Digital Commerce 360’s latest B2B ecommerce strategy report, Technology Trends: B2B Ecommerce Connections, covers how companies ranging from regional distributors like Fairmount Tired & Rubber to global manufacturers like Konica Minolta are expanding their ecommerce horizons.

Learn what technologies and strategies are key to competing in digital commerce today and get best practice advice from innovative practitioners and industry analysts who will speak at the EnvisionB2B Conference & Exhibition, June 20-22 at the Hilton Chicago.

Plus, get a preview of the full conference agenda!

Compliments of: Human Element, Impact

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But a new survey shows that many small businesses face obstacles on the path to achieving sustainability. Meanwhile, another research report shows that left unchanged, the ongoing environmental impact from last-mile ecommerce deliveries will be harmful.

Sustainable ecommerce fulfillment comes at a cost many won’t pay

Delivery and logistics services provider DHL conducted a survey of 2,500 small and medium-sized businesses. It finds that 95% of companies say sustainability is important to their business. And almost half (48%) believe it’s extremely important. But when asked about the biggest challenge to achieving sustainable goals, 42% said the overall investment is the main obstacle. 11% said they had no clue where to start.

Sustainability is important to almost every respondent, DHL says. But “nearly half (47%) are willing to invest only 1%-3% of their operating budget into sustainability practices,” according to the DHL survey. “And 26% are not willing to invest anything” into sustainable ecommerce fulfillment.

If left unchanged, the environmental impact of the rising number of ecommerce deliveries globally will also cause more air pollution and human health issues.

A new report by Clean Mobility Collective and Stand.earth Research Group claims ecommerce and the associated emissions from last-mile delivery will continue growing exponentially. The report predicts global annual parcel volume could increase from over 315 billion parcels in 2022 to up to 800 billion parcels a year in 2030.

Without any greener changes to how these parcels are packaged and delivered, global ecommerce deliveries will emit up to 160 megatons of carbon dioxide per year by 2030, according to the report. That’s equivalent to yearly CO2 emissions of up to 44 coal plants.

“Approximately 1 billion trees would need to be planted and allowed to grow for 10 years to sequester the emissions of a single year of current last-mile parcel deliveries,” the report says.

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Denise Vivas, vice president of ecommerce, Essity Professional Hygiene

As the vice president of ecommerce at Essity Professional Hygiene, a global hygiene and health products manufacturer, Denise Vivas plays a critical role in Essity’s focus on growth through digital commerce. Here she addresses how Essity is engaging a new generation of online buyers of such products as Essity’s Tork brand line of workplace cleaners, dispensers, and related products.

Vivas is a panelist on the “Ecommerce Business Strategy: Creating a Blueprint for Digital Commerce Excellence” session June 21 at 2023’s EnvisionB2B Conference & Exhibition in Chicago.

DC 360: What is driving B2B companies like Essity Professional Hygiene to expand online?

Vivas: At Essity, our “North Star” is to deliver superb customer experiences in everything we do. We are always thinking ahead and always researching to ensure we provide the best service to our customers where they are. And where they are is online. In fact, research shows that close to 70% of our customers are millennials, and for them digital is the norm, not the exception.

Our digital transformation efforts are directed toward executing a customer-centric strategy across every inch of our business — from the way we manufacture products all the way to reaching and engaging current customers and seeking new business and profit opportunities. Digital is how we can bring Tork products and solutions to customers with speed and convenience.

Our online services seek to accomplish three important objectives at Essity:

• Build brand equity and trust.
• Defend our share as end customers shift from offline to online practices.
• Drive growth by unlocking new buckets of opportunities.

DC 360: What are your biggest internal and external barriers?

Vivas: There’s no greater satisfaction than when Essity and our partners — distributors, wholesalers, service providers and such — find we are on this digitalization path together. When our visions align, we are able to amplify and accelerate growth and customer satisfaction.

But in reality, resistance to change continues to be a barrier to that forward trajectory. Legacy systems and lack of resources can all weigh down and slow down progress. We strive to be leaders and help our partners embark on the digitalization journey with us.

Think about buying a car 15 years ago versus buying a car now. The transformation of how a car operates, all its safety features, and even how you can now purchase a car online, is mind-boggling. But people still operate the vehicles and must be willing to accept this new technology and drive that car off the lot. That is what we hope to continue to do with our partners — to show them how much faster, safer and more efficient we can be when we are firing on all cylinders together.

