Leading the building materials industry online in the 21st Century, BuildDirect has moved the equivalent weight of 100 000 elephants in heavy building materials all over North America. This is an industry first for an eCommerce company.

This milestone is concurrent with a very good month in August, increasing our site traffic by surpassing the 700 000 visits mark, with an audience that includes homeowners, tradespeople, and professional installers of a number of stripes. This is a record number of people visiting in the history of our site, in a year that has seen us more than double our revenues.

Here’s what BuildDirect President & CEO Jeff Booth had to say about it:

“In March, which has traditionally been our peak month, more than 647,000 visitors came to the BuildDirect site looking for building materials. To surpass this record in August, which is typically a slower time of year for building materials, is astounding … What this tells us is that our business model is working better than ever before. We’ve almost doubled our number of new and repeat customers over the past year, and we’re ramping up to add new suppliers and products to our website. The demand has never been greater.” [Read the official BuildDirect Continues to Set Explosive Growth Records press release]

This is a reflection of how things have been trending. In recent years, we’ve enjoyed 30 million unique visits, and 300 million page views.  This has yielded 750 000 free samples of flooring, decking, tile, and other building materials sent all over North America in order to give our expanding audience an idea of what they can expect from the products they eventually buy from us.

Of course, with these increases, we’ve expanded our team as well in nearly every department, and expanded our office space in downtown Vancouver BC, too.

It’s an exciting time that looks like it’s just beginning.

BuildDirect Ships 100 000 Elephants – Of Building Materials That Is is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

In addition to fitting in very well with our company culture, Gail brings a wealth of insight and experience from her time at WalMart where she served as Senior Vice-President of Merchandising. Her knowledge of market positioning, and international sourcing, and multiple product categories is an incredibly valuable asset to us here at BuildDirect. In the near future, we will be looking to vastly expand our product offering across many new categories. This is an effort which Gail will spearhead.

Gail’s role with us here at BuildDirect came about by way of mutual respect. BuildDirect Executive Team admired her work and her background. And Gail’s interest was piqued by BuildDirect’s emphasis on data collection and analysis in terms of product forecasting for the benefit of the supply chain, but also for the benefit of the online customer.

Our President and CEO Jeff Booth was quoted in the official ‘BuildDirect.com Expands Management Team’ press release:

“Gail has a proven track record of helping high-growth companies increase market share exponentially …She really excels in strategic roles and brings to us the best of both worlds – having worked with the world’s largest retailer as well as smaller entrepreneurial teams.”

Gail’s joining the BuildDirect Executive Team is timely, just as our $16 million investment from OMERS venture capital arm, and just as our customer base has doubled over the last year.

Welcome Gail!

Welcome Gail Galea, Chief Merchandising Officer At BuildDirect! is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

VANCOUVER, BC, June 25, 2012: BuildDirect.com, North America’s largest online destination for heavy weight building materials, announced today a $16.5 million investment from OMERS Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension funds.

The company will use the investment to accelerate growth, expand its team and provide a more extensive product line for customers including professional trades, subcontractors and do-it-yourselfers.

Capitalizing On Untapped Online Potential

BuildDirect taps into a massive market previously unsuited to e-commerce by solving the complexities of a fragmented, inefficient supply chain, as well as the industry problem of shipping heavy, hard to handle goods cost-effectively.

“BuildDirect is a next generation building supplies company, using e-commerce to create what we see as the future of retail. Their advanced technology platform allows them to reduce complexities, provide the best prices and best quality materials to customers, and offers unprecedented data access for supplier forecasting,” said Derek Smyth, Managing Director of OMERS Ventures. “We’re attracted to the opportunity BuildDirect has created to capitalize on the untapped potential of the e-commerce market, as well as the future growth of both the building supply market and adjacent categories.”

As a lifecycle investor with significant assets, OMERS Ventures has the ability to be a long-term partner to its investee companies.

Poised For Rapid Growth

Having not only survived, but grown through significant downturns in the US building and renovation market, BuildDirect is leveraging its data-driven platform to profit from an industry that has lagged in e-commerce adoption: the flooring market in the U.S. alone is US$17 billion annually and the broader building product market is US$492 billion. (Source: Catalina Research and US Census Bureau, Lowe’s 10K, 2010)

“It was extremely important for us to find an investment partner aligned with our company values,” said Jeff Booth, President and CEO of BuildDirect. “We’re a technology company that uses data to create long term, win-win relationships that enable everyone in our ecosystem to succeed. With their experience as business operators, the principals at OMERS understand our strong commitment to building a world-class company and reinventing an industry that is ripe for disruption.”

