Optimizing your implemented PIM for continuous evolution

So you’ve officially implemented your PIM. Congratulations! That’s a big achievement, and is worth celebrating.

However, that doesn’t mean you’re at the finish line. Oftentimes, the go-live is seen as the end of a project, when in reality it should be seen as the continuation of a PXM journey that you began building during the discovery and implementation phase.

There is more that you can do to capitalize on your investment and pursue your success even after your go-live. Let’s take a look.

Measure your Value Drivers to Identify Areas with Potential for Improvement

First, you must know what kind of value you are creating for your customers. You want to make sure that all your digital initiatives have clear performance indicators. So, it is important to measure your PXM journey and everything surrounding it, to identify what is working and where there's potential for improvement.

Not sure where to get started? Here are some value drivers you should measure:

Time-to-Market

• • • What is the average period necessary from product inception to market-ready?
    • Which steps in the process take the longest?

Cost to Enrich

• • • What is your average cost to enrich a single product?
    • What is the cost of manual tasks performed? 

Channel Performance

• • • What is your turnover for each channel?
    • Is the growth of the product catalog in your existing markets through syndication and/or digital shelf-management tactics boosting your sales?
    • Do you have plans to expand into new markets?

Increase Margin

• • • Do you know your best-selling products?
    • What are your merchandised products with the higher margin?

Average Order Value/Conversion Rate

• • What is the average order value in each of your channels?
  • Do you know how your customers reach your sales channels?
  • Do you know your customers' shopping journey?
  • What products do your customers return the most?
  • Which products are most frequently purchased together?

Identify Initiatives to Support Your Value Drivers

Now that you know your key value drivers, you need to brainstorm initiatives to support them. Do not forget that there are no bad ideas at this stage, and it is an opportunity to bring out elements that stand out from the crowd to make you a trailblazer.

Here are a few high-level ideas to help you get started:

• Exploring new markets
• Marketing new product lines
• Defining advertising campaigns
• Adding new systems to your architecture
• Improving customer experience
• Simplifying your operational processes
• Implementing new functionality
  • Do you need to syndicate your product information to some marketplaces such as Amazon? Activation for Retail will be the perfect fit!
  • Do you want to share real-time product data information internally (sales team, another department inside your company) and externally (vendors, manufacturer..) without giving access to sensitive data in the PIM? You can implement the Shared Catalog
  • Do you need to onboard data from your suppliers? Check outSupplier Data Manager.
  • Do you want to generate automated enrichment? Akeneo PIM now offers native genAI capabilities. 
• Improving product data and media to help your customers find the right products for their needs
  • Do you already have a DAM in place? You can easily connect to Akeneo to link your assets to your products.
  • Do you want to synchronize your assets to your print platform? Akenoe has many connectors.

Build a Roadmap Aligned with Business Objectives

Then by conducting a comprehensive assessment of all your departments (eCommerce, PIM, Marketing), prioritizing value drivers, and creating a high-level timeline, you can ensure that your roadmap will serve as a strategic guide for seeking sustainable growth and success around product information.

To identify the initiatives offering the most value, the next step is to prioritize them based on their impact on your business and on the effort it will take to accomplish them.

Next, you will have to create a timeline divided by quarters to display the initiatives you have selected to help you achieve your goals.

It is possible to have several initiatives running in parallel, but consider interdependencies when laying out your initiatives, make sure this does not cause competition, and balance them throughout the year to avoid overloaded periods.

Keep the Process Dynamic and Iterative

Once you have a good strategic plan, it is time to bring it to life. Your next step will be to translate your roadmap into a delivery plan to  more precisely refine the steps of the initiatives you plan to launch in the next quarter and to help you validate the budget, skills, and resource allocation needed.

Remember that this process is dynamic and iterative, and your PXM consultant can guide you through these steps. Regular reviews and adjustments to the roadmap are essential to ensure its responsiveness to changes in the business environment. 

By keeping this strategic plan dynamic and adaptable, and by converting it to a delivery plan you can prepare ahead of time, you will be well-equipped to navigate the evolving landscape of PXM, validate budgets, know the skills needed, and allocate the resources effectively to achieve your long-term goals.

Congratulations on embarking on this transformative PXM journey, and best of luck in your ongoing pursuit of success!

Looking for more PIM implementation support? Check out some of our other Valtech featured articles diving into how to design your PXM program for success, the people-first approach to product experiences, how to maximize the ROI of your PXM organization, or the steps to mastering your PIM go-live.

This article is a guest post by Akeneo partner, Valtech.

The PXM Practitioner's Checklist

Discover the 9 essential components to set yourself up for success with Product Information Management (PIM) in this guide, created with Valtech.

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Sebastien Contant, Senior Consultant Product Strategy & PXM

Valtech