Questions and even confusion persist as to the role online catalogs and online selling should play for distributors. This article examines those questions and the challenges that come with moving business online.

This is part of an occasional series of MDM articles on doing business electronically.

Over the past five years, more distributors and manufacturers have moved more of their business online, from offering product catalogs online to selling a broad range of items through electronic storefronts. And more customers are doing their research online before ever calling a distributor’s sales department.

According to a recent survey conducted by Robert W. Baird …