Manufacturers & Distributors Come Together in Chicago to Discuss Manufacturer Created Product Data Information Sets

During the first week of April, ASA welcomed representatives from seven manufacturers and six distributors to Chicago for round table sessions to facilitate discussion and broaden learnings focused on the topic of manufacturer created product data information sets.  Each of the round table sessions was facilitated by ASA’s VP of Innovation, Beth Ladd. 

During the manufacturer session, discussion illustrated the highly varied and ever-increasing frequency and distributor demand for product data sets that include (example) product attributes like: color, weight, UPC and retail price.  Further, more complex data types like installation documents, photos and videos are also frequently requested by distributors.

During the distributor session, discussion illustrated the varied order of supplied columnar product data, the addition and omission of columns, data quality and data integrity as significant challenges.  Further, photo quality, accuracy and even absence were noted by distributors.

Both manufacturers and distributors agree that there are potential paths for improvement.  Willingness to explore the potential of creating recommendations for things like: column names, column order, included columns and descriptions was present within both groups.

ASA is in the process of finalizing learnings from these discovery sessions and anticipates the continued interest of both distributor members and manufacturer partners in topic of improving manufacturer product data and related business processes.

Want to learn more? Contact Beth Ladd at bladd@asa.net.