Product Experience

Optimizing your implemented PIM for continuous evolution

Even after your PIM has been launched, the PXM journey continues so that you can keep looking for optimization opportunities and get the most out of your product information. Discover how to unveil additional benefits and improve ROI after PIM implementation.

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

Product Experience

The Essential Components of Support and Maintenance for a PXM Platform

Are you struggling to maintain an exceptional product experience for your customers? Learn how a holistic support strategy, combining technical expertise with business insights, can transform your PXM platform into a robust, scalable, and strategically aligned powerhouse. With real-world insights, this article from trusted Akeneo partner, Valtech, highlights the critical roles in ensuring continuous optimization and driving business growth.

Managing and optimizing product information is more crucial than ever before for businesses aiming to deliver exceptional customer experiences. A robust Product Experience Management (PXM) platform is key to achieving this, but implementing such a system is not simply a “plug-and-go” situation;. continuous support, maintenance, and often a dedicated team that understands the intricate dynamics of managing a product catalog are required to ensure long-lasting success. 

The Need for a Holistic Support Strategy

Traditional support models typically focus on the technical aspects of a platform: resolving bugs, implementing updates, and ensuring system stability. While these elements are critical, they only address part of what is needed for a successful PXM platform. A more holistic approach is often required—one that integrates technical support with business insights to ensure the platform evolves in alignment with the company’s goals and market dynamics.

The Role of Business Consultants

Business consultants play a crucial role in this holistic support strategy as they bring a wealth of knowledge about industry trends, customer behaviors, and market dynamics to the organization. By working closely with your internal teams, consultants can identify opportunities for process improvements, suggest optimizations in product data management, and ensure that the PXM platform supports your broader business strategy.

Their involvement ensures that the platform is not just technically sound but also strategically aligned with your organization’s goals,ensuring that product information is consistent, accurate, and optimized for the best customer experience. This alignment is crucial for leveraging the full potential of a PXM platform.

The Technical Backbone: Developers and Tech Consultants

Despite the emphasis on strategic support, technical support obviously remains a foundational element of PXM maintenance. Developers and tech consultants will need to bring expertise in the nuances of PXM systems, ensuring that the platform is robust, scalable, and adaptable to new requirements. Their role involves more than just troubleshooting; they proactively monitor the system, anticipate potential issues, and implement enhancements to keep the platform at peak performance.

Their technical skills ensure seamless integration with other systems, smooth data migration, and the development of custom features that enhance the platform’s capabilities. This continuous technical optimization is essential for maintaining a high-performing PXM platform.

The Magic of a Unified Team

The most effective PXM support strategy integrates both business and technical expertise. This combined approach ensures that the platform is not only operational but also strategically valuable. By aligning technical solutions with business goals, organizations can achieve greater efficiency, proactive maintenance, improved data accuracy, and a more cohesive product experience.

Key Roles in PXM Support

Project Managers:

• Allocate financial resources to support activities, ensuring the availability of necessary tools and expertise.
• Optimize work hours for various support tasks to meet user needs effectively.
• Include strategic guidance to address evolving user demands and platform enhancements.

PXM Tech Consultant:

• Inform you of new platform and dependencies updates.
• Ensure platform compatibility with peripheral platform updates.
• Prioritize incident management and urgent updates to ensure smooth operation.
• Conduct regular maintenance activities to minimize disruptions.

PXM Strategy Consultant:

• Provide strategic guidance and manage evolving user demands.
• Implement small configuration adjustments, workflow adjustments, and new channel implementations.
• Offer user training sessions to empower users and optimize platform utilization.

Case Study: Success Through Continuous Optimization with Bath Depot

Since 2019, we here at Valtech have been supporting Bath Depot, a leading Canadian retailer of bath supplies, on the creation and  integration of their PXM, including the launch of new product collections.

Initially, the support plan for Bath Depot was limited to technical bug fixes and routine maintenance. However, shortly after the integration, Bath Depot needed to launch a new product collection, which required strategic support in terms of data model strategy and product description.

The launch of the “Lightings” collection required strategic input on describing new products effectively and aligning them with Bath Depot’s existing product catalog. This situation highlighted the need for a more comprehensive approach, which is why we proposed a continuous optimization service to Bath Depot, including both a business consultant and a technical consultant to support all their needs.

