The goal of a recent MDM survey was to gauge perception among distributors and manufacturers about the value of sharing point-of-sale data.
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About two-thirds of distributor respondents to the survey said they share POS data (includes the range of Cost of Goods Sold (COGS) to more customer-specific data) with manufacturers. But of those, most share with less than 10 percent of their suppliers – indicating that they probably share with the largest manufacturers.
For those that don’t share data with suppliers, trust was the main factor. One respondent said: “Do not trust them with the information. They will sell direct at the drop of a hat or move to another distributor. This is from past experience.”
We found that across sectors, regardless of whether sharing data from distributor to supplier is standard practice, emotions can run high around the topic of sharing point-of-sale data. Opportunities however do exist to improve communication between manufacturer and distributor on the topic of POS and how it can benefit both parties in identifying and capitalizing on market opportunities.
Read more POS survey results and analysis in the past two issues of MDM Premium.
On a related note, as a part of the survey, we asked distributors and manufacturers if their relationship with each other had improved over the past year.
Twenty-nine percent of distributors said their relationship with suppliers had improved; 57 percent said it had remained the same. Just 14 percent said their relationship with their suppliers had grown worse.
On the other hand, half of manufacturer respondents said their relationship with their distributors had improved in the past year. Half of manufacturer respondents said their relationships were the same. No manufacturers said their relationship with distributors had grown worse.
Read MDM’s in-depth analysis of opportunities and challenges surrounding POS:
