COLLIERVILLE, TENN. -- With record sales increases in the home improvement industry showing no signs of slowing and retailers focused on helping their communities and running their operations, Orgill is releasing more details about the continued evolution of its buying events and how they will help support their customers' growth.
Last year, in response to the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Orgill debuted its first-ever Online Buying Event indicating that this inaugural event represented an evolution in the way the company would host buying shows.
Today, with two highly successful Online Buying Events on the books, Orgill is expanding how online and live buying events will work in tandem to offer its customers a more comprehensive, accessible and intuitive experience.
"While the restrictions placed on us as a result of the pandemic forced the innovation of our Online Buying Event, the concept has proven to be relevant whether there is a pandemic or not," says Boyden Moore, Orgill President and CEO. "We need to offer our customers a variety of ways to interact with our team and our vendor partners. We also recognize that retailers are busy and more focused on their operations than ever. Integrating additional Online Buying Events that work together with live events is definitely our path forward."
The first change related to this new strategy is that Orgill will not be hosting an in-person Fall Dealer Market, which had been planned for Aug. 26-28 in Chicago. Instead, Orgill will host a multi-day Online Buying Event that will run Aug. 16-27.
The decision to forgo the in-person Fall Dealer Market was driven by a number of factors, including staff and customer safety, uncertainty about access to services and overall market conditions.
"We are encouraged with the positive trends we are seeing with vaccinations and the reduction in active COVID-19 cases, however there are still so many uncertainties when trying to plan an event the size of one of our in-person Dealer Markets," Moore says. "While we are anxious to welcome our customers to a Dealer Market as soon as possible, we've made the decision that it will be best to do so in February in Orlando. Included in our consideration is the fact that retailers are busier now than ever with sustained surges in demand and a continued challenging supply chain, pricing and hiring environment. Replacing the live Fall Dealer Market with an Online Buying Event also allows us to remain focused on supply chain recovery and helping our customers in their stores during these continued challenges."
In addition to the switch from an in-person to online event this fall, Orgill also announced that it will add additional Online Buying Events to its schedule moving forward.
"What started as a necessity has really grown into a more well-rounded strategy for us connecting our customers with the products, promotional pricing and seasonal specials they need," says Greg Stine, Orgill executive vice president of marketing and communications. "We believe that by adding additional Online Buying Events to our schedule, we can help our customers take better advantage of the seasonal buying opportunities available to them. By adding events, we won't be asking them to condense their purchases into two narrow windows in the fall and spring."
Along with the Fall Online Buying Event in August, Orgill has announced plans to host the following events.
  • A Winter 2021 Online Buying Event in late October
  • A Spring 2022 Online Buying Event that will coincide with the in-person Spring Dealer Market in Orlando in February 2022
  • A Summer 2022 Online Buying Event in late April 2022
Through the addition of these additional Online Buying Events, Orgill hopes to create a better rhythm for its interaction with customers, allowing them greater flexibility in planning and ordering the products they need.
"We have had great feedback from our customers about the effectiveness of the Online Buying Events," says Jeff Curler, Orgill's senior vice president of purchasing. "We have also heard good things from our vendors about the engagements they are having with retailers. By increasing the frequency of these events and using them to augment live shows, we think there will be significant benefits for our customers."
Marc Hamer, Orgill's executive vice president and chief information and technology officer, also says the company has learned a great deal from both vendor and customer feedback about the user experience of the Online Buying Events and will continue to update the technology used to create a more intuitive and seamless experience in the online environment.
"We learn more and more with each event we host," Hamer says. "We learn what our customers like and what they don't like, so every time we finish one of these Online Buying Events, we take that feedback and get to work making the next one better."
When it comes to the next in-person buying event, Orgill plans to pull out all the stops for its Spring Dealer Market in Orlando. Not only will the Feb. 24-26 event represent the company's return to in-person buying markets, it will also mark Orgill's 175th anniversary.
"Believe me, we are planning for the Spring Dealer Market to be a celebration in a lot of ways," Moore says. "Most importantly, we want it to be a big thank you to our customers and our vendors for getting through the past year but also for supporting Orgill and helping us achieve such a significant milestone in our corporate history."
For more information about Orgill's Online Buying Events or Spring Dealer Market, please visit www.orgill.com or www.orgill.ca.
About Orgill:
Orgill, the industry's fastest-growing hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 11,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world. More information can be found at www.orgill.com or www.orgill.ca.
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
COLLIERVILLE, TENN. -- Last week, Orgill Inc. successfully concluded its Spring Online Buying Event, where it saw strong participation and set sales records, while rolling out a series of enhancements that made the two-week virtual event more intuitive and user-friendly for both exhibitors and retailers.
