Case Study: MSC Industrial Supply achieves faster, lower-cost e-procurement and improved customer experience with SAP Ariba

Delivering a Great Customer Experience through E-Commerce

MSC Industrial Supply Co., a leading distributor of metalworking and MRO products across the US, UK, Canada and Mexico, needed to meet large customers’ requests to transact on the Ariba Network and to recreate its exceptional in-person service online — enabling fast search across massive product data, seamless procurement integration, and support for its mission to be the best industrial distributor.

MSC joined the Ariba Network, built MSCDirect.com, and created a dedicated e‑commerce team and integrations (PunchOut, EDI/cXML, e‑invoicing, online payment, inventory/vending tools, chat and same‑day shipping), and achieved Ariba Ready Platinum validation. As a result a significant share of sales now flows through e‑procurement, customers gain major time and cost savings and better spend visibility, automated ordering cut costs and improved accuracy, integrations scale rapidly, and performance gains include conversion rates >50% higher, lines per order +11% and 60% lower order‑taking costs.

MSC Industrial Supply

Simeon Chiger

Director, eProcurement