Selling PVC Conduit: 5 Value Adds for Electrical Wholesalers

Electrical wholesalers should expect to move a lot more PVC conduit over the next few years. Builders are increasingly turning to PVC for residential and commercial projects, using this non-metallic conduit for power and telecommunications at once.

Building codes and related regulations require non-metallic conduit (like PVC) for installations that might be subjected to moisture or corrosion. Meanwhile, industrialization and urban expansion continue across the globe, driving the sorts of building projects that rely on PVC conduit. 

According to Global Market Insights, these trends will combine to drive a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 percent through 2032 in the global PVC conduit market. By 2032, PVC conduit sales around the world will be worth more than $1.8 billion, up from the already enormous value of $919.3 million in 2023. 

To sum it all up: If you operate an electrical wholesale business, PVC conduit could be a serious driver of business growth — assuming you can outmaneuver your competitors.  

Looking for material handling equipment that saves time at your warehouse and on the jobsite? Explore ergonomic electrical equipment from Solus Group.  

Competing on PVC Conduit in a Crowded Market

The challenge, of course, is that all your competitors know the value of PVC conduit, too. Competing on price leads to an industry-wide race to the bottom — and, besides, it’s hard to match the prices of enormous online dealers like Amazon Business. 

Luckily, small and medium-sized, locally owned electrical wholesalers have advantages that the corporate giants can’t match. You know your customers better. You have the time and expertise to offer personalized service. 

Perhaps most powerfully, especially when it comes to PVC conduit, you can offer value-added services that save electricians time, trouble, and cash at the jobsite. These are the advantages that can help you win and keep customers — without resorting to loss-leading pricing strategies. 

5 Value-Added Services for PVC Conduit Orders

Here are five value-added services that competitive electrical wholesalers offer alongside orders for PVC conduit: 

1. Custom Cuts

Traditionally, construction electricians showed up at a jobsite with a load of five-foot PVC conduit and cut everything to length as they worked. That added up to a lot of time spent measuring, cutting, deburring, and cementing lengths of pipe. It wasn’t the most efficient approach, which means it cost electrical firms a fortune in added time and labor. 

With the rise of building information modeling (BIM) software, however, building planners can get more exact estimates for materials before they even arrive at the jobsite. That’s led to an increased demand for exact conduit lengths. 

Help your customers use BIM software in the field with full-service, weather-resistant BIM Carts from Solus Group.  

By offering custom PVC conduit sizes — in length as well as diameter — you can meet this need head on. You can save electrical firms time on the job. By doing that, you can win customers for life. 

On your end, of course, this value add will require an investment in labor and miter saws. You may also wish to change your own stocking strategy, relying on longer PVC conduit pieces from the manufacturer. These changes will provide a quick return on investment, however, through the repeat business they can help to earn. 

2. Custom Bends and Offsets

You probably stock a wide variety of manufactured bends in your PVC conduit collection: 30’s, 45’s, 90’s, and more. But these pre-fabricated bends won’t always fit your customer’s custom installation — especially when you consider the specificity required for box and fixture offsets. 

The traditional approach to these tricky bends and offsets was simple: A heat gun and lots of trial and error. Again, these are tasks that drain skilled labor’s time and efficiency in the field, leading to longer job turnaround times and higher costs for your customers. 

Give electrical firms the option to order built-to-spec PVC bends and offsets. Your fabrication team can complete these all at once, completing them faster than electricians operating in an ad-hoc fashion at the jobsite. 

3. Custom Colors and Markings

According to the National Electrical Code (NEC), Article 352, code 352.120, PVC conduit must be marked every 10 feet (3 meters). These markings must include at least the following information: 

• Conduit material type
• The manufacturer’s name, trademark, or other identifier
• If reconditioned, the date of reconditioning

When electricians cut and assemble conduit runs on their own, this rule creates a challenge: They have to make sure to include a marked section every 10 feet. You can provide a simple solution by offering custom markings with PVC conduit orders. 

You might consider custom dying, too, for electrical firms that organize their conduit by color. These value-added services allow electrical firms to skip their own prefabrication work, so they can complete installations faster, improving overall profitability. 

4. Bundled Support Equipment

The principle behind all these value-added solutions is to save electricians time and frustration. Another way to do this is to offer helpful tools with every large order of PVC conduit. 

Consider throwing in heat guns for on-the-job bends; PVC saws; deburring tools; PVC cement; and Electrical Conduit Gauges. These are relatively low-cost items, and they can help your customers avoid delays, which they’ll appreciate. 