Working closely with Bath Depot, we developed a strategic roadmap to enhance their product categories for a quick return on investment, driving business growth such as:

• Improved product launches: With continuous optimization, Bath Depot can seamlessly introduce new product collections with the necessary strategic support for data modeling and product descriptions.
• Strategic alignment: The integration of business and technical support ensures that the PXM platform evolves in alignment with Bath Depot’s business goals and market demands.
• Quick ROI: The tailored support and maintenance strategy focuses on delivering quick returns on investment through strategic enhancements and optimizations.

Embracing Comprehensive Support for PXM

PXM platforms require a comprehensive support strategy that integrates technical and business expertise. By adopting this approach, businesses can ensure that their PXM platforms are not only robust and scalable but also strategically aligned with their goals.

At Valtech, we have embraced this holistic approach with our PXM Continuous Optimization team, composed of both business and tech consultants alongside developers who are dedicated to providing the support needed to ensure the long-term success of PXM platforms, driving continuous improvement and strategic alignment.

By rethinking support and maintenance, businesses can unlock the full potential of their PXM platforms and deliver exceptional product experiences that meet the evolving demands of the market.

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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Raphaël Iscar Gutierrez, Head of Global PXM & Product Strategy

Valtech

Akeneo News

How Akeneo Helped Sealed Air Create Air-Tight Product Experiences

Discover how Sealed Air revolutionized its product information management with Akeneo. With insights from Andrew Coffield, Director of Product Information and Marketing Processes, learn how this digital transformation helped Sealed Air provide a reliable, top-tier product experience to customers, all while enhancing internal efficiency, reducing errors, and elevating customer trust.

As you can imagine, the company that invented Bubble Wrap prides itself on providing reliable, trustworthy customer experiences.

Sealed Air, which invented and trademarked the iconic packaging solution over 60 years ago, serves a diverse clientele, from small Etsy shop owners to major corporations like Amazon, and plays a significant role in reducing food waste through effective packaging. 

For a company with such a reputation of reliability, Sealed Air knows that there’s more to a good product experience than just providing a product.

As Andrew Coffield, Director of Product Information and Marketing Processes said, “Product experience for Sealed Air is all about building that trust and building that relationship with our customers, and a big part of that is giving them detailed and accurate product information that they can rely on.” 

Bubbling Up the Need for a Digital Transformation

Historically, Sealed Air relied on knowledgeable individuals to manage and share product information. However, as business dynamics evolved and key personnel retired or moved on, the need for a centralized repository of product information became clear. That’s when Akeneo enters the picture.

Akeneo has revolutionized how Sealed Air organizes and accesses product data by creating a single source of truth, ensuring that all product information is accurate, vetted, and easily accessible to all stakeholders. This consistency is crucial for building customer trust. 

“Having that single source of truth means that we don’t have to reference a PDF document from 15 years ago, challenge what’s on our website, or compare it to a recent press release. Our customers are going to have faith that we know what we’re talking about,” says Coffield.

The integration of Akeneo has also streamlined Sealed Air’s internal operations. By centralizing product information, the company ensures that all internal teams, from customer service to sales, have access to reliable data. This not only improves efficiency but also enhances the customer experience.

With Akeneo, we can meet our customers’ expectations for quick, on-demand access to information.

Andrew Coffield Andrew Coffield, Director of Product Information and Marketing Processes

Sealed Air Corporation

Pre-Packaging Product Information

One of the many nuances of product information management that often gets overlooked is product taxonomy, which is essentially how a company decides to structure, organize, and categorize a vast amount of product information in a logical, easy-to-understand way. The main goal of any taxonomy system is to present both structured and unstructured product data in a way that is quickly digestible for both internal teams and consumers.

The problem is that there are a thousand different ways to categorize and organize products, especially when you’re dealing with a thousand different products. As you can imagine, manually managing taxonomy can be inefficient and error-prone, and often reliant on the knowledge of the individual contributor working with the taxonomy system.

For Sealed Air, they turned to Akeneo’s PIM solution to automate many of the mundane tasks associated with taxonomy management, such as data entry, updates, and validation, not only saving time and resources so their team can focus on higher value tasks, but also reducing the risk of inconsistencies and errors in their product data.

We’ve solved an information architecture problem that we’ve struggled with since the inception of this company. Akeneo has provided a completely new way to see and interact with our data, making our complex product taxonomy manageable.

Andrew Coffield Andrew Coffield, Director of Product Information and Marketing Processes

Sealed Air Corporation

Sealed for Success

By centralizing and organizing its extensive catalog of product information and creating a more streamlined product taxonomy, Sealed Air has been able to enhance its internal efficiency and significantly improve customer satisfaction by providing a product experience their customers can trust. 

