February 23, 2010
Did you know that you can create a virtual catalog on DC as a Supplier?
You can upload your catalogs directly to your account under Products Menu> Upload PDF/Virtual catalogs.
The requirements for a PDF catalog are:
1. File must be a PDF
2. File must be smaller than 100 mb in size for Virtual Catalog use
(Please note that for DC to index your catalog for product searches, you will need to upload a file smaller than 30 mb. Most Suppliers are uploading the complete catalog for Virtual catalog purposes and then also separating their catalog into sections to be indexed in product searches and uploading them as separate files in this same area)
3. File should also be about 72 dpi resolution
Follow these steps to upload and get a link to your catalog that you uploaded:
1. Login to your DC account at www.distributorcentral.com
2. Go to Products Menu> Upload PDF/Virtual Catalogs
3. Click on Add New Virtual Catalog on the right
4. Enter in the Name that you would like to display for the catalog, a start and end date if needed, and click Browse.
5. Find the file on your computer and click Upload. It could take some time to upload depending on file size.
6. Then click on Save.
7. Now you will see that the file is listed on the PDF/Virtual Catalogs page. Under the catalog, click on Direct Link. This will generate the link that you would use to add the virtual catalog to your website. Copy the link in the address bar.
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Posted by distributorcentral
January 25, 2010
In an effort to help our Suppliers keep their product data up to date as easily as possible, we have added a few requested features to the product editor. Some of these features are below:
1. The Product Display Status Report. This report isn’t a brand new feature but we have added new ways to sort the report and new columns to the report. The report is meant for a Supplier to quickly glance through their products to see if they are displaying, if they have images, etc. If they aren’t displaying, you can quickly see why and correct the issue.
There are now added fields to allow you to sort the product status report by item number, name, or last updated date. The other fields available to sort by are Product Name, Style Number, Created Date, Updated date.
2. For those Suppliers that set updated pricing to start at a future date, you can now quickly copy your current pricing to the future pricing for any specific product to help cut down on re-entry. To see this feature, go to edit a product and click on the pricing tab. There on the right side there is a link called “Copy current pricing to Future pricing.”
3. Product Updated dates are also easy to see for your products from the Product List page. You can tell when a product was last updated without editing it.
Let us know if you have any questions regarding updating your products.
Technical Support – info@distributorcentral.com – 888-516-7401
Comments Off | General, New Features, Products, Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
December 10, 2009
With the addition of the File Upload tool, DistributorCentral makes it easy for Suppliers to create an “end user friendly” file upload website. This is a valuable feature since Distributors would be able to send their customers directly to the “blind” file upload website where the customer can then upload large artwork files. Suppliers can easily assign the uploaded artwork files to orders in their account as well.
To view an example, go to www.checkart.com
To add this feature to a website:
- Edit the website page that you would like to have uploader on
- Choose File Uploader from the content drop-down menu
- Indicate the email address that you would like the artwork upload notification sent to (see image below)
- Click Save at the bottom of the page and then publish your website to apply the changes
If you would like a file upload notification on the Home page of your DistributorCentral account that indicates that you’ve have received new uploaded files:
- Go to the Account Menu
- Select Preferences and then Account Preferences
- Click on the Orders menu on the left side of the page
- then select Yes for the file upload preference (see image below)
Comments Off | Account Customizing, Suppliers, Websites | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
November 23, 2009
You might notice a new look on your Distributor DC home page. On either side, there are now small Supplier ads. These ads include specials and new products that these Suppliers are offering.
Suppliers pay to provide a system to distributors free of charge and part of that support is through the opportunity to display pertinent ads about specials, new products, and other information to distributors.
If it is found that Distributors feel strongly about this new feature, there may be an “ad-free” version of the DC home page available in the future.
Suppliers: Contact your Account Representative today to display your ad! Call 888-516-7401.
