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Friday Fax Issue #736 announced that Polywater had attained IDEA's "Platinum Band of Excellence" for populating 100% of applicable data fields in their Industry Data Warehouse. These fields contain the specs, attributes, images, and descriptions distributors need to effectively market our products. This achievement is now more important than ever, and agents should use it not only to promote Polywater products, but to support distributors--and protect their own agency--from a new existential threat: AmazonSupply.com. Amazon's internet-based sales and distribution model threatens traditional brick-and-mortar distributors in industrial markets such as electrical and communications. Increasingly, customers learn about products they need from local distributors, but then make purchases with an online retailer at lower prices with free shipping and no sales tax. Amazon can't compete on all items, such as same-day needs, but offers savings by eliminating local overhead costs ... and probably agent commissions. NAED (the National Association of Electrical Distributors) addressed this topic in their presentation: Current Market Conditions and AmazonSupply.com. The topic of Amazon begins on page 36 of the 67-page PDF. You're encouraged to read it. The report states that globally more people now have mobile phones than toothbrushes, and three times as many smartphones are activated annually than babies born. 80% of all consumers now use smartphones to shop, and Visa predicts that 50% of all retail transactions will be via mobile devices in 2020. Advantage Amazon. They aren't even worried about the sales tax bill that just passed the senate; they already comply in many states and are ready to comply if required in others. They know the bill will hurt small online retailers much more. Plus they're now investing in small warehouses and local personnel anyway. Amazon's aim is to put a dent in traditional industrial distribution. The importance of Polywater's Platinum IDEA rating is that the IDW provides distributors all the online Polywater content they need to create or update their web sites or internal systems. It simplifies the acquisition of current data from one consolidated location, rather than from time-consuming searches of manufacturer websites that are often out of date. This allows distributors to add value, make their own online sales, and preserve their market share in the face of a growing Amazon presence. |
