Connecting Behind the Click – 2026 Digital Beacon Awards

Every click on Bloedorns’ website—bloedorns.com—represents something Nate Laible would ultimately like to turn into a conversation.

As the company’s director of marketing and retail operations manager, Laible helped shape its redesigned website and e-commerce experience around that connection—giving customers easier access to products, inventory and pricing while introducing them to the people and expertise that can carry a project much further than an online shopping cart.

That approach earned Bloedorns the 2026 Digital Beacon Award for Best Website or E-Commerce Experience.

“We want to leverage technology to make the buying experience as easy as possible while still allowing our people to provide the value and expertise we know our customers need,” Laible says. “As technology changes, that balance continues to guide how we improve the site.”

That balance has more than a century of history behind it. Founded in 1917 and incorporated two years later, Bloedorns grew from its Wyoming lumberyard roots into a regional building materials colossus. Today, the company has more than 400 employees, 22 retail stores and three truss-manufacturing plants across Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska and Colorado.

As the company developed a new brand identity, its digital presence needed to evolve alongside. The challenge was to bring the products, people and expertise that had long defined the in-person Bloedorns experience onto the screen while making it easier for customers to find what they need.

2 Jobs, 1 Experience

Rather than asking one website to do everything, Bloedorns decided to divide the job.

Its primary company and brand site tells customers who and what Bloedorns is. Photography, video, employees, product information and professional services help establish what the business can offer before a customer ever contacts a location.

Its e-commerce component handles a different task, giving customers access to inventory and pricing and helping them find products.

That structure reflects Bloedorns’ tagline: “Products you need. People you trust.”

Products customers already search for form much of the foundation. From there, the site connects visitors with related brands, categories and services, giving Bloedorns opportunities to demonstrate how its capabilities extend across a project.

“Bloedorns’ site feels clean while still being informative,” says Digital Beacon Awards judge Kathryn Emery, home improvement and lifestyle expert and creator of BeTheBestHome.com. “It’s easy to navigate and does a great job showcasing the breadth of what the company offers.”

Bloedorns also designed the site so new pages can be added easily, enabling its marketing team to create targeted landing pages and campaigns as opportunities emerge.

Laible, though, sees the website’s job as beginning before a transaction rather than ending with one.

“We’re beginning to build a relationship from the second someone lands on our site, and we want that to translate into a professional buying experience when they walk into one of our locations,” he says.

That’s particularly important for a company serving customers whose needs can range from a weekend repair to a complicated construction project with demanding schedules and material requirements.

“Our salespeople know our customers, and our sales representatives are ingrained in our customers’ businesses,” Laible says. “That creates real value for our customers.”

The website gives Bloedorns another place to establish that value.

Moving Online to IRL

That emphasis on relationships also shapes how Laible measures the site’s success.

Bloedorns tracks online sales, page visits and other familiar digital metrics. Laible says the company has seen a boost in forms submitted for products and services, while targeted landing pages have created additional opportunities for focused marketing campaigns.

He’s cautious about allowing a dashboard to define the site’s value, though.

“We can pull those reports and see that data, but those numbers don’t always tell the entire story,” he says.

The website also serves as a home for Bloedorns’ Core Values and Guiding Principles and reinforces internally what the company wants the customer experience to represent. Professional services and expertise receive space alongside products and prices.

Keeping those elements together matters even more as customers expect digital shopping to become increasingly faster and easier.

Bloedorns intends to keep pace with those expectations while preserving the expertise and personal service that distinguish the company from a simple online transaction.

For a company that has spent more than 100 years selling lumber and building materials, the website ultimately has much the same assignment as the people behind its counters: to help customers find what they’re looking for and give them a reason to come back.

For Laible, that means the most valuable click is ultimately one that starts a conversation.

“Technology should support what makes your business valuable,” he says. “Not replace it.”