Global Industrial started as a small material handling company when it was birthed in 1949 and has transformed into a B2B industry-leading distributor with over 1.7 million products in 21 industrial and commercial categories.

But just as Global Industrial differentiated itself in its first 70+ years of business, the company wanted to differentiate itself in the thought leadership realm as well. It wanted to create a  platform to generate and distribute educational content to customers that could empower them with the resources they needed to be successful with Global Industrial products and to better understand the marketplace at large.

Global Industrial’s challenge? A product-focused and product-led website experience as well as a homegrown website platform that offered little flexibility for expanding content storytelling. Stack that on top of an increasingly competitive digital commerce marketplace and all of these factors left little room for differentiation in an already crowded space.

STAUFF openly admitted that it had quite a few business challenges to overcome while attempting to rev up its digital transformation initiative. The company was aware that new technology was needed, but they didn’t have an in-house development team, and in turn, had no idea where to begin the nuanced and complex transformation process. As its customers continued to expect manufacturing partners — like STAUFF — to be easy to do business with and personalize buying experiences, the B2B brand could no longer put their expectations on hold.

These customer expectations were as vast as they were varied. For instance, its maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) customers wanted real-time order status information (e.g., tracking) and instant checkout without any barriers, while the distributors STAUFF worked closely with were seeking quick-order functionality for large quantity orders and seamless access to partner assets.

Finally, its original equipment manufacturers (OEM) customers now preferred cohesive technical consulting interfaces with rapid prototyping services. The various customer necessities combined with the company’s pain points quickly accelerated STAUFF’s need to digitally innovate efficiently and effectively.

HellermannTyton was in search of a new Content Management System (CMS), as its former system did not have the capabilities to support such an ambitious digital communication strategy. It was looking for a solution that could help support its efforts to personalize content for its loyal customers.

Sonepar is the market leader in its industry and set an ambitious goal to provide a fully digitized omnichannel experience across all operating companies. With digital transformation and customer experience a strong focus, Sonepar wanted to shift the way customers buy, increase its digital market share, and gain economies of scale.

With around ⅓ of total revenues coming from online sales, Sonepar was looking to replace multiple search solutions with one that would improve the customer experience and enable it to deliver on its growth goals.