AD eCommerce Initiative to Help Independent Wholesale Distributors
Affiliated Distributors continues to invest in its membership’s ability to better compete in the world of eCommerce through its AD eContent Service program. The program includes a comprehensive content management solution, featuring a shared Master eCatalog and Web Portal, along with member specific sub-catalog and store front options.
“Independent wholesale distributors’ battle for a level playing field must be fought anywhere that nationals are able to use their size and leverage to create a competitive advantage for themselves to the potential detriment of independents,” says Bill Weisberg, AD’s Chairman and CEO. “And one place that this battle must clearly be engaged and fought is on the Internet.”
Weisberg continues, “We have full time staff members working inside AD specifically to support eCommerce for our members, we have active engagements with business partners and consultants, and we are making direct investments along side our AD members for the express purpose of helping the AD Independents compete and win on the Internet. This includes eContent production, paid search demand generation and the purchase of licenses and technology. Our model is Member defined because we believe that distributors understand better than anyone how products should be organized (taxonomy) and what pieces of data are the most important about the products (attributes).”
The AD Industrial Division has undertaken and funded the build out of two million product SKUs and marketing content and maintenance to support them on an ongoing basis. The AD Electrical and Pipe, Valve & Fittings Divisions are revising the eCommerce initiatives they started several years ago to follow this model so that all seven AD divisions can leverage the group’s multi-Divisional economies of scale and share ongoing production costs and content.
To implement the program, AD has strategically partnered with Unilog, a global technology company specializing in eCommerce and enriched product catalogs for the B2B marketplace to provide its CIMM2 platform to its members.
According to Ed Crawford, AD’s president, Electrical Division, “This is a game changer for our members. Current data sources in the electrical industry lack consistency across suppliers as well as the marketing content needed to support a good eCommerce solution. There are a lot of people out there addressing this need for good eContent on their own, working to build a database that reflects their needs. But what they are finding is this is an incredible undertaking. Just getting the data in the format needed and keeping it current requires dedicated resources. However, working together we can build a cost effective solution for our members.”
