I own a small distribution company in Southern California. We are thinking about adding an E-Commerce site simply because so many of our competitors have. I am struggling with how to really leverage this or find any unique benefit this can produce for us. So many customers are online cherry picking the products they want, which is also undermining our role as wholesale distributors. Any insight here?  - Benny Horwitz, BST Distribution Inc.

You pose a good question here for anyone involved in the industry. Adding E-Commerce alone is not going to make you competitive; it's what you do with it. The most successful SMB distributors that we have seen are taking this to the next level and really letting customers self-serve. Customers need to be able to go to your site to get information, place an order and get answers to their own questions. My advice would be to really think of your E-Commerce site as an effective lead generation tool and information resource to respond to customers and educate sales reps. With today's economy, doing anything you can to build deeper relationships with your customers is where your focus should be. This is where tying in your business software with E-Commerce becomes key as well. By connecting your front-end Web store with your back-end accounting, customer management system and inventory system, your customers will receive their purchases on time and as ordered. You'll also be able to handle different payment methods and automatically offer special pricing and discounts to different customer groups. Using E-Commerce with this mindset will be what really sets you apart from your competitors.

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