You can even go one step further and brand these tools with your own colors and logos. That way, when your tool saves the day, customers will know exactly who they have to thank.  

5. Delivered Solutions

Field technicians in the electrical industry can spend up to 40 percent of their day on material handling alone. That’s nearly half a shift spent not on installation, but on carrying things back and forth — including conduit. 

This inefficiency offers a great opportunity for electrical wholesalers to prove themselves indispensable. You can greatly reduce on-the-job material handling by shipping PVC conduit orders pre-loaded onto specialized material carts. 

How might such a delivered solution work? Rather than shipping a bundle of PVC conduit on its own, your team would secure the order to a high-capacity Conduit Carrier Cart. Then you’d ship the whole loaded cart to the customer’s jobsite. 

That way, electricians can start installing conduit right off the truck: No need for loading, unloading, or handling before getting to work. 

When the job is complete, your customer simply returns the Conduit Carrier Cart, so it’s ready for the next order. This is a powerful value add because it saves significant time, and helps to reduce your customer’s spend on material handling equipment. When you offer delivered solutions, customers tend to come back again and again. 

But not every cart will work for every PVC conduit installation job. Here’s an introduction to the types of Conduit Carrier Carts every wholesaler should have on offer. 

Conduit Carrier Carts for Delivered Electrical Solutions

Solus Group offers four models of Conduit Carrier Carts, each designed for a different use case, but all of which feature heavy-duty steel construction, smooth-rolling casters, fork pockets, and a durable powder coating. 

Here’s an electrical wholesaler’s introduction to Conduit Carrier Carts from Solus Group. 

1. Standard Conduit Carrier Carts

Our flagship model of Conduit Carrier Cart carries up to 3,000 pounds (1,360 kilograms) of rigid conduit at a time. That means it can easily contain a whole job’s worth of PVC conduit. 

The cart rolls easily on four phenolic casters, and it’s thin enough to fit through standard doorways and narrow aisles. Integrated fork pockets provide transportation via lift truck. 

This is the model to offer for virtually any PVC conduit installation job. Indoors, the casters and narrow profile greatly simplify material handling. Forklift compatibility allows outdoor industrial trucks to carry conduit just as easily. 

Explore Conduit Carrier Carts from Solus Group. 

2. Conduit Carrier, 1,500-Pound Capacity

Smaller installations don’t need 3,000 pounds of PVC conduit. For these jobs, offer your customers a delivered solution featuring the Conduit Carrier, 1,500-Pound (680-Kilogram) Capacity. 

As the product name suggests, this Conduit Carrier Cart offers half the carrying capacity of the standard model. That makes it lighter and easier to maneuver — though it’s also designed for tough industrial environments, with a powerful welded-steel frame. 

Learn more about the Conduit Carrier, 1,500-Pound Capacity.

3. Tilting Elevator Conduit Cart

Multi-story constructions create a challenge for handling conduit: Elevator cars are too small for long runs to fit horizontally. 

The Tilting Elevator Conduit Cart offers a simple solution. This conduit cart swivels vertically to hold conduit in an upright position. That makes it possible to navigate virtually any small elevator car or tight turn. 

The trade-off for this functionality is a slightly lower carrying capacity of 1,000 pounds (453 kilograms) — but that’s still more than enough for lightweight PVC conduit. Consider offering delivered solutions on a Tilting Elevator Conduit Cart for customers who work with elevators or particularly narrow aisles. 

Buy Tilting Elevator Conduit Carts from Solus Group. 

4. Conduit Carrier Cart, 6,000-Pound Capacity

Here’s a cart for the largest of jobs — or your own electrical warehouse. The Conduit Carrier Cart, 6,000-Pound Capacity is our biggest, highest-capacity conduit cart. As such, it’s designed for use only with industrial trucks; no one is likely to manually push around 6,000 pounds (2,721 kilograms) of conduit. 

You can send massive conduit orders out on this cart, or use it to simplify stocking and handling within your facility.  

Discover the Conduit Carrier Cart, 6,000-Pound Capacity. 

Choosing Conduit Carrier Carts for PVC Conduit Orders

Not sure which cart will make the most effective delivered solution for your customers’ PVC conduit orders? 

Contact the material handling experts at Solus Group. We’ll help you find the ideal equipment to meet your specific needs — and the needs of your customers, whether you’re selling PVC conduit, cable, wire, or any other electrical materials. 

Call us at 314-696-0200 to start the conversation.