DC 360: What are the chief gains you’re realizing?

Vivas: Our online business — both through distribution partners and direct — is growing faster and more profitably than any other channel. And what we have learned along the way is that we can not only understand and acknowledge our customers’ needs but also help address and solve them.

Back to that Essity North Star, we are committed to strengthening our distributor partnerships, which includes the work we do to support their online business. How can we do that? Our approach involves developing ecommerce, digital marketing activation, and digital selling capabilities that we extend to our distributor partners as value-add services. These services complement the great work we do offline. As we master the art of supplementing online levers with offline ones, we advance further toward our destination, which is to differentiate Essity as a leader in omnichannel partnerships.

DC 360: What is the most valuable piece of advice you have on how to launch online B2B sales or increase them?

Vivas: As basic as this sounds — and it can’t be stressed enough — understand your customers’ pain points and devote the time and resources to solving them. And do it better and faster than anyone else. This is how you build brand equity and trust, and it’s how we reach our North Star and the growth that naturally follows.

I would also add: Be bold. The cost of technology continues to go down. Going back to my car analogy, think about the cost of cars today with all that technology now included even in base models. Take advantage of these lowered costs and start small. Pilot a service where you can prove to scale or dump quickly. But don’t be afraid to fail! Just fail fast and move forward.

DC 360: Regarding COVID-19 and supply-chain disruption, what is the biggest adaptation your company has made?

Vivas: We quickly and efficiently implemented highly responsive networks that stabilized our value-creation chain end to end. This was a collaboration across our organization. We even set up remotely to avoid face-to-face interaction during the “lockdown” period.

Some examples include:

• Streamlining our portfolio in order to boost output.
• Deliberately increasing target inventories of articles with a more complex supply chain (such as dispensers).
• Creating task forces to identify alternative suppliers.
• Developing an employee-retention program to create stability within our operations.
• Developing and sharing a successful health and hygiene website that educates our customers on how to avoid infection at the workplace. This site was recognized by experts and adopted by unions.

DC 360: Looking back over the past few years, is there anything you wish you had done differently in ecommerce?

Vivas: As we have seen with technology advancements, things move quickly. And at Essity, we have worked hard to keep up with and ahead of those advances. But what we’ve learned is that success in ecommerce is 10% technology and 90% an effective operating model.

In other words, success truly depends on an organization’s ability to effectively manage change. To do that, you must engage your people so that they trust the process. Invest as much time and as many resources as necessary to get employees involved right from the planning and development phase. As our approaches changed, having everyone on board helped them remain aligned and agile.

DC 360: What excites you the most in new digital commerce technology?

Vivas: While artificial intelligence is just emerging, and we must proceed with caution, I am excited about the potential AI has to power predictive personalization engines. This will allow us to truly connect with customers in a very intimate way, at scale and with immediacy.

To achieve this, we are actively working on the next wave of digital capabilities. We hope to further simplify the way we do business while still delivering exceptional customer service, driving us right toward our North StB2ar and ultimately translating into rapid, profitable growth for Essity Professional Hygiene and our partners and customers.

DC 360: Going forward, what do you see as the most significant commerce challenges and opportunities?

Vivas:  Our biggest opportunities lie in the ability to deliver value to our customers with simplicity and speed. And in the B2B world, how that  comes across is all in the eye of the beholder. In other words, digitally savvy customers have much different needs for simplicity and speed than do more traditional customers. But we must make the process seamless for both. The key is to be effective at servicing a wide range of customers, offering our digital tools to those ready to utilize them, and bringing customers with us as we maneuver this digital highway together.

Finally, I will say that as fast as technology moves, we must always pause to be sure our internet and customer information-management systems are secure. This is a trust we never want to breach.

Jim Daly is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy.

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The post EnvisionB2B Speaker Spotlight: Essity’s Denise Vivas on finding the B2B ecommerce North Star appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.

For the first quarter ended March 31, MRC reported total sales of $885 million. That’s a 19.2% increase from $742 million in the first quarter of 2022. Net income was $28 million. That compares with $10 million in the first quarter of 2022.

60% all North American sales are now digital, MRC says. Based on that metric, Digital Commerce 360 projects ecommerce sales totaled about $531 million. The distributor did not break out a similar metric for the prior year.

