On today’s episode of the Independent Thinking Podcast, Kevin Bryant, NMG’s Sr. Director, PrimeMedia, sits down with Randy Derr, NMG’s Director of eXchange to talk about the 10th anniversary of eXchange, what’s new on the platform, and what’s next.
See the full transcript below.
Kevin Bryant (KB): Hey there! Kevin Bryant here with the Independent Thinking Podcast. I have Randy Derr from the eXchange with me. Randy, I think I saw a birthday cake… what’s happening with eXchange right now?
Randy Derr (RD): It’s our celebration. Ten year anniversary. Ten years ago, March 15th in Orlando, Florida, eXchange was introduced to the membership. Fast forward to today, ten years later, it’s our tenth anniversary. It’s an unbelievable milestone.
KB: So, there might be people in here who have never heard of eXchange. Explain it to the people who don’t know what eXchange is. What can they do with eXchange?
RD: So, the purpose behind eXchange when it was first introduced was really to save our Members time and money and trying to find products that their customers are asking for. It’s a competitive analysis tool, a sales tool, right? And all in one location they can go to and find all this information on one website, right? It saves them time because, in lieu of having to go out and look at multiple websites or make multiple phone calls, they can go to one place to find that information.
KB: So, I’m sure there’s been new features added since it came out 10 years ago. And I know there’s some upcoming features. Tell us a little about what’s new and then what’s upcoming.
RD: So, the latest feature that we’ve added that was driven by feedback that we get from the Vendor community as well as the Members is a product list, or a favorites list, right? It allows the Members to come in and create lists, whether it be for their traditional store assortment. They could use it to quote jobs and put bids out for opportunities for projects and things of that nature. So that’s pretty exciting, right? We introduced that yesterday to the Members during our merchandising session — and they loved it. They loved it. So that was the latest and greatest but with that we’re always looking for ways to improve the user experience around eXchange and that’s really driven by the Member feedback.
KB: That’s excellent. So, what’s next? What are we going to be celebrating at the 20-year anniversary?
RD: Good question. You know, it’s really hard to say, right? I don’t have an answer today for that but I know there’s going to be something there.
KB: Well, 10 years of eXchange. Real exciting. We’re going to show you some b-roll of that birthday cake before it gets eaten and thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next time.
