OP industryS P E C I A L B U S I N E S S R E P O R T S

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2015 COPA

INFORMATION RICH CONTENT

A Special COPA Business Report

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OP industryS P E C I A L B U S I N E S S R E P O R T S

WE INVITE YOU TO GIVE YOUR COMPANY EVERY OPPORTUNITY TO SUCCEED 

While success is most often predicated on taking some form of action, it is equally important that those actions be soundly supported by a core base of knowledge. After all, action without direc-tion is aimless.

The Canadian Office Products Association (COPA), offers you and your company the opportunity to leverage critical industry intelligence in making your actionable decisions. This intelligence takes the form of our regular Market Share Reports and a variety of Special Industry Reports like the one you are about to read.

Giving you the tools to make the right decisions

On the following pages you will learn about one of the philosophical and structural changes taking place within our industry and other similar business communities. These changes, and the many others evolving in the modern business world, will dictate how businesses interact and grow.

We think this is important information for you to know, and we take it as our responsibility to seek out, research and develop this information for you and your staff. Our mandate is to help you suc-ceed, so please let us know if there are other reports or research that can be of benefit to your company.

We look forward to hearing from you.

Sam Moncada, PresidentCanadian Office Products AssociationTelephone: 905.624.9462 ext. 228smoncada@copa.ca • www.copa.ca

Disclaimer

The information contained in this document is for general information purposes only. While we endeavour to keep the information up to date and correct, we make no representations or warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the completeness, accuracy, reliability, suit-ability or availability. Any reliance you place on such information is therefore strictly at your own risk.

In no event will we be liable for any loss or damage including without limitation, indirect or consequential loss or damage, or any loss or damage whatsoever arising from loss of data or profits arising out of or in connection with, the use of this information.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, transcribed, translated or reduced to any electronic medium without prior written consent of the Canadian Office Products Association and Bob Smith.

bobsmith@businessstats.ca monthlyreport@copa.ca Copyright © Bob Smith 2015. All rights reserved

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INFORMATION RICH CONTENT

Surveys published over the past few years have reported that between 75-81% of all consumers do some internet research before heading to a store or buying online.

How can retailers convert this web research into sales?

Why do customers buy one product over another or why do customers go to one store or a com-petitor?

In todays marketplace web content is king! Prod-uct descriptions, attributes, features, pictures, and videos is only the start – its much, much more.

Todays internet savvy customers know that most competitors have the same products, for around the same price, with about the same store avail-ability and shipping services. What they don’t have or shouldn’t have is the same content. Many resellers simply harvest content from their com-petitors or manufacturers. To differentiate them-selves, websites need original content useful to their customers.

The big box mentality seems to have taken over the internet. As many retailers move to a smaller store footprint online stores are adding products at a furious pace letting leaving customers to figure out what they need and where to find it.

Do you have a “go to” website?

What’s in the Message?

Information content is like finding the store

clerk who tells you that you don’t need the

latest giga router at 1,000 bps as your internet

is only 40 bps. Your current 100 bps router is

good enough. Or tells you that you don’t need

a new Wi-Fi router as your current router is just

in the wrong place.

[last week at Staples, he is now my “go to” tech

guy]

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WEBPAGE CONTENT

Initially content was turned over to employees who didn’t know the product or the customer. They were more concern about inventory and pick and pack operations. Responsibility was then moved around to merchandising (who proved that they are not creative and don’t understand the product or the user), then to marketing departments that can barely get emails out and finally to IT in the hope that even if it’s not accurate or complete at least it will be cheaper to maintain.

A majority of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier resellers have outsourced some or all of their basic content to distributors like CNET, Etilize or Icecat to satisfy their basic needs for product descriptions, attributes, features, pictures, and videos.

The list of attributes supplied by these content distributors’ is wonderful, but the rest is mostly scraped from other websites. As often happens, none of the sources use complete and correct information. To improve quality retailers often pulled feeds from multiple sources.

But there is no free lunch, and retailers, in their rush to add more and more products, may have only made it worse —

Same products, same price, same availability and now exactly the same content.

Today, most resellers haven’t much of a clue about the usefulness of their content. That is to say, they are very fo-cused on price, marketing and sales, such as email blasts, but almost not at all on why this product. There are a few stars, but even those tend to bury the content team under something else such as User Experience or Ecommerce Teams but these have groups have conflicting goals and skills sets, and often don’t understand content any better.

The Exception - B2B

Business-to-business (B2B) market has seen

little change. We see the same old structures

in the B2B market. A large majority of provid-

ers do not even have an online catalog with no

sales copy for the mere mortals. Prices remain

hidden behind logins.