Data Driven Platform Creates Defensible Market Position

BuildDirect is a pure play e-commerce company – focusing solely on the heavy building materials industry, and selling exclusively online. The company has simplified the supply chain and spent years creating an entirely new paradigm for the sale of building materials. The company’s predictive data-driven platform:

• Provides manufacturers a 10x improvement in operations and marketing efficiency
• Accurately predicts which products will be successful
• Allow shippers to bid in real-time and give customers the lowest possible freight costs
• Has attracted a critical mass of users providing accurate demand data as well as high search engine rankings for the thousands of products BuildDirect represents.

This entire ecosystem allows BuildDirect to offer its customers up to 80% cost savings and enjoy a repeat customer rate as high as 70%.

BuildDirect has seen its number of customers almost double in the last 12 months. “The momentum we’re seeing with new and repeat customers will carry us way past last year’s performance,” added CEO Booth. “The OMERS investment is going to help catapult us into a huge growth and expansion stage.”

# # #

About BuildDirect

Founded in 1999, BuildDirect is an e-commerce provider completely disrupting the retail building products industry by bridging the gap between the manufacturer and end user. By simplifying the supply chain, solving a heavy freight shipping issue that plagued the industry and creating a proprietary data-driven platform that benefits manufacturers, partners and customers alike, BuildDirect customers ultimately enjoy up to 80% cost savings. The company is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C, with eight warehouse locations in the US and hundreds of thousands of satisfied customers. For more information visit www.builddirect.com

About OMERS Ventures

OMERS Ventures (Twitter:@OMERSVentures) is the venture capital investment arm of OMERS, one of Canada’s largest pension funds with $55.1 billion in net assets. It is an initiative of OMERS Strategic Investments (OSI), an investment entity with a mandate to build long-term strategic relationships with like-minded partners. As both an institutional angel investor and a later-stage investor, OMERS Ventures is looking for successful companies with significant growth potential and market opportunities. We are seeking like-minded partners with a shared vision of building a vibrant and successful knowledge economy. For more information please visit http://www.omersventures.com/.

Contact:

OMERS Ventures                                                          BuildDirect
Derek Smyth                                                                 Jeff Booth
Managing Director                                                         CEO
1-416-564-3811                                                  1-604-662-8100 x 1119
dsmyth@omersventures.com jeffbooth@builddirect.com
www.omersventures.com www.builddirect.com

OMERS Ventures                                                          Cross Border Communications
Lori McLeod                                                                  Jackie Peterson
Director, Media Relations                                               Media Relations for BuildDirect
1-416-369-2399                                                  1-778-384-3384
lmcleod@omers.com jackie@crossborderpr.com
www.omersventures.com

BuildDirect Attracts $16.5 Million Investment From OMERS Ventures is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

Read about how social media is a path to success for the building industry, including an article written by BuildDirect about the advantages of corporate blogs.

BuildDirect on Corporate Blogs

BuildDirect on Blogging in FCN Social Media Supplement is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

BuildDirect Co-Founder Rob Banks is mentioned in with other CEO/Founders like Gary Vaynerchuk, Kevin Rose of DIGG,  Aaron Patzer of Mint.com. Tom Dickson of BlenTec (‘Will It Blend?’), and others, all of whom use web video to reach out to customers and site users.

Read the article that lists Rob Banks of BuildDirect as web video innovator.

BuildDirect Co-Founder Rob Banks Makes Mashable List is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

Interviewer Kevin Ohashi of MO.com asks Jeff about BuildDirect, industry innovation, social media, and the future of the building materials industry.

Read the Jeff Booth of BuildDirect interview

BuildDirect President and CEO Interview on MO.Com is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

BuildDirect President & CEO Jeff Booth Interview on Flooring the Consumer is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

Business Week Profile is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

Read more …

Laminate Floors Installation Tips is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom

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Laminate Flooring Buyer’s Checklist is a post from: BuildDirect Newsroom