To gain more insights into Sealed Air’s journey and hear directly from Andrew Coffield himself about the impact of Akeneo PIM, you can watch the full interview below:

Watch Andrew’s full testimonial here. 

Samira McDonald, Senior Manager, Community

Akeneo

Product Experience

5 Generative AI Use Cases in eCommerce

Dive into the transformative power of Generative AI in eCommerce with this article from trusted Akeneo partner, Constructor, that unveils how cutting-edge technology is revolutionizing the eCommerce industry. This article provides a comprehensive guide on the most popular GenAI use cases that professionals across the world are already using to strategically enhance customer experiences and drive eCommerce innovation.

Generative AI is transforming industries, with eCommerce set for some of its most significant changes this decade.

One popular application of the emerging technology is in content creation, with over 80% of marketers using GenAI for social media copy and images. Within eCommerce merchandising specifically, GenAI is streamlining content creation by allowing teams to automatically enrich product attributes, improve data hygiene, enhance product descriptions, and more — all at the speed of AI.

But those aren’t its only applications. Let’s take a look at five more compelling use cases of GenAI in eCommerce below.

1. Conversational Commerce

Falling under the umbrella of “conversational commerce,” solutions like Constructor’s AI Shopping Assistant (ASA) are AI-based computer programs designed to respond to online queries in a way that mimics natural, human conversation. They’re often integrated into websites, apps, and customer service systems to provide immediate assistance and support. 

Thanks to advancements in AI and ML technologies, specifically GenAI, these solutions have come a long way in recent years. Within eCommerce specifically, their use is most common in the following two ways:

For Product Discovery

Constructor’s ASA offers online shoppers a way to express their product needs in natural language. Then, they receive product and content recommendations personalized to their preferences, history, and intent, and reflective of the eCommerce company’s real-time inventory —  in less time. 

Our AI Shopping Assistant gives online shoppers a new, useful way to discover items they need and love — disrupting the current search and product discovery paradigm. We already have good product discovery solutions for people who know what they want and just want to search for it, or people who just want to browse a category, or take a product finder quiz. But in cases where shoppers have a more complex need that they can only explain in natural language, like ‘I need healthy items for a picnic’ or ‘I want a trendy shirt to go out in,’ the current paradigms don’t work. There was no good way to explain that need to the search engines of the past. That’s where our AI Shopping Assistant comes in. ASA makes suggestions based on detailed requests from a shopper — like a trusted, in-store associate would — while also instantly factoring in everything it knows about the shopper at hand.

Eli Finkelshteyn CEO and Co-founder of Constructor

ASA is a win-win for all parties involved. The GenAI solution allows shoppers to find what they need easier and more quickly, instilling confidence in their purchases. It also helps eCommerce companies keep shoppers on-site, boosting their conversions and brand loyalty.

For Customer Support

In the same light, GenAI chatbots are handy for customer support, providing instant, 24/7 assistance to a worldwide audience. 

These chatbots leverage advanced natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to a wide array of customer inquiries, significantly reducing wait times. They can also personalize responses based on customer history and preferences, creating a more tailored and engaging experience. Plus, they can optimize operational efficiency as they can answer simple, repetitive questions. This saves humans time to focus on more strategic tasks.

2. Advanced Merchandising Capabilities

GenAI is the driving force behind advanced merchandising capabilities, such as:  

AI-Generated Rules

A product discovery tool like Constructor allows merchandisers to leverage AI to automatically generate rules for boosting, burying, slotting, and optimizing product result sets for their KPI of choice. 

Merchandisers then get granular, directional feedback on their work, allowing them to review and override the rules in the dashboard. This is possible via Rule Performance, a feature of Constructor’s Merchant Controls & Intelligence suite. This is true even on rules they institute on pages without a ton of data.

AI isn’t meant to replace merchandisers, nor will it ever. It works as a force multiplier that can help them optimize less visible areas so they can focus on strategic work.

AI-Generated Collections

Creating collections, or personalized landing pages, is a time-consuming, manual task for eCommerce teams to handle. 

This requires the merchandiser to have a list of SKUs selected, a deep understanding of the catalog, or  have meaningful attributes in the catalog to build collections based on conditional logic. 

With AI-generated Collections, merchandisers can describe the types of product, occasions, or styles and leverage the power of Generative AI to bring relevant items into a Collection. 

