Supporting the Supply Chain

Not only does this provide customers with choices, the “Where to Buy” button channels customers toward all of the Greptile distribution partners. “It’s an effective way to give the consumer an option and play back to the distribution channel and say, ‘You’re important to us,’” says Nathan Almquist, president and COO of Designstein, Inc., a Golden Valley–based interactive design and development firm that counts 3M among its clients.

At the far end of the e-commerce spectrum is 3M’s Scientific Anglers, which Dierberger says receives the third or fourth most traffic of all of 3M sites. Yet Scientific Anglers is an information-only site describing 3M fly-fishing products aimed at a devoted fly-fishing audience of men between the ages of 25 and 65. “3M has huge market share in that space,” Almquist says. “But they’re marketing to 50-year-old men, who, sorry, don’t want to buy on line. They want to go to their favorite fly-fishing shop.” So 3M designed the site to educate fly fisherman about its products and the sport in general, and to build the brand through such vehicles as an e-mail newsletter and an “Ask the Pro” feature for inquisitive anglers. On each page of the site is a dealer locator, which enables visitors to do a zip code search for the nearest reseller. “There can be a benefit to simply informing the consumer about a product and where they can buy it,” Dierberger says.

The Virtual Connection

The aftermarket also can be friendly terrain for online sales. Your distributors and resellers can still stock and sell your prime products, and you can sell accessory items that complement those core products with the added benefit of maintaining control over how your product is displayed and sold.

“On line is maybe a better distribution channel for supporting accessories, because you’re not going to get the volume you need for retail,” Almquist says. “It’s going to be a loss leader if I put it in retail, but if I sell it on line, I keep control over my inventory, I don’t have that additional payout to the distribution channel, and it’s the loyal consumer who’s coming to me, and I can establish or strengthen that relationship.”

Creating an effective Web site that supports all your distribution channels can be tough to do, but there are software products that are specifically made to resolve channel conflict. Reshare Distribution Relationship Management software from Minneapolis-based Reshare allows businesses to keep control of their brand without circumventing channel partners. The software gives customers a choice of preferred retailers at checkout. After a customer makes their purchase, Reshare notifies the fulfillment center and applicable distribution partners of the chosen retailer. Keeping customers engaged and at the same time keeping distribution partners informed can be a powerful aspect of selling on line.

Engaging your customer directly is the strongest benefit you can extract from making a virtual connection. The closer you get to your customers, the better able you’ll be to get first-hand, unfiltered information about your customers’ likes and dislikes, and what they want from you. That information can inspire new product ideas and enable you to respond more quickly to ever-changing consumer behavior. The end result could be greater sales push—through all your sales and distribution channels. “Any time you can create a relationship with a consumer, where your brand becomes part of the household and they think of it intuitively,” Dierberger says, “you’re doing a pretty good thing.”