The VendorSauce blog

EPR in the UK and PPWR in the EU are changing what businesses need to know about the packaging around their products - and exposing just how difficult that information can be to collect, maintain and report.

Mark Ripley

11/09/2026

The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 is on the statute book and two major consultations closed in June 2026. Very little of it binds you today - but the commercial pressure will arrive long before the legal duty does.

Mark Ripley

06/09/2026

Your PPE product data is accurate on the day it leaves you. What happens to it after that is the part most suppliers never see - and it is costing them more than they realise.

Mark Ripley

02/09/2026

AI is everywhere in product data conversations right now. But in supplier organisations, reality is more nuanced. AI is powerful. It is not magic.

Mark Ripley

18/02/2026

For many trade account managers working for suppliers and manufacturers, the hardest part of the job isn't winning the deal. It's what happens after the deal is agreed. The buyer is keen, the commercial terms are in place, everyone wants to move quickly, and then momentum disappears.

Mark Ripley

03/02/2026

(From the Supplier & Manufacturer Perspective) For years, product data has been treated as a technical concern. Something for IT teams to "sort out" once the real business problems are dealt with.

Mark Ripley

28/01/2026

For vendors supplying multiple retailers, few challenges are as persistent and frustrating as attribute mapping. It's the unglamorous but critical process of connecting your product attributes to each retailer's unique field requirements. This data translation challenge creates a significant bottleneck in the product information supply chain, often requiring hours of manual work for each new retail partner or data format.

Mark Ripley

03/04/2025

The challenge of aligning product attribute names across supply chain partners creates significant inefficiencies for vendors. Discover how centralised PIM platforms can normalise attribute naming conventions, allowing vendors to define their structure once and automatically map it to each customer's unique requirements.

Mark Ripley

25/02/2025

In today's fast-paced retail landscape, vendors struggle with time-consuming product launch processes, from manual data entry to format conversions. Discover how centralised PIM platforms are revolutionizing the product launch timeline, helping vendors overcome time-to-market obstacles and stay competitive.

Mark Ripley

24/02/2025

Sharing product data with retail and wholesale customers should be a straightforward process, but far too often, vendors find themselves navigating a Tower of Babel when it comes to file formats.

Mark Ripley

21/02/2025