What is product syndication?

Why is product syndication essential? 

Retailers with strong omnichannel strategies report an 89% customer retention rate versus the standard 33%. This stark contrast highlights an undeniable reality: brands, manufacturers, and retailers can no longer afford a one-dimensional online presence. 

As digital touchpoints multiply, it’s more essential than ever to meet your potential customers wherever they’re shopping. This includes social media platforms, third-party resellers, or even search engine results pages.  

When brands harness the full potential of product syndication and PIM, they position themselves favorably on the digital shelf. This means ensuring they not only meet but exceed customer expectations. 

Why automate product content distribution? 

As the sheer number of digital channels increases, so does the volume of product content each touchpoint needs. This makes the manual management of content distribution an increasingly challenging task. Indeed, manual management can lead to wasted resources and data inputting errors.  

These issues can ultimately mean a slower time-to-market and missed revenue opportunities. This complexity can also lead to longer-term issues. This could include the erosion of brand trust resulting from inaccurate or incomplete product information on the digital shelf.  

The solution? Automated content distribution. For brands, manufacturers, and retailers expanding their omnichannel strategy, automation offers benefits such as: 

• Reallocated time and resources from data management to strategic initiatives 
• Enhanced customer experiences, driving long-term business growth 
• Quicker entry into new markets and channels, leading to increased visibility and sales 

With the right automation system in place, brands ensure uniformity, relevance, and timeliness. New channels can then avoid becoming sources of data management tasks, but sources of new revenue instead.  

The two types of product syndication 

Product syndication is typically talked about in two ways: product data syndication, and product content syndication. You may find these terms used interchangeably—and although they are similar, they aren’t actually the same thing. To run a successful and holistic omnichannel strategy, you’ll want to pay attention to both.  

Product data syndication 

Product data syndication (PDS) is the process of organizing, managing, and distributing detailed product data points across channels. This could include specifications, dimensions, reviews, images, videos, and more. In essence, anything that presents customers with a comprehensive product picture anywhere they engage with your products. 

Product content syndication 

Product content syndication and product data syndication serve similar purposes: to seamlessly integrate your products onto the digital shelf. Their core differentiator is rooted in the elements they focus on: data versus content. Data is raw information; content is enriched and compelling details.  

When faced with competition, it is quality content that wins hearts—and sales. Such content tells the product’s story, highlighting unique features and explaining its relevance. It contributes to a product experience that stands out on the crowded digital shelf. 

But one cannot exist without the other: Product data are the building blocks of product content.  

The role of PIM in product syndication  

To fully realize the potential of your products on the digital shelf, it’s important to have the right technology stack in place. For syndication, this typically means product data syndication technology. However, to get the most out of your syndication strategy, it’s essential to combine syndication with PIM. 

PIM software, standing for product information management, is a centerstage application for brands and manufacturers looking to unlock the value of their products at every touchpoint. It provides a single, scalable source of truth that powers syndication technology with the rich, reliable, and up-to-date product information that marketplaces and consumers expect.  

The importance of combining these two technologies has seen an increasing number of brands move towards a PIM that offers built-in syndication capabilities. This means that product information only needs to be inputted or updated once in the centralized PIM platform and then it is automatically refreshed across all digital touchpoints.  

A PIM with built-in syndication capabilities also eliminates the errors and delays related to manual updating and data inputting while streamlining messaging across all channels and touchpoints, not only for your individual products but also for your brand identity and consistency. 

Benefits of product syndication 

The power of product syndication, when wielded effectively, holds the potential to revamp your brand’s digital identity, overhaul operational efficiency, and ultimately, improve your conversion rates. Here are some of the standout benefits: 

• Product information accuracy: With proper product syndication management, information relayed about your products remains consistent across all channels and marketplaces. And when customers receive accurate details, they trust your brand more. 
• Cohesive brand presence: Whether a customer encounters your product on an e-commerce platform, a social media ad, or any digital touchpoint, they get the same experience. A cohesive brand experience reinforces brand recognition and loyalty. 
• Channel scalability: Marketplaces and other third-party sites have a growing number of requirements for product content. Brands can ensure their products can always comply with requirements for new and existing channels.  
• Regulatory compliance: With regulations constantly evolving, product syndication ensures you can always deliver the transparent product data you need to remain compliant in every market.  
• Maximized team bandwidth: By automating otherwise time-consuming and error-prone data entry tasks, you enhance precision and liberate team bandwidth to focus on more strategic, revenue-driving tasks.  

inriver: The complete PIM solution for syndication 

As digital shelf expectations grow, so does the need for an agile, scalable solution that can meet diverse demands and drive revenue for even the most complex omnichannel strategy. To meet these evolving expectations, inriver offers the complete PIM solution for brands, manufacturers, and retailers with a built-in API-based syndication capability, Syndicate Plus. The inriver PIM also has built-in digital shelf analytics capabilities, letting you ‘close the loop’ on your digital shelf and gain complete control of your omnichannel output.  

The composable inriver PIM goes beyond e-commerce. Our multi-tenant SaaS solution turns raw data into rich, valuable product information for every digital and in-person touchpoint. From sourcing and manufacturing to sales and recycling, the inriver PIM supports your entire product journey. This lets you extract the greatest value out of your product syndication by delivering accurate and reliable product information to the relevant end-user wherever it’s needed.