Market Insights
Retailers rise to E-commerce E X TENDING ‘HELLO AND A HANDSHAKE’ TO THE ONLINE ARENA By Tim Burke
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magine your hardware customer – who loves to touch and feel all the keys, hammers, grinders, shovels, yard tools and everything else – staying home to buy on the internet. Unthinkable, right? But it’s happening. In fact, it’s happened. Pursuing a story that has accelerated throughout the pandemic and that shows no signs of receding in importance, HBSDealer turns to influencers and stakeholders — and of course, retailers — from across the hardware industry to address the intersection of hardware retailing and internet commerce. A major issue: The impact of e-commerce on a hardware store’s top and bottom lines. “Everyone sees that e-commerce is growing, but alongside sales growth are customers’ expectations for performance,” said Jared Littmann, who along with his wife Marlene Niefeld, own K&B True Value Hardware in Annapolis, Md. Customers want a one-click experience with as little of their time invested as possible. “Our job is to meet their needs while figuring out how to broaden the online shopping basket,” Littmann said. The couple bought the business in 2007 from Littmann’s in-laws, Ken and Bobbie Niefeld. Within a three-mile radius you reach two Home Depots, he said, and e-commerce represents an opportunity to grow customer counts. “We are competitive with other brick-and-mortar businesses, but we’ve got to do better to gain local online market share,” said Littmann. At the store counter or scrolling thru a website at home, commerce online now integrates with in-store hardware operations at businesses across the country, like at Pleasants Hardware in Virginia, owned by Taylor's Do it Center.
Be robust
In the village of Larchmont, N.Y., along Long Island Sound, 18 miles northeast of Midtown Manhattan, you’ll find Do it Best dealer John Merrell, owner since 1982 of Foley Hardware. He viewed online sales simply as a necessity. “Retailers must have a robust website with e-commerce options because that’s what consumers expect today.” These services are becoming attractive for the hardware store space. Merrell’s customers, for instance, can browse products, read reviews, compare items and check the in-store inventory — all on their website. “All of these attributes help our sales team be more productive on the phone and in the store, so we do not lose the sale to our online competitors,” Merrell said.
Net expectations
Meeting customers where they are and researching products online, is how Meg Taylor, communications director at Taylor’s Do it Center in Virginia Beach, Va., views the marketplace today. She sees web shopping as an extension of in-person hardware operations. “Whether your store is small or large, there are only so many things you can carry in the physical store,” she said. “E-commerce is a great way for us to significantly extend our product offering and reach additional customers,” she said. Her family business, first opened in 1927, has 20 neighborhood stores serving coastal Virginia to North Carolina. Doing business online has other benefits. “Making a purchase on a business’s website is also something customers and consumers in general have grown to expect in this evolving retail landscape.” Bob Taylor, Meg’s father and former president, left the helm of Taylor’s in 2001 when he was asked to head Do it Best Corp., Taylor’s buying cooperative, headquartered in Fort Wayne, Ind. After 15 years he returned home to serve as Taylor’s chairman of the board.
Put the ‘E’ in commerce
Independent hardware stores, traditionally, are prided on the tactile, however, commerce via the internet is causing that norm to evolve. “Everyone is online, researching, buying and skimming reviews. Covid has greatly accelerated start up sites like ours. Even grocery stores have their items
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Januar y 2022 HARDWARE + BUILDING SUPPLY DEALER
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