"We are pleased with customers' response to our second Online Buying Event, which was highly attended and drove record sales. We learned a lot from our first event last Fall and our team and vendors incorporated some great improvements into this event designed to make ‘working the show' as easy and efficient as possible," says Boyden Moore, Orgill president and CEO.
Preliminary results for the show, which took place Feb. 8-19, indicate that more than 9,200 retailers attended the Spring Online Buying Event, and sales during the buying window topped those posted during the fall show and set another new record for Orgill Markets. In all, nearly 1,000 vendors participated in the event offering retailers special buys, unveiling new products and helping retailers prepare for the upcoming selling season.
"I think that the success of this event is a reflection of not only the strength of the industry right now, but also that retailers are more and more comfortable doing business in this new online environment," Moore says. "Last year, we made the announcement that we were shifting our approach to Dealer Markets and that online events would become an integral part of our plans for shows going forward, even when we can gather in person. The results of this event clearly suggest that this is the right path."
Although Orgill's first Online Buying Event last August was a resounding success in terms of sales and attendance, the distributor worked closely with both retailers and vendors to determine ways to incrementally improve the user experience, according to Greg Stine, Orgill's executive vice president of marketing and communications.
"After the first show, we knew we got a lot of things right, but we also wanted to learn from that first event and find ways that we could continue to evolve and be responsive to the needs of our customers and vendors," Stine says. "We think that evolution was apparent in some of the features in the Spring Online Buying Event that were a direct result of participant feedback."
Some of the enhancements made to the Spring Online Buying Event included features such as more streamlined communication options for attendees to interact with vendors, adding functionality that allowed retailers with multiple stores to process orders more easily and enhanced dropship purchase capabilities.
Another new feature added for attendees at the Spring Online Buying Event was the ability to run an EDGE Buying Report. The EDGE Report allows users to easily compare their purchase history alongside all the programs and specials available during the Online Buying Event to help them more easily take advantage of the special buying opportunities most relevant to their businesses.
"I definitely think they made some big improvements over the first online event," says Dan West, brand manager at Parkrose Hardware, which has five locations based in Oregon. "The ability for us to order for multiple stores was a lot easier this time, and that's a big deal for us. I also think the overall interaction with vendors was a lot easier because everyone was just more familiar with the way the system works."
Misty Stenger of Lumber Direct in Greencastle, Pennsylvania, also felt that it was easier for her and her team to accomplish what they needed at the Spring Online Buying Event.
"I am really pleased with what Orgill has done. I certainly miss going to the live shows, but there are also things you can do during the Online Buying Event that you couldn't at a regular show. There is a certain convenience to sitting in your office and being right next to your POS terminal, or being able to run down to your sales floor to look at things while you are browsing the show," Stenger says. "There were five of us working the show and it seemed to be a lot easier for us than at the first Online Buying Event. Part of that is because we are more familiar with how it works, but we also appreciate the enhancements Orgill made."
These kinds of user-focused enhancements are all part of Orgill's commitment to listen to feedback from vendors and retailers and use these insights to make their services more efficient and useful.
"We want to hear feedback, both good and bad, because it allows us to learn and grow," says Marc Hamer, Orgill's executive vice president and chief information and technology officer. "The success of these events, and honestly everything we do at Orgill, is built around us being responsive to our customers' needs and finding ways we can harness assets like technology to exceed our customers' expectations."
As with most buying events, attendees were not only looking for ease of use but were also in the market for promotional buys, new products and special deals, and there was no shortage of these during the Spring Online Buying Event.
"The vendors we work with know what our customers expect from either a live event or an online one," says Jeff Curler, Orgill's senior vice president of purchasing. "They all know that our customers expect to 2 be able to take advantage of these events to stock up on products, discover new merchandise and access industry-leading deals," he says.
For Darrell Baker, vice president of branch operations at Koopman Lumber in Massachusetts, the Online Buying Event delivered on all fronts. "I think Orgill has done an amazing job migrating the event to the online platform," Baker says. "There are tons of great resources and the easy access to vendor reps through Zoom or email is a plus. The warehouse programs are excellent and easy to access, and the Door Buster booking program continues to be a great resource for planning our promotional year."
Outside of delivering on streamlined ordering, communications and special buying opportunities, another example of harnessing technology to meet customer needs was also evident in Orgill's launch of its Distance Learning Series, which was held Jan. 11-25. This three-week event led up to the Online Buying Event as a way to deliver customers a range of learning-focused content in a virtual environment.
The Distance Learning Series offered retailers the opportunity to select from a wide range of live webinars from Orgill and industry experts. During the two-week window, Orgill offered more than 30 seminar sessions, all of which are now available as video replays to customers on Orgill.com.
