Digital channels scale — and AI gets an owner

Fastenal's digital footprint outpaced the company — and distributors are giving AI an owner

Q3 earnings season has started, and Fastenal's results offer a close look at how much of a major distributor's business now runs through digital channels. The week's other clear theme is distributors moving AI out of the pilot phase and into the org chart — buying AI companies, appointing dedicated AI leaders, and adopting tools that take on real operating work. This issue breaks down Fastenal's digital mix, then looks at who owns AI inside distribution and what the new back-office tools actually do. If you're working out who should own AI in your business, and how it connects to sales and operations, this one's for you.

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Edition index / a 15-second scan

The 15-Second Scan

The numbers and market moves worth carrying into your
next commerce conversation.

61.4%

of Fastenal's Q3 sales came through its Digital Footprint

28.8%

of Fastenal's sales came through eBusiness

17.6%

growth in Fastenal’s FASTBin and FASTVend sales

76%

of organizations in IBM’s cross-industry CEO survey have a chief AI officer

$120.8M

raised across three announced rounds for AI tools for ordering, purchasing, and logistics

80%

reduction in quoting time reported by one Augment customer

01

The Big Picture

The Big Picture

Digital Mix

How much of Fastenal's business now runs through digital

Fastenal's Q3 results are a useful look at how much of a major distributor's business runs through digital. The company's “Digital Footprint” — sales through its FMI vending and bin technology plus EDI- and eCommerce-based eProcurement — reached 61.4% of total sales, up slightly from 61.3% a year earlier. That's a share, not a growth rate: digital sales grew 16.1%, a little faster than the 15.5% growth of the company overall, which is why the share edged up.

Inside that mix, the eProcurement slice — EDI and transactional eCommerce, which Fastenal reports as eBusiness — made up 28.8% of sales and grew 14.8%, nearly matching the company-wide rate, while FASTBin and FASTVend sales, the vending and bin technology installed at customer sites, jumped 17.6%. Management tied its share gains directly to embedding this technology at customer sites, and credits role specialization and AI-driven tools for holding headcount growth under 1% while sales grew. One honest caveat: Fastenal trimmed its full-year Digital Footprint target to 62–63%, down from an original 66%.

61.4%

of Fastenal's Q3 sales came through its Digital Footprint, up from 61.3% a year earlier

Fastenal's digital share isn't just a website number. It counts technology embedded in how customers reorder, from vending and bins to EDI and ecommerce.

Source:FastenalModern Distribution Management

02

AI in Distribution

From pilots to the org chart

Ownership

Distributors start buying and staffing AI, not just piloting it

A clear shift is under way: distributors are taking ownership of AI rather than testing it at arm’s length. Fastenal acquired Rampp.ai, an enterprise AI company, bringing its platform and co-founder in-house, and Meritus Gas Partners named a director of AI operations to identify, prioritize, and carry out AI projects across its businesses. It mirrors a broader move: in IBM’s 2026 survey of 2,000 CEOs across industries, 76% of surveyed organizations had a chief AI officer, up from 26% in 2025. DSG notes that no comprehensive count exists for distribution specifically, and the job often sits under combined technology and data titles.

What matters for your team is where responsibility lands. AI has to connect to sales, pricing, inventory, and customer service, and to the data underneath them — Grainger's recruiting materials, for example, describe building reliable data systems, search capabilities, and integration tools to support AI agents.

76%

of organizations in IBM’s cross-industry CEO survey have a chief AI officer, up from 26% a year earlier

Source:Distribution Strategy Group

Back Office

A new wave of AI tools is coming for the distributor order desk

AI built for the distributor back office is maturing. Three vendors — Augment, Didero, and Anchr — have announced a combined $120.8 million in funding between September 2025 and March 2026 to build tools that prepare quotes and orders, follow up with suppliers, and track purchases inside the systems reps already use. The design detail worth noting: Augment’s software drafts a quote or sales order for a representative to check, and nothing posts to the distributor’s ERP until the rep confirms it — “assist, not autonomy” in a real product.

The results are still mostly vendor-reported. A manager at Ewing Outdoor Supply credits Augment with an 80% reduction in time spent quoting — a customer claim published by the vendor. Two caveats to carry into any evaluation: the funding went to software providers, not distributors (Augment and Didero also serve logistics companies and manufacturers), and funding doesn't prove a tool works. The practical test, as DSG frames it, is how accurately the software processes requests, how much employee time it saves, how often people must correct it, and what it costs to run.

$120.8M

raised across three announced rounds for AI tools serving distributors and related supply chain businesses

Source:Distribution Strategy Group

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