Orderzone.com

OrderZone.com, online from 1999 to 2001 then re-launched in 2011, is an online business-to-business website for business products and services, allowing companies to purchase from multiple suppliers and processing transactions on the site. At one time, it was ranked as the #3 B2B website by Advertising Age’s Business Marketing.[1][2]

History

OrderZone.com was originally launched in 1999 by the maintenance, repair, and operations (MRO) company W. W. Grainger (NYSE:GWW), with participating supplier companies at this time being Grainger Industrial Supply, Cintas Corporation, Corporate Express, Inc., Lab Safety Supply, Marshall Industries, VWR International, Fastenal Company, and Motion Industries.[3] Each supplier covered a different product area, and by 2000 the site had more than 420,000 products in its database and was ranked as the #3 B2B website by Advertising Age’s Business Marketing.[4] W. W. Grainger's initial budget for the site was US$10 million.[5]

W. W. Grainger’s e-commerce strategy at this time aimed to create a digital business group that expanded their catalog (reaching more than 4,000 pages in length[6]) and allow buyers and sellers to buy and sell over the internet. Orderzone also allowed more prices to be listed, something that was not always possible in the print catalog.[7] At this time W. W. Grainger also released FindMRO.com, which specialized in sourcing hard to find products.[8][9] There were also a number of other sites at this time trying to create online marketplaces for the MRO industry, including EqualFooting.com, iProcure, MarketSite, MRO.com, OnlineMRO.com, ProcureNet, PurchasingCenter.com and TPN Register.[10]

OrderZone.com did not generate as many paying customers as W. W. Grainger originally estimated,[11] and in 2000 the company was merged with Works.com, an office and technology products e-commerce business based in Austin, Texas, as part of a deal where 40% of Works.com was sold to W. W. Grainger for US$21 million.[12] OrderZone.com was then closed in 2001.[13]

OrderZone.com is now owned by a group of private investors, and was re-launched in 2011,[14] now operating out of Chicago, Illinois.[15] Key suppliers at this time were Fuji Electric, Airmaster Fan, IKO Bearings, IdealShield and Graymills.[16]

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References
  1. "Two Grainger(R) Web Sites Ranked in Top 200 B2B Sites: OrderZone.com(SM) Ranks No. 3 Grainger.com(R) Ranks in Top 50". PR Newswire. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  2. "About OrderZone". OrderZone.com. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  3. Magill, Ken (April 22, 1999). "Grainger, 5 Partners Set to Market Mega BTB Site". Direct Marketing News. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  4. Segal, Bob (January–February 2000). "Online Marketplaces: OLMs signal changes for MRO distributors". Progressive Distributor.
  5. Magill, Ken (April 22, 1999). "Grainger, 5 Partners Set to Market Mega BTB Site". Direct Marketing News. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  6. Feder, Barnaby J. (September 22, 1999). "For This Supplier, the Sum of Its Parts Adds Up to Success". The New York Times. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  7. Gardner, Elizabeth (February 2000). "A Supermiddleman" (PDF). The Pricing Advisor Newsletter: 7–8. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  8. Segal, Bob (January–February 2000). "Online Marketplaces: OLMs signal changes for MRO distributors". Progressive Distributor.
  9. "Two Grainger(R) Web Sites Ranked in Top 200 B2B Sites: OrderZone.com(SM) Ranks No. 3 Grainger.com(R) Ranks in Top 50". PR Newswire. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  10. Segal, Bob (January–February 2000). "Online Marketplaces: OLMs signal changes for MRO distributors". Progressive Distributor.
  11. "W.W. Grainger, Inc. - Strides into the New Millennium". International Directory of Company Histories. eNotes.com. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  12. Ferguson, Kevin (2000-06-14). "Works.com, Grainger Swap Customers, Products". Forbes. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  13. "About OrderZone". OrderZone.com. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  14. "OrderZone.com Prepares to Launch, Seeks Alliances". PRWeb. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  15. "OrderZone Contact Us page". OrderZone. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
  16. "Streamline the Procurement Process with ORDERZONE.COM". PRWeb. Retrieved 11 June 2011.
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