Electronics distributor Tech Data Corp. recently consolidated its two e-commerce sites into one, shop.TechData.com. Since launching the site August, Tech Data’s online conversion rate of visitors to buyers has jumped from 4% to more than 13%, says David Spindler, director of e-commerce.
He credits increased sales to a site that puts greater focus on merchandising and personalization for client companies of all sizes. The new site replaces the sites Tech Data had operated at TechData.com and one specifically for small and mid-sized companies, SMB.TechData.com.
Any visitor to the new shop.TechData.com can browse among the company’s more than 1 million products, ranging from Internet routers and network servers for Internet-based data storage to digital cameras and handheld mobile devices for accessing corporate data. Visitors can also view each product’s concise descriptions along with the manufacturer’s suggested retail price.
When customers log into the site, however, they can view more details based on any contract terms their company has arranged with Tech Data.
Once logged in, buyers can view individual, special pricing agreements their company may be eligible for with specific vendors. Wholesale pricing is available and visible for all business buyers who log in through an account number. “A large majority of customers weren’t aware they had a special prices before, and didn’t understand the benefits and drastic discount available to boost their margin,” Spindler says.
The new shop.TechData.com also refined its product search function based on data gathered on how customers navigate the site. The new feature leads customers to the right location faster, Spindler says. “We also introduced a non-intrusive, self-service live chat function for customers,” he says. “If customers have a particular question about product information or solution or a particular order they can instantly interact with a Tech Data employee who can understand their needs and point them in the right direction.”
Once customers land on the right page, they can check out with a single click, Spindler says. Before they complete a purchase, Tech Data offers individualized recommendations for complementary products or promotions. After customers place an order—whether through desktop, smartphone or tablet—they can track the sale through the new “Track My Order” option. Tech Data’s in-house developers built shop.TechData.com with responsive design, which enables an e-commerce site to automatically adapt to the size of a shopper’s smartphone or tablet screen.
The combination of these features has led to a $100 million increase in online sales from June to August when developers first deployed live chat, refined search, order tracking and vendor discounts at shop.TechData.com, Spindler says.
For its most recent fiscal second quarter ended July 31, 2015, Tech Data reported $6.6 billion in total sales, with 73%, or $4.81 billion, transacted electronically, both through electronic data interchange and web transactions. The company declines to comment on what portion of that was booked directly through the web. But in its fiscal 2015 fourth quarter, which ended Jan. 31, 2015, it noted that e-commerce accounted for about 20% of the company’s revenue.
Developers spent a year building the new site with Microsoft Corp.’s .Net technology, using the web markup language HTML5 for web page formats and Cascading Style Sheets for attributes like web page colors and fonts. The new site also uses business operations software from SAP SE for such things as order management and inventory management. Within 60 days of the site’s launch, 97% of the company’s customers migrated over to shop.TechData.com, Spindler says.
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