Lead Generation Engine Drives Specialty Retail Sales

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

August 2013 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

A lead generation service helped B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio close more than $200,000 in new sales.

B&H Photo, Video, & Pro Audio might not be a household name, but when professional, serious hobby photographers, videographers, and audio technicians shop for equipment, the company is often their first stop. In fact, B&H is the world’s largest source of professional-grade photo, video, and audio products.

In addition to cross-channel, direct-to-consumer retail sales placed through its website and Manhattan-based 170,000-square-foot brick-and-mortar facility, B&H contracts with many commercial and public entities that source photo, video, and audio equipment. As such, the company relies heavily on direct marketing and inside sales to drive order volume. While this broad approach to marketing supports a healthy volume of catalog requests, only a small percentage of the shoppers targeted by B&H’s email campaigns responded to the effort. The company sought new channels to generate and qualify sales leads, a search that led to Ariba Discovery from SAP. At its core, Ariba Discovery is an online matchmaking service that aligns business buyers with the sellers best capable of fulfilling their needs.