Overall ecommerce accounted for 52% of sales in Q1 compared with 42% in the prior year. Based on these metrics, Digital Commerce 360 projects that Q1 ecommerce sales totaled $460.2 million, up 48% from $311.6 million in Q1 of 2022.

“Our strong first quarter performance, our solid and growing backlog and our strong alignment with our customers’ spending plans all provide us with increasing confidence in our 2023 outlook,” says CEO Rob Saltiel.

MRC Global earnings

For the fiscal first quarter ended March 31, 2023, MRC reported

• $885 million in total sales. That’s up 19.2% from $742 million in Q1 2022.
• $28 million in net income, compared with $10 million in the year-ago period.
• MRC digital sales account for 60% of all North American sales. Digital Commerce 360 estimates MRC ecommerce sales total $531 million.

Percentage changes may not align exactly with dollar figures due to rounding. Check back for more earnings reports.

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Alex Tomey, senior vice president and chief merchandising officer, Global Industrial Co.

Alex Tomey, senior vice president and chief merchandising officer for industrial and commercial products distributor Global Industrial Co., is applying his 20 years of merchandising expertise to help Global Industrial improve margin performance, accelerate new category expansion, and strengthen core and private brand product growth.

Prior to joining Global Industrial in 2021, Tomey applied his merchandising expertise at such companies as Petco, DICK’S Sporting Goods, Kohl’s, and Walmart.

DC360: What is driving B2B companies like Global Industrial Co. to expand online?

Tomey:  B2B customers expect a similar experience purchasing products online as they have in their personal life; everyone is challenged for time and the convenience of researching and buying products online greatly improves efficiencies. We continue to focus on improving the customer experience by elevating our content, functionality, and integration with our managed sales organization.

DC360: What are your biggest internal or and external barriers?

Tomey: The pandemic, the supply chain crisis and inflation has created a lot of disruption in the market place the last three years. It also inspired a lot of transformation and innovation. At Global Industrial, we re-branded our company, launched a new website, and re-vamped our ‘Go to Market’ strategy, focusing on elevating the customer experience.

DC360: What are the chief gains you’re realizing?

Tomey:  We have doubled down on our customer focus; fully integrating our product and marketing strategies, operational efficiencies, and customer service. We are confident this will position us to drive customer acquisition and growth over the long term.

DC360: What is the most valuable piece of advice you have on how to launch online B2B sales or increase them?

Tomey: Develop seamless customer touch points to drive efficiency and improve the overall experience.

Alex Tomey, senior vice president and chief merchandising officer of distributor Global Industrial Co., will speak during the session, “Make Sustainability A Differentiator for Your Company,” at the EnvisionB2B Conference & Exhibition in June in Chicago. 

Peter Lucas is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy.

Sign up for a complimentary subscription to Digital Commerce 360 B2B News, published 4x/week, covering technology and business trends in the growing B2B ecommerce industry. Contact editor Paul Demery at paul@digitalcommerce360.com and follow him on Twitter @pdemery.

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The report — The Europe B2B Marketplaces Top 25 Ranking 2023, from Applico Inc. — says the 25 marketplaces in the ranking have raised more than $2.1 billion over time. 85% of the money is flowing into marketplaces in building materials, retail, and food products.

“In broad terms, investors in the U.S. have followed a similar path with building materials, food products, B2B marketplaces accounting for over 40% of capital raised across leading digital B2B marketplaces in the U.S.,” the report says.

But a rising new area of investment is “marketplaces focused on industrial machinery for contract manufacturing, where successful businesses in the U.S. have attracted $475 million of capital,” the report says. “There are a few marketplaces in Europe that have similar business models and capabilities.”

European B2B marketplace growth

Examples of B2B marketplace operators targeting Europe for growth include Amazon Business and Xometry. Amazon Business is improving logistics operations in Europe to make it more attractive for corporate-account customers to make bulk purchases of supplies ranging from desks and IT equipment to paper and printer ink. That provides Amazon the opportunity to reap higher margins compared with small-order retail consumer sales.

“Because businesses buy in larger quantities, the fulfillment economics are more advantageous,” Amazon told Reuters.

Amazon Business entered the European market when it opened for business in Germany in 2016, followed by Great Britain in 2017. It also operates in France, Italy and Spain.