The prompt “show the customer the most attractive products for hosting a summer bbq” returned close to 300 products from the store catalog. Merchandisers can then edit the AI-generated list as they see fit. 

This feature has many benefits, including, but not limited to: 

• Improving eCommerce SEO coverage.
• Enhancing the existing manual or logic-based Collection creation workflows.
• Improving operational efficiency, as merchandisers can move at the speed of AI.
• Lowering dependency on perfect product data, as Collections are generated automatically based on merchandiser-enter prompt.

3. Virtual Try-On Experiences

Thanks to advanced algorithms and ML, GenAI can create virtual try-on experiences for products like clothing and furniture. These realistic, interactive models allow customers to see how an item will look on them or fit in their home.

For instance, shoppers can visualize furniture in their living spaces, adjusting size and placement to see how it complements their existing decor. When it comes to apparel, they can even upload their photos and virtually try on clothes, getting a sense of fit, style, and color before committing. This is also true of shoes, as seen on Birkenstock’s mobile site below.

Birkenstock lets shoppers virtually try-on select models via their mobile site.

These virtual try-on experiences not only enhance the shopping experience, but also help customers make more informed purchasing decisions, reducing the likelihood of returns and increasing overall satisfaction.

4. Search 

What started off as a search bar has evolved into much more, thanks to the advent of GenAI. In addition to the chatbot functionalities, GenAI-powered ASA can also power the Search experience, taking the shape of:  

Autocompletion

Improve the utility and impact of autocomplete functionality with ASA intent-based suggestions. For a query such as “office clothes,” ASA could suggest search terms including “office clothes for summer,” “office clothes for women – business casual,” “office clothes comfort fit,” and so on. 

These suggestions likely wouldn’t appear in traditional autocomplete due to incomplete product catalog data. But when suggesting the “office clothes comfort fit” query, ASA infers beyond product catalog details. The Generative AI-powered tool recognizes the material in product images, content from reviews, and more to populate suggestions. Then, when shoppers select a suggested search query, the results shown are personalized to them.

Use ASA to help autocomplete fulfill shopper intent more accurately, building value to shoppers and your business.

Search Modes

When shoppers have a complex need and aren’t sure how to address it, ASA can generate intent-based recommendations, acting as a personal shopping assistant. These various search modes include:

• Recipe. E.g., “What’s a good peach cobbler recipe for someone who’s gluten free?” or “gluten-free peach cobbler recipe.” In addition to generating recipes with items the grocer has available, ASA makes personalized recommendations for each ingredient. (So, if the recipe calls for flour, and the shopper tends to buy organically, then options for organic gluten-free flour are shown.) Customers can easily add every product to cart from the recipe page.
• List. E.g., “Blush, eyeshadow, mascara” or “litter box, scratching post, collar.” In the first example, makeup recommendations map to the shopper’s preferred brands, colors, and palettes. In the second, ASA infers meaning based on other items listed and the shopper’s history to return cat collars (not dog collars) among the other recommended items.
• Complete the Look. E.g., “What goes with chinos?” ASA automatically generates in-stock suggestions across categories (shirts, ties, shoes, etc.) that’ll complement the chinos and reflect the shopper’s preferred styles, colors, price points, etc. This is possible via clickstream, or first-party behavioral data.
• Style Assistant. E.g., “I’m attending a state fair in August. What can I wear in the heat?” Again, ASA recommendations are easy to navigate, make sense contextually, are personalized, and span various in-stock products and categories (dresses, shoes, hats, etc.) to promote bundling.
• Suggestion. E.g., “I’m going camping with my kids for the first time at Yosemite National Park in October. What do we need?” or “What do I need to mount a 60-inch TV to my wall?” Suggestions highlight relevant products across categories. Recommendations are often based not only on product data and shopper affinities, but also on on-site content. In the last example, DIY wall-mounting guides can also be displayed to the shopper, alongside product suggestions.
  

5. Supply Chain Optimization

Generative AI can predict supply chain disruptions and provide intelligent inventory forecasting, enabling businesses to manage their stock with greater efficiency and precision. 

The technology leverages vast amounts of data from market trends, historical sales figures, weather patterns, global events, and other sources to identify potential disruptions in the supply chain before they occur. This allows companies to take preemptive measures to mitigate risks, like adjusting procurement strategies or finding alternative suppliers. 

