UPCOMING LIVE EVENT
When Your Customer Is on a Roof, Your UX Problems Are Their Problems
The sponsors for the B2B webinar on April 23 are set. Avalara, which sponsors the Watson Weekly content, is joined by Elastic Path and Data Realm. Later this week, we will announce who will participate, and you don’t want to miss this conversation.
What Can You Expect?
Johnstone Supply generates $4B in revenue across 450+ stores, 100 independent store groups, and 75 catalogs — all serving contractors who need the right part the first time, or homeowners whose AC stays broken. When they decided to modernize, they didn't start with the platform. They went to the job site. What they found changed their requirements, their mobile app, and how they think about digital versus the counter.
Field First, Platform Second. Johnstone's biggest requirements breakthrough didn't come from a vendor demo. It came from watching contractors work. If you haven't left the building, your roadmap is wrong.
Digital Is Not The Enemy Of Your Sales Team. The channel conflict question is real, and it has a structural answer: revenue has to roll up to a common head. Until it does, your reps will protect the counter, and your digital investment will stall.
The $300 Gap Is The Business Case. Contractors who transact online spend more, not less. The experience earns the order — you don't have to choose between service and scale.
Who Should Attend
B2B distributors managing complex, multi-location catalogs. Digital and commerce leaders are dealing with internal channel conflict. Operators who have heard "we're different from B2C" so many times that they stopped pushing back. Anyone whose digital investment is stalling because the sales team isn't convinced.
Event Details
Date: April 23, 2026
Time: 12:30 PM ET
Host: Rick Watson