TOPNORDIC Maintains Bottom-Line Advantage with CNET Channel DataSource™

Denmark's first technology reseller to offer products online, TOPNORDIC offers business and government customers in Denmark, Sweden and Norway a veritable smorgasbord of hardware, software and office supply items, IT deployment services and repair-related support through its online retail portal, topnordic.com. Up to 100,000 stock-keeping units (SKUs) are available to customers in each market.

The company tracks inventory turnover at a remarkable rate of 80 turns per year, because TOPNORDIC's enormous catalog of items is mostly stocked by its distribution partners and suppliers — while TOPNORDIC holds only merchandise it can purchase in such quantity and at such a significantly discounted price that it can ensure high-volume sales and minimize inventory storage costs.

Rich, Consistent Data Creates Vast Virtual Catalog

TOPNORDIC is a regional reseller, but Søren Bartels, head of TOPNORDIC business development, observes, "Dropping product prices put pressure on our profit margin, and the consolidation of competition in our industry means we've got to be more effective to beat fewer, bigger companies for customers' business."

TOPNORDIC launched its e-commerce channel in 1996. The company's Web portal required a great deal of manual data entry and presented content provided by TOPNORDIC's distribution partners and suppliers. TOPNORDIC staff had to sort through inconsistent data from multiple sources to present government and business customers with product information, and the portal was not designed to support comparison shopping.

By 2002, e-commerce had become more prevalent, and Bartels' team recognized the need to make it easier for customers to procure merchandise online. "Initially, we didn't define the problem as one of data quality. We talked a lot with different vendors and distributors about how to improve the site," says Bartels. "Although our reputation as a top reseller allows us to ask our suppliers to make changes that will help us improve business, we couldn't seem to arrive at a solution that would have the desired results."

When a representative from CNET Channel met with TOPNORDIC to show how it would be possible to present detailed, consistent product information — translated and localized to reflect merchandise available in each market — Bartels' team recognized the opportunities to make the storefront more useful. TOPNORDIC chose CNET Channel's DataSource service to provide product information for its merchandise, enabling customers to search for merchandise in their native language and choose from a selection of goods stocked in their region.

"We certainly didn't have the manpower to search for, aggregate, organize, and present highly detailed data and pictures for the thousands of items we offer. And no other prospective data providers could come close to DataSource's breadth and depth of content, much less offer it for Danish, Swedish and Norwegian SKUs."

Just-in-Time Strategy Delivers High-Value Returns

Today, TOPNORDIC's online store presents a catalog of items from a database that is created anew each day based on inventory availability from its 60 distribution partners in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. CNET acquires exhaustive product information from manufacturers and other trustworthy sources for DataSource. TOPNORDIC's partners' inventory availability determines what content from DataSource will populate the online catalog.

As a result, TOPNORDIC is able to aggregate and present an extensive catalog, without the cost — and risk — of maintaining inventory. Once an order is placed, it is sent to the distributor that offered the item and shipped directly to the customer or to TOPNORDIC, which in turn sends it on to the customer. "It's simple," says Bartels. "Our distributors and suppliers provide the part numbers plus their pricing and item availability, and DataSource delivers all the rich content related to those items."

Bartels notes that with two staff dedicated to the work of adapting TOPNORDIC's Web portal to integrate the DataSource information feed, it took approximately two and a half months to bring the first portal enhancements live. Today, maintenance simply requires downloading the data package each day, amounting to just a few hours of time per month.

Partnering for Competitive Advantage — and Results

With DataSource providing a solid foundation for its robust shopping portal, with text and images that are consistent from product to product, TOPNORDIC has added parametric search and comparison capabilities. This enables users to find products based on the specifications they require and then evaluate those specifications to make an informed decision. Building on the DataSource content and data model, TOPNORDIC has also developed features and functions that reinforce customer preference, such as an accessories guide, so customers can find compatible products — and TOPNORDIC can create up-sell opportunities.

According to Bartels, DataSource is vital to TOPNORDIC's business model, which depends on offering an enormous selection of products without a corresponding investment in inventory, so that operational costs stay low and competitive advantage remains high. "We're finding new ways to use DataSource content all the time," he says. "TOPNORDIC was first in the market to present customers with such a wealth of information, and that initial advantage has helped us continue to improve the customer experience and stay a step ahead of our competition."

And the results are evident. When TOPNORDIC began using DataSource, about 15 percent of customer orders were placed through its shopping portal. Today, 60 percent of all orders are made electronically. "DataSource has made it possible for us to offer a much larger catalog while our staff can focus on their core tasks," says Bartels. "There's no doubt that our customers appreciate the utility of our site."

About TOPNORDIC

TOPNORDIC is a leading reseller of IT products and services to government and business customers in Denmark, Norway and Sweden. One of the first resellers to provide customers with the option of e-commerce, TOPNORDIC continues to find ways to make it faster and easier for customers to purchase the hardware, software and supplies that they need. For more information about TOPNORDIC, visit www.topnordic.com