GenAI can also forecast inventory needs with high accuracy, ensuring that businesses maintain optimal stock levels to meet customer demand. This not only reduces costs associated with excess inventory and stockouts, but also enhances overall operational efficiency, leading to improved customer satisfaction and profitability.

How to Prioritize GenAI Use Cases in eCommerce 

From content creation to conversational commerce, advanced merchandising abilities, virtual try-on experiences, and more, GenAI will continue to offer the eCommerce industry a world of opportunities. 

Before diving head first into a digital transformation project, companies should strategically decide where GenAI offers the most benefit. This often takes the shape of a customer-centric approach.  

“[eCommerce companies] will need to think wisely about where AI can help their business and how,” shares Finkelshteyn. “It won’t be about using AI for its own sake but instead about making smart bets on where AI can genuinely improve the user experience for their shoppers. [Ecommerce companies] will need to tread carefully between two extremes: they will need to ensure they don’t use AI as a gimmick in places where it looks flashy but doesn’t actually help users, while also not being so afraid of getting AI wrong that they’re the last to use it.” 

By thoughtfully integrating GenAI where it can truly enhance the customer experience, eCommerce companies can harness its full potential to drive innovation and growth.

The State of Generative AI

This report conducted by Forrester dives into how this revolutionary technology is impacting the B2C commerce industry and the tangible benefits of genAI.

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Product Experience

Simplifying Onboarding with Supplier Data Manager

Discover how Akeneo’s AI-powered Supplier Data Manager can enable brands and manufacturers to simplify supplier relations, accelerate time to market, and improve the accuracy and quality of your supplier-provided data through a concrete example.

Introducing Supplier Data Manager

Akeneo’s Supplier Data Manager is designed to address this challenge. Featuring a user-friendly portal for collecting, managing, and enriching supplier-provided product information  and assets, our AI-powered SDM solution automates and simplifies supplier onboarding to accelerate time to market for brand manufacturers exactly like Zigolf.

The Demo

In the presentation, Virginie Blot, Akeneo’s Sr. Product Marketing Manager,  demonstrates how Zigolf Category Manager, Julia, can set up the Supplier Data Manager interface to invite and collaborate with new suppliers, creating multiple portals to work with trusted suppliers like Motocaddy.

Motocaddy’s eCommerce Marketing Manager, Jimmy, received an email inviting him to upload product files for the new kids’ golf collection. The Supplier Data Manager portal guided him through uploading files, selecting media assets, and mapping product attributes to match Zigolf’s requirements, as well as pre-validated data through the power of AI, saving significant time and effort for both Jimmy and Julia.

Julia received the validated data from Jimmy, checked it, and finalized it for import into the PIM. The native AI capabilities within SDM even categorized and normalized the data, ensuring high-quality product information.

Watch the full demo here. 

The Results

Thanks to the Supplier Data Manager, Zigolf’s team no longer struggles with messy spreadsheets and chaotic supplier communication! They’re able to successfully onboard and enrich product data, and can showcase their products better, faster, and anywhere.

While Zigolf may be a fictional example, real-life companies like Rexel and InterSport have seen a 70% increase in automated tasks and saved 75 hours a month per person using Akeneo’s Supplier Data Manager solution.

Explore even more new features to enhance your product experience strategy and drive your business success.

Akeneo Supplier Data Manager

A simple, scalable, and collaborative way to collect product data from all your suppliers. Configure your suppliers, map catalog format to yours, and correct, classify, and enrich products data into Akeneo PIM, all in one place.

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Samira McDonald, Senior Manager, Community

Akeneo

Akeneo News

Dodge Industrial Sets New Standard of B2B Manufacturing Excellence with Akeneo

Discover how Dodge Industrial, a leading manufacturer of mechanical power transmission products, revolutionized their product information management (PIM), transitioned to new systems, ensured accurate and accessible product data, and automated data updates for seamless product launches with Akeneo.

In the B2B manufacturing sector, accurate and timely product information is critical. Dodge Industrial, a leading manufacturer of mechanical power transmission products, faced a significant challenge when they needed to swiftly implement new systems following a corporate acquisition. 

Their solution? Partnering with Akeneo to transform their Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) processes, setting a new standard for B2B manufacturing excellence.

The Challenge

Dodge Industrial’s products are essential for moving materials efficiently across various industries, so ensuring accurate and accessible product information is vital to preventing costly downtime. 

When Dodge was acquired by a new company, they needed to quickly transition away from their old SaaS solutions and establish new PIM and DAM systems. This was a daunting task, but one that was essential for maintaining their high standards of product information accuracy.

