Support for NEMRA POS Initiative Grows from Manufacturers and Distributors

NEMRA's Point-of-Sale (POS) Initiative designed to help streamline and standardize reporting between distributors and manufacturers now has the endorsement of 39 manufacturers/brands and five distributors. The new manufacturers are Eaton Residential and Wiring Device Division, Lutron, Milbank and TCP. Distributors endorsing the POS Initiative are Graybar, IAC Supply Solutions, Rexel, Scott Electric and Sonepar.

The POS Initiative is targeted at distributors that utilize central/regional distribution centers or ship/drop ship a significant percent of sales outside of the market served by their core manufacturer reps. While all of the distributors shared concerns about customer-specific information, they all embraced the NEMRA initiative as it’s focused on “place of sale” to ensure that manufacturer reps are compensated. Additionally, the standardized format enables streamlining of a data process.  Said one distributor, “Sharing information at the zip code level is more than enough.”

The NEMRA initiative is distributor-friendly as it focuses on place of sale and does not require any customer-specific information.  The only customer information required is zip code (if a drop ship order) and extended price (COGS).

The NEMRA standard incorporates 16 reporting fields.  Some of the fields are included to help manufacturer customer service personnel verify information and eliminate errors.

Other endorsing manufacturers include ABB/Thomas & Betts, Arlington Industries, American Polywater, Appleton Group, CRC, Eaton B-Line, Eaton Bussmann, Eaton Crouse Hinds, , Eaton (Gear), Eaton Lighting Solutions, Eclipse Tools, Electri-Flex, General Cable, Halex, IDEAL Industries, ILSCO, Intermatic, King Electric, Legrand - Pass & Seymour, Legrand – Wattstopper, Legrand – Wiremold, Leviton, Light Efficient Design (LED), Littelfuse, Mersen, Milbank, Minerallac, Morris Products (now part of DiversiTech), Northern Cables, Orbit Industries, Panduit, RAB Lighting, Sola HD, Southwire and TPI in endorsing NEMRA’s initiative to standardize and streamline POS reporting to more accurately, and appropriately, compensate their manufacturer reps.

Additionally, Budde Marketing, a POS administrator a number of electrical manufacturers, has also endorsed the strategy.

Ken Hooper, President and CEO of the National Electrical Manufacturers Representatives Association (NEMRA), Portsmouth, NH, said, “On behalf of NEMRA representatives, we are gratified to see so many leading manufacturers and some of the industry’s leading distributors recognize and appreciate the issue and be willing to improve their processes.  We know change takes time, but through a combined effort, as an industry we can improve processes. As part of the standards there are recommended best practices and one of them include an implementation schedule. As more distributors endorse and implement, the more valuable it will be for all.”