FEATURE Story By Ted McNamara
OVER THE last year, the pace has skyrocketed for LBM dealers adding new e-commerce web presences. The revamped sites allow users to submit orders and quotes online, with their purchases moving into a shopping cart like that shown above. (Image by BuilderWire)
LBM dealers move quickly to e-commerce rior to the pandemic, there were a limited number of LBM companies with e-commerce sites, as most felt a basic web presence was sufficient. Over the last 15 months, the pandemic has dramatically shifted the LBM industry’s focus to seek out technology solutions in order to provide online access to both their account holding customers (B2B), and a true e-commerce experience for the local consumers (B2C) looking to purchase materials online and schedule a delivery. There are many examples of e-commerce growth in the LBM industry, but none show it more than the pure number of inquiries BuilderWire has seen recently. In the first quarter of 2021, we signed on almost 30 new LBM clients. The companies range from multi-location distribution companies to smaller one-location lumberyards or hardware stores. The new desire to allow their customers secure, online access to view AR balances, make online payments, check inventory via an e-catalog, and even place an order for customer pickup or delivery has never been more apparent. Dealers are also now looking to add credit card payment options to capture new local business with delivery. Dealers were caught off guard when the pandemic hit. Consumers were demanding online ordering and the dealers quickly pivoted to find ways to make online e-commerce work for their business and this new demand.
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2000-2010
BuilderWire was founded in the early 2000s. At the time, our industry was extremely resistant towards technological
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change, especially building a web presence that showed pricing online. Early on, a major issue for LBM dealers trying to implement e-commerce was the nonexistent access to the data contained in the dealer’s ERP software. Most major ERP companies hadn’t thought about giving external access to data using web services or APIs to pull the data. Once we finally had reliable access to data, the few LBM companies that started using e-commerce had strict rules of who could or could not access the online portal. Most early adopters of e-commerce only allowed their top and loyal customers access to their web portal. Companies were not interested in promoting their brands online, social media was still in its infant stages, and mobile friendly sites didn’t even exist yet.
2010-2015
LBM dealers were once again caught off guard with the rapid adoption of web-enabled mobile phones. Any prior investment made into their web presence was now completely outdated. Today, about 65% of traffic on a dealer’s website comes from a mobile device. It was crucial that websites became responsive to any device the end user was using. This caused most dealers to rebuild their websites to allow functionality on a mobile phone. The rebuilds allowed dealers to incorporate more e-commerce into their websites, and we saw an increase of clients wanting online product catalogs. Our platform directly connects to our clients’ “back-office computer” to pull product information from the ERPs. This feed allows the dealer to Building-Products.com