The Solution

Dodge Industrial selected Akeneo for its ease of use and rapid deployment capabilities. They partnered with an integration expert, Bounteous, to assist in the implementation. The result was a seamless onboarding experience that allowed Dodge to quickly set up their new systems. 

Akeneo’s intuitive Family Templates and data management tools enabled Dodge to reassess and improve the quality of its data, making significant enhancements during the implementation process.

Trenton Triola, Selection Tools and eCommerce Manager at Dodge Industrial, noted, “Akeneo seemed like the easiest option and the fastest to get up and going, and that definitely proved to be true.”

Remarkable Key Outcomes

• 97% complete attribute/asset coverage by product order volume (+2%).
• 82% of US distributor partner revenue receiving syndicated content (+4%).
• 86% reduction in development time for database updates to PT Wizard and OPTIFY.

Streamlined Product Launches 

Since implementing Akeneo, Dodge Industrial has seen a dramatic improvement in its ability to quickly and efficiently launch new products. The PIM system makes it easy for their product management and engineering teams to create and manage product attributes, ensuring that accurate information is rolled out to their eCommerce site swiftly. What was once a major blocker is now the easiest part of launching new products, thanks to Akeneo’s user-friendly interface and robust capabilities!

“For every new product that we’ve launched since, it’s been a very easy process for them to go in and find the family that it should go into or create a new family, create the new attributes that are needed, populate the information, and roll it out easily to our eCommerce site.”  – Trent Triola, Selection Tools and eCommerce Manager, Dodge Industrial

A Single Source of Truth 

For Dodge Industrial, having a single source of truth for all of its product data was crucial.  Akeneo serves this role perfectly, allowing the engineering team to own and maintain the technical data while remaining accessible to the wider team. This centralized approach ensures that accurate product information is distributed to all necessary teams and platforms, including internal applications, eCommerce sites, and distribution partners. This has not only improved the accuracy of product information but has also facilitated better decision-making across the company.

Triola emphasized, “Having a single source of truth is very important for us as an engineering company making mechanical power transmission products.”

Automated Data Updates 

One of the standout benefits of Akeneo for Dodge Industrial has been the ability to automate data updates. Scheduled exports from Akeneo ensure that any corrections made by engineers are reflected on their eCommerce site the next day. This rapid turnaround time has been a significant win for Dodge, allowing them to maintain the highest standards of data accuracy and customer satisfaction.

Success with IntelliLube 

Looking for a concrete example of Dodge Industrial’s success with Akeneo? Look no further than the launch of their IntelliLube product, an automatic greasing device for mounted bearings. Akeneo provided the accurate product data needed for both the automation platform and the grease calculator program, ensuring that customers can configure and maintain the IntelliLube device effectively.

The Future for Dodge Industrial

As Dodge Industrial continues on its journey of digital transformation, with plans to soon upgrade its ERP system, Akeneo continues to be the perfect solution for managing their product data. 

By maintaining a single source of truth, Dodge Industrial is well-positioned to meet the future needs of their industry, ensuring that accurate and accessible product information remains a cornerstone of their operations.

Dodge Industrial’s partnership with Akeneo has revolutionized its approach to product information management. The ease of implementation, enhanced data quality, and streamlined processes have all contributed to significant improvements in their operations. 

For other B2B manufacturing companies facing similar challenges, Dodge Industrial’s story is a testament to the power of accurate, accessible data and the transformative potential of a robust PIM solution like Akeneo.

You can listen to the full story of Dodge Industrial here, and for more information about how Akeneo can transform your product information management, you can request a demo to meet with a dedicated expert.

The Dodge Industrial Story

Discover how Akeneo helped Dodge Industrial implement a quick rollout of their digital transformation, launch products to market faster and more efficiently, and improve product data accuracy and completeness.

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Samira McDonald, Senior Manager, Community

Akeneo

Product Experience

The Downside of Disposable

Explore the issues of reckless consumerism and its impact on the environment and economy, and discover how detailed product information can empower consumers to make sustainable choices and drive positive change.

A Shift in the Market

Consumers today are increasingly aware that their choices have consequences. However, despite this awareness, there remains a critical gap in the information needed to make well-informed decisions. 

This lack of transparency and guidance has long hindered efforts to shift towards more sustainable consumption patterns, yet the tide is turning. Younger generations in particular are driving this change, with 27% more likely to buy if they believe a brand cares about its impact on people and the planet. 

