In the autumn of 2014, Martin Wilde Associates (MWA) and OPI published “Swimming With Piranha” – a research study which investigated the use of Amazon by B2B end-users in the UK and USA to purchase office products (OP).
There is no doubt that Amazon – as well as other broad line e-commerce specialists such as eBay – is now a major factor in the current, and future, OP industry. However, until the publication of “Swimming With Piranha”, little was known about the company’s existing and potential B2B customer base for office products. For example:
- What types of businesses have bought OP from Amazon in the last 12 months?
- What kinds of products – and what share of end-users’ total OP purchases – are currently being purchased from Amazon?
- What are the perceived benefits and disbenefits of buying OP from Amazon?
- What are the perceptions of service from Amazon, compared to other major national OP resellers?
- To what extent is Amazon used for making price comparisons with offline resellers?
- Which OP supply channels have lost out to Amazon?
- Do customers navigate directly to Amazon or do they just search for products online and find themselves at Amazon?
- Once at the Amazon site, do customers prefer to buy from Amazon or from an Amazon Marketplace seller?
- How will OP sourcing from Amazon change in future?
The two “Swimming With Piranha” reports provided clear answers to all of these key questions for the UK and USA, and proved essential reading to major OP manufacturers and distributors across the world.
Now MWA and OPI are launching “Swimming With Piranha… In Germany”, carrying out the same research programme in Europe’s largest OP market, and featuring the results of 400 interviews with B2B end-user OP buyers in Germany. Once again, quotas will be applied to the research sample to ensure that a range of all business sizes and activities are covered.
The interviews will also include respondents’ answers to other key questions, including:
- From which channels do respondents currently purchase ‘traditional’ OP, paper, EOS, furniture, catering supplies, JanSan and business machines? How will this change in future?
- How is OP purchasing currently organised (ie contract or adhoc?) and how is this changing?
- If supply contracts are in place, how is the core list controlled and how much is spent outside of this?
- What sources of information do respondents use to select products and to find out about new products?
- How frequently are orders placed, what is the average order value?
- What are the key factors in the choice of OP supplier?
- What speed and type of delivery service is required and how is this changing?
- How important is supplier trustworthiness/service reliability?
Research for the study will commence in March 2015, with the final report being published in May 2015.
This authoritative report is available for only €2,200 (£1,750) if ordered before 12th March 2015, and for €2,750 (£2,200) after this date. To order your copies, please click here or complete the order form below and return it to India Pride
