Distributor Rewards Green Technology Sales by Resellers

Even as the threat of yet another blizzard is bearing down
on the East Coast of the United States
this weekend, the good folks at D&H Distributing have been thinking about
Earth Day and how to help VARs and their customers celebrate this modern rite
of spring in 2010.

Last month, the Harrisburg, Pa.-based SMB distributor announced an Earth Day
40th anniversary promotion that runs from Jan. 1 through April 16, designed to
encourage environmentally friendly technology purchases.

Here’s how it works: As D&H resellers buy these eco-friendly products,
their “green” purchases are illustrated on a personal, virtual online “tree” that
charts their eco-sales progress. Once a VAR
hits the green purchasing goal of 40 items, they are entered for a chance to
win a hybrid Toyota Prius. (The contest began before the Toyota
recall, but one would assume this Prius has an accelerator that is in proper
working order.) The Grand Prize winner will be drawn and awarded on Earth Day,
April 22.

“D&H wants to establish a leadership position when it comes to green and
technology,” Jeff Davis, senior vice president of sales, told Channel Insider.

Just a few weeks into the program in mid-January, D&H had sold 395,000
green products and had qualified 767 resellers for the Prius drawing, and Davis
said that D&H expected millions of products sold and 1,500 partners
qualifying for the drawing by the April 16 deadline. That makes it much more
successful than the company’s internal forecasts, he said.

Davis also noted that D&H
itself has worked to reduce the packaging materials used in its drop ship
service.

“People are starting to blog about all the wasted packaging and how much more
they had to spend on shipping,” Davis
said. “We started to focus on that a year and a half ago.”

D&H packaging now uses a machine that seals the box around the product to
avoid extra packing material. Plus, the distributor uses recycled materials for
shipping.

“You are getting a box that fits the product perfectly, the smallest box that
fits to avoid extra fill,” Davis
said.

“We wanted to take a leadership position as it relates to green,” Davis
said.