These individual changes in behavior are the driving force behind a revolution in consumerism. As more people choose quality, transparency, and sustainability, they collectively push businesses to adopt better practices; 66% of consumers now spend more time researching information and validating purchases than before. 

By making informed choices, consumers are not only improving their own lives but also contributing to a larger global effort to combat reckless consumerism and its detrimental impacts.

It Starts With Product Information

Empowering consumers with the right information is crucial for mitigating this trend of reckless consumerism. People want to spend their money on products they know will last, so providing them with detailed, transparent information such as a comprehensive supply chain report, raw materials data, and details about end-of-life disposability or recycling/resell programs enables informed, data-driven purchases.

Particularly when it comes to serial returners, providing accurate information about size, fit, and color, along with abundant user-generated content (UGC), can significantly reduce return rates. When consumers feel confident in their purchases, they are less likely to order multiple items with the intention of returning those that don’t meet their expectations. This not only reduces waste but also encourages more sustainable buying habits. 

By equipping consumers with the knowledge they need, businesses can foster trust and loyalty, ultimately contributing to a more sustainable future.

The Future of Disposable

This throwaway culture we’ve found ourselves in not only strains our finances but also contributes significantly to environmental degradation, and promises to only get worse over time unless we take action now. 

The best way to combat this trend of reckless consumerism is to establish a foundation of trust with consumers and provide them with the right information in the right way for the right products. By doing so, we empower them to make responsible, informed decisions.

If you’re looking to learn more about how product information and a product experience (PX) strategy can help your organization empower consumers to make sustainable decisions, download our eBook, ‘The PX Revolution’ today!

The PX Revolution

Discover the latest shift in consumer behavior, and learn how your organization can combat reckless consumerism with detailed product information and an enhanced product experience offering.

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Casey Paxton, Content Marketing Manager

Akeneo

Akeneo News

Announcing Akeneo’s New App Store Partner Program

Akeneo has launched a new partner program for our developer ecosystem that includes Independent Software Vendor partners, System Integrators, and independent developers that contribute to Akeneo’s App Store. Below, we’ve outlined the top things we’re most excited about with this new program.

I am thrilled to announce the launch of Akeneo’s new App Store Partner Program!

Since day one, Akeneo has been bullish on partnerships. But this launch is a special moment for our ecosystem and customers as it marks the next phase of Akeneo’s very intentional investment in partnerships, to both accelerate our noteworthy success with existing technology partners (many of whom are in the MACH Alliance) and to welcome new partners, including system integrators and developers, providing new innovative solutions to our customers via Akeneo’s App Store.

Akeneo’s App Store isn’t just any hub for integrations – it’s the most connected and extensible Product Experience Management (PXM) marketplace with 200+ integrations, allowing our joint customers to activate product information in marketing, sales, and customer support channels, onboard new data sets, enrich product experiences with AI, and generally customize the Akeneo Product Cloud to meet their unique business needs.

With the new App Store Partner Program, I am especially excited to:

1 – Speed and scale the development of apps for the Akeneo App Store with investment in new technology, like GraphQL and a design system to guide app UI development, plus new technical resources, like on-demand enablement videos and a Helpdesk for support questions related to app development.

2 – Accelerate joint customer success with focus on providing new enablement opportunities for partners with our field team and directly with customers in order to drive app adoption and value (yes, even better than the 10x increase in app adoption we saw in 2023!).

3 – Identify and influence new business opportunities by doubling down on some of our tried and true partnership tactics, plus providing new enablement and co-marketing opportunities to build awareness and demand for our partners and their apps — not to mention, a referral model for higher tier partners!

4 – Expand our partner ecosystem with new partners that solve for new use cases and industry-specific needs for our customers, both by integrating with more of our customers’ existing tech stacks and also by helping them discover new technology to uplevel their Product Experience.

5 – Introduce dedicated program management with a new operational infrastructure, including better internal tracking of our partner success metrics and stronger feedback loop with our partners.

This new program is designed so that, as we are more successful together with partners driving joint customer success, pipeline impact, and innovation, our partners will graduate through our new partner tiers and unlock more benefits.

And guess what? Our partners are excited about our new App Store Partner Program too:

BigCommerce

“Akeneo shares our desire to help merchants sell more and grow faster to maximize success, and thanks to Akeneo’s new partner program, we look forward to accelerating our work together to mutually support customers,” said Russell Klein, Chief Commercial Officer for BigCommerce. 

