No one needs to explain to Lennard Vis, Country Manager of Shimano and board member of the DST foundation, how important collaboration in the bicycle industry is. He has seen the market change with his own eyes over the past ten years. “Customers (end users) are better informed than ever, and their hunger for even more knowledge about complete bicycles as well as specific components such as brakes, motors, or tires is vast,” he says.
At the same time, he sees that retailers are just as eager. They want to be able to find their way more quickly through the enormous range of components coming from multiple suppliers. In that case, it is particularly useful that all that information comes together in one system that is accessible, up-to-date, and unified, such as the DST platform. “To provide optimal service to the customer, unified and complete product registration increases rapid findability. In this way, retailers can ensure they provide their customers with immediate, sound advice and sell the right equipment.”
The sleeping giant woke up
“The sharing of data and information has taken off,” Vis observes. According to him, in the early years, the DST platform was perhaps a kind of sleeping giant, one that retailers and suppliers sometimes even wondered about: what’s in it for me? But by now, most know better. With so many products, article numbers, barcodes, and descriptions, a continuous flow of new products, and simultaneously all the changes in the retail landscape, the importance of an accessible and shared data system has only grown.”
Optimal sharing of information stands or falls with collaboration. “Collaboration is the key,” says Lennard Vis. “If every supplier and provider handles product registration in their own way, it leads not only to more work but also to more work in more places. Moreover, it becomes almost impossible for the customer to retrieve information. Product data recorded in so many places in so many ways... how do you process that?”
"The retail landscape is changing rapidly."
Changing retail landscape
According to Vis, DST is proving to have an important function for an increasing number of parties. “Also for newcomers within the industry. The retail landscape is changing rapidly. Where this market was previously primarily determined by bicycle shops, you now also see sales through parties such as the automotive industry. At the same time, online sales are rising; digital is growing enormously. These parties, not raised in the bicycle industry, are becoming increasingly interesting for suppliers. This makes a system in which all product information is accessible of great value for newcomers as well. To utilize such a system optimally, there must be good collaboration at the front end. Of course, it sometimes produces conflicting feelings: collaborating with the competitor within the same industry? Rather not! Within our platform, the partners now primarily experience that they perform better together. Ultimately, it is about providing the customer – the retailer – with optimal product information, which increases sales.”
About Lennard Vis
Lennard Vis is Country Manager of Shimano. He holds a board position within DST, where he is responsible for communication. His ambition? To create more awareness for the platform within the bicycle industry, both nationally and internationally. “I hope that a growing number of suppliers, users, and retailers will discover and use DST. Within DST, all data and information come together in such a way that users become compatible and benefit more and more from each other.”