However, when Internet prices are readily

available and its easier to buy in other markets,

more and more companies will start shopping

around.

If slippage is bad now; it’s going to get worse.

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WHAT IS INFORMATION RICH CONTENT?

Accurate and complete product pages are the foundation of web content but Information Rich Content includes the entire internet experience. It includes “How to” on YouTube, reviews, blogs and social media. While manufacturers and other vendors can’t control the internet they do need to provide a source of accurate and complete information. They need to deliver their message. They need to inform.

To create and maintain true information rich content requires expertise and a real enthusiasm for the products. A useful website does something of value or somehow benefits its visitors.

THE KEY COMPONENTS OF INTERNET RICH CONTENT

Web Page Content• Accurate and Complete Information: Data Cleansing is needed. Af-

ter years of editing and web harvesting (i.e. make fit, cut & paste) data needs a refresh. Office Products, particularly traditional products long absent from distributors needs to be added.

• Standards: Descriptions, classifications, and key attribute sets (also see Data Distribution Standards). Attributes can be many but a stan-dard “key attribute sets” allows comparison and that’s what the cus-tomers want.

• Maintenance: Manufacturer and vendor involvement

Information Content:• Original content (not ads masquerading as independent reviews).• Fact based: When you hear a product claiming #1seller, do you ask “based on what?”.

Data distribution: • Standards: subject content formats GTIN, HTML, ISO, UNSPSC, XML• Central Control: Without central control content will quickly revert to the current status.

Modified content will proliferate. Standards will be lost. Below are some questions that should be used to assess the “quality” of a website

1. Would you trust the information presented? 2. Does the site have duplicate, contradictory, or redundant information? 3. Is this content written by an expert or enthusiast who knows the topic well, or is it more shal-

low in nature? 4. Does this article have factual errors? 5. Does the article provide original content or information, original reporting, original research,

or original analysis? 6. Does the page provide a complete or comprehensive description of the topic?

Language Barrier?

A Mid-Western Furniture

Reseller uses Vietnamese

content copiers, who don’t

even speak English, to provide

much of their content. If they

don’t speak English, how do

they know they have the right

content, or if it was correct to

begin with?

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7. Is this the sort of page you’d want to bookmark, share with a friend, or recommend? 8. Would you expect to see this article in a printed magazine, encyclopedia or book?

DISTRIBUTED INFORMATION CONTENT

As there are basic content distributors like CNET, Etilize or Icecat there are also distributors of in-formation content such as Webcollage or Easy2, and a handful of true content outsourcers such as Safety Harbour Creative and ContentBoost but they are not cheap.

Costs run from monthly fee with yearly commitment and per SKU pricing of $7.96 per article from buzz marketers or Indian ‘Claim All” companies. Original articles from industry experts run from $125 to $1,500 per article.

Are you just a “me too” reseller? What is your value if you are just the same as everyone else? You have to be unique and have original content —it is a cost of doing business. You have to decide what kinds of content is important to your business. You have to change your ways of thinking about web content.

Do you want customers coming to your website, having completed their research, look-ing only for the lowest price or do you want customers who trust the information you present and will act on your recommendations?

What you can do? Isn’t it obvious? Produce better content!

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COPA IS A PART OF YOUR FUTUREhttp://www.copa.ca/

COPA has been a proud membership community for the nation’s resellers and manufacturers of office products for over 80 years.

Our focus is to help our members EVOLVE by streamlining their operations, removing their bar-riers to growth and fostering the sharing of ideas to the benefit of everyone. Expertise, buying power, education and synergy are the cornerstones of our association.

COPA acts as a steward for the office products community, giving our members the support and unity they can trust to achieve new heights and drive the future of the industry itself.

DATA FACTORYhttp://www.copa.ca/market-data/

More than 3 years ago COPA engaged Gayle McCaskill a recognized product expert and a limitless enthusiasm for Office Products.

Since that time, Gayle has cleaned and updated more than 15,000 product SKUs. Working with manufacturers and resellers she has established classifications, standardized descriptors and at-tributes and added vendor and reseller product numbers and UPC and UNSPSC codes.

In addition to existing industry (aka Legacy) report, quarterly SKU level reports are now published based on Gayle’s considerable product database. Reports provide sales, units, and rankings of individual products that can be split by retail and commercial sales and analysed by various at-tribute sets.

It’s time for the next step.

COPA is currently reviewing Content Management Systems (CMS) to distribute its expanding product database. We will also be meeting with COPA members to set some standards and busi-ness rules so that they can more easily be used by manufacturers, distributor and retailers.

COPA – Working together for a better and more vibrant industry

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