SEMA News—February 2015

SEMA DATA CO-OP
By Jon Wyly

Enhance Your Speed to Market With the SDC and SEMASearch.com

Speed to market for new products has been the bane of our industry since its beginning, and it’s an all too familiar story. Hard-earned money is spent on product research and development, WDs stock the shelves and then things just seem to slow down, often leaving new products laying on the shelves for weeks or months waiting to be “discovered.” Even in today’s digital age, we just can’t seem to get everything in sync to provide a seamless path of information from product inception to the warehouse shelves to the reseller and consumer… until now.

About 18 months ago, the SEMA Data Co-op (SDC) launched its online Product Information Management System, a data-management interface that equips a manufacturer to load product data into the system directly, automatically validates that data to industry standards and then publishes it to the data repository for immediate distribution. New product data can literally be created and placed in the hands of resellers within a few minutes. Now, with the upcoming launch of SEMASearch.com, retailers and buyers can view product detail at the SKU level, searchable through all manner of criteria, including year-make-model, description, attribute, category, product type and more.

Designed to provide retail and WD salespeople with a one-stop look at nearly 400 brands of products, SEMASearch also bridges the gap between the manufacturer and the reseller in the same way that the SDC data-management system does. How? SEMASearch is connected directly to the SDC data repository, making all of that information instantly viewable by retail sales people, WD phone rooms and purchasing agents.

Need a quick, comprehensive reference source in order to make a stocking decision? SEMASearch provides not only the expected images, descriptions and marketing information but also includes content, such as weights and measures, package information, UPC codes and more. Buyers can easily make a stocking decision and load a new product with this information, making on-the-fly additions of hot, new products a breeze.

Imagine, too, the value of being able to make corrections to a product record and know that the information will be delivered immediately across the industry. We have all been plagued at one time or another with a bad product description or data point that just continues to recycle and simply won’t go away. By managing data centrally in the SDC—and with the system capability of immediate delivery—problems in data detail are flushed out quickly and permanently with just one entry.

With the launch of SEMASearch.com, retailers and buyers can view product detail at the SKU level, searchable through all manner of criteria...

The benefits of these features are obvious: cost savings due to fewer returns, increased sales through more timely product launches, and peace of mind that a data record will remain consistent across every one of your customers once the data record is created. All of this adds up to a more seamless, timely process for managing products that doesn’t relegate them to gathering dust before the first one ever gets shipped to a reseller or consumer.

So that leaves just one burning question: Are you managing your product data in the SEMA Data Co-op and taking advantage of the free SEMASearch tool? If you are, let’s talk about how we can help you make your data even more complete so that you stand out in the crowd. If you aren’t, what are you waiting for? The latest stats from Google say that a whopping 77% of automotive parts and accessory consumers use the Internet first to research products to buy. There is no more time to think about it—let’s get started!

To learn more about how you can take control of your product data and manage it at the lowest possible cost, contact SEMA Data Co-op Director of Membership Jim Graven at jimg@SEMAdatacoop.org or 888-958-6698 x4.