The following is a sampling of the verbatim comments from participants about the numbers of Web sites, how they select them, and what effect e-commerce will have on the role of distributors. “The more sites that can be used for your products the better. We should use whatever sites are available to us,” noted a marketing person with a machinery builder. “Short-term, we’ll use all available free sites, plus our own Web sites,” said an owner of a machinery manufacturing company. A marketing person for a materials manufacturer put site selection into perspective: “I believe we’ll be involved with a lot of sites, which will then be ‘naturally selected’ down to a few.”
Others more selective “I am skeptical of the proliferation of e-commerce in general,” reported a customer service worker for a closure manufacturer. “There is a place for e-commerce in closure marketing, but I don’t see a clear path.” An Ohio materials manufacturer’s manager was also skeptical. “I have not had good experiences with other Web sites, especially those that market their services as ‘bidding’ sites,” she reported. “We intend to stay with our own site, and potentially with links to industry or publications sites.” Many others took wait-and-see positions. “Initially, we’ll sell via our own Web site until the e-market develops more fully. Then we may add packaging-specific sites,” said an engineer for a materials manufacturer in the Northeast. Other respondents were more critical. “E-commerce is like marketing in the Yellow Pages,” reported a salesman for a materials distributor. “We believe in finding the ones that work and we’ll get out of the rest of them.” The representative for a distributor of both machines and materials was more caustic: “There are too many venues, and they are all acting like leeches. E-procurement seems to work for commodity items, but not for specialties where relationship selling remains the norm,” he stated. “We prefer to market via our own site,” said a salesman for a flexible packaging converter. “The alternatives present problems with politics, favoritism, and being lost in the crowd.” A participant from a distributor of machinery and materials was sarcastic. “Proliferation is a good thing because it confuses and complicates the use of the Internet,” he stated devilishly. “We’d rather see the personal sale than the Internet sale.” While many respondents preferred to handle e-commerce over their own sites, some are holding back. “We are entering e-commerce through a neutral packaging marketplace,” reported a respondent in management at a materials supplier. “The costs of building our own site are astronomical and we can’t envision a return on investment. However, we will not work with a site that is not neutral, like one owned by a company or association. We don’t believe those will last or work.” Another participant from a machinery and materials distributor saw a two-tier approach. “I personally would lean to company sites for procurement. We think customers will use industry sites as a reference to find those sources.” A manager for a systems integrator elaborated on that. “We will move to the sites that our current customers prefer,” he pointed out. “In the end, it’s a customer-driven event.”
