The Beer Industry Electronic Commerce Coalition (BIECC) and Syndigo, a SaaS product information management and syndication company, announced the opening of access to their Master Product Catalog (MPC) for beer brands. This catalog houses basic item information and images for all participating brands, as a single source of item information that is freely available to retailers, distributors, third-party solution providers and other industry stakeholders.
In 2021, the BIECC and Syndigo created the MPC as an industry solution for beer brewers, especially smaller suppliers, to provide their product content easily to the recipients who need the information to display and sell the product. After several months of building the catalog and importing items, the group is ready to open access to users.
“We’ve seen the number of items in the catalog steadily increase over the last few months, and the time is right to open up access,” says David Christman, Executive Director of the BIECC. “Since the start of this project our goal has been to provide a single source of reliable, accurate data for the beer industry. With the MPC, brewers can freely and easily upload their brand information and retailers, distributors and solution providers have open access to use the content. Having a partner like Syndigo to build and maintain this catalog will help assure its success for years to come.”
As more consumers go online to shop for beer brands and utilize various forms of e-commerce, the need for timely, accurate and reliable item information has never been greater. The BIECC is promoting the catalog to the entire brewing community, offering several cost-free options for brands to upload their item content into the catalog. While the number of brands in the catalog will continue to grow, enough content is now available that users will be able to see immediate benefits.
“Syndigo has a rich history of creating and managing content to optimize performance for a variety of industries, providing data to thousands of retailers across the globe on a daily basis,” says Chris Barnes, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development & Solutions Delivery for Syndigo. “The BIECC is working to provide a platform that gives equal opportunity for the entire beer industry, which is really exciting to see. We are proud to partner with the BIECC to help them harness the massive growth in the category’s online content, now and in the years to come.”
Retailers, distributors and solution providers interested in gaining access to the catalog should visit www.syndigo.com/biecc to learn more and fill out the contact form to get started. Brewers whose products are not yet in the catalog are likewise encouraged to visit the site to begin the process of uploading their brands. Questions can also be directed to David Christman at dchristman@nbwa.org or Amy Behm at amy.behm@syndigo.com.
