In today’s world, selling online is a given. To drive real revenue requires differentiating on the digital shelf and optimizing your omnichannel strategy.
If this past year has taught us anything, it’s that selling online is a necessity. Even organizations that were traditionally offline have now made the shift.
In part due to the global pandemic, we’ve reached a tipping point. For the foreseeable future, digital commerce is the way forward. Forrester forecasts that e-commerce sales are growing at five times the rate of offline sales, with the market expected to top USD 1 trillion in spending by 2024.
And for the record, just selling on Amazon isn’t enough to drive success. Having your product offerings online is only one piece of the digital strategy. To thrive, it’s all about e-commerce optimization: streamlining processes, reaching more channels and audiences, standing out from the crowd by using personalization, and analytics to discover what’s working well and where there is room to improve.
It doesn’t matter whether you’re just getting to grips with digital commerce or more mature in your journey, optimization delivers benefits at all stages. Watch our recent webinar to hear how leading brands are driving “next-level” commerce today, or read our ebook, Why it’s easier to achieve next level commerce with a PIM solution, for even more insights and B2B examples.
The importance of telling engaging product stories can’t be underestimated. They bring your products to life and build buyer trust. Done well, they also help you connect to your customer wherever they are along their buyer journey, across any device or channel. Up to date, relevant, contextual information is a must. A global inriver study found that 58% of businesses report returns or customer dissatisfaction was due to outdated or inconsistent product information.
With nearly two-thirds of consumers willing to abandon a brand if the online experience is poor, it’s essential to enrich your product stories with rich media content. Think lifestyle images, videos, 3D-rendering, or even augmented reality (AR). Add in reviews, user-generated content, and personalization such as product recommendations and you’re delivering content buyers want to see and experience.
What’s the best way to deliver your visually-engaging, enriched product content across new channels? The answer is product data syndication. What is it? Put simply, it’s selling, distributing, and managing products across channels. We’re talking marketplaces, distribution channels, data pools, and online retailers.
For syndication solutions to work, there are many different areas that need to be addressed. This includes automating and optimizing data validation, taxonomy, templates, enrichment, channel completeness, and much more.
If you’ve already mastered the basics of product data syndication, then take a look at the How to scale commerce quickly ebook.
The best way to get the most out of product data syndication is using a Product Information Management (PIM) solution. A PIM solution is foundational for modern commerce, but the addition of a syndication solution activates it to scale.
The competition never sleeps. Speed and time to market are essential to win market share and stay ahead of the competition. With more options available to your buyers than ever before, it’s critical to understand how your product is performing across all your channels. And, how to improve it.
Digital shelf analytics empower you to respond quicker to changing market dynamics and optimize your product experience. It could be as simple as changing out images, adding videos, or adjusting marketing text. Or it could mean prioritizing the channels that are most profitable and dropping the ones that aren’t. All scenarios require you to have the data to analyze and make decisions quickly.
Changes to market and local conditions is part and parcel of thriving in our digital world. Yet, no one could have predicted what a change COVID-19 would have on commerce, supply chains, and the way we shop.
Not only was there a need to rapidly get online, but some organizations were faced with the additional challenge of how to access business systems remotely. Being able to quickly respond and course correct from anywhere, can make the difference to your bottom line.
Whether it’s scaling your operations into a new market that requires translations, localizing content to map to different safety requirements, or launching new products, acting fast increases your selling days.
A SaaS-based PIM solution is one way to ensure that you’re always able to stay aligned with the dynamic market. Accessible from anywhere, you can painlessly scale and pivot at a click of a button.
A PIM solution is key for creating stellar experiences. But did you know that it is also a cornerstone in your digital transformation activities?
As a foundational technology, a PIM solution provides you with a single source of truth for all your product information. It creates a centralized hub to consolidate and manage product information from all the dispersed organizational systems.
With a PIM solution’s automated role-based workflows, a company can achieve an increase in productivity, better data quality, and break down of departmental silos. Staff are freed up from ‘Excel Hell’ and efficiency improves without duplication of tasks.
The result? Consistent information for both the internal product development process and external customer journey. What’s not to like? With the right PIM solution, your day-to-day complexities are made easier. Start with a PIM solution to tackle your digital transformation priorities.
Product information management (PIM) is an essential part of every organization’s digital transformation efforts. When used effectively it can deliver value that extends beyond the product catalogue and provide benefits across the entire supply chain.
Mark Smith, CEO Ventana Research
When it comes to assessing the value of a PIM solution investment, it should be looked at not just in terms of financial gains but also improved agility more complete product information brings to the entire organization.
Beyond establishing trust in your product information, a PIM solution also delivers value by enabling:
If you’re still trying to uncover which PIM solution offers the best combination of functionality, scalability and flexibility, our PIM buyer’s guide can help you make the right call.