It’s all too easy to look at BuildDirect, a fast-growing business that sells building supplies online, and see just another Internet store. But according to our experts panel, BuildDirect is really a logistics company shaking up a major market.
The company, which shipped 25,000 loads to 60 countries in 2009, has developed a software system that manages the complex process of getting the right goods onto the right container ship and then to the right address. This has allowed them to cut importers, exporters and distributors out of the supply chain and give customers access to quality flooring, tile and other building material from small-scale manufacturers at a big price advantage. In fact, the system works so well that some manufacturers that don’t even sell their product on the BuildDirect website are now using the company to handle their logistics, firing their traditional distributors.
The BuildDirect system also allows customers to influence the supply chain. All customers are invited to review the products they’ve purchased, and every reply is posted on the website, good or bad. Poorly performing manufacturers are gradually weeded out as their products collect bad reviews, helping BuildDirect save on its quality-control efforts.