"We know that our customers see a great deal of value in the seminars and learning sessions that normally take place during the live Dealer Markets," says Jordan Hughes, Orgill's marketing and advertising manager. "We didn't want them to miss out on this kind of experience in between our live shows, so we launched our first Distance Learning Series," Hughes says. "Based on the interest we got, and the amount of registrations we saw for the online sessions, it was clear that this was an enhancement our customers were looking for."
In total, Orgill had more than 3,000 registrations for the Distance Learning Series sessions. While the first round of Distance Learning Sessions took place in January, Orgill plans to offer these sessions each month, according to Hughes.
"We will be offering this Distance Learning Series during the last full week of each month moving forward and featuring a variety of valuable content for our customers," he says. "This is a great example of how we can offer even greater access to information and content by utilizing the technology solutions we have available to us."
While Hughes says that live seminars and learning sessions will continue to play a big part in future live Dealer Markets, the Distance Learning Series will offer access to enhanced content on an ongoing basis.
"Technology allows us to offer access to this kind of information and content on a more regular basis than just during our live Dealer Markets, so we see this as a great opportunity to share information with our customers," he says.
Orgill's next Dealer Market is scheduled to take place in Chicago on Aug. 26-28. For more information, visit Orgill.com.
About Orgill:
Orgill, the industry's fastest-growing hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 11,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world. More information can be found at www.orgill.com.
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
MEMPHIS -- Orgill Inc. is announcing plans to forgo its in-person 2021 Spring Dealer Market and proceed with a more dynamic and flexible approach to its physical shows, conferences and buying markets starting next year that will incorporate online, live and hybrid events.
"Just like the retailers we serve, this year taught us a lot about how to be agile and how to push outside our comfort zones to meet the needs of our customers," says Boyden Moore, Orgill president and CEO. "What started out with a commitment to keep our employees, vendors and customers safe that led to us rethinking our entire approach to how we interact with all of these stakeholders. We believe that live shows, online buying events and educational conferences should not exist in a vacuum—they should all work together in how we do business in the future."
Building on this new paradigm in 2021, Orgill will offer a combination of events, including physical shows like its traditional Dealer Markets, online-only buying events like the recent Orgill e-Volution, virtual educational events and blended shows that merge online technology with a physical event.
"The days of a stand-alone physical event are a thing of the past," says Greg Stine, Orgill's executive vice president of marketing and communications. "We believe that this expanded strategy will provide a platform of support for our dealers, allowing them to efficiently buy products and gain knowledge that will help them grow and strengthen their businesses."
Orgill hopes that crafting this multi-channel experience will build on the success of both its in-person Dealer Markets and its highly successful e-Volution Online Buying Event that debuted earlier this year.
"We have a long history of producing dynamic, interactive and informative live events with our Dealer Markets, but we also learned through the production of our e-Volution Online Buying Event that technology can help broaden our reach to more customers and offer unique and richer experiences to everyone who participates in them," Stine says.
The e-Volution Online Buying Event ran from Aug. 24-Sept. 4 and was open to Orgill's entire retail customer base, enabling them to take advantage of promotional buying opportunities, shop for seasonal merchandise and browse through thousands of new products without ever having to leave their stores.
The online event attracted nearly 10,000 retailers who interacted with the thousands of vendors and service providers participating in the show. In addition to setting records for the number of retailers participating in a buying event, the online event also set sales records for Orgill, which has now shipped nearly 90% of the orders placed during the two-week buying window.
"This was really a proof of concept for us that there is an appetite among both retailers and vendors for an online event," says Jeff Curler, Orgill's senior vice president of purchasing. "These events certainly don't take the place of face-to-face shows, but they do offer some things a live show can't, like the ability to get a lot done in a short window of time and eliminating the need to leave your store to travel."
Orgill's team also learned a lot from the successful launch of its first Online Buying Event that can be used to enhance the live-show experience, Curler adds.
"Live shows have some distinct advantages and online shows have some distinct advantages, but they don't need to be mutually exclusive," Curler says. "We plan to utilize all the means at our disposal to offer our customers optimized, multi-channel experiences throughout the year rather than just limiting ourselves to one method or the other."
In addition to harnessing the best elements online and live shows offer, Orgill also looks to create a consistent cadence for these events throughout the year that allows more retailers to participate and is also more conducive to buying cycles.
"With only two live events each year, you kind of force retailers into buying windows that might not work ideally for the way they want to run their businesses," Curler says. "With more events added throughout the year, retailers and vendors will have even more opportunities to interact and better plan their purchasing."
