How electrical supplies distributor State Electric sparks change to drive more digital commerce How electrical supplies distributor State Electric sparks change to drive more digital commerce

State Electric Co. has been in business for 72 years. A giant reason for its longevity is easy: staying current. Being current in B2B digital commerce and transformation is a top priority for the distributor. It handles electrical supplies across 41 branches in seven states.

In a question-and-answer session with Digital Commerce 360, State Electric senior director of promoting and digital solutions Ryan Ramsby discussed what the corporate is doing. He touched on how the distributor is taking up latest digital challenges and opportunities, in addition to what’s driving digital customer buyer behavior and growth.

Interview with Ryan Ramsby

Digital Commerce 360: What are the highest digital commerce priorities for State Electric in 2024? How will you achieve them?

Ryan Ramsby: In 2024, our primary digital commerce priorities revolve around maintaining our position as an industry leader while enhancing customer experience and expanding our toolsets. Our principal goal is to make sure a seamless and frictionless journey for our customers, encompassing not only procurement but every facet of their interaction with us.

Currently, we’re undertaking a project to upgrade our platform to a more modern and robust system. This upgrade is pivotal as it can grant us greater control over each backend operations and frontend user experience. We aim to deliver a highly personalized experience to our customers, which we feel helps in fostering deeper engagement and loyalty. Moreover, this upgrade will provide us with the inspiration needed to proceed innovating in areas which might be crucial to our customers.

While this project demands significant resources and a focus from our team, we’re focused on maintaining the high standard of customer experience for which we’re known. We recognize the importance that no aspect of our current customer experience slips through the cracks during this transitional period.

State Electric’s priority channels

DC360:  What are your biggest organizational channels for digital commerce and the way are you solving them?

Ramsby: Our organization encountered significant challenges initially with internal adoption. There was a notable hesitancy amongst our teams regarding the direction we were taking. Questions regarding whether our initiatives aimed to switch our outside sales reps or reduce headcount inside internal sales teams.

To beat the resistance, quite than solely specializing in driving change management internally, we prioritized delivering tangible value to our customers through the digital B2B toolsets we were implementing. As customers began to experience the efficiency and added value offered by our platform, they naturally became advocates, promoting its use to our sales teams.

Furthermore, we’ve got made significant strides in integrating our internal tech stack. Leveraging APIs, we’ve got bridged information across all our platforms, providing our internal resources with a more seamless view into our enterprise resource planning (ERP), ecommerce, customer relationship management (CRM), marketing automation platform, and beyond. This integrated approach has helped streamline operations and empowered our teams to deliver a more cohesive and personalized experience to our customers. So, now they’re starting to see the worth themselves.

Nonetheless, we proceed to emphasise that our objective isn’t to switch our sales teams or diminish the importance of human interactions in fostering relationships. As an alternative, our aim is to satisfy our customers at various points along their digital journeys, acknowledging that every customer’s path is exclusive.

The role of digital transformation at State Electric

DC360:  What does digital transformation mean to State Electric and the way is the organization going about it?

Ramsby: Digital transformation at State Electric is built around equipping our employees with the essential tools to maximise efficiency and knowledge, leading to top-notch customer experience. With data flowing from various sources and programs, our aim is to proceed integrating our tech stack, ensuring that the suitable data reaches the suitable people in the suitable format, time, and place.

Last 12 months, we underwent a major ERP upgrade, transitioning from an on-premises system to a cloud-based solution. This move not only modernized our user experience but in addition enables automatic enhancements and updates. The mixing between our ERP and e-commerce platform runs deep, facilitating seamless data exchange. Nonetheless, our efforts extend beyond ERP and e-commerce integration; we’ve got also joined our CRM and marketing automation platform into this interconnected ecosystem. This approach helps keep all stakeholders informed, providing a comprehensive view, and understanding of our account base across various touchpoints, including marketing, accounting, sales, engineering, and project management. Our ongoing focus is on knitting these elements together to create a cohesive organizational framework.

DC360: How are B2B digital commerce sales from 2023 to 2024?

Ramsby: Adoption continues to grow at an incredible rate. Sales are trending at a 3-year CAGR of 42%, we saw a further 23% increase in account registrations last 12 months, and a mean order size increase of 52%.

This growth trajectory is especially pronounced in two key segments: larger industrial/educational, and smaller electrical contractors. The previous group leverages punch-out capabilities through their internal procurement systems, while the latter group is actively looking for ways to reinforce efficiency inside their operations, recognizing the worth of time amidst a labor shortage.

Interestingly, it’s the middle-sized contractors and customers which have been slower to adapt.

State Electric’s approach to omnichannel

DC360:  Today’s digitally driven B2B wants an omnichannel purchasing experience. What does this appear to be for State Electric?

Ramsby: Delivering an omnichannel purchasing experience means seamlessly integrating our ERP system with our online platform. This ensures that every customer’s account-specific information travels with them, no matter how or where they decide to shop. Our website mirrors the info inside our ERP, providing real-time inventory and pricing. Customers can access almost any information they may need from a human in a self-service capability online. This includes purchasing, checking availability, requesting quotes, making payments, reviewing past orders and invoices, and accessing spec sheets, amongst other functionalities.

As well as, our customers enjoy flexibility in delivery options. They will select from various methods, including picking up their orders in-store or choosing delivery to multiple ship-to locations.

We also offer our Advanced Customer Service Team (ACT) online. Customers can reach out to them via phone call, email, or live chat for assistance. Whatever the channel through which customers place their orders, our objective stays consistent: to offer them with a seamless and high-level experience throughout their purchasing journey.

An evolving B2B marketplace strategy

DC360:  Are you able to provide an update on the progress of State Electric’s B2B marketplace strategy?

Ramsby: This continues to be a growing area of opportunity for us. We’re even starting to witness a shift as some larger contractors require proof of digital capabilities to bid on larger projects. So, the concept of universities and municipalities and bigger industrial facilities being the principal players is potentially shifting barely. So, this really begins to broaden the dimensions of those opportunities.

With the rising adoption of punch-out functionalities, our focus goes to be the speed of launch. Gone are the times of it taking months to get a customer online, speed is all the pieces. Currently we’re in negotiations with providers to find out who we’re going to utilize on our latest platform to maneuver over our existing B2B punch out customers and who set us up for the very best probability of success with latest opportunities.

Views on AI

DC360:  How is State Electric using artificial intelligence for e-commerce vs. for marketing or some other functions?

Ramsby: We’re deploying it across various functions inside the company. By way of sales and e-commerce, AI helps optimize inventory management by analyzing inventory volumes and ensuring that the suitable products can be found at the suitable locations. Moreover, we leverage AI inside our pricing structure, utilizing different data points to help with cost evaluation. It also aids us in providing personalized recommendations and bundling ceaselessly bought together products, enhancing the shopping experience for our customers.

On the marketing front, we’re primarily utilizing it for site content to enhance search engine optimisation. It also contributes to our communication efforts through channels equivalent to email campaigns, blogs, and other mediums. While we’re already seeing advantages from AI in these areas, there remains to be quite a lot of room for growth and refinement. It excels when working with factual data points a bit greater than subjective perspectives, and I’m desperate to witness its continued evolution and impact on our operations.

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