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Applied Industrial Braves Headwinds with Website Launch

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Applied Industrial Technologies, Inc. (AIT - Free Report) adopted a new approach to capture market demand by launching an e-commerce website. This digital platform will help the company access a wider share of customers as well as boost its brand status in the market.
    
The new website of the company – www.applied.com – includes better interactive and navigation functionality throughout, with complete access to intricate order and product information. The website visitors would be able to acquire valuable information about the company’s industrial MRO (‘maintenance, repair, and operations’) products in a much quicker way. The new website of the company would be accessible from almost all kind of internet-enables device.  

Henceforth, it is anticipated that the transformed website of Applied Industrial Technologies would make product retailing more convenient and faster. Moreover, the digital buyers would be able to take advantage of parametric filters that would narrow their search results on grounds of key attributes, thus, simplifying product selection. Innovative features such as “Mini-Cart” and “Quote Pad” have made the website unique and highly user friendly in nature.

Moving Forward

Applied Industrial Technologies, operating across 560 business facilities, sells roughly five million industrial equipment parts annually to customers across all industries. Additionally, the company offers services like integration, designing and engineering of fluid power applications. The organization is also a popular provider of customized mechanical and fluid power store services in the market, along with specialized storage management solutions. The company constantly endeavors to augment  customer value through better business offerings. We believe that the redesigned website would help the company tap greater market demand in the near term and hence drive its top line in the new fiscal year.

Zacks Rank and Share Price

Applied Industrial Technologies currently carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). The company has been facing several industry specific headwinds. Slow global economic growth is hurting demand for companies belonging to the industrial or manufacturing sector such as Applied Industrial Technologies. Even so, appreciating U.S. currency remains a major concern for the stock.

Share price of the company was $47.26 per share as of Aug 25, 2016. We project the aforesaid new website launch announcement to result in stock price movement in the near term.

Stocks to Consider

Some better-ranked stocks within the industry include DXP Enterprises, Inc. (DXPE - Free Report) , Gorman-Rupp Co. (GRC - Free Report) and Nordson Corporation (NDSN - Free Report) . All the three companies sport a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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