Selling Online #7 : Call to action for OEM’s and Distributors

Last issue I wrote about product merchandising or presenting products you have for sale to your site’s visitors. This month I’m going to talk about where the bulk of that product information should be coming from. Get ready, because I’m about to engage in a little soap-box rant session this month.

After spending the last few years running the e-business operations at A&S BMW Motorcycles I’ve been blown away by how phenomenally behind the times the powersports industry is in regards to technology enabled modern business practices (especially when the estimated $32 Billion size of the market for after-market parts, accessories, and apparel sales is taken into consideration). My message to all suppliers of powersports-related products:

Welcome to the 21st century! Get with the times when it comes to providing merchandising information about your products! Stop killing trees! Paper is dead. Long live the ones and zeros!

I’m stunned by how difficult most suppliers make it for me to sell their products on our web site. In talking to other powersports retailers with eCommerce operations, I know I’m not alone. Suppliers have almost nothing in digital format, and if they do, it’s like pulling teeth to get it. The worst case example is having to spend several hours taking information that was originally on one computer somewhere, now in printed catalog form, and re-entering into our computer. There is truly no greater waste of my time. What’s even crazier from an industry perspective is that this exact same thing is happening hundreds of times for each retailer that wants to sell those products. It’s insane!

The paradigm change that has to occur is that suppliers need to realize that their key value proposition is not sending out phonebook-sized catalogs and shipping parts. Their real value is as a source of information. The easier it is for the retail end of the supply chain to access and communicate that data to the end consumer, the easier it will be to sell more products.

The Motorcycle Industry Council has created a data exchange protocol called Powersports Standard Protocol (PSP) that currently deals with the connection of the dealer management system (DMS) with the supplier specifically for things like placing & tracking stock orders and checking inventory. I’ve begun discussions with the MIC to expand the scope of this data protocol to include merchandising information that will aid in multi-channel sales of powersports related products.

My dream would be for suppliers to maintain the merchandising information necessary for robust presentation of the products they represent. All of this information should be held in a central data repository and anyone with authorization would be able to pull from this source for the products they are interested in presenting. This would help on-line sales and would also help large distributors build their catalogs by leveraging the digital information and allowing for extreme automation. It’s amazing that the large distributors have not pushed their suppliers for more digital information in the same way that Wal-Mart has pushed for that kind of capability in the packaged retail goods space. Remember, we’re talking about a $32 Billion industry here.

There is some potential however. There are two contenders that should be taking point on this. The first is Powersports Network (PSN). PSN currently offers dealers fairly generic, plug and play websites that have an eCommerce offering. The real meat of what PSN offers is their eCommerce catalog engine. PSN has taken on the mind-boggling task of transcribing just about every major OEM’s and distributor’s catalog, and offering it in an ecommerce module within the dealer’s website. The downside to this (as I’ve pointed out before) is that there is little opportunity for a dealer to create any competitive advantage with differentiated merchandising since it’s the exact same eCommerce experience on every PSN powered dealer’s site.

If PSN was to offer the data behind their eCommerce engine to retailers that wanted to create and operate their own sites that would absolutely be the killer application. PSN could still offer their more full-service offerings to dealers that don’t want to take on ecommerce as a primary line of business, but for multi-channel retailers (primarily catalog mail order and e-commerce) the value would be immense in providing the foundation upon which to build a successful business. PSN’s key advantage in the future is not the creation of a commodity product by producing template-based websites. It’s the ownership, management, and distribution of valuable business information that no one else is providing. At least that’s my opinion, and you know what they say about opinions.

And considering that the guys behind PSN sold if for at least two butt-loads of money to Dominion Enterprises and probably got insanely and filthy rich, and I’m still stuck working for a motorcycle dealership and pounding out a monthly column for peanuts, indicates that I’m doing something really, really wrong with my life…

The risk for PSN is that in the near future they could be disintermediated if enough suppliers begin offering the raw data directly, thus removing the need for PSN’s data. If the MIC’s PSP program was expanded sooner than later to provide a uniform format for merchandising information, and suppliers begin using it to provide the required information via their own web services (which is the most logical course of action), PSN would miss out on a huge opportunity. It would seem to me that PSN should move on this sooner rather than later. Use the muscle developed from their enormous network of dealer sites and push back to the suppliers, demanding fully digital merchandising information.

My next contender is Tucker Rocky. They have the technical ability and at least some interest in the digital future for their business as evidenced by the ability they created for dealers to place orders on-line and for providing PDF’s of their printed catalogs. Tucker Rocky also hosts a rather odd site at www.powersportsrider.com. On this site, visitors can go through the Tucker Rocky catalogs and add products to their “wish list.” They can’t however actually purchase anything and instead are directed to go to their local Tucker Rocky retailer with wish list in hand. In addition to the above site, they also have a robust FTP site with quality images as well as up-to-date, downloadable inventory status information. It’s odd that they are sitting on 98% of the solution, but they don’t seem motivated to connect the few remaining dots and complete the picture any time soon. If they would just integrate the various silos of information into one service, it would be perfect. Seriously, if PSN can transcribe your catalog and use the data themselves, how hard is it really for you to provide it to everyone since you’re the ones creating it? Weird.

I predict that in 5 years if you are a supplier still not offering your product information digitally, you are going to be at a huge competitive disadvantage. I just hope it doesn’t that long! If you’ve got suggestions or want to let me know of work being done in this area, shoot me an email. I want to hear about it.

Tags:Column, DealerNews, dealerships, E-Commerce, ecommerce, internet, motorcycle, powersports, selling-online