The Most Overlooked Asset in Distribution (It’s Not What You Think)

What is the single most important asset in distribution?Most leaders would say relationships. Or people. Or supplier partnerships.In this episode of Frictionless Commerce, Matt Johnson makes a different case:It’s your catalog.Distributor eCommerce continues to hover in the single digits — not because of weak strategy or lack of investment, but because catalog management remains fragmented, reactive, and under-governed.Matt walks through:Why everything in distribution flows through the catalogWhat the print era got right about data governanceWhy digital catalogs are harder — not easier — to manageThe real reason eCommerce adoption stallsThe difference between AI hype and governed, agentic catalog managementHow to shift from reactive data cleanup to prioritized decision-makingThis episode reframes the catalog as core infrastructure — not a support function — and explains why disciplined operators who master it will outpace the market.The future of digital commerce isn’t autonomous systems running wild.It’s governed intelligence accelerating structured teams.Connect with Matt on LinkedInDistributionB2B eCommerceDigital TransformationCatalog ManagementProduct DataPIMAI in DistributionSupply Chain TechnologyAgentic AIIndustrial Distribution