Comments Off | General, Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
November 23, 2009
ATTENTION SUPPLIERS:
When entering your products into your DistributorCentral account, make sure to include plenty of relevant keywords in your product description. Strong product descriptions will make it easier for Distributors to find your products from within their accounts, and will make it easier for them to sell your products on their websites.
Look at these to examples below:
This product has a weak description and virtually no keywords which would make it very difficult to find in the product catalog unless the customer knew the exact product name or number. You should not expect products with descriptions like this to have much success in DistributorCentral.
The Eastwood Series with Metallic Accents
# WAMA-150
The Eastwood Series with Metallic Accents
This product on the other hand has a great product description with lots of keywords which makes it easy to find with keyword searches and will help the Distributors sell the product on their websites since end customers will know more about the product and feel more comfortable purchasing it.
Chubs Widebody Ballpoint Pen w/ Rubber Grip
# 5003 Widebody Ballpoint Pen w/ Grip
As the name denotes, this pen is a bit thick (or Chubbier, if you will). Great for your advertising message to stand out with its translucent barrel. Choose a black imprint on the yellow or a silver or white on the other colors to. Black rubber grip with chrome colored accents. This is a wide body, retractable, grip, click, ball point pen.
• This is one of our many great looking ink pens
• This pen is a great writing instrument for advertisements
such as bank accessories, real estate, office supplies, health care or many other business.
• Med. Point Black Ink
• Comes in 5 different colors
Products with strong descriptions like the example above, not only improve the integrity of the product catalog on DistributorCentral, but also help Distributors increase your sales. Take pride in your products, it may take a little more time to add strong descriptions, but it will be well worth the effort.
Visit this site to get ideas for keywords to add to your products in DistributorCentral,
http://www.google.com/sktool/#
Visit this site to learn more about optimizing your products and about Preferred Product Placement,
www.distributorcentral.com/websites/pso
Comments Off | Suppliers, Tips | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
November 18, 2009
Distributors, are you letting your Suppliers know where you find their products? You should.
When you tell your Suppliers how you found them and their data, you are benefiting yourself and the Supplier. A Supplier usually budgets a certain amount of money each year for advertising and marketing. If they don’t find a benefit in advertising a certain way, they will stop.
This benefits you as the Distributor because you are insuring that you will continue to be able to find this Suppliers products and this Supplier will continue to provide you these free services. Also by “Getting the word out”, you will be helping to bring more quality Suppliers to our database of products.
This benefits the Supplier because they know where they are getting the greatest benefit and Return on Investment.
So, the next time that you call a Supplier, make sure to mention “I found your products on DistributorCentral.”
Comments Off | Products, Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
November 11, 2009
It is that time of year again!
Suppliers, remember to update your products and pricing on DistributorCentral.
There are a couple of ways to accomplish this. . .
1. For Pricing updates, you can export the Pricing spreadsheet from your account under Products>Add/Edit Products.
This will allow you to update all of your product pricing including product setup charges.Then you just send it back to info@distributorcentral.com and we will update the system.
2. For product additions, you can add those directly to the system from inside your DistributorCentral account OR you can contact DistributorCentral for details and timelines if you would like us to add your new products.
If you would like to do this yourselves, there are many resources we offer if you need any help.
You can view our Product Setup Tutorial, use our Product Setup Manual , and you can give us a call or email if you have any questions.
Comments Off | Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
October 7, 2009
We have added a new feature that will allow Distributors to do a keyword search in their DistributorCentral account and receive results not only from our product database but they can also receive results for matching Supplier PDF catalogs and Supplier email flyers!
To try this, just do a keyword search in your account. For example, try “magnet.” You will see 2 new tabs above your product search results, SupplierCatalog and SupplierEmail.
If you click on either of those tabs, you will see any Supplier Catalogs or Emails that match your search criteria. You can browse through their catalogs page by page or view all their advertised specials in one area.
This would allow you to access even more resources to research products than we could provide you as a distributor before.
Each Supplier has access to upload their PDF catalogs and flyers, so feel free to ask your favorite Suppliers to do so if you don’t see them currently there!
