Kevin Yapp, chief innovation officer at Premier Farnell, talks to Electronics Weekly about how social media is changing the way distributors communicate, how the Internet is changing the distribution business, and possible new online services...
1. How would you characterise the importance of the Internet to your distribution business?
It is a critical enabler for our business. It is not only our "shop window" but it gives customers the immediate access they need to data, information and products. It allows us to offer a differentiated and immediate service to our customers and to add new technologies and services to customers that would never have been possible in the past.
The Internet is increasingly becoming our customers' channel of choice to interact with us, and we expect this to continue as new generations of designers emerge and more flexible working practices and hours become the norm.
Mobile access to the Internet and the growing range of smartphone applications continue to drive traffic to our sites and there is no doubt this is the future for all businesses. For example, our collaborative community site, element14, is attracting growing numbers of visitors - many thousands every week - as engineers look to share problems, search for solutions and seek peer opinions. The power of social and digital media is changing the face of how we work, advertise and communicate.
2. How is the Internet changing the distribution business?
It is enabling services that were never previously possible. In the past,
getting the right goods to the right customers on time was enough - now those service levels would simply be regarded as the entry-level requirement for any distributor.
Customers are looking for the value add and want us to provide so much more - information, data, solutions and to facilitate discussion. They also want us to help them manage the burden and volume of information coming at them on new products and environmental legislation.
Brands and reputations are now in the hands of the customer. Advertising and PR can say what it likes about a company but the Internet has given customers a voice to share opinion and experience, so delivering best-in-class service with every transaction is now the key.
3. What proportion of your business is online and is it still growing?
It is growing rapidly. Farnell Europe takes more than 55% of its business through e-channels and this is climbing. In some parts of Europe this figure is much higher, at 70%.
As Internet coverage grows in Asia, and with the Asian Internet user population set to explode, this is a trend we expect to continue apace.
4. Can you envisage a time when the print catalogue is completely superseded by online activities?
We are focused on a multi-channel approach to our customers, and while the web continues to grow as the preferred choice and offers customers functionality and information a catalogue never could, the catalogue still has a place in our business.
Our customers tell us they still want it and many like to use a combination of catalogue and web.
We are evolving our catalogue to ensure it works in a complementary fashion with the web and offers customers the information they need, in a way they like to receive it. We can envisage a time when the catalogue will no longer be a core part of our channels, but we will be guided by customer need and remain ready to evolve and respond.
Growing search parameters, such as semantic search, will eventually mean that everything will be available online, and this will drive changes in customer need and behaviour.
5. Are there any new services which the Internet is making possible for the first time for distributors like you?
Examples include our element14 community site, a growing range of e-procurement tools and 24/7 online technical support. There is also the opportunity for engineers to access the product database without leaving their CAD design environment and now, following our recent acquisition of CadSoft, the ability to download CAD software directly from us.
Greater ease of order tracking, access to environmental legislation and refined search are all improving customer experience, as are the instant translation tools that allow, for example, an engineer in China to converse with one in France in their own languages using the online translation tools built into our software.
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