The Beer Industry Electronic Commerce Coalition (BIECC), managed by NBWA and established in 1994, is a working group that strives to maximize the beer industry’s role and common interest pertaining to the implementation and utilization of electronic commerce within the three-tier system. For additional information about the Beer Industry Electronic Commerce Coalition, please contact BIECC Executive Director and NBWA Vice President, State Affairs Dave Christman at dchristman@nbwa.org.
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Membership
Members of the BIECC include some of the nation’s leading brewers, importers and distributors. Additionally, the BIECC has added an associate membership level, which includes leading solution providers for the beer industry. Working together, these stakeholders aim to provide a single voice for the beer industry on various electronic commerce initiatives and projects.
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Objectives
In carrying out its mission, the BIECC works to:
- Encourage the utilization of state-of-the-art applications.
- Enhance the value of the three-tier system.
- Educate the brewer and the distribution tiers on electronic data interchange (EDI).
- Represent the beer industry’s interests to selected electronic commerce committees.
- Monitor electronic commerce developments that impact the beer industry.
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Focus Areas
There are four areas in which the BIECC is concentrating to advance electronic commerce:
- Education: Inform suppliers, distributors and retailers about relevant electronic commerce related issues. Each year the coalition presents an education seminar at NBWA’s Annual Convention. In non-trade show convention years, the BIECC also sponsors the very popular Beer & Bytes luncheon, which allows convention attendees to enjoy lunch and at the same time learn about a new technology in the industry from leading technology providers.
- Standards: Work to enhance existing industry standards and promote standard business transactions. The coalition has developed industry standards and positions on electronic commerce and other related issues affecting distributors and their trading partners. These have been communicated to standards setting bodies, beer industry professionals and other industry groups. In 2009, the BIECC published an updated version of the Route Accounting System (RAS) Checklist, first produced in 2001.
- Regulatory: Ensure that state and federal laws are upheld and that the playing field is level.
- Research: Investigate and review emerging technology for use in the beverage industry. Coalition members address a variety of challenges facing beer distributors. They investigate tools utilized to maximize productivity and automate the beer industry’s sales force, including hand-held devices such as pagers, cellular phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), portable data collection terminals, truck/car based personal computers (PCs) and global positioning systems (GPS). In recent years the BIECC has also worked with various groups to pilot and investigate emerging technologies like Global Data Synchronization (GDS) and the emergence of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID in the beer industry.
Below you can find BIECC resources on a wide range of industry topics, including AI, automation and online ordering.
In February 2022, the BIECC and Syndigo, a leading SaaS product information management and syndication company, announced the opening of access to the Master Product Catalog (MPC) for beer brands. This Catalog houses basic item information and images for all participating brands, as a single source of item information that is freely available to retailers, distributors, third-party solution providers and other industry stakeholders.
The MPC was created as an industry solution for beer brewers, especially smaller suppliers, to provide their product content easily to the recipients who need the information to display and sell the product.
Questions can also be directed to David Christman at dchristman@nbwa.org or Staci Springer at staci.springer@syndigo.com
The BIECC is helping NBWA members and their partners understand how AI tools can be implemented into beer distribution operations. Watch our webinar series featuring distributors sharing AI use cases from their organizations:
- Turn Data Into Depletions
Cam Koorangi (Gulf Distributing Holdings) and Steve Holtsclaw (Del Papa Distributing) share tips on maintaining quality data, tracking financial impact and developing best practices and governance policies. - Agentic AI: Next Steps for Beer Distributors
Sean Taylor (Wil Fischer Companies) shares how his company uses agentic AI workflows of varying complexity. - How Will Beer Distributors Use AI in 2026?
Charlie Pope (Coastal Beverage Company) shares a distributor perspective on how AI helps his team overcome operational pain points - Developing an AI Path For Your Business
Drayton Lee (Champion Brands) and Laura Melzow (Glazer’s Beer & Beverage) provide a primer of how distributors can implement AI tools into their day-to-day operations
Watch distributor operations leaders explain their approach to planning, implementing and best utilizing automation technology:
- The Future of Warehouse Robotics
Tony Deleonabreu (Suncoast Beverage Sales), Dylon Graham (Long Beverage) and Steve Holtsclaw (Del Papa Distributing) share tips on implementing automation technology and explained the components of an effective automation roadmap.
Benefits of Established eCommerce Tools in the Beer Industry
This new resource acts as a refresher of the benefits and savings that can be realized across the supply chain by more established eCommerce tools like Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT).
Electronic Funds Transfer Explainer
To learn more about the benefits of Electronic Funds Transfer to both distributors and retailers, be sure to check out the video below. Thank you to Anheuser-Busch InBev and Wil Fischer Companies for their efforts in producing this video.
Why Consider Online Ordering?
- What Solutions Are Available?
- Retailer Interaction
- Goal Setting & Analytics
- Internal Distributor Onboarding
Watch Online Ordering 2.0: New Ways to Win in the Digital Arena
Discover the strategies distributors and suppliers are using through online ordering platforms to enhance customer service, drive sales and strengthen their local market presence.
Kicking off NBWA’s Annual Convention (Oct. 11-14 in Orlando), the BIECC Innovation Showcase brings the future of beer distribution to life in a fun, fast-paced event that is included with your registration.
These 5-minute presentations will pack a punch.
You’ll see live demos of cutting-edge technology, explore the latest AI tools and learn about solutions for operational challenges that can help your company work smarter and more efficiently.
2026 BIECC SPONSORS
