– Terry Stickler, Vice President of Marketing – North America at Stibo Systems, says:
A recent report from Forrester Research predicts that by 2017, the Internet will influence half of all retail purchases in some way through features like store locators, price checks, and ratings and reviews. As more and more shoppers are likely to visit an e-commerce website prior to visiting a store, or even have a smartphone in hand while in a physical store, retailers need to consider the implications for their businesses.
As a leading distributor of building products in North America, BlueLinx Corporation needed a better way to manage product information due to an abundance of product offerings and SKUs. However, this would prove to be difficult as BlueLinx’s legacy systems were continually challenged by the breadth and complexity of the company’s product lines. Recognizing that clean, quality data would be an essential element of its continued e-commerce success, BlueLinx set out to acquire an MDM platform that would make it easier for customers and vendors to do business with the company. In addition, it was important to position the company for continued growth by ensuring consistency across a growing number of channels.
“BlueLinx is using Stibo Systems’ MDM solution with the IBM WebSphere Commerce platform to align its e-commerce sites with all other areas of the business to create a personalized, consistent shopping experience across all devices and touchpoints. This ensures consistent product information across every channel, regardless of how customers come into contact with us,” says Jim Desmond, director of e-commerce and marketing, BlueLinx.
Today, retailers are turning to MDM in order to create a rich and satisfying shopping experience across all channels and to gain greater control over master data assets in an effort to achieve multichannel success. By combining Stibo Systems’ STEP with IBM WebSphere Commerce, retailers can achieve accurate product and customer information and use it to feed a variety of destinations including websites, print catalogs and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
As part of IBM’s Smarter Commerce ecosystem of partners, Stibo Systems has seamlessly integrated its MDM solution, STEP Trailblazer, with IBM WebSphere Commerce software, which allows retailers to create a sophisticated e-commerce platform that engages the consumer with the information they need whenever and wherever they want to make a purchase.
“Maintaining accurate product information across all channels is essential to creating a better shopping experience and to establishing consumer and brand loyalty,” said Greg Wong, senior vice president of North America, Stibo Systems. “By combining Stibo Systems STEP solution with IBM’s leading e-commerce platform, retailers can achieve real-time, consistent and highly accurate operational information about products, suppliers and customer preferences in order to increase revenue and lower risk.”
