Congratulations to Wesley (Wes) Penrose on his promotion to the newly created role of Director of Digital Solutions. Wes began his career at Gescan as the Digital Marketing and eCommerce Manager in 2015. Having previously worked in both the client and agency side of digital marketing locally and internationally, he brings more than 14 years of eCommerce experience to the role.   

Originally brought on to help Gescan acquire new business in areas where physical branches weren’t present, Wes has been instrumental in Gescan’s digital transformation and growing Gescan and Sonepar Canada’s eCommerce adoption.   

Wes’ first initiative in generating adoption by existing customers to Gescan’s digital solutions was ensuring transacting online was as easy as possible while complementing the branch experience. Second, Wes targeted the acquisition of new customers through our open cart webshop utilizing SEO and PPC advertising. Gescan was the first operating company at Sonepar to launch an “open-catalogue” webshop (allowing new customers to shop without needing a branch account). Wes also implemented the digitization of Gescan’s back-end processes, rebuilding the company’s entire platform to improve the hierarchy and searchability of the site. In optimizing our digital marketing tactics and on-site capabilities, he expanded Gescan outside our brick-and-mortar footprint to reach across Canada and beyond.  

After developing a multi-year award-winning platform that has defined Sonepar and growing the digital department, Wes and the team successfully launched several more digital solutions to Gescan’s digital portfolio, including a best-in-class native mobile app, email to ERP ordering, eQuotes, Vendor Managed Inventory, EDI electronic order transferring, Punchout for procurement systems, Scan & Go in-branch express checkout and centralized text messaging.     

Wes has also expanded his team to include regional eCommerce Specialists and is continuing to build it out further, “Our specialists work with our branches and customers to introduce and educate them on our digital tools. Our job is to understand how they do business and find ways we can make their lives easier through digital. They [customers] may not realize there is an efficiency to be had, our eCommerce Specialists help them discover and utilize our tools. Ultimately, we help find efficiencies.” Wes plans to bring in more developers to focus on internal apps and platforms as well to drive digital efficiencies within our back office.  

Wes is driven to deliver value for not only our customers but branches as well, “Digital is a complementary channel. It doesn’t replace branches or people, just provides an added experience for our customers. It’s phygital (the merging of physical and digital).” As far as increasing competition from eComm giants like Amazon, Wes said, “We excel because of the great relationships our branch staff create with our customers. The strength of our branch staff and the relationships they actively maintain, the Amazon’s of the world just aren’t able to replicate that.”   

When Wes isn’t innovating our digital offerings, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children. He also works out, golfs, and heads to the pub when he can.