A big U.S. HVAC distributor closes in on record annual ecommerce sales

Watsco, one of the HVAC industry’s biggest distribution companies in the U.S. is reaping the benefits of B2B ecommerce.

Ecommerce now represents about 32% of Watsco’s total sales. Its online channel grew 22% in the third quarter, the company says. Based on those metrics, Digital Commerce 360 projects that ecommerce sales grew year over year to $651.2 million. That would be up 14% from $570.2 million in Q3 2021.

“Our technology platforms — which are unique to the industry — have facilitated growth in Watsco’s market share, new-customer acquisition and margin expansion. We continue to see higher growth rates, lower attrition, and lower costs to serve among active users of our technology,” says Watsco CEO Albert H. Nahmad. “Consistent with our long-term focus, we are investing more to accelerate adoption and sustain our leadership position. As the industry evolves to operating in the digital age, we believe that Watsco’s technology tools will provide added value to an ever-growing number of contractors.”

Other digital metrics include:

• Watsco’s product information management (PIM) database now includes approximately 1.3 million SKUs. More than 350,000 contractors and technicians assess them on an annual basis.
• The number of HVAC contractors using Watsco’s commerce-enabled mobile app grew 21% in the second quarter to more than 45,000 users.
• Watsco’s digital sales platform that HVAC contractors use, and its companion consumer financing system, generated quotes to approximately 66,000 households. They also generated $269 million in gross merchandise value.

“Ecommerce sales grew 22% year-to-date, outpacing organic sales growth rates, to more than $2.3 billion during the last twelve months,” Watsco says.