The ecommerce company deals with such corporate clients as:

• Electrical equipment manufacturer ABB
• Renewable energy technology company Siemens Gamesa
• Energy technology engineering firm Centrica Business Solutions

When asked if Amazon Business intends to enter additional markets in Europe, a spokeswoman said the company “can’t comment on future plans.”

In January, Xometry Inc., an online marketplace connecting enterprise buyers with suppliers of manufacturing services, expanded its footprint in Europe, with the launch of xometry.uk in the United Kingdom.

With the expansion into the U.K., Xometry Europe now offers localized marketplaces in nine languages. Those languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Dutch, Norwegian and Swedish.

Xometry’s localized marketplaces allow regional customers to get quotes and purchase parts directly in local currency.

“Our continued expansion across Europe reflects our commitment to becoming the global marketplace for the large and growing industrial market,” said Dmitry Kafidov, managing director of Xometry Europe.

The Xometry marketplace for U.K. customers offers manufacturing capabilities to produce both prototypes and high-volume batches. The service, available today, offers 15 manufacturing technologies. They include CNC machining, 3D printing and injection molding, as well as 120 materials and dozens of finishing options. Xometry U.K. also offers various types of certifications and quality-control reports for end parts.

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Despite the rapid pace of new ecommerce technology, such as headless commerce, and mounting pressure from digital-first customers, progress is mixed at best for many companies, according to a new survey of 600 manufacturing executives from Epicor Software Corp.

For example, only about 44% of manufacturers are spending more on new digital technologies, while 49% will keep paying the same amount as the prior year.

Although nearly half of all companies describe their company as “somewhat” to “very” modern, only 13% are fully digitized. Nearly 60% still use a mix of ecommerce, electronic business software and paper and manual procedures to conduct business.

“The shift to all-digital workplaces is slowly happening,” the report says. “31% (of manufacturing companies) are still using all paper.”

Other findings include:

• Big data: 41% of companies are gathering and analyzing data company-wide to gain insight into operations.
• Robotics and artificial intelligence: 36% of organizations are using robots and AI to automate manufacturing.
• Augmented reality: 32% of manufacturers are using AR to better see, understand and track data to improve manufacturing efficiency and productivity.

“Those who say their company is ‘very modern’ are more likely to say their company is eager to embrace new technology,” the report says. “Those companies who say their company is not very modern are more likely to say their company is hesitant to embrace technology.”

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Emily Newton

Many new ChatGPT supply chain applications are emerging as generative AI becomes more advanced. So how can industry professionals utilize this technology effectively? They can use ChatGPT in several critical ways, primarily communication and automation.

1. Supply Chain Customer Service

Customer service is one of the most promising applications for ChatGPT in the supply chain. The natural language processing capabilities of ChatGPT are among the most advanced ever developed for popular use. This makes it an ideal tool for navigating the complex communication required in customer service tasks.

Any developer can integrate ChatGPT into their apps today using OpenAI’s official API for the algorithm. ChatGPT’s language processing skills can be applied to any customer-facing application in the supply chain, whether B2B or B2C. For example, a supplier could create a ChatGPT app for its manufacturing customers to track shipments of materials and resources.

2. Translation and International Relations

Succeeding in today’s supply chain requires working closely with partners worldwide. Unfortunately, language barriers make this challenging, potentially hindering organization and efficiency. Luckily, translation is a great way to use ChatGPT in the supply chain.

Research shows that users don’t need to specify the source language of a text passage for ChatGPT to translate it successfully. The algorithm can autonomously detect the source language and translate it in seconds.

ChatGPT’s performance is also on par or better than most digital translation tools available today. The fact that it can process natural language, including advanced technical terminology, gives it a major advantage over competitors. Its accessibility makes it ideal for supply chain applications, which rely on quick turnaround times and clear communication.

Using ChatGPT for translation can strengthen collaboration with international supply chain partners, improving efficiency and organization for everyone involved.

3. Automating Business Tasks

Businesses can use ChatGPT in the supply chain to automate various everyday tasks. For example, it can summarize a sales report, extract the highlights from a spreadsheet or draft an email. These tasks might seem small, but they help supply chain professionals work more efficiently.

ChatGPT can even be helpful for complex logistics tasks. AI is already making advances in logistics. For example, algorithms can automate order processing and help managers identify important insights in their data. This could include tasks like analyzing a list of suppliers to find those with the best rates or assessing various packaging options for the most cost-effective solution.

