Carrier Enterprise Hits a Major Digital Sales Milestone
In an industry not always associated with cutting-edge digital transformation, Carrier Enterprise (CE) has done something remarkable: it now attributes 60% of its total revenue to digital channels. For a business-to-business HVAC distributor operating in a traditionally relationship-driven, offline-first market, this milestone represents far more than a impressive statistic. It signals a fundamental shift in how industrial distributors can and should think about ecommerce, customer experience, and long-term growth.
CE is a joint venture between Watsco Inc. and the Carrier Corporation. As one of the leading distributors of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in the United States, the company serves a wide range of contractors, dealers, and business customers who depend on fast, reliable access to products and supply chain support. Getting those customers to transact digitally — and to trust that experience — required a deliberate, multi-year strategy built around three core pillars: people, technology, and process.
Why Digital Transformation Matters for B2B HVAC Distribution
The HVAC distribution market has historically relied on phone orders, in-person branch visits, and long-standing personal relationships between sales reps and contractors. While those relationships still matter, customer expectations have changed dramatically. Contractors and dealers increasingly want the same seamless digital purchasing experiences they enjoy as consumers — fast search, accurate product information, real-time availability, and instant order confirmation.
For CE, recognizing this shift early and investing meaningfully in digital infrastructure gave it a competitive edge. Rather than treating ecommerce as a side project or a supplementary channel, CE repositioned digital as a core revenue engine. The results speak for themselves: 60% of total revenue now flowing through digital touchpoints is a benchmark that most B2B distributors would envy.
Vincent Mugavero, Senior Vice President of Digital and Enterprise Services at Carrier Enterprise, framed the achievement in terms of customer partnership rather than internal accomplishment. "Reaching 60% of our revenue through digital channels is an achievement we share with our customers," Mugavero said. "This is a reflection of their trust in us to evolve, innovate, and continue delivering the value they depend on."
That customer-centric framing is telling. CE did not simply build a digital storefront and hope contractors would show up. It designed a digital experience worthy of customer trust — and then earned it.
The People-First Approach to Digital Sales
One of the most distinctive aspects of CE's digital strategy is how it thought about talent. Rather than defaulting to the instinct of hiring ecommerce specialists or digital-native technology professionals to lead the transformation, CE took a different path. The company prioritized hiring and developing people who had deep knowledge of HVAC products and the distribution business itself.
The thinking was straightforward but powerful: ecommerce expertise can be learned, but industry knowledge and customer relationship skills take years to develop. By placing product-knowledgeable people at the center of its digital operations, CE ensured that its digital channels would reflect the same level of expertise and service quality that customers had come to expect from traditional sales interactions.
This approach repositioned ecommerce not as a technology experiment happening outside the core business, but as a natural extension of CE's existing strengths. The digital channel became a scaled version of the trusted, informed service that CE's customers had always valued — just faster, more accessible, and available around the clock.
Technology That Powers Performance
Of course, people alone cannot power a 60% digital revenue share without the right tools behind them. CE invested in a technology stack built to handle the complexity of HVAC distribution at scale.
A key component of that stack is its Product Information Management (PIM) platform. In B2B distribution, product data is notoriously complex. HVAC systems involve thousands of SKUs, technical specifications, compatibility requirements, and regulatory details. A robust PIM system ensures that all of this information is accurate, consistent, and easily accessible across every digital touchpoint — from the website to order management systems to customer-facing search tools.
CE also credited its ecommerce platform as a critical enabler of its digital results. A well-configured ecommerce platform designed for B2B needs — including features like account-based pricing, bulk ordering, and backorder management — creates the kind of friction-free purchasing experience that keeps contractors coming back.
Looking ahead, CE sees artificial intelligence as the next frontier for improving customer outcomes. Specifically, the company is focused on using AI to enhance search and discovery capabilities, helping customers find the right products faster and with greater confidence. In a catalogue with thousands of highly technical products, intelligent search is not a luxury — it is a competitive necessity.
Process: The Operational Backbone of Digital Success
Building great people and deploying great technology still requires a process layer to tie everything together. CE's operational commitments are evident in some of the specific performance metrics it highlighted. The company reported achieving six-second response times to live chat requests — a level of responsiveness that dramatically improves the customer experience and reduces the likelihood of customers going elsewhere when they have questions.
Efficient handling of backorders is another operational strength CE pointed to. In HVAC distribution, equipment availability can be unpredictable, and contractors often need parts urgently. Having streamlined sourcing processes for backorders means CE can continue serving customers reliably even when inventory is tight — a critical trust-builder in any distribution relationship.
What Other B2B Distributors Can Learn from Carrier Enterprise
Carrier Enterprise's journey to 60% digital revenue is not just a case study in HVAC — it is a blueprint for B2B distribution transformation more broadly. The lessons are clear:
- Invest in people who understand your products and your customers, not just your technology stack. Domain expertise is the foundation of a credible digital experience in complex B2B categories.
- Build a technology infrastructure that reflects the real complexity of your business. A PIM platform and purpose-built ecommerce tools are not optional for serious B2B digital operations — they are essential.
- Design operational processes that deliver on the promise of digital speed and convenience. Fast chat responses and reliable backorder fulfillment are the details that separate a digital channel customers trust from one they abandon.
- Use AI strategically to improve discovery and reduce friction in the buying journey, particularly in product-dense catalogues where finding the right item quickly is a genuine challenge.
CE's milestone is a reminder that digital transformation in B2B is not about chasing trends or replicating consumer ecommerce playbooks. It is about deeply understanding your customers, building the operational capabilities to serve them better, and using technology as an amplifier of those strengths. At 60% of revenue through digital channels — and growing — Carrier Enterprise has shown exactly what that looks like in practice.