Fastenal Co.’s second-quarter ecommerce sales — including transactions through the company’s web verticals and EDI — accounted for 23.3%, or $438.76 million, of net sales, the company said today. But Fastenal said its Q2 total digital sales, or what it calls its total digital footprint, accounted for 55.3%, or $1.04 billion, of total sales, up from 47.9%, or $851.95 billion, a year earlier.

Fastenal includes in its digital footprint all transactions through its FMI vendor managed inventory programs and the portion of its separate ecommerce sales “that do not represent billings of FMI services.” FMI includes sales through Fastenal’s FASTStock, FASTBin and FASTVend programs, which incorporate scanning, RFID, and internet- vending devices, respectively.

Dan Florness, president and CEO, Fastenal Co.

Dan Florness, president and CEO, said on a Q2 earnings call today that he sees a digital footprint even larger than 55% of net sales.

Fastenal boosts digital to 65% of sales

“We think we can get that to about 65%,” he said, adding, “A good chunk of that is converting existing customers” to digital sales and FMI services.

Florness added that Fastenal is realizing new ways that its digital services can bring more value to customers while also making the distributor’s operations more efficient.

He noted that, in addition to using digital FMI programs to automatically replenish warehouse bins of fasteners and other Fastenal products, customers are also using them to automatically replenish pallets, saving them trouble of reordering them.

“That is winning us business,” Florness said.

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