Stock in the Channel Asks Vendors to Use Icecat Free Vendor Central

The United Kingdom-based Stock in the Channel uses Icecat product content successfully for more than 10 years. At the moment, it hosts more than 200 websites containing Icecat product content as it provides retailers with a single trade-only site where it is possible to share, buy and sell IT hardware. Further, Stock in the Channel provides stock & availability services in 22 countries. And with over 25,000 registered customers and 60.000 registered users, resellers can find quickly the right products online. Now, Stock in the Channel asks all its vendors to use Icecat Vendor Central to enhance their product content.

Benefits for Stock in the Channel vendors

Why are brand owners and other vendors investing time and money in enhancing their product content for their online channels? Because sales shifts from high street retail to high-traffic websites and business-to-business leads the way. Platforms like Stock In The Channel provide the necessary e-business infrastructures. For the classic sales channel, brands were investing in packaging information, brochures, and demos. In the online world, it’s no different, except that interactive multimedia helps to augment the sales pitch, and there’s no physical limit to the information that can be provided. Furthermore, better content leads to more search hits, higher sales conversion, and better prospect engagement in e-commerce environments. No wonder that leading brands go to great lengths to please their online prospects.

The main operational advantage for a vendor is that there is no need for big investments in its own product information manager (PIM) and syndication infrastructures. It only takes a free Vendor Central account to be in business. Icecat takes care of the support of all (60+) major world languages in its multilingual taxonomy. This guarantees that a product data-sheet entered once, will be automatically available in all these languages!

Furthermore, in case of advanced brand requirements, brand owners can join the premium services of Open Icecat for unlimited or controlled content syndication to all their channel partners. And for digital rights management.

Manual data-entry or through API

Brand editors can easily enter data manually, using Icecat’s PIM, the free Vendor Central, or alternatively, set up a connection to Icecat’s push-API. The latter will require separate authorization as a security precaution. In both cases, the entered product information goes straight into the Icecat catalog. It is ready to go live for syndication in minutes, whereby Icecat takes care of the translation of structured data elements into local languages. But, marketing texts and other unstructured data are to be provided by the brand in the local language. Additionally, brand editors get real-time notifications of the publishing cycle.

How to join Free Vendor Central?

After a brand owner registers, it can then immediately start entering and enriching its product content, including product titles, descriptions, specs, and images, and 360 degrees product demos and videos, feature logos, sustainability data, and Enhanced Product Stories. A tutorial is available on how to register and edit product content in the Icecat Free Vendor Central.

Watch video tutorial

In three easy steps, you can register for Free Vendor Central. Firstly, go to icecat.biz/registration to sign up for a free Icecat account. Secondly, confirm your e-mail address. Thirdly, contact Icecat to assign your brand to your account.

Icecat takes care that only authorized staff is allowed to manage a brand’s product content. But we also offer training for first-time users.