution Strategy Group’s State of eCommerce in Distribution identifies product-data quality and user experience as important issues in distributor e-commerce.
Do not turn that into a five-year catalog-cleanup project.
Start with the categories that matter most — the products that generate meaningful revenue, create costly mistakes, produce the most customer questions, or support the markets where you have the strongest reason to win.
Build those areas properly. Learn what customers use. Then expand.
Support the Transaction Instead of Forcing It
Not every order belongs in a shopping cart.
A repeat customer may be ready to buy immediately. Another may need a quote, purchase order, credit terms, quantity pricing, or help confirming the application.
Support the way the transaction actually works.
Make routine purchases fast. Make quotes easy to request. Make human help easy to reach.
Digital commerce should remove friction — not force every customer through the same process.
Turn Your Expertise Into Part of the Buying Experience
Meeting the digital basics keeps you from losing business for avoidable reasons.
It does not make you different.
Your advantage comes from turning what your company already does well into something customers can see, understand, and use.
Stop Separating the Website From Your Sales Team
This is backwards.
Your website is not competing with your salespeople. Online ordering is not replacing the customer relationship.
A customer may research on your website, ask a salesperson a question, receive a quote, place the order online, and reorder later through an account.
To the customer, that is one relationship with one supplier.
When your people and systems are disconnected, the cracks show quickly. The website gives one answer. The salesperson gives another. An inquiry reaches the wrong person. Account pricing disappears online.
Do not make the customer manage those gaps for you.
Let the website handle basic information and routine transactions. Let your people step in where judgment, coordination, or problem-solving adds value.
That is better service.
Put Your Real Advantages Where Customers Need Them
Do not bury your strengths on a generic “Why Choose Us?” page.
If you provide same-day delivery, emergency sourcing, technical support, fabrication, kitting, inventory management, or help finding substitutes, make that visible at the point where it matters.
A product page can explain available technical support.
A category page can address a common application problem.
A quote form can tell the customer when to expect a response.
An account can make standard reorders easier.
An article can answer the question your salespeople hear every week.
This is how expertise becomes part of the buying experience — not just another claim in your marketing copy.
Replace “Great Service” With Something You Can Prove
Every distributor says it provides great service.
The phrase means nothing.
A specific promise is stronger: quotes answered within a stated time, same-day pickup on stocked items, access to a technical specialist, or help finding an approved alternative.
But only promise what your operation can deliver.
Do not promote fast response while requests sit unanswered. Do not claim deep expertise when customers cannot reach the right person. Do not call yourself flexible while forcing every account through the same rigid process.
Your digital experience will reveal the truth faster than your marketing can hide it.
Start With One Buying Problem Worth Fixing
The fastest way to waste money on e-commerce is to start with the technology.
A software company will show you hundreds of capabilities. Your team will build a wish list. The project will grow before anyone agrees on which customer problem it is supposed to solve.
Technology can improve a sound strategy. It cannot rescue an unclear one.
Start with several priority customers. Ask:
- What are you trying to do on our website?
- What information is hardest to find?
- Which routine tasks waste your time?
- When do you need help from a person?
- What do other suppliers make easier?
Then choose one problem worth fixing.
It might be a faster reorder process, better product information for one important category, more reliable availability, easier access to order history, or a clearer path to technical help.
Do not begin with the biggest project you can imagine.
Begin with a problem customers care about and your company can solve.
Before you approve the investment, ask three questions:
- Does this fix something that currently makes us difficult to buy from?
- Does it strengthen a real advantage for customers we want to keep or win?
- Will customers use it enough to justify the cost and operational effort?
If the answer is no to all three, do not buy it.
Then watch what happens.
Are customers using the new account tools? Are more visitors finding the right product? Are quote requests improving? Are routine orders moving online? Are salespeople spending less time on low-value administrative work?
Do not judge the investment only by orders completed in the shopping cart. The website may also be creating quotes, phone orders, assisted sales, and repeat purchases.
You do not need an elaborate attribution system.
You need enough information to know whether the improvement is being used — and whether it is helping you generate or protect business.
Build the Experience That Proves Why You Are Better
You are not going to outspend or outscale the e-commerce giants.
You do not need to.
Give customers the digital basics they now expect. Make routine business easier. Then bring your expertise, availability, and service into the experience where they help the customer make a better decision.
Do not try to become a smaller Amazon.
When the right answer matters, you should be the obvious choice.
Build the buying experience that proves it.
Ready to Decide Where Digital Commerce Fits?
SVM helps distributors decide where digital commerce can improve the buying experience, support revenue growth, and prevent expensive technology investments customers do not value.
Meet Bob DeStefano
Bob DeStefano is the President of SVM Industrial Marketing. For more than 30 years, he has helped manufacturers and distributors get found, trusted, and chosen by the right buyers.
- 30+ years helping manufacturers and distributors
- University of Innovative Distribution faculty member
- Author of The Hidden Pipeline
