PPB November 2019

strategy of a traditional distributorship; providing an experience to the buyer in which they can touch, feel and see several ideas at once in a setting that’s most comfortable to them, whether it be at their office or in a storefront setting at the distributor’s [facility]. Many of the larger online distributors in our industry today have mastered both.” The business model of an online distributor is the same as any other distributor. They work with the same suppliers and decorators, provide the same products, are subject to the same changes in the marketplace and face the same obstacles such as artwork quality, shipping delays and short turnaround times. And contrary to the rumors of private equity-backed invaders coming to overwhelm the marketplace, most online distributors are also overwhelmingly created and staffed by people with years of experience in the promotional world, and who are invested in the industry—they’re the same people behind every other distributorship out there. “I don’t think there is anything that separates online distributors from traditional distributors,” says Bret Bonnet, president of Quality Logo Products in Aurora, Illinois. “There is nothing an online distributor can’t do that a traditional distributor can, and vice versa.” Where online distributors differ from the competition is not in what they do, but how . “The primary difference is the method of acquisition of new customers,” explains Dale Denham, MAS+, senior vice president and chief information officer of Lewiston, Maine-based Geiger, which owns the online distributor Crestline. “Online distributors acquire customers using SEO and paid advertising rather than the more traditional relationship-building method used by most distributors. It is critical for traditional distributors to recognize that the most significant difference is the method of acquisition.” That change in customer acquisition—from face-to- face interactions and word of mouth to a search-centric model—brings with it its own set of benefits. “An online distributorship has a lot of advantages including allowing customers to purchase anytime they want without having to talk to anyone, and leverages tech for speed and accuracy,” says Jason Loui, marketing director for Anypromo in Ontario, California. “Ecommerce is very self-service-oriented, which the modern buyer enjoys and prefers.” The ability to take an order 24/7, 365 days a year is a major strength behind the ecommerce business model, and one that is in sync with retail buying trends. And as Millennials and younger people move away from personal interactions to complete business, developing As customers have flocked to the internet, distributors havemoved tomeet them, combining traditional sales andmarketing knowledgewith cutting-edge ecommerce platforms to create a newmodel for themarket: the online distributor. FEATURE | Online Distributor 40 | NOVEMBER 2019 |