Expanded manufacturer sites add convenience and resources
By Janet R. Gross
Manufacturer Web sites have offered distributors product information, e-mail communications, even marketing support for several years now. Some forms producers, though, have begun expanding their sites, promising added convenience and resources for distributors.
For instance, a few manufacturers allow end-users to enter reorders through their Web sites and credit the distributors with the sales. Roger Buck, national sales manager and vice president at Ward/Kraft, Fort Scott, Kansas, said he expects this capability to be added to the company's site by the first quarter of next year.
"It's a development issue," he said. "We have to make changes so the end-user doesn't see too much information."
Steve Osterloh, director of marketing for Ennis Business Forms', DeSoto, Texas, said distributors have been asking for the service but questions whether it would generate sufficient orders.
"It is not an inexpensive feature to set up," Osterloh said, "but we don't believe that other manufacturers who are doing this are getting the number of end-user orders they need to warrant the cost." In addition, any order system directed at end-users has to be extremely easy to use and leave no detail to chance, with plenty of prompts for necessary information, he said. Despite these hurdles, Ennis is undergoing beta testing of such order systems and putting more resources into its new live e-commerce capabilities. In addition to online catalogs, Ennis plans to add software-compatible forms in the fourth quarter. Additional products lines will follow, said Osterloh.
Although outside consultant Higganbotham.com, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based Internet services company, has been handling Ennis' Web design, site updates and technical support since the beginning of the year, Ennis is still heavily involved.
In addition to Osterloh, who oversees the effort, company executives, the MIS department, accounting personnel and marketing department helped develop and test the e-commerce portion of the site.
Currently, the site offers distributors company and ordering information, a news and events section, reordering capability (online store orders only), business-boosting information and links to industry publications and associations. The news and business-boosting sections are popular, but Osterloh noted that "Most distributors still pick up the phone and call in orders."
Some manufacturers provide links to their distributors' Web sites, both emphasizing the supplier's trade-only status and potentially generating new leads.
Visitors to Elgin-Illinois-based Continental Datalabel's site enter their zip code to extract a list of distributors in their area and are prevented from dealing directly with the supplier, explained Marketing Director Tom Ainsworth.
In addition, Continental Datalabel has more than 95 percent of its product line available on its Web site "in full color with all pertinent specifications, including a cross-reference list with Avery label numbers," Ainsworth said.
"We do not have a commerce site set up yet but we do have a distributor-only area which shows the pricing for stock labels and they can e-mail us an order form," he noted. The Web site also highlights the plants' toll-free fax numbers and offers a list of the trade shows where the manufacturer will be exhibiting, with links to the show sponsor.
"Having the ability to see the detail of the specs is a good timesaver for us and the distributor," Ainsworth said. "It also alleviates the need for next-day air charges for samples if a distributor needs the information right away."
So far, he said he's seen little demand for Web-based ordering. "Dealers are fine with e-mail orders and getting billed," Ainsworth said. The site, handled in-house, will eventually offer order tracking and possibly custom quotations and consumer orders credited to a local distributor in the future. "We'll continue to expand on it but who knows where it's going," Ainsworth commented.
Osterloh believes e-commerce will simply be another alternative, just as faxed orders supplement mail and phone orders. "But we don't believe that in the immediate future enough orders will be taken away from the phone to make a big difference," he said.
Expanding a Valuable Resource
Putting Ennis' entire product line on the Web "will be very helpful from a marketing standpoint," Osterloh said. "Ennis has so many product lines that no matter how many direct mail pieces we send or how often we talk to distributors, we still hear, I didn't know you did that.'" Ennis hopes the addition of its online stores will help better illuminate its offerings.
Recognizing a similar problem, Buck began beefing up Ward/Kraft's Web site after he came on board last December. "It was a normal manufacturer site with contact information and a list of products," Buck explained. "We added more products, all of which now have hot buttons, and all of our sell sheets are downloadable."
By the end of the year, Ward/Kraft plans to offer miniature PowerPoint presentations arranged by product familyform/label combinations, mail products, etc. "We're trying to build a toolbox so if a distributor needs a sales sheet or other hard copy to lay in front of a customer, the first thing they think of is Ward/Kraft," said Buck.
Also in the works are electronic links to Ward/Kraft's long-standing non-competing business partners. "We've checked them outwe have a good business relationship and we know each other's plants. We want distributors to come to the Ward/Kraft Web site even for things we don't do," Buck commented.
The supplier's multimedia division is also building a branded Web siteinitially offering marketing support, sales tips and training materialsto debut this quarter. Online ordering and order tracking will be developed for the site next year, Buck said.
Ward/Kraft will use the power of the Internet for customized one-to-one marketing efforts. "We don't want to be just the luck of the draw. Mind share is more important than market share. We want every single distributor, when he boots up the computer every morning, to go to Ward/Kraft's Web site and look for opportunities to sell today."
Getting to that point means not only adding more useful and requested features to the site, but more aggressively selling the site to distributors, Buck explained. "Mind share is not won, it's earned," he said. "I see the Web as a tremendous opportunity to offer support such as training pieces and marketing collateral so people will see Ward/Kraft as a resource."
Manufacturers must beware of jazzing up their sites with features distributors don't want, however. "You can do a lot of things to your Web site that people don't care about because it does them no good," Buck warned.
What distributors want from manufacturers' Web sites is clear, concise, accurate information they can use today, Buck said, and while that may be a challenge, it's also rewarding.
"The Internet is a whole new game. There are no experts yet, no rules and no edge of the envelope," Buck added. "I've been in the industry 30 years and I can't think of a time when I've been more excited. The opportunities are just mind-boggling."
- Companies:
- Continental Datalabel
- Ennis
- Ward/Kraft
- People:
- Steve Osterloh
- Tom Ainsworth
- Places:
- Fort Scott, Kansas