SMARTELECTRICAL OFFERS WESCO PRODUCTS ONLINE
SEATTLE — SmartElectrical, a SmartContractor community and provider of Web-based services for electrical contractors, announced that it has launched and fully integrated WESCO Distribution into the Smart Electrical Materials Purchasing Marketplace.
SmartElectrical has integrated with WESCO's back-end infrastructure, allowing electrical contractors to check real-time pricing and availability and order WESCO products over the Internet.
“This recent integration of WESCO and SmartElectrical delivers greater purchasing power and a streamlined process for electrical contractors across the country,” said Carl Albrecht, SmartContractor CEO.
SmartElectrical has expanded its marketplace by integrating its procurement engine with WESCO's business system and supply catalog, allowing its customers access to more than 300 distributor branch locations throughout the United States.
HUGHES SUPPLY DISCONTINUES BESTROUTE.COM
BestRoute.com, a DeWitt, N.Y. online distributor of hard-to-find inventory products, closed its doors March 9. Its parent company, Hughes Supply, Orlando, Fla., decided to discontinue BestRoute.com's operations because of lower-than-expected usage by users who prefer to stick with traditional purchasing methods.
“Our involvement with BestRoute.com started two years ago when we thought that the Internet might disintermediate traditional wholesale distribution,” said David Hughes, chairman and chief executive officer of Hughes Supply, a wholesale distributor of construction and industrial materials. “We looked at the BestRoute.com investment as being a proactive and prudent defensive part of our overall e-commerce strategy. Our customers have found the content to be of value, but they are not using the Web site to order or buy material at the adoption rate we had hoped.”