RX for Product Data Sharing Headaches: Only Anarus Has a Long-lasting Cure

Sharing is hard. And if you’re talking about moving detailed information for thousands of parts between manufacturers and hundreds of independent distributor companies – all with unique data requirements – sharing isn’t just hard, it’s time-consuming, expensive, and risky too. Both manufacturers and distributors need a remedy, because the wholesale distribution marketplace is quickly moving online

In this blog, we examine wholesale distribution data challenges and introduce you to a new UNIVERSAL SOURCE of standardized product data that cures the nagging complications of sharing full-featured, real-time, manufacturer product data for ecommerce.

Pros and Cons of Co-op and Association Databases

Very large distributors with staff to spare launched into ecommerce by building their own product databases from the ground up, but that’s not a realistic feat for the majority of wholesale distributors. For that reason, distributor co-ops and associations have worked diligently to bring data costs down and make manufacturer data more accessible to their members. By pooling resources and encouraging manufacturers to get on board, each group built its own database.

Note: co-ops and associations are all doing the same amount of work, spending similar sums of money, and dedicating the same amount of time building their own separate databases

The Cost of Sharing Product Data

Every manufacturer stores data in different formats, with different fields, and wildly varied levels of detail. To help make product data more useful for ecommerce, co-ops and associations acquired data from their participating manufacturers, cleaned it, and stored it in their product information management systems (PIM). By participating in these groups, manufacturers don’t have to format data for all hundreds or thousands of their distributors – the buyers group does the formatting and data distribution instead.

Both manufacturers and distributors must pay to participate in co-op and association databases. While the cost is considerably lower than developing a database on their own, some distributors may be paying as much as $2000 per month to access the data.

Data Pain Points

Even with all that effort, not all the headaches of product data exchange have been eliminated:

• Manufacturers must supply data and updates to multiple groups if they want to reach all their distributors.
• Manufacturers don’t have as much control over their data once it’s out of their hands as they’d like, so not all manufacturers are willing to participate.
• Not all manufacturers have PIMs, so they can’t easily participate even if they want to.
• Not all distributors are part of these groups, so manufacturers still need to send data directly to them.
• Not all manufacturers choose to participate in these association and buyers group databases, so distributors still need to do extra work if they want to include products from any manufacturers that aren’t part of the group database.
• Not all distributors can afford to participate in these programs.
• Not all databases are diligent about updating their content – so distributors can find themselves with stale product specifications, outdated images, or inaccurate descriptions.

A Universal Remedy: Defragmenting the Wholesale Distribution Industry

Anarus is defragmenting the wholesale distribution industry with a UNIVERSAL SOURCE of standardized product data called Grand Anar. Grand Anar is the cloud-powered data exchange network – with advanced data security features and affordable monthly subscriptions – that cures all the nagging complications of sharing full-featured, real-time product data for ecommerce.

Grand Anar standardizes data in its private cloud network so distributors can gain authorized access to all of their participating manufacturers’ parts data in one place and in one consistent, ecommerce-ready format. For more insights, read the Malco Tools case study or contact us for a demo.