We are pleased to announce LEW Electrical Distributors as a Founder Member of EDATA, a strategic initiative led by the Electrical Distributors’ Association to transform the digital and e-commerce services of the UK’s electro-technical industry.
E-commerce and digital transformation are inextricably linked to the availability of the highest quality product data. EDATA offers manufacturers a central, standardised resource for uploading product information, technical data and images, which wholesalers can download and use on their own customer-facing e-commerce channels.
With EDATA we will be able to download quality product data, which our customers are increasingly demanding, and disseminate it across our sales channels. This is a major commercial advantage for us to have access to consistent, rich and ecommerce-friendly product data from multiple manufacturers all in one place.
EDATA is managed ‘by the industry for the industry’. It is spearheaded for 25 organisations consisting of 10 wholesalers and 15 manufacturers to create a product data pool for the benefit of stakeholders across the supply chain.
Kieran Johnson, LEW’s Digital Manager, comments “EDATA is leading the industry forward with digital data and our vision at LEW is to be the leading independent wholesaler in the UK . Therefore we thought it was very important that we were involved as a Founder Member to be at the forefront of helping to drive this project as best we can and to also assist in the ongoing digitalisation of our own business. Along with other major improvements we are making, EDATA will be pivotal to our digital strategy”.
Margaret Fitzsimons, CEO at the EDA, added “The EDA is delighted to have LEW Electrical Distributors as a Founder of this new initiative. EDATA gives the UK’s electro-technical supply chain the opportunity to say goodbye to the heavy workloads created by processing data through multiple channels and hello to enhanced ecommerce infrastructure.”
EDATA currently holds information in three categories: Manufacturer Master Data, the core data needed to identify a product; Digital Assets such as images and data sheets; and technical Attributes including dimensions, suitability and performance characteristics.
The technical attributes held in EDATA will be structured in accordance with ETIM, the international data model for the standardisation and classification of technical product data enabling wholesalers to enhance their web sites with powerful product searches and filters.