ChatGPT takes existing applications for AI in robotic process automation a step further. Advanced natural language processing helps it handle more complex content and user requests. Even integrating it into a larger automated system could improve performance.

4. Personalized Employee Training

ChatGPT is a great tool for improving employee training. This is especially helpful today since many supply chain businesses are adapting to new technologies and grappling with labor shortages. Surveys show 57% of supply chain leaders report hiring and retaining employees as their top challenge. Additionally, 41% have issues upskilling or reskilling existing workers.

Supply chain businesses can help alleviate these challenges by integrating ChatGPT into their training programs. It can serve as a multipurpose assistant for trainees by answering questions, explaining complex topics, and creating practice tests and flashcards. Employees can use ChatGPT to get a personalized training experience catered to their needs and learning styles.

Some trainees might quickly grasp a new technology, while others will want more time to explore definitions, technical terminology and other background information. ChatGPT can serve various training approaches, making it a versatile tool for providing more efficient employee training.

5. Data Analysis and Visualization

Data analysis and visualization is a lesser-known application for ChatGPT in the supply chain. Most people think of it as a language-specific AI, but it can also process numerical data.

Rapid and accessible data analysis tools are vital today. Data-driven insights and decisions are a cornerstone of Industry 4.0, which is rapidly reshaping the supply chain. ChatGPT makes basic AI analytics quick and straightforward. Anyone can paste a set of unstructured information into ChatGPT and ask it to summarize or organize it into a table.

Automating this task allows supply chain employees to have a more efficient workflow and leverage data more easily. ChatGPT can’t do complex data analytics yet, but it can handle many basic processes that are helpful for quickly getting an overview of a data set.

6. Idea Generation

Idea generation is a unique application for ChatGPT in the supply chain. Businesses need creative solutions to new challenges as things become more complex. Generative AI platforms like ChatGPT can be surprisingly helpful in the brainstorming process.

An AI might pinpoint unconventional solutions or ideas a human would not have considered. ChatGPT’s suggestions may not always be usable or feasible, but they provide a unique perspective that can spark creativity among team members.

Potential Drawbacks of ChatGPT

ChatGPT may be a powerful tool for certain applications, but it isn’t perfect. Business leaders should know about the drawbacks and challenges of adopting ChatGPT.

For example, ChatGPT has been known to give users inaccurate or completely made-up information. The AI’s language processing skills allow it to convey this false data convincingly, making it challenging to detect accuracy at a glance. Some groups, such as the coding help site Stack Overflow, are even banning ChatGPT due to the spread of misinformation.

This broadcast ofmisinformation is a huge problem in applications where users may be poorly equipped to verify that ChatGPT’s generated text is accurate. For example, using the AI for translating could lead to confusion if ChatGPT misunderstands the input or output language. Similarly, a new employee using ChatGPT for job training might learn incorrect information due to answer errors.

These issues may improve with time. The latest version of ChatGPT, GPT-4, is reportedly 40% more likely to give factual data, according to developer OpenAI. However, it will likely take years for ChatGPT to become a reliable source of information. Even then, there is always a chance the AI could “hallucinate” incorrect conclusions from the given data. ChatGPT’s output should always be fact-checked.

Adopting ChatGPT in the Supply Chain

There are many ways to use ChatGPT in the supply chain today, ranging from translation to employee training to logistics automation. Businesses can improve efficiency and productivity by integrating it into their workflows. OpenAI offers an API any developer can use to build ChatGPT into their app or website. In the years ahead, more supply chain applications will likely emerge as the technology advances.

About the author:

Emily Newton is an industrial writer reporting on how technology disrupts industrial sectors. She’s also the editor-in-chief of Revolutionized, covering innovations in industry, construction, and more.

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The survey, which polled 500 small business decision-makers in the United States in March, found that 61% of respondents will look for ways to reduce the costs associated with B2B purchases over the coming year. In addition, 61% of respondents say staying within budget is a priority.

Todd Heimes, director and general manager, Amazon Business Worldwide

“Small and medium-sized business owners say concerns about how inflation and a possible recession will affect their business are keeping them up them at night,” says Todd Heimes, director and general manager, Amazon Business Worldwide.

