In the Viewpoint column of PBM’s June issue, editor Paul Davies reflected on the importance of building relationships with suppliers and customers alike.
The BMF-hosted All Industry Conference — arguably the showpiece event on the merchant calendar — is but a few short weeks away, and the resurgence of in-person events remains one of the great post-pandemic joys. Of course, we’ve been back in the swing of such things for some time now, but with Zoom & Teams meetings still commonplace and increased digitisation generally — from online marketing support to the delivery of staff training — continuing to effect trade counter footfall and supplier engagement to some degree, I don’t think we’ll ever quite return to ‘business as usual’ as it was in 2019…
But for all the efficiencies that can be gained by leaning into technological solutions, I’m heartened by the myriad ways in which the merchant sector has refused to throw the baby out with the bathwater. And when it comes to face-to-face contact, across all strata of the industry, the value of fostering relationships with real humans continues to be seen as essential for good business.
From dealing with customers to engaging with suppliers, it is just impossible to replicate the camaraderie or create the all-important levels of trust and understanding without that personal touch.
Looking ahead to the BMF’s Istanbul event, we can first reflect on the success of the recent NMBS Exhibition in Coventry which delivered a record-breaking number of attendees, all keen to network with peers and see through their own eyes the latest new product developments and supplier service initiatives.
“For all the efficiencies that can be gained by leaning into technological solutions, I’m heartened by the myriad ways in which the merchant sector has refused to throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
Indeed, the merchant industry continues to be blessed with a great many events, conferences and forums of all descriptions and across all levels of the sector. Later in this issue, for instance, we highlight the BMF Young Merchant Conference taking place in October which is set to offer a fantastic platform for the next generation of high-flyers to build their contacts and partake in peer-to-peer discussions about the industry’s most pressing issues.
In a different way, the point is also made by the many stories we receive showing merchants investing in new facilities such as showrooms and improved in-store merchandising to make branches a real ‘destination experience’ for customers. Similarly, we are seeing an uptick in the number of suppliers looking to participate in trade mornings, demo days and in-branch training sessions at merchant depots up and down the country.
Here, we note a recent report commissioned by NBG which investigated the changing role of digital in the sector, and how things have evolved following the upheaval of Covid. We’ll delve into this further in our next issue (or you can read the story online now), but the key findings of the research emphasised the importance of “finding the right balance between fulfilling in-person trade sales and providing support via digital channels.”
In terms of transactions, whilst tradespeople are buying more online now than pre-pandemic, the survey revealed that 92% of actual trade sales continue to be made over the counter “marking the builders merchants’ sector as uniquely low-digital.” And as emphasised in the preceding paragraph, the trade is increasingly gathering information via online sources — so servicing this need is essential — but the value of in-person interaction is once again clearly highlighted.
As the wider digital debate rages, with the dystopian rise of AI the latest step on an ever-developing path, we should embrace the fact that some good, old-fashioned values remain so vital. Doing so is not resisting inevitable change, but simply reflecting upon the fact that our industry is a special one, with personal relationships at its core.
