ACES & PIES Data
Whether you are a manufacturer or a distributor of automotive parts, it is important to understand the ACES and PIES formats, what they represent, what they are, and how they help the automotive aftermarket industry exchange product data and fitment in a more robust manner. Strabo Partners is here to help break down the barriers to understanding these two formats.
Strabo has helped manufacturers create their ACES files and PIES files from scratch, but also has extensive experience helping manufacturers get these files updated and exported for reseller consumption faster! If you are an auto parts distributor given an ACES file or a PIES file for the first time and are confused about where to go next, contact us! We can help you get this data into a useable format and ready for use on your website. We will breakdown what each of these formats mean, why they are the industry standard, and how we can help you get up and running in no time!
What is ACES?
The ACES standard or “Aftermarket Catalog Exchange Standard” was created in order to have a standardized format for information relating to product selection and product fitment. This fitment data is used to ensure accurate Year/Make/Model/Submodel, etc product searches and lookups. Whenever you go out to a website to see if an auto part fits your vehicle, chances are an ACES file is helping to ensure you are getting an accurate list of parts that fit your vehicle. The ACES standard is used to generate vehicle fitment for light, medium, and heavy duty vehicles. ACES is also used to power fitment for powersport, off-highway, and equipment manufacturers.
What is PIES?
The PIES standard or “Product Information Exchange Standard” is the industry standard built for the management and communication of specific product information. This includes part attributes like part number, pricing, and other parts data as necessary. Like ACES, the PIES standard is used by light, medium, heavy duty vehicles, powersport, off-highway, and equipment manufacturers. The PIES standard includes all your brand information like brand id, etc as well. If you are an auto parts online seller, Strabo has a product information management (PIM) tool designed to help ingest these PIES files and send them to your ecommerce store. Our PIM, Product Desk has full ecommerce syncing support for BigCommerce, Magento, Shopify, and many more.
How are these files used?
The ACES and PIES automotive aftermarket industry standard was developed by the AutoCare Association. You will find all leading automotive aftermarket companies use these formats to exchange data related to parts information, product attributes, general application data, and vehicle fitment. While traditionally all of these files are sent via XML format, more and more this information is being sent by suppliers and retailers using APIs for faster and more secure transmission. If you are a supplier looking to generate and distribute this data, Strabo can help you modernize your process and send this information via secure APIs.
The ACES and PIES standards allow for mapping to the Vehicle Configuration Database or VCdb. The VCdb is a database of vehicle configurations for North America. By mapping and validating your vehicle information to the VCdb you are able to accurately and reliably perform year/make/model searches and ensure correct parts lookups in your ERP, CRM, or ecommerce platform. The VCdb has over 50 unique attributes classified into vehicle systems or groups for a simplified mapping. AutoCare publishes several other important databases like the Qualifier database (Qdb), Product Classification database (PCdb), and more. Our PIM can help you utilize each of these databases as needed to ensure proper validation of your files and data.
How can Strabo help you?
Strabo has experience helping companies in all parts of the supply chain deals with ACES PIES data. Our customer base includes aftermarket parts manufacturers, replacement parts companies, automotive ecommerce companies, automotive wholesale distributors and more. Every sub market within the automotive aftermarket industry works a little differently from the other. Strabo has a wide range of experience working with large and smaller brands. Strabo understands each of these areas and the best way for your business to leverage these data formats within the market place.
Already have fitment information, but just need your PIES data standards built out and updated, Strabo can help you with that as well! By using our PIM, Product Desk you’ll be able to sync all this data out to many different channels including Walmart, Amazon, eBay, ChannelAdvisor and many more. Our goal is to simplify the ACES PIES process and let you get back to what you do best - running your business! Book a call or contact us today to learn more about how we can help bring your data to the modern, digital first era!
Interested in learning more about how Strabo can help your business with its ACE PIES data?