In distribution, two things are given:
1. Every supplier you represent has the best product or service in the categories they represent - just ask them.
2. Those same suppliers want to be included in every possible opportunity for those products and/or services they represent.
The challenge: many distributors represent many suppliers that sell into the same category of products that have the same fit/form/function. How can you, as a distributor, promote a supplier/brand based on the interest/need of the end user yet still optimize the opportunity for you?
Think that through for a minute and apply that to your everyday life. If you are looking for a particular product in your non-work life, what is the first thing you do? My guess is that you open a browser and type what you are looking for into the search bar. The magic of these search engines then presents you with a list of results that match what it is you are looking for, right?
Fun fact, and something we already knew, from a supplier's standpoint, the higher you rank on those search engine results pages (acronym alert: Search Engine Results Page = SERP), the more likely someone will click through to that supplier's site. I think I read somewhere that, in terms of organic clickthrough rates, people are trusting the higher-ranking pages/the pages at the top >39% more than last year (First Page Sage, 2023).
The big takeaway here is that the higher the rank/placement on search results (SERPs), the more visitors will come to that site, resulting in more sales.
Now, take that same concept and apply it to your company's B2B site. What we know up to this point is that we could have multiple suppliers vying for the sale of a given product or service and we have interested consumers looking for those products or services. Do you think it would be of value to a supplier, much like in the search engine example above, to place as high as possible on the search results when someone is looking for something ON YOUR SITE?
Wait, what?!! You heard me right, think about a concept where a supplier (or brand) would “sponsor” keywords or search terms on your site where THEIR products would place higher on the results page when someone enters that search term on your site.
Case in point: As some may know, I spent many years working for one of the largest bearings and power transmission distributors in North America. In launching our Commerce site, I found that people in different parts of the country can call the same part different things. A vendor and many customers may call a mounted bearing just that, a mounted bearing. However, as I quickly discovered, that same mounted bearing can be referred to as a “pillow block” or a “plummer block”.
Now let’s get a little crazy here—what if one of those suppliers of those mounted bearings/pillow blocks, would be willing to sponsor the term “pillow block” and/or “mounted bearing” and/or “plummer block” so that when someone entered one of those search terms, said supplier/brand placed highest in the results that you present to the user who entered the search term. From a tracking standpoint, after a given time, you can run the metrics to see how often that search term was entered and their products placed higher.
One other use case that comes to mind is centered around rebates. Certain MFG/Suppliers will and can be creative on rebate programs in a myriad of ways. If you happen to have something like that, driving more business to those suppliers will make those transactions more profitable, no different than what an inside sales/CSR does today.
In the end, this is about driving more business to a specific brand/supplier for the benefit of your organization—we’re just using tech to facilitate that experience and outcome.
Kodaris recently launched an enhancement that accomplishes just this, ranking keywords, brands, and other criteria you might want to specify. With the Kodaris embedded AWS QuickSight business intelligence, what if you could get real time tracking on these? What if your suppliers could get real time tracking in a supplier portal? What if you could monetize this feature as part of your Commerce strategy? Interested? Let’s chat and see what this could look like for your company. It might be worthwhile to learn about innovative strategies, like this, around monetizing without actual product purchases.
