On June 5, W. W. Grainger officially launched its new
e-commerce offering, Gamut.com. The site had already
been publicly accessible for about a month following
a soft launch, but it wasn’t until early June that the
company started sharing specific details about it.
Separate from Grainger.com, Gamut is described by
the company as “a new e-commerce capability designed
to provide useful information to industrial professionals
seeking time-saving solutions for challenging projects.”
According to Grainger, Gamut.com uses a proprietary
information system that manages and organizes a
comprehensive list of product attributes, application-
specific imagery and rich, technical data. That system
enables the website to generate relevant, curated
search results that help customers quickly find and
purchase the right products to get the job done.
“We know search is very complicated in our
space given the number of products and product
characteristics,” said Gamut President Brian Walker in
Grainger’s June 5 press release. “We also know that
many customers are looking for solutions to unique
problems or need something immediately.”
Grainger said orders of at least $99 (pre-tax) on
Gamut.com ship free, with most items shipping the
same day and frequently arrive within 24 hours.
Gamut offers more than 400,000 products in 32
categories, with additional products from Grainger’s
stocked inventory to be added over time.
Grainger CEO D.G. Macpherson said that internally,
Gamut serves as a research and development website
and will part of Grainger’s digital portfolio that
includes Grainger.com and Zoro Tools in North America;
Cromwell Direct and Zoro Tools in Europe; and
MonotaRO in Japan.
The immediately noticeable difference from Grainger.
com is that Gamut doesn’t showcase brand names.
Some products don’t list the supplier at all, while others
only show once the user clicks into a specific item.
“I wouldn’t read too much into the concept that
we don’t have brands prominent on the website,”
Macpherson advised in a presentation on May 26. “This
is an R&D site. We’re going to keep this small for now,
purposefully. We’re going to learn from this and then
Grainger Launches New E-Commerce Offering, Gamut.com
NEWS
Deerfield, IL-based distributor Essendant announced
June 13 that its president and CEO Robert Aiken Jr. has
resigned and the company is searching for a permanent
replacement. Aiken, 54, has been appointed president
and CEO of TreeHouse Foods, a multinational food
processing company located in Oak Brook, IL — 26 miles
south of Essendant … Motion Industries has announced
the opening of
its newly-built
distribution
center in the
Dallas, TX
subsidiary of
Grand Prairie. Officially starting operation on March 5,
the 156,000-square-foot facility is almost 50,000-square
feet bigger than the company’s previous location there
… Distribution International, a distributor and
fabricator in the mechanical insulation market, on June
26 announced the appointment of Steven Margolius
as President and CEO, effective immediately. Margolius
previously served
in a handful of
executive roles
at HD Supply
… Aerospace supply chain management provider Wesco
Aircraft announced May 1 that is has appointed Todd
Renehan as its new CEO, and Alex Murry as its president
and CEO. David Castagnola, who was Wesco’s president,
CEO and board member, has retired from those positions
… Roofing distribution company SRS Distribution
announced June 12 that it has promoted Dan Tinker to
president and CEO, and John Bradberry to executive vice
president and COO. Previous company CEO Ron Ross
has been named an executive board chairman … MSC
Industrial Supply announced in late May that former
Lowe’s chief supply chain officer Stephen Szilagyi has
joined MSC as its senior vice president of supply chain
… Ace Hardware has announced a restructuring of its
east coast retail support network that will strengthen the
company’s overall distribution network in anticipation of
continued record growth. By the first quarter of 2018, Ace
