DistributorCentral has found Suppliers that are experiencing the most success with their products on the DistributorCentral database are creating those product shopping carts with one main objective in mind: Simple and complete information that is End User Friendly.
There are a few ways that we have tried to help you accomplish this.
- Suppliers have the capability to decide whether options are “required” or are “optional.”
By only listing those options that must be selected to generate a complete order as “required,” Suppliers will allow those Distributors who only want basic options available to eliminate those “optional” options from their catalog of products. This will make it less complicated for customers who do not have an understanding of the promotional products industry and it will generate more orders. The distributor will still be able to utilize those more complicated options once they receive an order from their customers.
- They can list any Special information in the “Distributor Only” area under Additional Info in their product editor.
Distributors will see this “Distributor Only” information but it will not show on their websites and not to the end customer. So this is where the supplier might list margin info or shipping options, etc.
- A new way that Suppliers can test their products is now available in the Product Editor area of their DC account. This is called the E-Commerce Rating.
This feature will allow Suppliers to test products that they have set up against some basic criteria that DistributorCentral has created to determine if their product is E-Commerce ready.
Some of the criteria products are tested against:
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Too many options or no options available at all
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Pricing should be available
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Should not have Supplier Company name and sensitive data in the description
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Options available should include decoration methods and available color options for each product
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Images should be available
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Description should not include industry terms such as “4 color process” or “setup charge” etc
The results are offered as a percentage. 100% is the perfect E-Commerce product according to this test.
You can find this feature by going to the Products Menu and clicking on Add/Edit Products. Select Edit next to the first product that you would like to test for E-Commerce Ratings and see your percentage in the top right corner.
Please note that a product must be displaying in the DC catalog to show the E-Commerce Rating Feature.
