Industrial Supply Association Conference 2025: Why Amazon is now a Hot Topic

Enceiba recently attended the 2025 Industrial Supply Association (ISA) conference in Nashville, TN. The ISA serves manufacturers and distributors of industrial products, such as cutting tools, safety equipment, MRO supplies, and other categories, and their conference is a premier event for networking with key people in this industry. Many of Enceiba’s clients are members and were in attendance, including Snap-on, Bunzl, Mitutoyo, Brady Corporation, Dynabrade, and Guardair, among others. The conference also attracts large distributors like MSC Industrial and Grainger, and has long served as an important meeting place between manufacturers and their dealers. 

While at the conference, we met with approximately 30 companies, all of whom are dealing with the economic uncertainty of the world we’re living in. This is our third year in a row attending this conference, yet there was something dramatically different about what we heard from manufacturers and distributors, particularly as it relates to Amazon’s role in the industry.

Large Distributors Are Consolidating the Industry

We were surprised by the consistent theme we heard from manufacturer executives: large distributors are gobbling up smaller, mid-market distributors, which is thinning out suppliers’ go to market options. This isn’t particularly new. Consolidation has been an ongoing trend in the industry for many years, but has accelerated since the end of the Covid pandemic. To get a good sense of the size and breadth of the largest distributors, we need to look at overall market capitalization. BCG, a leading consulting firm, found that in 2023 that the collective market cap of industrial products distributors grew from $350 billion to $560 billion since 2018. That’s a 60 percent increase in only 5 years! 

At the same time, this consolidation in the industry has altered the traditional buy-sell relationship between manufacturers and distributors. With fewer distributors, the larger distributors have increased their buying power, which in turn puts downward pressure on prices, cutting into manufacturers’ profits. And this is happening at a time when tariffs are forcing many manufacturers to seek pricing increases from their channel partners. 

What’s more, the process of procuring products from manufacturers has become more procurement-focused and data-driven. The days of the handshake deal with a slap on the back are gone, replaced by corporatized and far less personal interactions driven by the bottom line. 

So how have B2B manufacturers reacted to these changes in the industry? 

“We’re Distribution Only” 

For the first several years of our attendance and involvement with ISA, we consistently heard this message from manufacturers. Saying, “We only sell through distribution,” is an easy way to avoid talking about the rapid and inevitable Ecommerce wave that is becoming a significant influence in this industry, led by Amazon Business.  

An interesting thing happened this year, though. We didn’t hear this phrase once at ISA 2025.  

For the first time in our experience, not a single manufacturer we spoke with said they were “distribution only.” Instead, suppliers were open minded about exploring ways to sell on Amazon, as well as other Ecommerce channels. 

To be clear, we don’t believe this is an epiphany about Amazon, but more driven by the dynamics that have emerged in the traditional distribution channel. With fewer distributors to sell to and larger distributors pushing prices down (think Walmart in the consumer sector), manufacturers have a mandate to pursue alternative sales channels. And Amazon Business is a viable and somewhat easier path to Ecommerce scale versus company-owned Ecommerce, which takes considerable capital investment and time to build traffic. An Amazon channel not only gives suppliers a viable selling channel, but also provides leverage when negotiating with the large distributors. 

Who keeps the big distributors up at night? Amazon Business. 

Ironically, when you take a step back and look at the big picture, distributors have adopted their current approach because they are competing against Amazon. Yet, this same approach is pushing manufacturers towards that very same large competitor. 

Manufacturers are now coming around to see the benefits of building an Amazon program, including controlling their brand and retail pricing on the platform. With $80 billion in Amazon Business sales projected for 2025 by Bank of America, this is too big to ignore, and provides real leverage, quickly. Brands are finally getting on board. And we are here to help!

Does this situation sound familiar to you? If you’re a manufacturer looking to start or grow an Amazon presence, Enceiba can help! Schedule a call with one of our top B2B Amazon consultants to discuss your challenges and to learn how we can build a strategy to overcome them.