3M's Great New Discovery: The Internet (MMM)

3M (NYSE:MMM) is just today announcing the launch of its own eStore.  If you look through the press release it has all the reminders of 1999 when companies merely issued a press release saying "We Have An Internet Strategy" and seeing the share rise 10%.  The difference is that 3M is a major conglomerate that should have figured this out by now.  Almost every manufacturer has figured out that "Selling Direct Online" is not noticeable for a while to distributors and has become an acceptable cost of business.  The only funny thing is that they are still going likely to send you to a downstream store or center to buy the products and keep it more informational.

It is almost funny when you look at the press release. The company claims it is responding to customers’ expressed wishes for easy access to the company’s broad range of industrial products, 3M has created the 3M eStore. At the new site, customers in the 48 contiguous United States (guess Alaska and Hawaii still have to call around for Post-It notes) can purchase from a large and growing selection of 3M products with a simple credit card transaction.

By opening the 3M eStore, its products are in more locations where our customers can purchase them.   3M will connect customers directly to authorized distributors to set up an ongoing relationship so customers can find and purchase 3M products the way they want.

The website is www. 3MeStore.com and it’s sort of amazing that this hasn’t been up for, oh, anout 7 or 8 years by now.

Jon C. Ogg
July 10, 2007

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he does not own securities in the companies he covers.