Orgill plans to hold its first Online Buying Event of 2021 from Feb. 8-19, with a pre-event planning period scheduled for Feb. 1-7. This event will be similar to the recent Orgill e-Volution 2020 Fall Online Buying Event and will take the place of the live Spring Dealer Market, which was scheduled for Feb. 25-27.
Orgill will unveil plans for additional Online Buying Events and interactive educational conferences in early 2021, according to Moore.
"After the first of the year, we will be releasing a full schedule of all our online, in-person and hybrid events for the entire year. This will include buying events, educational conferences, store tours and more," he says. "Conditions willing, we do expect to host a Fall Dealer Market in Chicago in August 2021, but from this point forward our events will have an online-first strategy, incorporating in-person activities and the related benefits as soon as we are able."
About Orgill:
Orgill, the industry's fastest-growing hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 11,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world.
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
MEMPHIS -- Orgill, Inc. just completed its first-ever e-Volution Online Buying Event, which brought nearly ten thousand retailers together with many of the industry's top vendors and service providers in a completely virtual environment.
The e-Volution Online Buying Event ran from Aug. 24 through Sept. 4 and was open to Orgill's entire retail customer base, enabling them to take advantage of promotional buying opportunities, shop for seasonal merchandise and browse through thousands of new products without ever having to leave their stores.
"Because this is the first time we have ever held an event like this, we weren't quite sure what to expect," says Boyden Moore, Orgill's president and CEO. "Now that it's over, I can say that we couldn't be more pleased with the results. While we knew this event could not replace the entire live Orgill Dealer Market experience, based on the results, it was clear that customers and vendors embraced the concept."
In fact, Orgill reports that buying activity during e-Volution far exceeded the results of any previous dealer market in the company's history including last fall's live event.
"We knew going into the virtual event that it would offer an opportunity for even more of our retail customers to attend because we removed the requirement of them having to physically travel to the show," says Greg Stine, Orgill's executive vice president of marketing and communications. "And that's exactly what happened. The Online Buying Event engaged a much higher percentage of our customers than we've ever seen at a Dealer Market."
Braden Mims from Dozier Hardware in Alabama says he thought the Online Buying Event was definitely a benefit for his operation and made his buying experience seamless.
"We do a lot of work in advance of the Markets so we typically have a lot of our orders prepared before the events," Mims says. "This honestly made the whole buying process a lot easier for us. This helped us keep everything much more organized and really upgraded our overall experience. We've wanted to see this kind of online, digital experience become a bigger part of the markets for a while, so this entire effort is much appreciated."
For vendors like Daniel Kautz of Milwaukee Tool, the Online Buying Event was also a positive experience.
"This year's Online Buying Event served as a terrific showcase for us just as the Fall show always does," Kautz says. "From a functionality standpoint, the platform allowed for very flexible schedule management and allowed our team to maximize time spent with dealers. The Online Buying Event was a wonderful investment of resources and one that we'll be happy to support in the future."
The decision to develop and hold the e-Volution Online Buying Event came in May when safety precautions surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak prompted Orgill to cancel its in-person Fall Dealer Market that had been scheduled for August 27-29 in Las Vegas.
"There were a number of factors that led us to this decision, including an abundance of caution as it related to the safety of our employees, customers and vendors as well as consideration for how a market would function in an atmosphere where strict social distancing would likely still be required," says Moore.
Recognizing how important it was for both customers and vendors to still be able to get together for a seasonal buying show, Orgill's team quickly went to work developing the framework for the e-Volution Online Buying Event.
"We went into overdrive," says Stine. "This was truly an all-hands-on-deck effort that involved teams from nearly every area of our business. We are extremely thankful for all their efforts and we think the results speak for themselves."
The additional time allotted during e-Volution and the ease of purchasing were two areas that Dan Kauffman of Ohio retailer AirWorks Ltd. appreciated about the new platform.
"Overall we had a good experience," he says. "We really enjoyed the two-week time frame compared to other shows. I would say everything was easy, pretty self-explanatory and the warehouse purchasing was super easy. We had a very good experience."
In addition to the ability to browse through and buy products from Orgill's wide array of vendor partners, attendees of the Online Buying Event could also take advantage of special promotional offers, pre-season booking programs and even schedule live meetings with vendors and service providers.
"I think it's safe to say that I probably had more remote vendor interaction in the last couple weeks than I've had in the last couple years," adds Mims. "This was really helpful in allowing us to reach out and connect with the vendors we needed to talk to."
To help facilitate these meetings, Orgill partnered with Zoom, the industry leader in online meeting technology.
"The partnership with Zoom and our ability to integrate their state-of-the-art technology into our e-Volution platform went a long way toward helping us facilitate more interaction between our customers and our vendors and team members," Moore says. "By now, everyone is familiar with how Zoom works and we think this helped build a more robust and interactive experience."
