DDS Becomes Member Service Provider to IMARK

DDS (Distributor Data Solutions), Salt Lake City, UT, an e-commerce product content provider serving the electrical, plumbing, HVAC and related industries, has become a member service provider to IMARK Group Inc., the largest network of independently owned electrical and plumbing distributors in the U.S. and Canada, with more than 1,400 independently owned distributors as members.

“DDS is providing a much-needed service for a number of our members in supporting their customers who are asking for better product information and a better online experience,” said Steve Ruane, VP, marketing and member services at IMARK Group, in the press release. “We like that DDS offers various solutions that can help each of our member distributors — whether small, medium or large, and across multiple industries — and whether they’re just entering the e-commerce space, or looking to improve their existing online offering.”

This includes DDS’ enhanced product content, plus product maintenance, product file matching, category management, normalized facets, product file cleanup and more. All content is delivered custom-formatted for compatibility with any e-commerce platform.

Matt Christensen DDS’ vice president said in the press release, “Creating an excellent online customer experience requires much more than an e-commerce platform. You need to deliver all the product content that contractors, MRO buyers and engineers need to make product selection decisions. We leverage the most advanced technology in the world, and some incredibly talented data analysts and software engineers, to manage distributors’ e-commerce product data at scale.

“Having come from an independent electrical distributorship that successfully sold online, DDS is intimately familiar with the challenges distributors face in trying to digitize their offerings and serve customers online. And more importantly, to do it well and cost-effectively. We set out specifically to ease this burden on distributors so they can focus on their business and not just compete, but really thrive in the e-commerce world.”

“We want to help IMARK offer choices and solutions to their members based upon the members’ needs — not a one-size-fits-all model — and thus help these distributors develop their competitive advantage to retain, and take business, from national chains and online marketplaces.”

In other news at DDI, the company launched an online product catalog solution for manufacturer’s representatives called RDX, or the Rep Data Exchange. RDX offers rep agencies a dedicated web catalog, populated only with the lines they carry, and featuring complete product information sourced directly from their manufacturers. RDX enables reps to further support the marketing, sales and customer service efforts of their manufacturers and distributors by providing a local, online resource for product content that is critical to contractors, end users, specifiers and distributor staff as they research and source material, DDS said in a release.