Fromm Electric launched a Unilog eCommerce platform through AD's eCommerce Solutions program, adding 400,000 enriched SKUs and growing online sales 600% within two years.
Fromm Electric, a family-owned electrical distributor in Reading, Pennsylvania, moved from a non-transactional website to a full eCommerce offering by combining Unilog’s cloud-based platform with AD’s eCommerce Solutions program and PIM. Adding 400,000 enriched SKUs at launch, Fromm created a new sales channel that drove a 600% jump in sales within two years and a 64% increase the following year.
600%jump in sales two years after launch
64%increase in sales the following year
550,000SKUs sold online
A Website That Couldn’t Sell
Fromm Electric, a Reading, Pennsylvania distributor of electrical supplies and services, offered customers a non-transactional website with only basic features like online bill pay and no eCommerce-ready product content. “We did not have the ability to sell products online or move inventory from our warehouse online,” said Michael Evanko, Vice President of Marketing & Communications at Fromm. “To meet customer expectations, we knew we needed to provide a full eCommerce offering.”
A Co-op Catalog, A Cloud Platform
Fromm’s long-standing relationship with Affiliated Distributors (AD)—which it joined as a founding member in 1981—gave it the ability to step into eCommerce. AD’s eCommerce Solutions program provides members affordable taxonomy, product content, eCommerce tools, and a partnership with Unilog.
In partnership with Unilog, Fromm implemented the Unilog cloud-based eCommerce platform in 2020, with a full feature set, intuitive tools, and deep connectivity for real-time communication across systems. Through the program, Fromm added 400,000 enriched product SKUs from AD’s eContent catalog, managed with AD’s PIM. “If we didn’t have the AD relationship, our ability to step into the eCommerce space would have been much more costly and would have taken much longer,” said Evanko.
600%, Then 64% More
Fromm’s first foray into online product sales delivered more site traffic, increased sales, operational efficiencies, and a lower cost to serve. Two years after launching, Fromm realized a 600% jump in sales, followed by a 64% increase the next year—growth Evanko credits partly to COVID but largely to the SEO value of their online content.
The distributor now sells 550,000 SKUs online, including many non-stock items shipped directly to customers, and its SEO-rich catalog is attracting search engines and a wider audience. Internally, sales staff use the site to look up part numbers, match products to customer descriptions, and check stock versus non-stock status—work that previously required a cumbersome ERP lookup. Fromm continues to leverage analytics to optimize the user experience and conversion rates.
600%jump in sales two years after launch
64%increase in sales the following year
550,000SKUs sold online
All these tools are critical because, prior to having the website, we would have to go into our ERP to try to find that information, which was much more cumbersome. So, internally, it has absolutely had an impact on our efficiency and made information more readily available for our team.
Michael EvankoVice President of Marketing & Communications, Fromm Electric
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