One of the leading product content companies for the gas and welding industry, Utah-based Distributor Data Solutions (DDS) helps its customers by providing technology solutions to the challenges of e-commerce product content and data management – and currently works with more than 500 manufacturers, representing more than 1,300 brands.
As many would agree, the industrial gases business is still very traditional in how it operates, based upon strong cultural and organisational paradigms. It’s still very customer-facing and local in nature. As a result, e-commerce essentially changes that business model, that culture, within our industry. It’s essentially a paradigm shift, something which can in turn create confusion and even a sense of fear.
This has been a thought process in the US market in the last few years, for example, as distributors grappled with rapidly changing sales and marketing platforms in hardgoods channels – and for some time considered Amazon a threat to their business. However, these thought processes recently accelerated in the height of the pandemic with various lockdowns and traditional customer facing business no longer being so simple.
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