Fort Worth, TX – September 13, 2009 - An online survey conducted the first week of September 2009 finds that cleaning professionals are using the Internet to research and select janitorial supplies, tools, and equipment to varying degrees.

The survey was conducted by AlturaSolutions Communications, a Chicago-based marketing and communications firm for the professional cleaning industry.

The survey was sponsored by Powr-Flite, a leading manufacturer of professional cleaning equipment, which will be introducing a new Web site later this year that will feature an entirely new e-commerce section.

Ninety-seven people took the four-question survey, which found:

• Nearly 45 percent of respondents purchase cleaning equipment online “half or almost all the time”; 13 percent said “all the time,” with the remainder indicating “rarely.”
• The main reason cleaning professionals purchase janitorial equipment online, according to more than 55 percent of the participants, was that they can better compare products and prices; most of the others indicated it was for convenience-“the product is delivered right to my door.”
• Forty-one percent of the respondents reported cleaning products are less expensive online, revealing important insight into why they shop online.
• However, nearly 60 percent research a product online but then purchase it through a jansan distributor.

  “We did not ask what type[s] of equipment they [are most likely to] purchase online,” says Rob Godlewski, vice president of marketing for Powr-Flite. “And it does not surprise me that many BSCs research products online, such as more expensive machines, but then purchase them through a distributor.”

  Godlewski indicates that he expects online purchasing to grow, “because this is simply how people shop now; however the add-on services of hands-on training and education that distributors provide cannot be replaced by an e-commerce site.”