View from the Driver’s Seat - a perspective from Joe Sepeda, SDC Product Catalog Manager
I see trends every day as data flows in and out of the SDC and wanted to share my perspectives and suggest opportunities for resellers and manufacturers.
What’s Happening with Resellers – Users of Data
SDC’s reseller network, the largest in the industry, is fired up in 2020. Exports of SDC data tripled during the first half of 2020 compared to the same period last year as COVID-19 sweeps the industry. Before COVID-19, exports doubled in almost every year over the past five years. As buyers of automotive aftermarket parts are increasingly dependent on online data for research and purchases, we expect this trend to continue.
What’s Happening with Manufacturers and Suppliers – Producers of Data
Supplier focus on data intensified at the beginning of the COVID-19 quarantine. You will see this effort reflected in improved images and video as an integral part of online data along with overall cleanup of data and addition of parts. We suggest manufacturers stay this course. As you improve your data, the Search Engine Optimization scores of your business partners improve.
Data and System Enhancements – Ease-of-Use Is a Big Priority
• SDC’s recent release of plugins for WooCommerce and Shopify eCommerce platforms make it easier for retailers to get SDC data to their websites without the need of a full-time developer.
• A few suppliers are utilizing this code to run the product search on their websites with their SDC data.
• SDC's Scorecard v2 places a hefty importance to images and videos, which are critical for onlines sales success.
• Coming soon is a new user-interface for resellers to see and manage data requests and export formats.
• PIES XML users on 6.x versions should update to current PIES 7.0 for more robust digital asset types.
• 2020 events have put a spotlight on product data. We anticipate velocity of data to continue to increase as stay-at-home has driven online sales 35%-60% above previous year indexes.
A little about me…
Good, clean, standardized data is a passion of mine and I want to do it well. We strive to help the industry by ensuring that when data and images reach the retailer, they are standardized and useful.
In 2010, I joined the industry as a customer service representative for a large online retailer in San Diego. I shifted to the data team in 2012 and that is where I found my love and passion for automotive data. I joined SDC in 2018 and now manage three teams of data analysts across our San Diego and Kansas City offices.
I am a military son, born in northern Louisiana. My father worked with computers and data, so I have been around computers and information my entire life. After high school, I followed my family’s footsteps and joined the US Marine Corps. I worked as a CH46e helicopter mechanic, developed a love for turning wrenches, and settled in San Diego, California, afterwards. Aside from being the world’s best husband and #1 Dad to three beautiful girls, you can find me in my 100 Series Land Cruiser in the middle of nowhere or building and running remote controlled rock crawlers and scale trucks.
As always, we're here to help if you have questions. Contact us at info@semadatacoop.org.
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