Language Lesson

By Scott Bestul

Question: What do international businessmen have in common with outdoor manufacturers and wholesalers?

Answer: Life would be a whole lot easier if everyone spoke the same language!

Wayne Smith would surely appreciate the comparison. Smith, president of the National Association of Sporting Goods Wholesalers (NASGW), noted in a recent interview that there are over 200 manufacturers of outdoor products, and at least 40 distributors, wholesalers and reps of those products. Unfortunately, as they communicate with each other, the information they pass along is highly inconsistent. “I’m talking everything from logos to pricing, from product specs to serial numbers,” says Smith. “They’re accessing information from hundreds of sources as they attempt to service their customers. And that’s not a good thing. Some of the info is just plain wrong, some is out-of date. Frankly, the current system is a mess.”

The good news is that Smith feels he has a solution to this information snag. It’s called ItemHQ, a comprehensive and reliable online directory of outdoor products that can be accessed by any active NASGW member. “Until now, there has been no way to effectively connect the multitude of different company languages used to describe products and their specifications,” Smith says. “ItemHQ will significantly reduce errors and redundancy, and it will be another valuable tool to enhance industry communication and grow the business of our members.”

Industry Home Page

While ItemHQ is still in its infancy, Smith offered a glimpse into how it might work. “Let’s say that a wholesaler is interested in stocking 9mm handguns,” he says. “After accessing the website (itemhq.com), he can either conduct a search for that particular genre or simply go to the ‘family’ subhead marked ‘handguns’ and browse the information supplied by various manufacturers. He doesn’t have to visit the website of each individual manufacturer and look up the specific models, specs and pricing. It’s all there in one central database. Better yet, it’s all current and correct.” 

You don’t have to be a computer genius to see that ItemHQ is a rare blessing: a home page for the outdoor industry at large. Categories are subdivided for quick access, unique family and item attributes are pre-populated to save data-entry time, and searches—both basic and advanced—are easy to perform. ItemHQ also boasts a preinstalled help guide, a dedicated telephone help line, and even a technical support system for those times when

the machine acts like a rebellious teenager.

Boosting Efficiency

Smith has even bigger plans for ItemHQ’s future. “We’re working on a system where dealers and retailers will be able to create in-store ad materials like brochures and spec sheets, as well as camera-ready art to announce sales, special events and advertising,” he says. “These systems are widely used by grocery store chains, franchise systems and large companies like Sears. The flyers and stuffers you see in Sunday newspapers, as well as the window and shelf signs you see announcing special sales, are not generated by the local store or company itself. They’re produced by a central company called Adsembly.com. ItemHQ will be able to serve the same function for the outdoor/shooting sports market.”

Smith insists ItemHQ will help everyone in the industry do their job more efficiently. “Globalization and technological innovations, combined with an increased pressure on cost-savings, demand a continuous improvement in delivery for each step on the supply chain,” he says. “ItemHQ was designed to aid in this process. It streamlines the transfer of information between manufacturer and wholesaler, provides consistent and up-to-date product data and increases efficiency and cooperation between all facets of the industry. The system has been a long time on the drawing board, and we’re excited to share its unique benefits with everyone in the industry.”