Working with product data in an automated way? Difficult. That is the conclusion reached by distributor Littlebit. Together, plugilo and the Swiss wholesaler are working on an innovative solution to a problem that has no real lobby in the channel. The master of data wants to change that.
“Many of our processes are automated on the basis of product data,” says Jochen Bless of Littlebit. If data quality is poor, processes in logistics can stall, costing both time and money.
Jochen Bless still remembers the term mail order very well. He has been active in the channel for more than 25 years, making him, if you will, still a relatively young dinosaur of the distribution scene at nearly 50 years old. But Bless is not that young either. After all, he witnessed how resellers ordered their products more than two decades ago: by fax, by phone, and increasingly by email from the late 1990s onward. The old transactional methods were replaced by distributors — first through online shops that evolved into marketplaces, then shortly thereafter were called cloud platforms, and now appear as AI-driven systems that combine everything: ordering and tracking, product analysis for cross-selling, aggregation of manufacturer and distributor content — in short, the digital all-in-one wonder, known in industry jargon as one-stop shopping. Yet one “problem” has remained over the decades, and it is far more than a cosmetic flaw that can stand in the way of automation.
“With product data, it’s like a surface that looks smooth at first glance. But as soon as you run your hand over it, the bumps and irregularities immediately become apparent,” says Jochen Bless, COO at DACH distributor Littlebit.
Littlebit, headquartered in Hünenberg, Switzerland, specializes in the distribution of ICT products and IT components. Its customers include major retailers and e-tailers such as MediaMarkt and Amazon, as well as many mid-sized technology trading companies and integrators. And at Littlebit, those small imperfections — in other words, data errors — are not only noticeable, they hinder business. Especially in IT distribution, with its low margins, processes need to run efficiently and ideally in an automated way.
“Many of our processes are automated on the basis of product data,” Bless explains. For example, the dimensions of a product package determine how the distributor ships the goods. If the manufacturer’s specifications are incorrect or incomplete, Littlebit has to correct them manually. That costs time and money. In the end, data quality determines how much time Littlebit’s logistics staff must spend on manual rework.
And time, as is well known in distribution, where margins are very small, is money. That is why, for Jochen Bless, the cooperation with plugilo was a “no-brainer.” Like api CEO Achim Heyne, he uses the data service provider’s platform and thus the plugilo database, including its digital bookmark plug as an archive.
The matter of product data
Is there anything more boring than talking and writing about product data? For a trade journalist, that should not even be a consideration. At journalism school, good lecturers teach that even the smallest expert topic can have appeal and relevance — and can even be entertaining. Legendary in this regard is the headline “The man for everything that needs to go into the wall” by Philipp Crone, who once wrote a portrait for the Süddeutsche Zeitung about the owner of the Munich traditional hardware store Schrauben Mutter.
In a similar vein, one might say of Michael Mohr that the 57-year-old has been active in the business of data and content for the IT channel for almost 30 years. In other words: the man for everything that belongs in a procurement system — harmonized, standardized, absolutely consistent, so that all processes can run in a highly automated way without friction losses. The master of data, in other words.
“It is hard to understand that even today we still have to talk about the quality of product data,” admits Michael Urban. As a long-time top manager in distribution, Urban knows the problems and challenges extremely well. He joined plugilo in the summer of 2024.
Urban identifies two reasons for the still unsatisfactory situation regarding poor data quality. The first is the very different attitude manufacturers have toward the subject. “There are manufacturers who recognize the value of their data and maintain it in an exemplary manner. But they are not the majority.” The second problem is the fact that product data is stored statically in shop and ERP systems and ages quickly. The mixed quality of the data also makes automated product creation and updating more difficult. This presents challenges for Littlebit and Jochen Bless.
A global data platform for all product data
With plugilo, Mohr and Urban are pursuing a new approach. plugilo collects, standardizes, and normalizes product data and stores it in a central database. This happens in a highly automated, AI-supported way. The data can come from all kinds of sources — for example, from distributors such as Littlebit, but also from manufacturers, and in all kinds of formats such as CSV, API, screen scraping, and even PDF files.
Littlebit and plugilo submit these data records to the manufacturers. They review the data and can modify or update it. Once the data is current, manufacturers can certify the data source as reliable. “After all, manufacturers are the owners of the product data and must retain sovereignty over their data,” explains Michael Mohr.
His vision is a data platform that contains all relevant product data across different categories — always current and verified. Product data that can also be used in highly automated processes. Online shops and platforms draw from this database. Littlebit and its customers also benefit from this data, because in the future the distributor will be able to provide manufacturer-certified data for their ERP systems and online shops.
Together, the distributor and the platform operator contacted the manufacturers whose products had been recorded in the plugilo database. “More than half of our manufacturer partners immediately agreed,” Jochen Bless concludes. For the time being, he views the response as “a nice success.”
The end of static product data
“The more distributors, retailers, and manufacturers participate, the more useful the database becomes and the greater the pressure on the others,” adds Michael Urban. “After all, the one who has the best data is ultimately the one who can market products most effectively.”
plugilo is also addressing the second core problem: static product data. To display the data “to perfection” and keep it dynamically up to date at all times, plugilo has developed so-called “cards.” These are a kind of container that carries the data. If the data in the master database changes, the cards change in real time as well. “That is not possible in any shop in the world. That is why the cards are a real added value for online shops,” says Urban.
Using a small plugilo plug next to the item in the Littlebit online shop, customers can load the product data card and continue using it. If product data — or even the product image — changes, the cards are updated automatically. CRN has also integrated the plugilo plug on its website, where it is automatically displayed for every participating company and provides readers with additional information.
While product marketing is working together with the plugilo team on data quality, Littlebit’s marketing team has already launched its first marketing activities using these cards.