In the digital age, product data isn’t just a back-office function — it’s a make-or-break asset. For Lumber Building Material (LBM) dealers, getting this data has become an expensive battle fought daily. The ability to sell online, the efficiency of internal systems, customer experience, and even a company’s competitive edge all hinges on up-to-date, accurate, and detailed product information.

Despite being a well-known issue, it remains a persistent headache. Given the importance of e-commerce, after all these years, why is it still such a struggle? And more importantly, what can be done about it?

Ever-changing Nature of Data

Dealers typically stock items from hundreds of suppliers, each with vast product lines that come with a multitude of variables and specifications. Every one of these details influences the customer’s decision. Ensuring accuracy and consistency across this data is a monumental and ongoing task. Mismanaging it isn’t just inconvenient; it can threaten the business itself.

The rise of e-commerce has dramatically increased the importance of rich, reliable product data. Today’s customers expect a digital experience that rivals top-tier platforms like Amazon — and that puts enormous pressure on dealers to deliver product content that’s not only accurate but visually engaging, comprehensive, and constantly updated.

As customer expectations have increased, the challenge to LBM dealers has only grown.

‍Data Strategy Is Now Business Strategy

Building an effective product data strategy starts with asking what role product content plays in your business. Some dealers focus on creating a clean, rich and easy-to-use online presence to generate revenue. Others want to provide their large contractor customers with increased electronic support. Success depends on obtaining and handling a huge amount of product data from a wide variety of suppliers to meet your broader goals.

Competing directly with giants like Amazon isn’t the goal for most dealers. Still, they’re judged by the same standards because customers carry those expectations across every buying experience.

Today’s buyers don’t just want specs and pricing, and when browsing the dealer’s website, they don’t want to be redirected to the supplier. They expect multiple product images, 3D views, videos, and application shots to help them make informed choices. Even dealers focused on serving existing clients online face the daunting task of sourcing, curating, and managing massive volumes of ever-changing product data.

The Complexity and Cost of Product Data

Larger firms may justify building internal teams to manage this complexity, but the cost and expertise is often beyond the budget of smaller players.

Suppliers themselves don’t make it easy. Many suppliers make product data available in their portals. Dealers need to manually monitor when updates are available and from whom. They also need to manage login information for each supplier’s site and deal with dozens of different file formats provided.

Some suppliers may provide their larger customers with a direct data transfer of product information. Dealers have to invest in the technical resources to receive this data from various channels and in various data formats, mapping this disparate data from each supplier into the dealer’s system. Since there is a cost to sending this data, many suppliers will only provide this service to their larger customers.

Some dealers rely on third-party subscription services for product data, but the quality and accuracy of the data are not guaranteed. These subscription services often rely on web-scraping to get product data rather than getting it directly from a supplier. Using potentially old and inaccurate information can damage customer experience, hurt your reputation, and even open yourself to legal problems. Imagine selling a large contractor HVAC units for a subdivision based on the wrong specifications.

Regardless of the source, LBM dealers face significant challenges in getting reliable product data.

Without significant resources or a narrow scope, getting product data directly from each of your suppliers will be more costly and risky than expected. Unless you have deep pockets or very basic needs, the one-to-one approach to getting product data should be avoided.

OnePDX: A Better Way To Product Data

If a one-to-one approach is both costly and ineffective, how can a dealer get the product data they need without blowing their budget?

OnePDX by Supply Cloud is the answer. Supply Cloud’s “one-to-many” architecture allows suppliers to send high-fidelity product data in any format. OnePDX automates the product data syndication process, and with decades of LBM industry experience, it’s the ideal solution for suppliers and dealers. It acquires, ingests, and structures the data so it’s ready to be published across digital channels.

For LBM dealers, many of whom are already using the Supply Cloud platform, OnePDX stands alone as the leading product solution in the industry. Dealers get product data from all their suppliers in the single format they choose so that it’s easily digestible in their e-commerce systems. Product updates and changes are automatically synchronized.

With rich product data, directly from the supplier, complete with digital assets, dealers can give their loyal customers the buying experience they’ve come to expect. This is a huge game changer for dealers.

Lumber building material dealers no longer have the luxury of treating product data as an afterthought. It’s a strategic asset that affects sales, customer loyalty, and long-term growth. Getting this information yourself is going to lead to cold sweats, nightmares, and large budgets. Now is the time to invest in Supply Cloud’s OnePDX to get the product content that will define your competitive edge.