Learn more about BigCommerce and Akeneo

Bynder

“As a longstanding partner, Bynder sees Akeneo’s new partner program as an exciting next step that shows their continued investment in partnerships, including ours,” said Brad Kofoed, SVP, Global Alliances and Channels at Bynder. “DAM and PIM go hand in hand and by partnering with Akeneo, we’ve been able to identify and support a rapidly growing base of joint customers that are truly transforming their product experiences.”

Learn more about Bynder and Akeneo.

Cloudinary

“As a fellow MACH-certified partner, Cloudinary is excited to keep leaning into our partnership with Akeneo and leverage Akeneo’s new partner program to help structure and support our joint efforts,” said Kobi Schwarts, VP, Global Channels and Alliances at Cloudinary. “We continue to invest in offering a tight integration that supports both platforms’ latest and greatest, and Akeneo’s team has been eager to work together to uncover opportunities to drive adoption.”

Learn more about Cloudinary and Akeneo,

commercetools

“Congratulations to the Akeneo team on the launch of their new partner program! At commercetools, we greatly value the relationships we have with best-of-breed, MACH-certified partner solutions and look forward to continuing to work with Akeneo’s team,” said Chris Holley, Global Director of Technology Partnerships at commercetools. “We’re delighted to team up with mutual solution partners to bring our joint customers’ composable solutions to life through accelerators, SI-led offerings of industry-specific solutions, where Akeneo PIM plays a key role.”

Learn more about commercetools and Akeneo.

Constructor

“With a growing number of companies taking a composable approach to their technology strategy, it’s crucial for us to have integrations and strong relationships with key players in the space, like Akeneo,” said Eli Finkelshteyn, Founder & CEO at Constructor, “When customers don’t have to spend nearly as much time building and maintaining the connection between our two platforms, they can be more efficient and more effective with their tech stack, focusing their time on creating better experiences for their end customers and increasing revenue.” 

Hear more about our partnership from Eli at Constructor.

Contentstack

“As Akeneo’s 2024 MACH Partner Award winner, we have seen great success teaming up with Akeneo to help our existing joint customers provide an amazing content experience with ease – and thanks to our integration with Akeneo PIM – and we work together to support each other in deals, said Preseetha Pettigrew, Global VP Partnerships at Contentstack. “We’re looking forward to accelerating our partnership and now with the added support of Akeneo’s new partner program.”

Learn more about Contentstack and Akeneo.

Creative Force

“As a newer Akeneo partner, we’re super eager to ramp up the partnership, and the new App Store Partner Program enables just that. To start, we’ve focused on developing a tight integration,” said Ari Benabou, Head of Partnerships at Creative Force, “and now that we’re seeing traction, Akeneo has initiated enablement for our field teams so that we can ‘throw fuel on the fire’ and identify more customers that can benefit from our joint solution.”

Learn more about Creative Force and Akeneo.

InBetween

“We’ve partnered with Akeneo for years now and they are a very strategic partner for us,” said Alexander Dressler, CEO at InBetween. “We’re excited about Akeneo’s new partner program as a way to unlock even more opportunities to enhance our app on Akeneo’s App Store, for example with early access product programs, and to build more awareness for our joint solution and its value, both internally at Akeneo and externally in the market.” 

Learn more about our award-winning joint customer Arkema’s story.

Priint

“As a longstanding global Akeneo partner, we’ve watched their growth over the years as a business and solution, and we jumped at the opportunity to develop and publish apps on Akeneo’s App Store due to how easy it is for customers to adopt our joint solutions. It used to take 2-3 weeks to configure some of the integrations via APIs and now can take minutes on the App Store,” said Jonathan Dropiewski, President & CEO of Americas for Priint. “We’re excited to join Akeneo’s new partner program and leverage its benefits to keep growing our partnership.”

Learn more about Priint and Akeneo.

Transperfect

“Our integration available on Akeneo App Store and partnership with Akeneo continues to deliver value for our joint customers, who are increasingly looking for a more integrated tech stack,” said Nick Panagopoulos, VP Global Strategic Alliances at Transperfect. “Not only does the in-app App Store allow our customers to easily find our solution, it reduces the total cost of ownership to connect our two systems, which means greater satisfaction for our joint customers.” 

Hear more from Joe Swaffield, Partner Manager at Transperfect.

Want to learn more? Register to watch the recording of our recent webinar introducing the new App Store Partner Program.

Meredith Kivett, Director, Technology Partnerships

Akeneo