While meeting online might not replace a live market, the e-Volution platform, combined with the functionality of Zoom, enabled vendors and retailers to interact with ease throughout the event.
"The engagement with video was great," says Todd Stocks of M-D Building Products. "This allowed us to focus one on one with the retailer much like a physical show but actually be completely focused on the needs of that retailer with no distractions that might come at a physical event."
Brent Perry of Alf Curtis Home Improvements in Ontario said he was extremely pleased with how Orgill launched the Online Buying Event in the timeframe they did. "I think Orgill has done a great job for this first round and I think they have a great platform to build on and move forward with," Perry says. "I think we learned a lot here about how to work an online event like this and I think we will actually find ourselves maybe buying more at an event like this than we have in the past."
Based on this kind of positive feedback from both vendors and attendees, Moore agreed that this first e-Volution Online Buying Event will serve as a great launching pad and learning opportunity for the company.
"We are very pleased that, given the challenge of holding live events right now, we were able to offer a platform through e-Volution that helped both our vendors and our customers keep their businesses moving forward," Moore says. "We will undoubtedly learn a lot from this event and plan to use it to make our vendor and customer interactions even more productive as we move forward."
Orgill is scheduled to hold its Spring Dealer Market from February 25-27 in Orlando.
About Orgill:
Orgill, the industry's fastest-growing hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 11,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world.
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
Orgill, Inc. has announced that it will be harnessing the latest in interactive meeting technology to make its upcoming e-Volution online buying event a more immersive and interactive experience for attendees.
Orgill is partnering with Zoom, the industry leader in online video communications, to integrate the company's meeting technology into its e-Volution platform. Orgill announced earlier this year that it would be hosting its first-ever e-Volution online buying event August 24-September 4.
"By partnering with Zoom and utilizing their state-of-the art technology within our e-Volution platform, we will be able to create efficient and seamless interactions between our customers, our sales representatives and vendors participating in the event," says Boyden Moore, Orgill president and CEO. "We are very excited to offer this groundbreaking technology to enhance the online buying experience for both retailers and vendors."
The combination of these two powerful technology platforms will allow retailers to see calendar availability for vendors, schedule meetings and initiate Zoom video conferences all within the e-Volution framework.
"Our systems will completely manage the availability of all the participants, and their respective time zones, and allow retailers to easily schedule time with Orgill vendors during the two-week event window," says Marc Hamer, Orgill executive vice president and Chief Digital Information Officer. "The dealers will also have the option of including their Orgill sales representative in any of the meetings they schedule allowing them to have a completely interactive experience."
Because the Zoom software will be integrated into the e-Volution platform, Hamer adds that participants will be able to use the video conferencing capabilities even if they do not have their own Zoom account.
"It's important that when we look at implementing a technology into anything we do that it enhances the overall experience but it is also important that it adds to the user experience and that it is intuitive," says Hamer. "We worked very closely with Zoom to integrate their unique capabilities into our own systems to ensure that it is easy to use and adds to the overall functionality of the event."
Greg Stine, Orgill executive vice president of marketing and communications adds that the company's partnership with Zoom also has the potential to add greater communications capabilities outside of buying events.
"Integrating this into our e-Volution platform is just the first step to how we might be able to utilize this technology that has become more and more a standard operating procedure for businesses today," Stine says. "The functionality it provides us for the online buying experience is just a starting point for how we might be able to integrate it into other areas of the business."
Orgill first announced plans to host its first-ever e-Volution online buying event in June. The decision to launch the online event came as the distributor announced plans to cancel its Fall Buying Market because of concerns over the Coronavirus and related travel and social distancing issues.
Through the e-Volution platform, retailers will be able easily browse through a variety of buying opportunities typically found during Orgill's live Dealer Markets including: warehouse item and pallet specials, Door Buster Booking, drop-ship event specials from Orgill vendors, and a Fall Spotlight area with a range of other buying and booking opportunities.
Additionally, retailers will also be able to visit vendor's "online booths" and even set appointments with vendors to discuss their product lines, product trends and more, according to Jeff Curler, Orgill's senior vice president of purchasing.
About Orgill:
Orgill, the industry's fastest-growing hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Collierville, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 10,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world.
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
As part of its continued commitment to enhancing technology and its role in the company, Orgill has hired Marc Hamer to fill the newly created role of Executive Vice President, Chief Digital and Information Officer. In this new role, Hamer will lead the digital and data strategy, information systems, information security and all technology teams across Orgill's distribution business, Tyndale Advisors, and Central Network Retail Group.
