It’s often been stated that the websites of building supply manufacturers are far behind compared to other industries. But why do people say this?
Well, to be a wise guy—it’s because it’s true. Building materials sales and marketing are still based on old methods of doing business: personal relationships and old-fashioned sales techniques such as catalogs, trade shows, and even direct mail.
However, as we alluded to in our post about Tesla’s new roofing system, building material companies must start accepting the new reality. Interruption is coming. And a way to fend off the interruption of your own business is to adapt to new technologies.
The thought of “new technologies” often scares those that don’t quite have a handle on what it means. Let me give you a real-world example.
A couple of weeks ago at IBS in Orlando, we met some distributors. Always interested in learning more about the business of product distribution, we joined them for a dinner to pick their brains. There was one tidbit they shared with us that we found very interesting.
When asked why they chose Manufacturer A over Manufacturer B for a particular line of products—mind you, the particular product was of the same quality and type as the other—they said that they opted for the manufacturer with the easier-to-navigate catalog. They also went with the one that provided instant answers to their two big questions: “How much can I get?” and “How quickly can I get it?”
This isn’t the first time we’ve heard this. After all, distributors need to distribute to be successful. And to do that well, they need to know what items they can distribute, if they are available in a quantity they require, and how fast they can get their hands on them. Everything else is pretty much secondary in terms of importance.
Yet despite the importance of quantity and speed, many building supply companies make it a chore to get this information. Either there is no system in place, it doesn’t work well, or it isn’t updated often enough to be of any real utility.
In this age of extensible technology, allowing these issues to exist should be a cardinal sin of your digital marketing efforts. Historically, scenarios such as these were difficult because systems were not capable of talking to each other in any organized or structured way. But today, most ERP systems, inventory management systems, or other internal management platforms can connect via either exports or API (a universal programming interface that nearly all modern computer systems make available for custom-building solutions or integrating outside software).
Therefore, solving the problem today is easier than it ever has been.
Take product searching and filtering as an example. Today, you can easily have a website update itself with the latest inventory information either automatically via a direct connection (such as an API) or via a timed download/upload mechanism. This means that there is no longer a reason to have your front-end website out of date in terms of products. The latest product catalog should be updated on a regular basis on your website.
The price of not doing this is high. Frustrated, your customers will simply find another manufacturer who can better articulate what it is they are selling. Ultimately, that is what you are failing to do if your product catalog isn’t up to date—you are unable to tell the consumer what your offering truly is.
Over the years, many companies have tried to shortcut around this technical problem. Some upload electronic versions of a catalog—maybe PDF documents, for example.
This methodology makes zero sense in a digital age. It isn’t effectively searchable, sortable, or filterable. Worst of all, it just looks cheap, especially if your competitor is already getting it right and offering it as an interactive tool.
Inventory management and shipping times are important as well. The new interrupters are bringing this technology to the industry and as a side effect, all companies are expected to do the same. BuildDirect.com is one of the largest players interrupting building supply distribution right now. As you can tell from the below screenshot, they are telling you in seconds what the availability is for a product and what shipping timeframes and costs will be.
BuildDirect is still in its infancy, even though it’s been around for quite a while. Distribution via their platform and current shipping logistics are slower and more expensive than the model local distributors have. But they are still getting started, and the model will improve as time goes on.
That is cause for concern. Building supply manufacturers must work to integrate their in-house technology with their public-facing website technology as quickly as possible.
Luckily, web development has also come a long way. Developing custom solutions to handle product searching, filtering, and inventory availability is easier than ever before. Web development platforms and the ability to connect to in-house platforms via APIs or other mechanisms means that the ability to tackle this technical challenge is now available to all companies regardless of size or technical capability.
So, as part of our New Year resolutions (we can still make those at the end of January, right?), let’s spend 2017 figuring out how we can eliminate the technical hurdles that are holding us back. By fixing these issues, we’ll be keeping up with the wave of interruption and positioning ourselves ahead of those who aren’t paying attention to this essential part of doing business online.
