| Business Bytes

More than 70% of operators are going to be buying products online by the end of this year, according Cleveland Research Company. This means whatever your product information looks like in the distributor’s system is what they see. As a supplier, you have to ask yourself… what do my products look like? Am I providing the right information? Are my images helping or hurting my sales? For the last 10 years, suppliers have been haphazardly collecting images and marketing content … Read more

A supplier once told me that one of his interns has a ‘nice’ camera and is an amateur photography buff. Against my advisement, he insisted that the intern would take the pictures at the warehouse and photoshop them. Cheap and easy. Unsurprisingly, the images he got back were pixelated and the crop-job done in photoshop lined up with the photographer’s experience: amateur. It finally resonated with my customer − the president and second-generation owner of the company − that he … Read more

How often do you get your GS1 scorecard from a distributor and see something drastically different than what you thought it should be? Why is it that when you think you’re compliant you end up not being compliant?! Well, there’s a number of factors at play here, but let’s talk about some things that should help guide you to compliance a little faster. And, as always, call me if you have questions! We can help. You’re being scored on ALL … Read more

Data Pool Vendor Ignored Calls from a F100 Food Manufacturer? What the #!%& The Director of Foodservice Sales for a Fortune 100 manufacturer – one we all know and love, but shall remain nameless for now – was frustrated. Her products were not showing up in search results within one of their distributor’s online shopping tools. The distributor’s system was not receiving images, nutritional information, and marketing detail, so products were being penalized in search results. The data should have … Read more

When shopping and ordering online, foodservice sales reps and customers are reliant on the information displayed within a distributor’s system. Unfortunately, as of June 2017, GS1 reports that less than 40% of products being communicated via GS1’s Global Data Synchronization network (GDSN) contain at least one image. Now the big question is: are those images even any good? All too often we find pictures of a crushed box or images taken by the intern who fancies him or herself an … Read more

Suppliers that have complete and robust product data within Reinhart’s sales tools are winning and growing their sales up to 20% faster. Suppliers can also supercharge their sales efforts by gaining access to sales and customer information. WHAT’S THE FASTEST AND EASIEST WAY TO GROW SALES? View My Product™ is the fastest way for suppliers to display 40% more information. Powered by Attribytes, suppliers are being given complementary access so that they can see exactly what Reinhart sales reps and … Read more

Getting product, sales, and customer information into the hands of a supplier rep or broker is getting easier, as the Foodservice industry takes strides to embrace true data collaboration. Now that the data is flowing, what should we be doing with it? Attribytes is helping suppliers answer these common questions, that help suppliers protect their business and drive growth. In order to leverage BIG DATA you need to THINK SMALL Suppliers have access to more data than they can shake … Read more

Who, What, & How… Implementation, rationalization, and synchronization. These are big words that can evoke a range of emotions from excitement to genuine fear. When digging into GS1 and the Global Data Synchronization Network (GDSN), the litany of acronyms, terms, and processes can be a little intimidating but in the grand scheme of things, we’re simply talking about an exchange of information. Fear not, fellow Foodservice enthusiast! We are here to help. Below are a few of the basics that … Read more

E-tailers such as Amazon, Zappos, and Facebook have changed the way that people interact with and consume everything. How is this global shift affecting the Foodservice industry? Our very own Jason Gunn discusses this in a Smart Blog article published in 2014 when he was a product information manager for one of the largest Foodservice Distributors in the country. Whether chefs are shopping for shoes or placing a meat and produce order for their restaurants, they want to reach into … Read more