• The ability of computers to accomplish tasks that a human would typically do
• NOTE: this term is widely overused to include everything from the Terminator taking over the world to Facebook targeting me with ads for flip-flops based on my browser history. 

• A Machine Learning model trained on massive amounts of existing text.
• They can’t think or feel, but they are very good at pattern matching and feeling like language.
• To dive deeper into LLMs, check out this article for more information
• They are very good at looking true. Remember – these are language models, not knowledge models. Check the default sign-up warning below:

• One of many LLMs produced by OpenAI, works on a conversational prompt model
• Very popular, but different than GPT-3 (and now GPT-4) which are APIs.

How can I use this for automation today? And what are the risks?

1. Go beyond the screen & embrace omnichannel 

2. Balance consistency and customization 

3. Tap into emerging tech

4. Let sustainability shine 

5. Let product experience guide customer experience 

PIM technical components are important but so are team roles, training, and adoption! This dual need to focus on both tech and team pushed us to rename our department. Instead of Product Information, we now talk about Product Experience Management (PXM) and our obligatory first step now includes a readiness and governance phase where our client’s PXM program team is created and brought up to speed, collaboratively.

PXM touches more than development; it impacts your product catalog management functions including marketing, merchandisers, legal, and more. Their day-to-day tasks, including how they collaborate to keep data clean, accurate, and complete to send to all their channels, will be impacted. So, it’s better to be prepared with the right people, with the right remit, and a strong team dynamic. 

Based on what we’ve learned at Valtech over the years, we put together a list of the five must-have roles for a successful Product Experience Management (PXM) program team and what to look for when hiring or promoting key players.

1) PXM Champion

The PXM Champion is the program owner who coordinates all teams involved in the PIM integration project. This person provides consistency and communication from the discovery phase to implementation to support and maintenance. During the discovery phase, the PXM Champion helps map an organization’s stakeholders and ensures all impacted business and technical users are involved in relevant communications and workshops.

When hiring or promoting a PXM Champion, look for someone with deep knowledge of the product catalog management organization (the different people who touch the product data before it is sent to different channels). This person should have a business profile with technical understanding, listen to users’ needs, and document processes while unifying the different functions of the organization across the same product data quality goal. The PXM Champion also validates the technology strategy, understands PIM concepts, and is responsible for creating an enrichment strategy, managing roles and users with access to the PIM platform, and training internal users.

The PXM Champion’s primary goals include time and budget savings by bringing the right people into the process at the right time and data ownership to coordinate enhanced product pages across channels.

2) Product Data Specialist

A Product Data Specialist is intimately familiar with a company’s products, attached information, and the needs that drive customers’ product choices. They are responsible for enriching the product, such as SKU, descriptions, specifications, and attributes, and understanding the most valuable product information for seamless end-user navigation and conversion on different channels.

When hiring or promoting a Product Data Specialist, look for someone who already knows the product information, is responsible for data quality, documents the data format, updates data errors, and connects with channel owners and merchandisers to answer their product attribute format requirements. 

3) Systems Architect

A Systems Architect is critical for ensuring seamless data transfers in and out of the PXM platform, acting as a central repository for all attributes and assets. They work with PIM solutions, such as Akeneo, to design solutions that support integration, system stability, scalability, and security.

When hiring or promoting a Systems Architect, look for someone with expertise in data architecture, systems integration, and API development, who can create custom scripts and connectors, identify and address bottlenecks, and configure security and firewall settings.

4) Data Governance Officer

A Data Governance Officer is responsible for managing data quality, security, and privacy policies and ensuring that data is accurate, consistent, and compliant. They are also responsible for defining data standards and processes, managing data security, identifying data quality issues, and recommending solutions.

When hiring or promoting a Data Governance Officer, look for someone with expertise in data governance, data quality, and privacy policies, who can develop and implement data quality metrics, establish data standards and processes, and monitor data quality.

5) The Channel Owner

The Channel Owner plays a crucial role in your PXM program, second only to your PXM program champion. They work with your PIM champion and product data specialist to quickly adjust your product information strategy, driving the output your channels need. They monitor errors when pushing to external channels and track the performance of your product catalog for better customer conversions. 

When hiring or promoting a Channel Owner, look for someone who can screen channels to ensure up-to-date data, take customer feedback, track product updates’ impact on conversion, communicate with the PIM team, and recommend SEO optimizations.

The Channel Owner’s main goals are to increase the level of information on all channels’ product pages and analyze the product page’s performance compared to the completeness of product data.

Remember the Business Users!

The people that will work with your PIM are essential in this process. Make sure the five roles stated above understand the importance of the Business Users, and work to implement an efficient governance structure to ensure their needs are met. Business Users make your project a success, and without them, there is no adoption.

You’ve got your team, now what?

A successful kick-off is crucial, and involving key sponsors from the start will set the tone. In the next article, we will cover the importance of setting clear objectives and accurate KPIs to measure them, connected with your customers’ and channels’ goals.

Get ready to start your discovery and keep your PXM program on time, on budget, and with the proper scope with the Akeneo x Valtech partnership. Or, feel free to check out this previously recorded webinar to discover how to leverage AI technology into your PX Strategy.

What is a Composable Commerce Architecture?

What is a Monolithic Commerce Architecture? 

