From Legacy Distributor to Digital Growth Partner: Eastern Industrial Automation & Zoro

Eastern Industrial Automation (EIA) and Zoro are redefining what it means to partner for success within the distribution industry. They’ve combined the strength of traditional industrial expertise with the scale, speed, and simplicity of modern ecommerce to help more customers access the tools, parts, and supplies they need to get the job done.

Founded by Richard Gorsey in 1963 as Eastern Bearings, Inc., Eastern Industrial Automation has grown into a trusted national partner. Today, the company blends decades of hands-on experience with the capabilities of a highly skilled and dedicated team.

Eastern Industrial Automation is recognized nationwide for exceptional customer service, extensive on-hand inventory, advanced engineering capabilities, global business support, and fully integrated procurement solutions. As an authorized representative for more than 1,000 leading manufacturers worldwide, EIA provides access to best-in-class technologies across Bearings, Power Transmission, Automation, Pneumatics, Hydraulics, and other critical industrial components.

EIA’s hybrid approach goes beyond traditional distribution with a commitment to technical excellence and an exceptional business acumen. The company provides technical support for every product it sells, designs solutions directly into customer applications, repairs and services supported equipment, and leverages predictive technologies to identify machine condition issues before failures occur. The result is reliable solutions, measurable value, and a lower total cost of ownership.

Today, under the leadership of Drew Tucci, Vice President of Sales and Marketing, EIA continues to redefine what it means to be a modern distributor. “We pride ourselves on delivering packaged solutions that directly impact our customers’ bottom line,” says Tucci. “From procurement solutions, application engineering, and quality products to lifecycle prediction, repair, installation, and downtime prevention—we solve problems end-to-end.”

EIA blends its strength as a traditional industrial distributor with the agility of a modern, tech-enabled enterprise. In June 2023, the company accelerated its digital transformation by partnering with Zoro, the leading ecommerce platform for MRO, industrial products, and business products that help businesses and their people thrive.

By pairing EIA’s deep technical knowledge with Zoro’s expansive online reach and more than one million active B2B customers, the partnership reflects a shared commitment to growth, reliability, and innovation.

Despite its broad product offering, EIA recognized an opportunity to make its extensive catalog easier to discover and purchase online. Through its partnership with Zoro, EIA unlocked greater visibility and incremental growth by reaching customers beyond its traditional sales channels. The collaboration brought together EIA’s inventory depth and Zoro’s ecommerce strength, providing access to complex and hard-to-find industrial components.

EIA’s onboarding with Zoro was built around scalability, precision, and continuous improvement. Early on, both teams identified data quality as a critical success factor for online selling.

From the outset, the partnership emphasized high-quality product content. Every listing was built with accurate attributes, clear descriptions, and high-resolution imagery—an approach that strengthened customer confidence, improved the online shopping experience, and increased conversion rates. Just as importantly, this discipline established a scalable foundation for long-term assortment growth and partnership success.

The impact of the partnership was quickly evident.

Increased visibility EIA’s top product lines reached a broader audience, while slowermoving items found renewed demand online.	Enhanced discoverability Previously hard-to-find industrial components became easier to locate through Zoro’s search and categorization tools.	Data-driven improvements Automated ERP-to-Zoro data mapping reduced launch times and improved product presentation.

A major milestone in the partnership was the successful online launch of Linear Guides, one of EIA’s most complex and data-intensive categories.

Through close collaboration on merchandising, imagery, and product structure, EIA and Zoro developed a scalable digital model that now informs expansions into categories such as rails and motion systems. This will enable customers to find the products they need quickly and confidently.

“Our work on Linear Guides was a turning point,” says Katie Dent, Marketing & Communications at EIA. “We turned complexity into a repeatable, scalable digital process.”

Beyond category expansion, EIA’s digital transformation has strengthened its ability to manage supplier features and enrich product data. This has led to an expanded Zoro offering in more than 32 new product areas, including rotary unions, couplings, belts, and gearboxes. The company continues to see year-over-year growth as automation capabilities and its partnership with Zoro expand.

“Eastern Industrial Automation has become a key fulfillment partner,” says Mark Petranek, Senior Category Manager at Zoro. “Their reliability and service allow us to focus on innovation and category growth—creating a virtuous cycle of customer satisfaction and sales expansion.”

As Eastern Industrial Automation continues to expand its partnership with Zoro and invest in their capabilities, the mission remains clear: deliver total solutions that combine technical expertise, robust inventory, and global procurement solutions.

With more than six decades of engineering excellence and a pragmatic, forward-looking approach, Eastern Industrial Automation’s partnership with Zoro demonstrates how legacy distributors can thrive in the modern era by bridging the gap between industry tradition and digital transformation.