News

EDA member, LEW Electrical Distributors, is using the EDATA data pool’s rich product data and API integration to streamline its product information management, enhance its new ecommerce website and give contractor customers the information they need to make confident purchasing decisions.

As LEW Electrical Distributors continues to develop its ecommerce offering, access to accurate, comprehensive product data has become increasingly important. By connecting the EDATA data pool with its Product Information Management (PIM) system, LEW can efficiently access product attributes and imagery and seamlessly publish them to its ecommerce website.

The result is a smoother product data flow, richer online product content and a better experience for customers – helping contractors find the information they need without having to look elsewhere.

“Of particular focus at the moment is the launch of LEW’s ecommerce site, for which access to the EDATA data pool has been invaluable,” explains Stuart Dukes, LEW’s Product Data Manager. “The API link between EDATA and our own PIM (Product Information Management) system pulls the product attributes and images through, and from our PIM system there’s a direct link to our ecommerce website.

“The way that EDATA is structured means that we have access to all product details and imagery to make products look great on our website so our contractor customers can make informed choices about the products they buy and don’t need to go anywhere else to find what they need.

“I use EDATA every day, and when the manufacturer is listed inside it is a smooth process – the product flow is straightforward. If I need to research a product or manufacturer which is not listed in EDATA, well, it’s a lot more work – in fact a massive amount of work in comparison. I’ll try the manufacturer’s website and hope it’s there, but even if it is the information will be in a different format to EDATA and that is a problem: we have built our systems around EDATA’s format. Adding an EDATA product vs a non-EDATA product, it’s a massive difference.

“I hope it’s not too strong to say that I dread researching some manufacturers’ product information because I know it is going to take so much longer than those that are on EDATA. EDATA is a huge time-saver, but we are still feeling the pain from those manufacturers that are not using it.”

Kieran explained what he saw as the main benefits for them of having access to EDATA, and what he would like to see next from their suppliers:

“I agree, EDATA is a huge timesaver and it’s making a massive contribution to our business in many ways because the richness and depth of product information in EDATA is what our customers need. Without EDATA, we would be collating and displaying much less product information about the products we sell because it just wouldn’t be feasible to do it manually.

“As well as a valuable tool in building our ecommerce site, EDATA will always be part of our system infrastructure. I’d say our top 3 benefits from EDATA can be summarised as:

1. EDATA has delivered a big improvement in accessibility because we can access product information in bulk – before EDATA we’d be working across different spreadsheets, searching for one SKU at a time.
2. There is a huge improvement in trust in the data we source from EDATA: not least because it is standardised across different manufacturers, and there is some level of review by the EDATA team.
3. We can communicate directly with each manufacturer via EDATA using the feedback function. We can ask questions or ask about missing data or images – it’s a useful feature which we make maximum use of.

“What’s our wish list for EDATA? Firstly, complete UK ranges listed in the data pool: some suppliers have only half their range in EDATA, which means we manually search for the other half and that’s so time consuming.

“Secondly it is to have GTIN codes assigned: our PIM system relies on the GTIN code as the unique identifier – without it there is no way for us to create an automated link to pull information for that product from EDATA. Our systems are geared to the GTIN code as that unique identifier.

“Thirdly, it’s raising the profile of product data within manufacturer organisations. When suppliers launch a new product, we need that product information in EDATA as a matter of urgency if you want us to sell it – we do not have the capacity to manually research that product. Getting product information into EDATA must be part of a product launch process.

“What else would make a difference to our business? For EDATA to be integrated with our ERP system, because that’s the system that our trade counter colleagues use every day. That would be a fantastic step forward.”

“What’s our wish list for EDATA? Firstly, complete UK ranges listed in the data pool: some suppliers have only half their range in EDATA, which means we manually search for the other half and that’s so time consuming.

“Secondly it is to have GTIN codes assigned: our PIM system relies on the GTIN code as the unique identifier – without it there is no way for us to create an automated link to pull information for that product from EDATA. Our systems are geared to the GTIN code as that unique identifier.

“Thirdly, it’s raising the profile of product data within manufacturer organisations. When suppliers launch a new product, we need that product information in EDATA as a matter of urgency if you want us to sell it – we do not have the capacity to manually research that product. Getting product information into EDATA must be part of a product launch process.

“What else would make a difference to our business? For EDATA to be integrated with our ERP system, because that’s the system that our trade counter colleagues use every day. That would be a fantastic step forward.”