Hamer joins Orgill with a wealth of experience and proven background modernizing legacy technologies and IT organizations in both distribution and retail. During his career, Hamer has successfully created a single, unified digital and technology organization at Thermo Fisher Scientific, Babcock & Wilcox and most recently at Sealed Air. He has a great deal of success and experience in M&A and integrations over his 25 year career. Additionally, Hamer helped architect digital, data and e-commerce strategies and systems for Thermo Fisher, Sealed Air and within private equity. He has rationalized, consolidated, and modernized the entire technology stack several times in his career and is highly experienced with data strategy development and implementation and maximizing the customer experience. Earlier in his career, Hamer spent over 10 years working in defense electronics and intelligence with Northrop Grumman Corporation and Raytheon. He sits on a number of advisory boards including CNBC's Technology Council.
Hamer's hire concludes a six-month search for an executive to lead Orgill's technology strategy and teams, and completes the team of six EVPs reporting to Boyden Moore, Orgill's president and CEO.
"We're excited to have Marc lead our highly capable team of technology professionals at Orgill who have done an outstanding job, especially as we've moved to a remote work environment, Moore said. " Marc will lead the continued collaboration and integration of our technology teams and the continued innovation of our systems. We have some exciting ideas on technology's role in the execution of our mission to help our customers be successful."
Hamer states, "To join a company with such a successful and storied history is truly humbling and exciting. The culture that Orgill has built over 174 years, the values and their ultimate focus on the customer is why I took this role. I look forward to working with Boyden and the entire leadership team to develop the best tools and solutions not only for our employees and partners, but also for our customers."
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
MEMPHIS -- Orgill has outlined how it will utilize state-of-the-art technology to offer its customers a truly unique online buying experience this fall following the company's decision to cancel its traditional Dealer Market in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak.
This week, Orgill announced further details about its e-Volution Fall Online Buying Event, which will make it possible for its entire retail customer base to take advantage of promotional buying opportunities, shop for seasonal merchandise and browse through thousands of new products without ever having to leave their stores.
"We know there is no way for us to replicate the entire experience of attending our Dealer Market in person in any kind of virtual way," says Boyden Moore, Orgill's president and CEO. "In talking with many of our customers about this, we challenged our team to develop an online buying event that could efficiently deliver the buying opportunities for which our dealer markets are so well known. This new interactive platform in which our sales team and vendors can work with our customers is Orgill's e-Volution, and will help us create an even better Dealer Market experience in the future."
The e-Volution Fall Online Buying Event will take place during a two-week window, running from Aug. 24 through Sept 4. During this time, retailers will be able to access the event through Orgill.com.
Through the e-Volution platform, retailers can easily browse through a variety of buying opportunities, including: warehouse item and pallet specials, Door Buster Booking, drop-ship event specials from Orgill vendors, and a Fall Spotlight area with a range of other buying and booking opportunities.
Additionally, retailers will also be able to visit vendor's "online booths" and even set appointments with vendors to discuss their product lines, product trends and more, according to Jeff Curler, Orgill's senior vice president of purchasing.
"This new technology is going to make it easy for our customers to tap into all the buying opportunities they have come to expect from our Dealer Markets but in a more deliberative fashion and while not having to travel or leave their businesses," Curler says. "We are currently working with our vendor partners to help them get their individual areas prepared for the event and to ensure that our customers have a seamless experience using the e-Volution platform."
While the Online Buying Event itself is live during a two-week window, Orgill will use the broad reach of its field sales team to help ensure that retailers are prepared to get the most out of the event.
"During the two weeks prior to the actual Online Buying Event (Aug. 10-23), we have another two-week window where our sales team will be helping retailers prepare for the e-Volution buying window," Moore says. "This will be key to helping our customers have a successful experience with the e-Volution event, and with more than 400 sales representatives ready to help walk our customers through the experience, we feel we are up to the task."
During this preparation period, Orgill's sales representatives will be able to help customers identify buying specials, set appointments with vendors and prepare a plan in advance for when the buying window opens.
In many ways, the e-Volution Fall Online Buying Event is a testament to how Orgill is harnessing technology to provide solutions for its customers. Other examples of Orgill's recent tech-focused solutions include the rollout of its BrandBase™ marketing program; an industry-leading Integrated eCommerce and Product Data program; and more recently, its next-generation loyalty program FanBuilder™.
"Our mission is to help our customers be successful," Moore says. "While this simple premise hasn't changed, we realize that technology is a growing part of how we go about achieving this mission. I think when you look at the programs we are rolling out and the efforts we are undertaking to live up to our mission, you will see technology playing an increasingly important role."
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
MEMPHIS -- After careful consideration, Orgill, Inc. has announced plans to cancel its Fall Dealer Market. The event was scheduled for August 27-29 in Las Vegas.
