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.”
