During the fourth quarter of 2021, Orgill reached a critical milestone in its efforts to assist independent merchants in improving their eCommerce capabilities, when the number of individual goods in its shareable product information database surpassed one million.
“Nearly a decade ago, we realized that in order to populate their eCommerce engines, independent retailers would need access to all of the product data, images, and information for the products they carry.” And, if they were to properly represent their store brands, they would have to include products that Orgill might not supply.” Boyden Moore, President and CEO of Orgill, stated in a prepared statement.
“Today, with the assistance of our customers and industry partners, the enriched product data that we make available to our customers has surpassed 1 million unique items and is still growing.”
Orgill stores this amount of data in a system known as a Product Information Management (PIM) system so that merchants who subscribe to the service can easily access it.
The “Orgill Industry PIM,” program makes it simple for users to find and access the information they need.
At its core, the Orgill Industry PIM is a database of enriched product data that customers can use to feed their eCommerce websites, point-of-sale (POS) systems, and a variety of other services.
According to Marc Hamer, Orgill’s executive vice president, chief information and technology officer, what actually distinguishes Orgill’s Industry PIM is the products it contains, which go far beyond what Orgill sells in its warehouses.
“What is frequently overlooked is that this collection of products, data, and images is truly unique because we are assisting our customers by providing them with all of the enriched product data they require, not just the products that we sell them,” Hamer added.
Because this data has been “enriched,” it includes nearly everything a retailer would need to populate an eCommerce website, including high-quality photos, long (text) descriptions, specs, filterable properties, and links to supporting documents.
Orgill’s product database includes not only enhanced items that are not in stock at the distributor, such as Benjamin Moore paint and Big Green Egg items, but also commodity wood products, sheet goods, and other items.
“What you typically see with some of the eCommerce databases available in the industry is that they are fairly limited to either products stocked in a distributor’s warehouse or perhaps available through dropship by that distributor, but that can be very limiting for retailers who offer assortments customized to their markets,” said Grant Morrow, Orgill’s eCommerce program manager.
Orgill’s Industry PIM contains product data, photos, and information for four types of items: Orgill warehouse products, Orgill dropship products, non-Orgill products, and commodity wood products.
“When you look at the breakdown of the more than 1 million items in the database, only about 12% are items stocked in Orgill’s warehouse,” Morrow continued.
“This enables retailers to create an eCommerce offering that truly reflects the distinct assortment they want to present to their customers.”
While reaching the million-item mark is a significant milestone for Orgill’s Industry PIM, it’s also fascinating to see how Orgill was able to amass such a large collection of product data.
“This was truly a collaborative effort,” Hamer says. “When we first started, all we had was Orgill-stocked product data, which didn’t help our customers who wanted to sell from their website.” If we had stopped there, they would have had to source and clean up data for other items they stock and sell.”
To overcome this challenge, Orgill worked with its industry partner Unilog as well as retailers who agreed to participate in Orgill’s Product Data Program.
When retailers sign up for the Orgill program, Orgill’s Product Data Team analyzes their item lists to identify gaps in the distributor’s database and then collects the data for those items.
Orgill and Unilog reach out and collect the assets needed to supplement the item information when data is lacking.
“There’s no getting around it; it was a long and tedious process, which is why we’re so excited to see it grow to the level it has,” Morrow says.
“However, collecting data is only part of the process; you must also have systems in place to keep the data updated and offer it to retailers in a way that allows them to easily use the vast collection of information available to them.”
Orgill has a system in place to assist merchants with this procedure.
“We map their SKUs to our master item ID,” Morrow explained.
“Our initial match rate has increased to an average of 70%, implying that many of our dealers can go live as soon as their websites are complete.”
Orgill also offers options for retailers who want to build their own website or eCommerce engine.
“If there’s one thing we’ve noticed since we started this project, it’s that eCommerce is becoming increasingly important for retailers of all sizes,” Hamer says.
“The ability to provide customers with a true omnichannel experience is more important than ever, and we will continue to improve our offerings.”
Orgill’s Industry PIM, as well as its eCommerce and website design services, are available to all customers.
