In February, the Automotive Aftermarket Industry Association (AAIA) announced that its Product Attribute database (PAdb) now defines performance and physical attributes for products accounting for 92 percent of all retail automotive sales, and 98 percent of light-duty application sales.
Scott Luckett, AAIA’s CIO, spoke to Aftermarket Business World about reaching this milestone, and the future of the PAdb.
The PAdb now lists more than 63,000 attributes for more than 7,600 product types. Is this where you expected the number to stand at this point?
In fact, we're ahead of schedule. We announced the PAdb last year when it had first reached viable mass. We worked closely with our technology partner, Pricedex, who provided an online environment where our staff and volunteers could contribute to the attribute definitions.
We took a scientific approach to this project from the beginning. We didn't want to start at "A" for air filter and end at "W" for wiper blade. We approached it with a logical priority. It was a pleasant surprise when we benchmarked what all these attributes got us. We went to one of the nation's largest whole chains, and one of the nation's largest retail chains, and they put the part type codes against their sales mix, and we hit 95 percent of what they sell.
Our Parts Categorization Database (PCdb) has more than 18,000 terms in it. We've defined attributes for under half of those, but they are the half that accounts for more than 95 percent of the sales volume. Now we'll keep working until we define attributes for all of them.
So now that you've reached that threshold, what can the industry do with the PAdb?
You subscribe and pull it down. As a supplier, you don't have to worry about all of the products in there, because you don't make all of those products. You find your products and see what the attributes are. These are the facts about the product that other manufacturers of that product and resellers of that product have told us matter to the customer. They are the essential performance and physical criteria that help the customer appreciate the value of the product when they have more than one option to choose from.
Suppliers should regard this information as essential marketing data. It makes the counter professional look smarter, helps the customer make an informed decision, and is one more piece of information that helps ensure the right product gets sold the first time, and all of that leads to fewer returns and increased potential for margin.
What's the timetable for the remainder of the attributes?
Given that we've taken almost two years to produce the first 7,600 definitions, we're looking at another two years or more of effort. Maintenance of the PAdb will continue indefinitely.
The important thing to know for everyone from engine parts suppliers to shammy suppliers is that customers want this content. Automotive retail and wholesale chains participated in the population of the database. The correspondence will start going out by the end of this year asking that suppliers produce AAIA-coded attributes.
The PAdb enumerates what information is most valuable and important to the customer, and how it is to be expressed. You, the supplier, fill in the blanks. The great miracle of this for resellers is that your suppliers of motor oil are all going to talk about their product in a consistent, predictable way.
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