"There were a number of factors that led to this decision including an abundance of caution as it relates to the safety of our employees, customers, and vendors as well as consideration for how a market would function in an atmosphere where strict social distancing would likely still be required," says Boyden Moore, Orgill's president and CEO.
According to Moore, Orgill will be holding a fall online buying event that will allow the distributor's retail customers to still take advantage of the buying opportunities and special deals typically found at the Dealer Market. Details about the online buying event will be released in the coming weeks.
"While we hope conditions improve between now and August, we believe that refocusing our efforts with our vendors now to an online buying event for all of our customers is a better way for us to deliver on our mission to help our customers be successful," Moore said.
Orgill typically holds two Dealer Markets every year, one in the fall and one in the spring. The events bring retailers, manufacturers and service providers from across the industry together drawing thousands of attendees and exhibitors.
"Our Dealer Markets are premier events in the industry and are well attended by our customers and vendors," he says. "We realize that there is no better way for customers to experience all that Orgill has to offer than by attending our Dealer Markets. With that being said, we are confident that we can offer a world-class buying experience to our customers through this online event."
Orgill's next major event will be its Spring Dealer Market, which will take place February 25-27, 2021, at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida.
For more information, contact:
Kristyl Lawson
800-347-2860 ext. 5564, kristyll@orgill.com
 
 
 
Orlando, Florida -- Thousands of independent home improvement retailers gathered in Orlando to attend the Orgill Spring Dealer Market, which began today and runs through Feb. 29.
The Market covers nearly 1 million square feet of the the Orange County Convention Center and draws retailers from across North America and around the world in search of deals, new products and Orgill services -- all to help improve their businesses.
"Our Dealer Markets are designed to be a complete showcase of what Orgill and our vendor community can offer our customers," says Boyden Moore, Orgill's president and CEO. "Not only do we want to highlight the latest products and assortments they can bring into their stores, but we want the Dealer Market to be a place where dealers share ideas, find inspiration, competitive advantages, and learn how Orgill can best help them execute their vision."
 
Paint & Sundries Showcase
One of the best ways to help retailers grow their operations is by highlighting the breadth and depth of what Orgill can offer in key categories such as paint and sundries. To do this, Orgill is featuring its new Paint & Paint Sundries Showcase at the Market. This area includes 18,000 square feet of paint and paint sundries products from top vendors like Valspar and Sherwin-Williams. Included in this showcase is Orgill's enhanced Paint Works program. This program is designed to help retailers improve traffic, increase profitability, and help both pro and DIY-focused dealers become more of a paint destination.
"I'm always wondering what new paint products I can bring to the store, so this is such a help. They should do this every year. This is my 10th year, and this is the first time they have done this showcase. It's very amazing that they did this," says Melanie Grubaugh from Estes Park Lumber in Estes Park, Colorado.
 
Impulse Showcase
Retailers will also be able to visit a new Impulse Showcase area that spotlights the latest best practices and products related to Impulse purchases, including different approaches to check-out lines, best selling products, and impulse planograms. "I do believe we have solutions that allow both consumer and pro-focused businesses leverage impulse items and increase their average ticket size," said Allen Bush, Assortment Specialist for Orgill. "New at this market, we now have kit SKUs for clip strips with the product, so that it's much easier for dealers to choose and order what makes sense for them."
"We came to the show this year looking for impulse items, and this is the first area we hit," says Andy Cotreau from Northeast Nursery, Inc. in Peabody, Massachusetts. "We obviously see the value of impulse items in our store. There's a science to it, and it works. We see how it directly relates to profits and increases sales."
 
Model Stores
One of the other ways Orgill Market attendees can find inspiration during the three-day event is by visiting one of the fully merchandised model stores. At this Dealer Market, there are two model stores: Pinnacle Hardware & Paint and All Pro Building Supply.
The 16,000-square-foot Pinnacle Hardware & Paint store concept demonstrates a high-performance paint department with offerings from Sherwin-Williams, Valspar and Orgill's new Paint Works program. The All Pro Building Supply model store featured 7,000 square feet of assortments and products designed to attract the professional contractor market.
"We are pleased to show techniques that demonstrate best-in-class practices that our customers can bring back and execute in their own stores," said Chris Freader, Orgill's vice president of merchandising services.
"Within the Pinnacle store, we are featuring paint as a destination within a typical retail environment. We are also showcasing many different space saving methods that increase linear feet of merchandised products for when our customers have limited floor space. This store is also designed to help our customers understand adjacency flow and how to best position promotional products in proximity to high-traffic areas."
Rosendo Alaniz, a Store Manager at Armstrong Lumber Co. in Corpus Christi, Texas came to the Market to view the Pinnacle Store and other concept stores.
