As desire for more reliable product data rises across the parts business, VIPAR Heavy Duty offered an update on its PARTSPHERE PIM and DAM systems and how the business tools continue to be advanced to support distributor applications Monday at its IMPACT Conference in Orlando, Fla.
Andrea Lily, VIPAR Heavy Duty’s manager of content services, reviewed the benefits of PARTSPHERE PIM and PARTSPHERE DAM systems, giving viable examples illustrating how product data might be used to help sell truck parts.
Lily says VIPAR Heavy Duty’s goal with both systems is to create a single source data library with all relevant information from every supplier partner within the VIPAR Heavy Duty network so distributors have no barriers to integrating product data into their operations. She says PIM and DAM are not catalogs, but product data management systems to house and normalize data to export and use for e-commerce and marketing needs.
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But Lily says to maximize PARTSPHERE PIM and DAM, stockholders and members must determine what they want to present to customers. If building an e-commerce site, this could include functionality, or how images and product specs will be displayed.
Lily recognizes that not all distributors are at the same point in their digital data journey and that’s okay. She says that VIPAR Heavy Duty’s goal, since it started on its data acquisition journey nearly a decade ago, has been to create the best data repository possible, available to be leveraged by distributors when and however they desire.
But Lily also stresses PIM, DAM and any product data should be a priority for all distributor operations moving forward. Product knowledge is a resource no one should take for granted, even if a company’s go-to-market strategy remains firmly rooted in brick-and-mortar practices. Product data can educate staff, help source parts, sell related or similar components and more.
“All this can help you sell more truck parts,” Lily says.
