MSA Safety Secures Its Online Presence With a Consistent Digital Experience

The business-to-business (B2B) safety equipment supplier improved its ecommerce presence with Salsify while speeding time to market.

About MSA

MSA Safety is the global leader in the development and supply of safety products. Since 1914, it has kept workers safe in industries like oil and gas, fire service, mining, construction, and more. From personal protection to hazard detection systems, MSA’s products ensure the safety of workers all over the world.

Challenge

MSA was concerned about the way its products were appearing online. Data was inconsistent across partner channels. In addition, copy for the same product may be different between distributors, and images weren’t always up to brand standards.

This concern was MSA’s impetus to seek a new solution. Originally, MSA wanted to use Salsify as an add-on to support other solutions. However, it wasn’t long until the company realized that Salsify could be so much more for them.

“Consistency was missing in the way we were showing up, and we wanted to manage that. That was the impetus behind where we were looking at Salsify … to try and create a consistent feel and look as a brand.”

— Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager of the Americas, MSA Safety

Solution

Create a Centralized Data Repository

After an initial effort to use Salsify as an add-on, MSA realized that Salsify’s true value lay in being a centralized information repository. The company took a step back and changed its approach, cleaning its data more and inputting it much more strategically.

MSA now has a central repository that has been invaluable to marketing and sales. It has become part of the heart of what MSA does instead of just another bolt-on solution.

Provide Partners With Digital Catalogs

The centralized nature of MSA’s Salsify workflow means that consistent information can now be provided to partners much more easily. MSA has created a number of digital catalogs and has made them available to partners according to market segments.

MSA is now encouraging partners to use them for better data consistency and future syndication. These efforts go hand in hand with building a centralized Salsify instance, which can now send data to all partners whenever a change or update is made.

“This [Salsify] is a living core of your business. The guts of everything that actually happens in your company is here.”

— Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager of the Americas, MSA Safety

Results

Consistency Across Partners

MSA now has a very easy time making sure all information is consistent across partners. When something is updated in Salsify, that information gets sent to every channel partner’s platform. That makes a much easier lift to ensure consistency across the internet.

The organization is now working with partners to help them understand that they don’t need to do as much work to manage product data. Salsify makes product information management easy enough that additional effort from the partners is unnecessary.

Faster Time to Market

The biggest benefit MSA has been able to enjoy is a significantly faster time to market. Previously, MSA would have to send data to their partners after a product was launched. Now, they can send that data ahead of time. When a product is launched, it can be on distributors’ sites the same day.

MSA's next step is making the process even more efficient by helping distributors adapt to syndication efforts powered by Salsify.

“It's really easy to go into Salsify and make changes and do things on the fly when you need to. And the great thing is, once you do it there, it goes everywhere. It's helping us with our speed to market on products because once we implemented this process, now our channel partners’ sites can launch the day we launch … So our product launches go far quicker.”

— Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager of the Americas, MSA Safety

“Consistency was missing in the way we were showing up, and we wanted to manage that. That was the impetus behind where we were looking at Salsify … to try and create a consistent feel and look as a brand.”

— Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager of the Americas, MSA Safety

“This [Salsify] is a living core of your business. The guts of everything that actually happens in your company is here.”

— Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager of the Americas, MSA Safety

“It's really easy to go into Salsify and make changes and do things on the fly when you need to. And the great thing is, once you do it there, it goes everywhere. It's helping us with our speed to market on products because once we implemented this process, now our channel partners’ sites can launch the day we launch … So our product launches go far quicker.”

— Sean Donovan, Digital Channel Manager of the Americas, MSA Safety

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