AD announces eContent Service program
AD, the $31 billion contractor and industrial products wholesale buying/marketing group, announced creation of the AD eContent Service program.
The program includes a comprehensive content management solution which includes 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. And one place that this battle must clearly be engaged and fought is on the Internet,” said Bill Weisberg, AD chairman and CEO.
Weisberg continued, “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.
“AD’s eContent initiative will result in a library of richly attributed and maintained SKU data that our members can use in their web storefronts. Ultimately, we will have millions of SKUs for our members use," said Jack Templin, AD president, Industrial Division. "The national chains have entire departments with of hundreds of employees dedicated to building and maintaining of content. Even our largest members may only be able to staff up five or six people to do that. When we work on something collaboratively, we're able to do something bigger together.”
To implement the program, AD has 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.
Suchit Bachalli, president of Unilog North America, added, “We believe this is a watershed moment in wholesale distribution. When you look at the collective power that AD brings, this program is going to have a meaningful impact on the entire industry. We’re very pleased to be partnering with AD to deliver this program to its members, helping them to achieve a superior eCommerce presence. Our platform, CIMM2, is uniquely designed to address the host of complex integration challenges that wholesale distributors often face when deploying an online storefront, hindering them from competing in a digital world. By providing the right tools and technology, we want to help these businesses eliminate the boundaries prohibiting them from making eCommerce a reality.”
INDUSTRIAL SUPPLY MAGAZINE
The March/April issue of Industrial Supply magazine features an in-depth cover story about Joyce Lansdale and Vallen. Plus, we're featuring articles by contributing writers Dirk Beveridge, Frank Hurtte, and David Kahle, as well as interviews with numerous product and distribution industry experts.
