United Stationers’ regional distribution centers stock more than 50,000 items from office supplies to furniture.

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United Stationers, based in Deerfield, Ill., is North America’s largest wholesale distributor of business products and office supplies, with sales of about $4 billion across the entire company. The company’s regional distribution centers stock more than 50,000 items, including business technology, office supplies, janitorial supplies, foodservice supplies and office furniture. Its more than 20,000 customers include office supply dealers, retail stores, mail-order companies, grocery stores and Internet merchants.

United Stationers continues to invest in its distribution infrastructure, as shown by its recent addition of a 500,000-square-foot facility in Cranbury, N.J. Richard Aievoli, vice president and general manager for the company’s furniture division, says it is developing and bringing on another state-of-the-art facility in Orlando, Fla.

“We employ over 12 million square feet of distribution capacity across 48 states, which is unequalled by far in this industry,” Aievoli says. He states that the company’s distribution infrastructure, as well as its outreach investments are “clearly our strengths.”

United Stationers’ range of office furniture includes more than 4,500 items readily available on a next-day delivered basis, including varieties of office suites, storage solutions, ergonomic, repection and lounge seating, training and conference room items.

Moving Forward, Backward
“The approach we take today is that we look at the consumer first, and we work our way back through the suppliers,” Aievoli says. Instead of just sitting back and taking orders from customers and receiving stock from suppliers, United Stationers conducts its own research into consumer demands and then gives suppliers “a sense of what we’re looking for,” Aievoli says.

To conduct this research, United Stationers turns to third-party research companies, but also collects data from resellers and consumer focus groups. Aievoli says keeping tabs on what consumers want most is important these days because of what he calls “value migration.”

For example, in times when the economy is at a low point and companies don’t have as much capital to spend, the price of office furniture becomes the most important factor in their purchases, and companies should alter their product lines to feature more modestly priced items, Aievoli explains. Consumers would then be willing to buy furniture that wasn’t as functional or comfortable to save money. At other times, functionality or comfort might be more important, and consumers would be willing to spend more on items that better fit those needs.

Built For Speed
United Stationers has made a significant investment in new technology to help it meet the changing needs of its customers, and Aievoli notes that 90 percent of orders are taken electronically over the Internet.

Aievoli says the company is especially proud of its new “Pick-to-Voice” system used in its distribution centers.

The system eliminates paper-based order selection and replaces it with a voice-activated scanner that allows employees to quickly fill an order while automatically updating inventory. Aievoli says this improvement has been well received by customers who have seen improvements in order accuracy and reduction in returns.

Added Value
The office furniture market is crowded, Aievoli says; therefore, United Stationers has to offer added services to make it stand apart from other distributors. He says that in addition to monitoring what end-consumers want, the company also pays close attention to the types of services resellers and other customers expect.

United Stationers provides customers with support in several different areas, including marketing, customer service and local representation. Aievoli says the furniture division of the company cross-trains its customer service team to handle “almost any type of inquiry, from product support and information, to securing a variety of programs and services.”

The company’s marketing support features an account-acquisition program aimed at helping customers target and reach the segments of consumers they can benefit from most.
Its account retention program includes specially priced catalogs and merchandise aimed at helping customers keep the accounts they have. United Stationers also offers its customers regular workshops designed to help dealers improve their skills in such areas as customer care, finance and managing salespeople.

“We offer training and education to our customers to help them to go to market, to share with them what we know about our business and this industry,” Aievoli explains. “What we effectively train them on, we believe, is both appropriate and applicable, all designed to give them an edge in today’s competitive business environment.”