Orgill Fall 2021 OBE Highlights
ByJONES
Last Friday, Orgill drew a close to its 2021 Fall Online Buying Event, where Orgill’s retail customers were able to connect with hundreds of the industries’ leading vendors, take advantage of promotional buying opportunities and learn about the distributor’s complete program and service offering.
By all measures, the Fall Online Buying Event, held Aug. 16-27, was a success. And, in an era marked by uncertainty, Orgill president and CEO Boyden Moore says that these events are producing consistent results across the board.
“We wrapped up our third Online Buying Event this week and I think we have established a cadence for our customers and our vendors where they know what to expect and understand how to get the most out of this environment,” Moore says. “If you look at the sales figures from each of these events, they all nearly mirror each other. That tells us that our customers are engaging with vendors and that they are able to utilize the events to effectively buy for their businesses.”
Orgill held its first Online Buying Event in August of 2020 and a second Online Buying Event in February of this year. According to Jeff Curler, Orgill’s senior vice president of purchasing, not only has customer participation and buying at these events been steady, but Orgill has also consistently filled orders processed during the event, despite challenges throughout the supply chain.
“We all know there have been supply chain challenges within the industry, but when it comes to our Online Buying Events, our merchandising team has worked very closely with vendors to ensure that customers are receiving the products they order,” Curler says. “We know that one of the big attractions to our buying events, whether online or in-person, is the great promotional buys we offer. But we also know that these buying opportunities don’t mean much if retailers can’t get the products.”
In fact, following Orgill’s most recent Online Buying Event held last Spring, Curler reported that 97% of all warehouse orders were fulfilled and 94% of all Doorbuster promotional product orders were fulfilled.
“Based on the participation in these events and the ability to follow through on the orders, we think our customers have a much better idea of what to expect,” says Greg Stine, Orgill’s executive vice president of marketing and communications. “The first Online Buying Event was a big unknown for everyone. We have been able to learn from each one of these events and continue to make enhancements that help our dealers take advantage of the deals available to them.”
Read entire press release here.
