Avnet Inc., a multibillion-dollar electronics distributor, is pushing ahead with a digital commerce strategy to better compete in an industry loaded with online competitors.

To oversee its sharpened focus on ecommerce, Avnet yesterday named veteran digital executive Dave Youngblood to the newly created position of chief digital officer.

Dave Youngblood, chief digital officer, Avnet Inc.

“We are pleased to bring Dave on board to hone our focus on delivering leading digital and ecommerce capabilities,” CEO Phil Gallagher said. “His leadership will help us make it even easier to do business with Avnet digitally, ensure we’re delivering actionable data and, ultimately, enable our customers to move faster at scale.”

Youngblood, with 25  years in the electronics industry, most recently was head of digital customer experience at Analog Devices Inc., a global semiconductor supplier that “combines analog, digital, and software technologies into solutions that help drive advancements in digitized factories, mobility, and digital healthcare.” ADI makes its products available for purchase or quotes through an ADI e-shop that it describes “as the easiest way to buy direct.”

Prior to ADI, Youngblood was a digital operations executive at Murata Manufacturing Co. and Texas Instruments.

In his new chief digital officer position at Avnet, Youngblood will “lead and further enable Avnet’s enterprise-wide digital platform and ecommerce approach,” Avnet said in a statement announcing his appointment. Youngblood reports to CEO Gallagher and will join the company’s executive leadership team.

Avnet faces established ecommerce competitors

Avnet and its new CDO face plenty of competitors with established ecommerce operations, including Arrow Electronics, Future Electronics, Mouser Electronics, DigiKey and World Peace Group.

Phil Gallagher, CEO, Avnet Inc.

In a recent earnings call, Gallagher said Avnet intends to fine-tune its strategy of building out its ecommerce experience and using Farnell’s expertise.

For its fiscal year ended June 29, 2024, Avnet reported total revenue of $23.76 billion. Most of that revenue, or 93.3%, was from its Electronic Components division, the remainder from its Farnell operating group.

Avnet doesn’t break out total ecommerce sales but notes that Farnell, with $1.60 billion in revenue, sells “primarily through an ecommerce channel.” Farnell’s product lines include semiconductor, electromechanical components and electronic testing and measuring equipment that it primarily sells to “lower-volume customers that need electronic components quickly to develop, prototype and test their products.”

Avnet builds on its ecommerce expertise

Farnell operates the Newark.com commerce site for the U.S. and other markets including Brazil; it operates ecommerce site Farnell.com for the United Kingdom, Germany and other markets. Farnell also operates Element14 as a community resource and ecommerce site for electronics engineers.

Avnet also operates an Avnet-branded ecommerce site.

Avnet’s headquarters in Phoenix.

“We’re going to continue to look at the strategy structure to leverage the best of Avnet … in total with Farnell,” Gallagher said on the earnings call, according to a transcript from Seeking Alpha.

He added, “We continue to invest in the digital front end, the ecommerce front end. We’re not slowing down on that at all, because we think it’s critical for the long-term value prop that we see Farnell can bring Avnet and its shareholders. So, stay tuned for more.”

Paul Demery is a Digital Commerce 360 contributing editor covering B2B digital commerce technology and strategy. [email protected].

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