Wasserstrom takes commercial kitchen (products) to consumer market

Market expansion to B2B sellers can be challenging as the buyer community tends to be small and finite (as opposed to B2C selling where theoretically the entire world could be your market). Typically sellers expand their market by adding adjacent product offerings (e.g. after-sales maintenance, accessories) or by serving new geographies. But if your industry serves consumer-oriented goods (especially Automotive, CPG, and Industrial Supplies) then one of the best ways to expand your market is to serve the consumer market in addition to serving other businesses. Though this seems obvious many B2B sellers that carry consumer-oriented products have little or no focus on the consumer market. But Wasserstrom, a 108 year old foodservice supplier, is not one among them!

Wasserstrom expands into consumer market

Early this week, I spoke with Brad Wasserstrom, President of The Wasserstrom Company and Dale Edman Assistant VP of e-commerce to understand their online strategy (Thanks to both!). Wasserstrom serves over 10 different commercial markets including local and chain restaurants, public facilities and stores. They sell every thing from dinner plates to dishwashers and the wide range of product assortment is a key strength. With the launch of their new e-commerce site built on IBM WebSphere Commerce they are able to serve both B2B and B2C segments from a single platform and open up over 160,000 products to the consumer market. Now I know where to buy (http://www.wasserstrom.com) the high-quality tableware and glassware that we find in our favorite restaurants.

What makes Wasserstrom.com successful?

When I asked what made their online business successful, Brad Wasserstrom mentioned, “Delivering distinct personalized experience to our national account customers and public customers from a single site is a key factor and the other is the depth and breadth of product offerings”. “To improve our brand awareness among the public we do online and search marketing and once we get the shopper to our site we provide resources and tools that will make them comfortable to buy from us”. Dale Edman added, “We do several things on the site including recommendations, cross/up-sell of accessories and related product patterns, ratings and reviews to help increase our wallet share”.

What does it mean for B2B sellers?

I suggest B2B sellers to take a closer look at the product offerings and its application/usage patterns to identify specific product categories that is of interest to the consumer market. If you do find then it could be a great opportunity to expand your market and I’ll be interested in hearing about it!

Note: The above posting is my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s or Wasserstrom’s positions, strategies or opinions

Mazda wins CIO award for e-commerce site

Congratulations to Mazda NA Operations on winning the prestigious 2009 CIO 100 award for transforming business through innovation! Now, Car dealerships can deploy customized websites in 15 minutes!

Channel conflict is usually an issue for manufacturers as intermediaries like distributors, and resellers shield manufacturers from directly reaching end consumers. In automotive industry the dealers essentially represent the manufacturer brand and consumers typically experience the brand through dealers. While this model works well for initial purchase the consumer’s brand loyalty towards the manufacturer diminishes over time. For instance, how many of us insist on using OEM replacement parts on a 5-year old car? This means lost after-sales business for the manufacturer.

Mazda took an innovative approach to solve channel conflict by transforming their business model by providing individual dealers with a co-branded e-commerce site that sells OEM accessories to consumers. The solution allows Mazda to “touch” the end consumer directly while enabling dealers to leverage Mazda accessories catalog and IT infrastructure. It’s a win-win situation!

This B2B2C solution is built using IBM WebSphere Commerce platform that allows Mazda to host 100′s of individual sites for the dealers. The dealers use rich user interface to personalize their site by uploading their own logo and displaying advertisement banners. No site design or programming required on the dealer side. See this case study for further details.

Per CIO.com, “Mazda projects the tool will lead to a 35 percent increase in accessory sales.” This is a perfect example of B2B 2.0 concept where the manufacturer is able to increase top-line revenue with a new sales channel and build brand loyalty with the consumer –- all without upsetting the distribution channel.

So, how do you handle channel conflict in your business?

Note: The above posting is my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s or Mazda’s positions, strategies or opinions.

Introducing Next-generation B2B e-Commerce

B2B e-Commerce Evolution
Over the last decade, Business-to-Business (B2B) e-commerce has evolved dramatically from basic communication and transactions to the involvement of communities as part of the buying experience.


This increased focus on the customer is driven by key trends including Business-to-Consumer (B2C)-B2B convergence and product-centered to buyer-centric transformation. The B2C-B2B convergence is driven by both B2B sellers and B2B buyers. Sellers want to provide online retail-like experience by offering product recommendations/and promotions to increase sales and B2B buyers expect the same rich and personalized experience that B2C sites offer.

Next-generation B2B e-commerce helps companies to respond to these demands by delivering a streamlined, buyer-centric and engaging online experience that enable buyers to efficiently interact and transact with the brand and allow sellers to reduce administrative costs, increase sales, and improve brand loyalty.

This blog will discuss next-generation B2B e-commerce strategies, innovations, best practices, and success stories that will help B2B companies to successfully leverage the web/online channel for marketing, selling, and build branding.

Next-generation B2B e-Commerce (B2B 2.0)
This first entry will discuss the “next-generation” B2B e-commerce (B2B 2.0) framework which consists of three elements – Operational management, Buyer-centric marketing, and Rich customer experience.

1. The primary goal of operational management is to deliver “zero-touch perfect order in the least amount of time”. In other words operational automation is about reducing costs or improving bottom-line.
2. On the other hand, buyer-centric marketing is about top-line growth which is driven by deep understanding of customer needs, segments, and behavior to deliver targeted and contextual marketing messages to influence the decision makers.
3. Finally, rich customer experience helps to drive loyalty by “becoming easy to do business with,” which includes delivering a rich buying experience, providing easy access to information to aid in purchasing decisions, and online communities post-purchase support.

What is your view?
See this link for one viewpoint on Next Generation B2B E-Commerce and I am keen to hear your comments and what you envision as “next generation” e-commerce for your industry or organization.

Note: The postings on this site are my own and don’t necessarily represent IBM’s positions, strategies or opinions.