It is a well-known fact that bringing in technologies in the retail sector is good for business.” — Business Tycoon, N. R. Narayana Murthy.
Even if technology does not govern our day to day activities, it does impact our journey.
From smartphones to home multimedia systems to automobile navigation systems, technology is present in everything we do. Of course, almost all of it was purchased from a retailer like you.
Since technology is unavoidable, wouldn’t it be sensible for you, the retailer, to embrace it? Consider your position in the retail industry compared to five years ago.
Do you have any competitors in common? Are the products the same? Is the supply chain the same? Have customer preferences and habits remained consistent? Isn’t it amazing how much has changed? And it keeps changing. Faster.
Retail veterans may ask for the good old days when they owned their store or chain of stores with a somewhat local and consistent customer base. You knew who your competitors were, and they knew who you were. Customer interactions were more intimate.
But the Internet came along and gave rise to e-commerce roughly 25 years ago. Amazon pioneered and perfected the concept of online customer engagement — and along with it came content management software like Akeneo, Shopify, and Pimcore PIM (Product Information Management); product information is now much easier for eCommerce brands.
See the difference between Pimcore and Shopify here.
Online retail sales in the United States now account for 10.2% of total retail sales. E-commerce sales are now $137.7 billion, compared to $1,344.9 billion in total retail sales in the United States.
An interesting fact about these statistics is mobile devices account for 45% of all internet purchases nowadays. Consider that for a moment. A smartphone, tablet, or wristwatch is used to make nearly one out of every two internet purchases. It’s exciting to consider mobile’s potential as a shopping channel.
This is why savvy retailers are continually experimenting on how technology can affect their digital and physical commerce capabilities, demonstrating the need to meet customers’ demands for speed and convenience. A solid and unified product information management (PIM) foundation plays a vital role in unifying the retail experience in this case.
This article will look at why a product information manager (PIM) is an integral part of a retailer’s marketing strategy and product management.
To maintain brand consistency.
Whether you’re a department store, an active lifestyle business, a small boutique or a luxury vehicle dealer, your brand is your identity.
Consider this: How often is your brand’s message misrepresented? Do you struggle with brand inconsistency?
A PIM assists you in ensuring that your brand’s style, tone, voice, and message are consistent across all platforms.
You have complete control over who can come across your product data, as well as the ability to alter supplier material to match your brand’s identity.
To manage product information more effectively.
A product information management system (PIM) allows you to organize, create, and optimize product info from a single location. External data sources, such as vendor websites can also be imported into the PIM system.
Using tools such as Pimcore and Akeneo helps you evaluate your metrics to see what works and compare your strategies to competitors. It also helps scan keywords for SEM and SEO optimization and conduct surveys with your consumers to test new products or improve catalogs.
Click here to check out how you can use Pimcore and Akeneo to optimize your product management.
Data Import and Onboarding in Minutes
With unique product hierarchies, validations, data modeling, and versioning, you can centralize all product content and information from many sources (Excel/CSV, PLM, Suppliers, and Marketing).
Customizable Front ends
Create supplier portals with a self-service interface that enables simultaneous uploading of product data for easy onboarding and new product releases.
Real-time syndication and distribution
Using industry-standard data pools, export and publish data across multiple consumer touchpoints, suppliers, other channel partners, and agencies.
Drag and Drop to Simplify Enrichment
Pimcore’s context-sensitive user interface is operated with straightforward drag-and-drop actions directly in your web browser, making enrichment simple.
In Conclusion
PIM solution is adaptable, expandable, configurable, and simple to set up and use. For these reasons, any retailer’s marketing strategy and information management should be built around a PIM for retail. See Pimcore examples and start learning today with the help of this website!
