By Scott Costa, Publisher, tED magazine
How will your e-commerce strategy over the next 12 months ensure your company the best success for the future? A discussion at the NAED National Meeting will offer some advice on what worked for the panelist over the last year.
“You need to have an e-commerce strategy, and quality data is as essential component that is often not given a high enough priority. You can have the best looking fixtures and lighting design, but if they are not wired properly, they still won’t work. Quality data is the key to really making e-commerce successful,” Denise Keating, President of DATAgility, told tED magazine.
And that is a big reason why the NAED Manufacturer’s Council has decided to hold the event, “Growing Your Company’s Sales and ROI with IDW”, at the NAED National Meeting in Washington, D.C. May 11-14. Keating will moderate the panel, which includes John Eggleton of Kirby Risk, Andrew Quinn of ILSCO, George Vorwick of United Electric Supply, and Paul Molitor of IDEA. The event is open to all attendees and will facilitate a discussion on the huge benefits that are provided by IDW/IDEA. Discussion will focus on the reasons for involvement today by both distributors and manufacturers through a clear, practical plan of best practices for utilizing this single place for quality product information.
The primary goal for this panel is that we want manufacturers and distributors to leave the session excited about the opportunities that high quality data brings to their organization and their channel partners—IDEA and internally to do what is required to support data quality efforts as a sustainable, repeatable process to achieve new heights in cost reductions, sales growth, and customer loyalty and satisfaction. “We need that strong commitment and full participation from every distributor and manufacturers to reach the fullest potential value and to assure the long term success and vitality of the channel,” Keating added.
Keating also points out that the B2B marketspace is undergoing tremendous change and the channel needs to be ready to support it and so anyone who is interested in gaining the competitive advantage today or planning to be relevant long into the future should attend.
Manufacturers and Distributors face challenges as B2B buyers expect the same customer experience they enjoy in their retail e-commerce world. The digital transformation is putting the control of the purchasing experience in the hands of the buyer and without great content, sales opportunities are lost. How channel partners work together to improve the speed and quality of product information has never been more critical. The industry leaders who are on the panel will focus on the value proposition that content plays to keep competition from chipping away at profits and not only to retain customers, but how product information can help grow the customer base.
“Too many people approach this as a once and done process, I encourage every manufacturer who is working on providing data to IDEA and reaching certification to not view it as reaching a finishing line but a milestone in a journey – data has never been a destination and will always continue to be a journey. “Make no doubt the rapid evolution of new and better technology will continue drive more robust content requirements. We need to leverage IDEA, but it doesn’t overrule the need for communication between channel partners'” added Keating.
As far as the event itself, Keating is excited because the panelists are business leaders. “We have gathered CEO’s who can talk strategy and have seen the light and recognize the impact of this. I want them to share success stories. It has to start at the top and work its way down through the organization,” Keating says.
So, since you are already attending the NAED National Meeting, you need to put this event on your calendar. It will be Friday, May 13 at 9:15am. The “Growing Your Company’s Sales and ROI with IDW” is open for anyone to attend, and there are no other NAED scheduled events at that time.
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