Retail Observer

RETAILOBSERVER.COM NOVEMBER 2023 56 N ationwide Marketing Group's eXchange platform recently hit a major milestone in its relatively brief history. In the past few weeks, the platform crossed the 2,000-order mark, as adoption of eXchange continues to grow exponentially throughout the membership. First launched in 2015, the Nationwide eXchange platform has evolved in these seven-plus years into an elite ordering system that simplifies and streamlines the way the group's independent retailers can purchase product. Leveraging more than a dozen separate approved distribution relationships and myriad vendor partner programs, the platform provides NMG Members one-click access to over 33,000 SKUs, with more added regularly. "Our goal with eXchange has always been to give our members the ability to save time and money when they're looking for particular products," Randy Derr, director of distribution and eXchange, said during a recent Independent Thinking Podcast interview. "Everything we've done, from making certain updates to the platform, to growing the pool of product offerings, is all about serving our members and providing the best possible ordering experience for them." In its first year, members placed 90 orders through the system. It took nearly seven years for the platform to hit 1,000 orders, and more than 660 orders have been placed to date in 2023 – with a few months still remaining. All of which is to say that adoption and use of the platform has increased tremendously in the last 18-24 months. It's not just member adoption that's on the rise. The number of vendors and amount of offers available on eXchange has also increased drastically in the past year. "We've grown from about 6,000 offerings about a year ago to more than 36,000 today," said Derr. "And that list will continue to grow and grow and grow, based on what we're ingesting from the vendor partners that we're integrated with." Derr credited the recent surge in use to – of course – the increase in offers, and expanding into product verticals outside consumer electronics and appliances. But he says it also has to do with a number of recent upgrades to the platform that were spawned by direct feedback from the users. In particular, the eXchange shopping experience has been revamped to require fewer clicks while searching for product and placing orders – and the team's data show that those changes have, in fact, paid off. "I look at the metrics on a regular basis," Derr said. "And user adoption has grown exponentially. The number of sessions has grown exponentially. The number of orders that are being placed through the website has grown exponentially – but the amount of time a session lasts has dropped dramatically." B U Y I N G G R O U P N E W S RO NATIONWIDE EXCHANGE PLATFORM CELEBRATES 2,000 TH ORDER

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