63% of small business decision-makers polled listed high inflation as the top challenge, while 39% cited a possible recession, and 30% cited supply chain disruptions, the survey found. Respondents could list more than one concern.

88% of respondents said the ability to easily find items is a key factor in growing their businesses long-term, while 91% cited the ability to find items within their price range.

“Even the smallest businesses are looking to find more efficient ways to purchase,” Heimes says.

Procuring products faster to boost growth

In addition, buyers at small businesses are seeking ways to make the purchasing process more efficient, helping them find and purchase what they need faster and more easily to spur their companies’ long-term growth, according to the survey.

The survey asked 500 small-business decision-makers in the U.S. about their online purchasing patterns, the challenges and opportunities impacting purchasing processes, and the broader landscape for small businesses. All respondents were 18 years or older, work in purchasing at a business making $25 million or less in annual revenue. 61% of respondents worked full-time, 7% part-time, and 32% were self-employed.

Amazon Business produced the poll with marketing agency Walker Sands; data collection was conducted via online market research vendor Rep Data between March 20 and 27.

Heimes points to Amazon Business’ use of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology as two ways the marketplace is helping small businesses purchase more efficiently and quickly find products within their price range.

“We are constantly adding greater product selection through Amazon Business Sellers to provide the most relevant selection for small and mid-sized business buyer’s needs,” he says. “We are also increasing the number of products with business-specific pricing and quantity discounts.”

“Subscriptions are another way for small and mid-sized businesses to receive discounts,” Heimes adds.

In addition to providing features through its marketplace that aid small businesses’ operations, Amazon Business is also providing grants to help small businesses grow.

Small-business grants program

This month, Amazon Business is making more than $250,000 in grants available to eligible small businesses that purchase through its marketplace and have less than $1 million in annual revenue.

Amazon Business will select one grand-prize winner and a group of finalists and semifinalists to receive the grants and other perks such as Business Prime memberships and Amazon devices. Applications are due by May 21; winners will be announced July 17.

In 2022, Virtual X Kitchen, a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick-up based on phone and online ordering, was a 2022 grant finalist. The College Park, Maryland-based ghost kitchen received $20,000 which it earmarked to create a sustainable restaurant model for urban areas by maximizing kitchen space for multiple owners to share, streamline the ordering process, and raise awareness of its brand.

Peter Lucas is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy.

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For the first three months of the year, sales totaled about $2.00 trillion. That’s just under a 5.1% increase  from $1.985 trillion in Q1 2022, based on data U.S. Department of Commerce data that Digital Commerce 360 compiled.

In comparison and with one exception, the sales of the biggest public distributors of maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) and industrial supplies grew much faster. W.W. Grainger, Fastenal and MSC Industrial all increased total sales for the first quarter of the previous year. Only Global Industrial lost ground. For the three months ended March 31, Global Industrial posted sales of $273.8 million. That’s a 5.1% decrease from sales of $288.6 million in the first quarter of 2022.

Year-over-year distributor sales Q1

All the big public companies noticed some gathering weakness in some aspects of their business in the first quarter.

“Customer demand was generally in line with expectations for the quarter and continues to remain resilient as a whole despite certain areas of softness,” Grainger chief financial officer Dee Merriwether told analysts on the company’s Q1 earnings call.

Global Industrial says a weaker economy resulted in a year-over-year drop in revenue.

“The first-quarter performance reflects a continuation of the recent demand environment, with average daily sales declining 3.7%,” CEO Barry Litwin told analysts on the company’s first quarter earnings call. “Price was neutral in the period and volume remained muted, reflecting cautionary purchase behavior, specifically within our core, small and medium business customer base.”

But even with a tougher overall economic environment in the first quarter, all the biggest MRO distributors will continue to move out more aggressively on digital commerce.

For example, MSC Industrial Supply Co. late last year took broad steps to bolster its digital technology and operations. It hired its first chief digital officer and investing in ecommerce improvements. MSC — a prominent distributor of metalworking and maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) products — is no stranger to strong digital sales, which have routinely accounted for well over half of total sales in recent years. Q1 ecommerce reached nearly 62% of total sales, and, under MSC’s new chief digital officer, John Hill, the company is laying the groundwork for continued growth in digital sales.

“John Hill and his team have completed a comprehensive review of our entire digital offering and have built a roadmap for our evolution in the space,” CEO Eric Gershwind said on a Q1 earnings call.

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