"It's what I'm here for. We are from Corpus Christi and I'm getting ready to revamp the whole store, so we came here for new ideas. I like a lot of what I see," Alaniz says.
 
Dealer Education
Orgill's dealer education program also kicks off today as attendees will be able to take advantage of a wide variety of workshops and seminars presented by industry experts on topics such as marketing, e-commerce, consumer shopping habits, loss prevention techniques and more. Attendees will be leaving the Market Learning Center with actionable advice and best practices to take back to their operations.
Yesterday, more than a hundred dealers traveled early to Orlando and participated in an eCommerce Symposium. This half-day session brings together high-performing retailers from across the independent channel who gather to share experiences, best practices and learn from one another. Attendees also have the opportunity to get updates from Orgill's e-commerce team about the latest programs and technologies available to them to help them better compete online.
 
There's a Lot More for Dealers to Study
A million square feet holds a lot of other opportunities.
Customers are able to refresh their assortments through the Smart Start Showcase lift program that includes thousands of planograms and U.S. and Canadian assortment options from more than 300 vendors.
The Spring Promotions Showcase displays new products and discounted assortments, including agricultural products, lawn and garden items, outdoor power equipment and grills.
The Great Outdoors Showcase gives customers the opportunity to see Orgill's 2020 warehouse grill assortment of new and popular grills and grilling products. Celebrity chefs are on-hand for live demos and handing out samples and recipes.
Promotional areas, such as Door Busters, Brand Building Endcaps and Pallet Specials, are a regular feature of the Dealer Market and are popular with customers.
Orgill, Inc., the world's largest independent hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 6,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world.
 
 
 
MEMPHIS,Tenn. -- Following several promotions earlier this year, Orgill has announced a number of additional changes in the executive teams at Orgill and Tyndale Advisors. These changes are designed to help more closely align Orgill and the efforts of CNRG and Tyndale Advisors to provide the distributor and its customers with broader retail insights and support.
Tyndale Advisors is a wholly owned subsidiary of Orgill and is charged with developing best practices for Orgill and delivering customized services to Orgill dealers. As part of that mission, Tyndale also operates Central Network Retail Group (CNRG), which functions as a real-world, retail services laboratory for Tyndale and Orgill.
"We started Tyndale Advisors in 2010 as we began planning for CNRG, which we launched in 2011," says Orgill's President and CEO Boyden Moore. "From the beginning, our plan was to build the management and technical infrastructure that we would need to manage CNRG inside of Tyndale Advisors so that we could share that infrastructure, insight, and tools with all Orgill dealers."
Under the new leadership structure for these companies, John Sieggreen was named Orgill's executive vice president of retail and will continue to serve as president of CNRG, a role he has held since August of 2017.
Phillip Walker, who had previously served as Orgill's senior vice president of merchandising services has assumed the role of president of Tyndale Advisors.
Chris Freader has been promoted to vice president of merchandising services for Orgill and will lead its conversion, store design and retail services teams.
Currently CNRG successfully operates 109 retail stores comprising 16 different brands, in markets throughout the United States. Orgill utilizes the insights and information gathered from these varied store brands to test and improve retail programs, services, assortments and merchandising ideas that it makes available to all of its retail customers.
"Because we operate stores under different brands in different markets, we have access to a very unique resource for gathering real-world retail insights at CNRG," says Sieggreen. "We actually refer to our various brands as a laboratory of sorts, where we gather information on which products, programs, and services work best. By doing so, we assist Tyndale and Orgill Retail Services in providing services to Orgill customers of all formats and sizes. What we're doing is truly unique in the industry."
The same principle is applied to the work done by the Tyndale Advisors marketing team, whose primary office is located in Eugene, Oregon. "Essentially, we're working to develop best practices for branding, marketing and promotions that Orgill's customers can use to their advantage," says Walker. "We do this by working with many Orgill customers, including CNRG, as we strive to develop and implement programs that meet their unique market needs."
Orgill, Inc., the world's largest independent hardlines distributor, was founded in 1847 and is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. Orgill serves more than 6,000 retail hardware stores, home centers, professional lumber dealers and farm stores throughout the U.S. and Canada, and in over 50 countries around the world.
Tyndale Advisors, LLC provides management, integrated marketing and operational support for an assortment of Orgill dealers, including CNRG.
Central Network Retail Group, LLC operates 109 retail stores throughout the United States under 16 different local retail brands.
 

    Executive Team picture

From left to right: John Sieggreen (Orgill's executive vice president of retail), Chris Freader (Orgill's vice president of merchandising services) and Phillip Walker (president of Tyndale Advisors).