AD hosted its first annual multi-divisional eCommerce Summit, Jan. 23-25, Dallas. More than 230 ecommerce leaders within 140 AD member organizations attended. 

The goal of the AD eCommerce Summit was to help the AD independent distributors build comprehensive ecommerce strategies from financial models, to staff implications, to marketing plans.

The two-day event included keynote speakers, AD member panel discussions and more than 100 one-on-one, “Ask the Expert” sessions led by 15 ecommerce subject matter experts.

AD eContent subscribers determined and prioritized Summit content, and aimed to provide attendees and sponsors with an opportunity to learn, network and take away practical actions.

“AD is utilizing our multi-industry scale to lower our Members’ costs and speed their time to market,” said Bill Weisberg, AD’s chairman and CE during the event’s opening session. “Our collaboration, as a seven industry group, is what makes this possible. Our member’s need great content, reasonably priced platforms and real-world expertise, and that’s what we are delivering.”

Koltin Stratiner, corporate project development for Puget Sound Pipe and Supply added: “With how busy our daily schedules are, being able to spend an entire day focusing on this issue led to the most progress on ecommerce solutions that we have had to date.”

Grant Movold, Systems/IT Manager for Marks Supply said: “Absolutely every aspect of the experience was great. It was very synergistic to be at a conference with three of our important business partners: AD, Unilog and Epicor.”

The three pillars of AD eCommerce Solutions are eContent Services, Consultative Services and WebStore Services. In 2016 AD created more than 1 million enhanced, normalized and attributed SKUs, and in 2017 AD is scheduled to create more than 1 million more.

The event was sponsored by the AD eCommerce Strategic Partners: B2X Partners, Unilog, Epicor and IDEA.