Build.comSmarter Home Improvement

Company Overview

Build.com is an Internet Retailer Top 100 company and the largest home improvement retailer without a brick-and-mortar store. The company provides shoppers with a unique online shopping experience by assisting them with home improvement projects and offering a network of specialized websites that focus on a specific category of home improvement. Build.com offers over 700,000 brand-name products in categories including plumbing, lighting, heating and cooling, door hardware and more.

The Situation

A few years into its operation, Build.com launched several niche websites specializing in specific home improvement categories. It created the Build.com Network of Stores to reflect the array of products offered online. To manage several websites that attract thousands of visitors daily and hundreds of thousands of orders monthly, Build.com needed to partner with a software company and decided to tap ChannelAdvisor for Digital Marketing support.

After seeing great success on its own website, Build.com knew the company was missing a slew of potential customers on various e-commerce marketplaces. Having already developed a strong relationship with ChannelAdvisor, Build.com wanted to test the waters with ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces to expand its online presence and reach more customers. “It was time to build upon the digital marketing and advertising success we were experiencing with ChannelAdvisor, and ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces provided us with the perfect opportunity to do just that,” said Brian Hudson, Build.com, director of marketplaces.

The Solution

Build.com began using ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces to manage its product data feeds and listings, monitor product quantities and streamline its fulfillment orders in one system. ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces complemented Build.com’s digital marketing and advertising strategies to allow the company to accelerate its online growth.

“ChannelAdvisor became our complete, 360 degree solution for both marketplaces and digital marketing. It helped take our growth to a new level and has allowed us to scale faster than ever,” said Hudson.

The Results

With ChannelAdvisor, Build.com started selling on multiple online channels, and the company’s marketplaces department has become the fastest-growing department in the company.

“After starting with eBay and Amazon using a direct integration, it wasn’t long before we launched additional marketplaces including Walmart, Sears, and Overstock,” said Hudson.

As Build.com considers ways to continue expansion through methods such as cross-border trade, ChannelAdvisor enables the marketplaces team to explore new opportunities without fear of e-commerce cannibalization.

“ChannelAdvisor Marketplaces helps us incrementally access new customers we otherwise wouldn’t get on our site, with absolutely no chance of cannibalizing existing business,” said Hudson.