Catalog Management Software: The Ultimate Black Friday Life Saver

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…

The holidays are a wonderful time of year, and for e-commerce, this includes the biggest shopping days of the year – Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Of course, there are plenty of other things to look forward to during the holidays like ice skating or spending time with family, but if you’re still managing your product information in spreadsheets, you’re not going to have time for any of those things.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday generate a tremendous amount of revenue for retailers. Just last year shoppers spent a total of $4.45 billion between Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday. Cyber Monday also held its own hitting a new record of $3.07 billion in sales, a 16% increase from 2014. Overall online shopping during the holiday season (November and December) is as popular as ever, with last year’s sales totaling $70.1 billion, a 14% increase from the previous year. It doesn’t look like things will be slowing down in 2016 either.

In 2015, online sales totaled $70.1 billion during the holiday season, a 14% increase from 2014.

With all of the price changes, available discounts, and special holiday products getting added to your catalog during the holiday shopping season, there are not enough hours in a day to maintain and update all those spreadsheets – you’re going to need catalog management software.

Simplify Your Workflow with Catalog Management Software

A PIM software – product information management – can simplify your workflow and help manage all of your catalog changes for Black Friday regardless of the channel, platform, or location you’re publishing to. The PIM enables you to enrich product data and change only the information that needs to be changed while ensuring that all other data remains the same. This control is crucial when you’re looking to update media, pricing, or any other information for the holidays.

Manage all of your product information easily with a catalog management software.

Manage your product catalog in 5 steps:

1. Import data

Transferring from your spreadsheet mess to Akeneo PIM is easy, so you don’t have to worry about losing all the product information you already have, you can import Excel and >CSV files directly into the system. Automatically import information from your ERP and supplier systems as well, making it just that much easier to manage all of your products.

2. Organize and classify

Before, you may have felt constrained by being forced to organize your product information around SKUs or manufacturers, which can feel unnatural and inconvenient. With catalog management software you can organize and classify your products into groups and families that make sense to you.

3. Enrich, edit, and translate

With catalog management software, you have the ability to edit all product information easily. From enriching product data, to editing product media, and translating descriptions for various locations, catalog management software makes it easy. Akeneo even has a TextMaster and other plugins that provide easy access to translation services, ensuring that your product descriptions are always quickly and accurately translated before publication in localized markets.

4. Optimize workflow and quality checks

Akeneo’s PIM allows multiple contributors and includes a completion widget, providing the team with an easy insight of what product information still needs to be updated or completed. The widget and automatic completion checks allow your team to optimize workflow and ensure that all of your products have complete data and look great on all of your platforms.

5. Export

That’s it! With all of your product information enriched and all of your information continuously getting imported into the system, you can be sure that your products look great, no matter where your customers are purchasing them. With tools to optimize for every channel, platform, and location you can easily handle all of your holiday products.

Get ready for next year!

Unfortunately, it is too late to get your PIM up and running for this Black Friday or Cyber Monday, but there is no reason to wait until next year. Implementing PIM will allow you to handle last minute pricing changes, product features, and marketing needs and still be on time for dinner with friends. Be prepared with product information that is enriched and translated for all of your platforms before the chaotic season even starts. Plus, with Akeneo PIM’s proven success at increasing productivity by 50%, you can take your extra time to grow your business in time for next year.

Ready to deck the halls instead of spending your time managing product information? Get ahead of the game for the next holiday season by setting up your catalog management software today! Sign up to get a demo with one of our Akeneo partners.

Catalog Management Software: The Ultimate Black Friday Life Saver

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…