As is the case in almost all industries, the advent of the World Wide Web has changed the way that businesses in the hospitality and catering sector now operate. When it comes to purchasing catering equipment, previously businesses in the industry would have scouted catalogues, visited trade shows or manufacturer showrooms and talked to sales representatives. They would have compared their different options and made an educated decision on what to purchase and from whom.

The Internet has taken this decision making process to a completely different level. Today buyers can sit in the comfort of their own offices and get all the information they need to make a successful purchase. Almost all catering equipment suppliers have a website that provides information about their products. The good ones will give full specification details, warranty information and, of course, the price. The result is that buyers of commercial equipment can do all their research online and make sure that the products they are interested in will meet their needs. They can also compare distributors against each other in terms of price, warranty, delivery time etc.

However some purchasers are still wary about the information they obtain from the net and feel that they may miss something vital by relying on it. They may also be wary of the anonymity that the Internet creates. Rest assured that the "good" catering equipment suppliers are fully aware of this. As such while they use their websites to provide as much information about their products as possible, they are still open to having human interaction with their customers. In fact a good supplier would encourage it. As professionals they are qualified to advise you on your product choices and can work with you to equip your establishment appropriately. Such suppliers will have their phone numbers clearly stated on their sites and will also offer buyers the opportunity to purchase over the phone and not just over the Internet.

In this way purchasers really can have the best of both worlds. They can use the net to carry out preliminary research to determine the issues they should be considering and also to obtain information about the products they are interested in. They can then back this up by talking to professionals, and as such can feel secure about the integrity of the information that they have obtained. Moreover purchasers no longer have to be limited by geography. Before the Internet, buyers tended to look for suppliers based in their immediate vicinity. Thus if they were located in London, they would only look for suppliers of catering equipment in London. Now the Internet gives them access to companies throughout the nation. They may find for example that a company much further away can offer them a better deal than a more local firm even when delivery costs are accounted for. This is a clear illustration of how the internet has in effect created competition for equipment suppliers which ultimately is of great benefit to all consumers – tech wary or not!