Suppliers-
You can submit your Email flyers by adding upload@supplieremail.com to your email lists or just forward any of your recent email flyers to that address.
You can upload your catalogs by following the below instructions:
- Log into your account at www.distributorcentral.com
- Go to Products Menu and down to Upload PDF Catalogs
- Browse your computer and select the PDF catalog that you would like to upload
- Name the catalog
- Then select Save to upload the file ( it could take a few minutes depending on the file size)
Your catalogs must be less than 30 MB file size for upload, so you may need to split it up.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Comments Off | Catalogs, General, New Features, Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
September 24, 2009
Suppliers, you can now upload your PDF catalogs so that they display when Distributors conduct keyword searches in DistributorCentral.
Here’s how to upload your PDF catalogs in your DC account
- Go to the Products Menu and select Upload PDF Catalogs
- Click on the Add New Catalog link
- Indicate your Catalog Name, Display Start and End Dates, then browse your computer to select the file to upload (see image below)
Important Info In Regards To Uploading Your PDF Catalogs
• The maximum file size that you can upload is 30MB. If your catalog is larger than 30MB, you’ll need to separate it into several parts and upload them individually.
• Be sure that you do not convert the text in your PDF catalog to outlines. If you do this, the keywords for your catalog will not be able to be indexed when searched for in DistributorCentral.
Comments Off | Catalogs, Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
August 13, 2009
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:
-
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.
Comments Off | General, Products, Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
July 8, 2009
Attention Suppliers-
DistributorCentral has added color coding to your Distributor data in your account.
Beside each distributor, there is a number. This number is the total orders this distributor has entered in the system.
Now the number will be color coded.
Green means that the distributor has done orders in DC with other suppliers.
Black means that the distributor has done orders in DC with your company.
Red means that the distributor has not done any orders in DC from this account yet.
This can help your order entry or customer service departments to better distinguish between different accounts and make better decisions on which account to use.
Comments Off | Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
January 19, 2009
DistributorCentral has added a new feature to the supplier account Home Page.
You can now quickly enter your item number or numbers and quantity or even different quantities and receive a quote.
This feature is on the bottom center of the right side on the home page of each supplier account.
To do a Quick Quote, follow these steps:
1. Enter in your product numbers, seperated by a comma
2. Enter in the quantities in the second field, also separated by a comma
3. Click on Add
4. When the box refreshes, click on Create Quote.
5. Then you can customize and edit the quote
6. When finished, select Finish in the bottom right hand corner of the quote.
7. Then you can select “Email this Quote” and email it to your customer as a pdf attachment.
That’s it! You have created a “Quick Quote.”
Comments Off | Suppliers | Permalink
Posted by distributorcentral
April 1, 2008
As a Distributor, you can download a Universal Credit Application from your account, fill it out, and upload it for Suppliers to view in DistributorCentral.
This might allow you to spend less time filling out seperate suppliers credit information and more time selling promotional products.
Please remember that all Suppliers do reserve the right to ask for their own application but you may also let them know that you have uploaded a general application to your DistributorCentral Account for them to view. As more Distributors fill this Universal Application out and upload it, more Suppliers will use it.
Below are directions to find this application in your DistributorCentral Account:
1. Log in to DistributorCentral
2. Go to the Account Tab
3. Select Account Maintenance
4. Move to the lower section of this page to “Edit” beside State Sales Tax Numbers
5. At the top of the next screen you will see the UPIC Universal Credit Application available to download
6. Click on the document link “Upic Universal Credit Application“
7. You will select to Save it to your computer
8. After it has downloaded, you can open it with Microsoft Word to enter in your information
9. When you are finished, save the document
10. Move back to DistributorCentral and follow directions #1-4 to get back to the page where you found the Credit Application.
11. Now you will Click Browse and find your updated application on your desktop and hit Save directly below.
You have now uploaded your General Credit Application to your DistributorCentral Account!
Leave a Comment » | Account Customizing, Credit, Suppliers, Tips | Permalink
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