Supplier Benchmarking Jeison Ortega Joe Effertz TABLE 1. Do you show real-time or near real-time inventory on your website for distributors? Yes No PPAI 100 Suppliers 90% 10% Suppliers $250M+ 89% 11% Suppliers $50M-$250M 94% 6% Suppliers $5M-$50M 71% 29% Suppliers Under $5M 29% 71% Ideally, the percentage of suppliers offering real-time inventory should exceed 90% across all revenue brackets, according to Jeison Ortega, chief technology officer at Charles River Apparel. The Massachusetts-based company ranked as the No. 44 supplier in this year’s PPAI 100, earning high marks in the innovation category. “Given that most systems already have access to this data, the advantages of sharing it with distributors far outweigh the implementation efforts,” says Ortega, also a member of PPAI’s 2023 Technology Committee. “It’s important for the entire industry to recognize and act on this trend for optimal supply chain efficiency.” TABLE 2. Are you integrating inventory and order status through either PPAI’s Promo Data Exchange (PDX) or PromoStandards (or both)? Yes No PPAI 100 Suppliers 85% 15% Suppliers $250M+ 89% 11% Suppliers $50M-$250M 89% 11% Suppliers $5M-$50M 71% 29% Suppliers Under $5M 43% 57% “The data clearly highlights the promo industry’s shift toward technological integration in the ordering process,” Ortega says. Notably, while 43% of suppliers with under $5 million in revenue are integrating through platforms like PDX or PromoStandards, only 29% offer real-time inventory on their websites (see Table 1). “This suggests smaller suppliers prioritize external platform integrations over their own real-time systems,” says Ortega, adding that this trend merits further exploration. Through PDX, suppliers’ inventory and order status information becomes available to 45,000 SAGE users with a single integration. Joe Effertz, president of Minnesota-based supplier Black Forest, understands the impact of standards integration on customers. “We believe that a more frictionless transaction will be the gold standard for our industry to grow and compete with the direct companies,” Effertz says. TABLE 3. Do you offer live chat for your distributors? Yes No PPAI 100 Suppliers 68% 33% Suppliers $250M+ 67% 33% Suppliers $50M-$250M 67% 33% Suppliers $5M-$50M 52% 47% Suppliers Under $5M 25% 75% Effertz says offering live chat is imperative in 2023. “As distributors hire more Gen Z, we need to meet them at their level and have this option available to communicate,” he says. “We’ve even explored Discord servers as an option, but the industry hasn’t embraced this avenue of communication yet.” Given the popularity of live chat in customer service outside the promo industry, Ortega is surprised that there aren’t more suppliers offering the tool. “It’s likely that these numbers will increase as more companies recognize the shift in customer preferences towards chat-based inquiries over direct interactions,” he says. “The current trend among suppliers, especially smaller ones, underscores the need to adapt to evolving customer expectations.” Must Read | The State of Innovation 2023 48 • OCTOBER 2023 • PPAI
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