With a new name and an expanding product line, wholesaler and retailer Supply.com has high hopes for growing its sales to a broader base of customers, says Matt Hobbs, director of user experience.
The company—until last month known as National Builder Supply—decided to switch to the snappier as well as more general Supply.com moniker in an effort to appeal to customers beyond its traditional base of building contractors. “‘Builder was in the old name, but a lot of our customers don’t identify as builders,” Hobbs says. “They identify as general plumbers, contractors and electricians. The new name is more authoritative, lets us speak to all these folks and opens up the opportunity to help the people we want to help.”
The new name will also help the company stand out in a market dominated by several major brands, he adds. “We’ve found ourselves in a competitive pool that includes brands like Home Depot, Amazon and Build.com,” Hobbs says. “We really had to step up our brand as a way to continue to grow. Our primary goal is to act as a solution that takes care of contractors, builders, designers, plumbers and helps them run their business better.”
Supply.com CEO Marcus Morgan figures there is plenty of potential for growth, particularly in its core market of plumbing and heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, or HVAC, supplies. “By our calculations, we’ve only touched 1% of the market,” he says in a blog posted on Supply.com, adding: “There are still 1 million contractors, designers, and remodelers who don’t know we exist. “
Founded in 2004, the Atlanta-based Supply.com has since grown to include thousands of Pro customers, Supply.com’s term for contractors, designers, plumbers and other business customers, Morgan says. The company’s revenue has quadrupled in the last five years to a projected $72 million in 2015, and business customers account for about 75% of sales, or $54 million this year, Morgan says. The company sells through a team of sales reps as well as through its e-commerce site, but it declines to break out what percentage of sales it processes through the shopping cart on Supply.com. The website receives more than 160,000 monthly unique visitors.
But company executives say they’re taking several steps to build on rapidly growing online sales to business customers, who comprise the majority of Supply.com’s client base. These steps include expanding its personalized service and fulfillment offerings, including an expanded staff of live chat operators.
Personalized service helps Supply.com differentiate itself from such home décor and improvement powerhouses as Wayfair.com, Build.com and Home Depot Inc., Morgan says. In 2015, Supply.com added 53 employees, including live chat operators, he says.
In addition, the company ships products from its 100,000-square-foot warehouse in Atlanta the same day an order is placed. This initiative has also played a large part in the merchant’s recent growth, he adds.
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