Business Benefits of Composable Commerce

• Increased flexibility & scalability: Successful businesses aren’t static businesses. To thrive in the eCommerce world, brands have no choice but to adapt their tech stacks to customer expectations, market trends, and of course, the challenges that come with growth. A composable commerce architecture makes this flexibility and scalability possible. It allows brands to easily add, remove, or replace components as needed, so that their platform stays agile and responsive to change. This flexibility also allows businesses to scale their eCommerce operations seamlessly, without the constraints often imposed by monolithic systems. Simply put, it helps your brand become future-proof. 
• Streamlined workflows & increased internal efficiency: Because composable commerce is so flexible, businesses can create an eCommerce platform that meets the unique operational requirements of their teams. For example, with composable commerce, the customer support team can leverage their preferred helpdesk system that seamlessly integrates with the eCommerce platform, allowing them to access customer data and order history in real-time, leading to faster and more accurate support. This personalization of the tech stack means more streamlined workflows, reduced complexity, and increased efficiency, allowing teams to focus on delivering value to their customers.
• Communicate the entire product story across all channels: In today’s landscape, businesses must tell a compelling – and consistent – product story that resonates with their target audience. A composable commerce makes this possible by allowing the integration of important eCommerce components, like product information management (PIM) tools, content management systems (CMS), and digital asset management (DAM), to ensure that product data, content, and assets are synchronized and up-to-date across owned and unowned channels. 
• Faster time-to-market: With a composable commerce architecture, businesses can bring new products, features, or services to market much faster than with a monolithic one. The modular nature of composable commerce makes it easier to integrate new eCommerce components, update existing ones, or launch new sales channels, effectively reducing the time it takes to deliver innovations to your customers.

Impact of a Composable Commerce Model on the Customer Experience

• Access to more reliable product information: Customers crave a straight-forward, trustworthy purchase experience. When the product’s information varies based on whether they’re shopping on your website or a third-party marketplace, that creates frustration, confusion, and distrust. Not great for your brand. Composable commerce makes it possible to integrate PIM, DAM, CMS and other systems that keep product data consistent and reliable for consumers, no matter where they’re shopping. This not only helps build trust but also simplifies the decision-making process for consumers, leading to better overall product experiences. 
• More product options and innovative experiences: Above, we mentioned that composable commerce can help improve time-to-market. This helps keep you ahead of your competition and puts more products on the shelves, but it also frees up time and resources to invest in innovation . . . and to launch those innovations for your customers to enjoy. With the modular nature of composable commerce, businesses can experiment with and adopt emerging technologies like AR or voice commerce, creating cutting-edge shopping experiences without disrupting the existing infrastructure. 

• Improved customer support: A composable commerce architecture allows for easy integration of order management systems (OMS) and customer relationship management systems (CRMs) into your current eCommerce tech stack. But more importantly, it allows you to choose the right OMS, CRM, and helpdesk systems for your business and customer needs. With tools customized to your unique requirements, you can seriously improve the overall customer support experience with real-time updates on order status, inventory levels, and estimated delivery times. And, of course, faster, more personalized support leads to higher customer satisfaction. 
• Customized shopping experiences: Composable commerce supports the integration of more advanced personalization tools, meaning businesses can deliver a unique shopping experience for each customer based on their interests, browsing history, and purchase patterns. This level of personalization not only improves customer satisfaction but also fosters long-term loyalty and repeat business. (Who doesn’t want the most relevant and tailored product recommendations, promotions, and content?)

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Now imagine you click the “Furniture” menu on a site and the options are “Lounge,” “Relax,” and “Recharge.” No longer clear where you’ll find the bed frames, right? 

That’s the power of product taxonomy. The way you organize and display your products directly impacts your brand’s reputation, customer experience, and ultimately, conversion rates. 

At first glance, product taxonomy may seem as simple as putting the right products in the right category, but that can be easier said than done… especially when you’re working with tens of thousands of products. Let’s take a deeper dive into what product taxonomy means, why it matters, and the best practices to follow to see the biggest impact. 

What is Product Taxonomy?

Product taxonomy is a set structure used to 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.

Think of product taxonomy like a tree. You sort products into categories, and then those categories branch out into smaller groups, organized with tags. These metadata tags play a huge part in helping your consumers find your site. Search engines, browsers, and web crawlers use them to understand the structure, content, and context of your web pages, which in turn improves your website’s discoverability and search engine rankings.

Let’s take a quick look at an example. Luxury fashion brand Fendi has their products initially sorted into large buckets in their menu; namely, “Women”, “Men”, and “Kids”. Then, clicking into just one of this categories gives you a range of items to choose from within that category. So, you click under “Women”, and you see all the types products targeted for women that Fendi offers, such as bags, shoes, and accessories. Then, taking it a step further, Fendi allows its shoppers to click into one of these sub-categories and personalize even further; by selecting “Accessories”, you can see a list of the different types of accessories offered such as scarves, socks, sunglasses or belts. How Fendi decides to organize and list their products is their product taxonomy, and has a direct effect on the shopping experience.

What are the Benefits of Taxonomy Management?

When your product taxonomy management game is on point, your business benefits. Here’s how: 

• Skyrocketing search engine rankings: A well-structured product taxonomy that uses relevant keywords and metadata tags helps search engines like Google more accurately index and rank your content. These tags include crucial information such as the title, description, and keywords related to your products.  What that means for you is better visibility in search results, increased organic traffic, and a higher likelihood that potential customers will find your products online.
• Boosted conversion rates: When your product taxonomy is easy to navigate and understand, consumers can quickly find the products they’re looking for, which in turn creates a better shopping experience. Since happy customers are more likely to make a purchase (and return for future purchases), this positive experience often translates into a higher conversion rate.
• Personalized customer experiences: Streamlined taxonomy management helps you create a more tailored shopping experience for each customer. By offering product categories and filters that resonate with your target audience, you can make it easier for them to find products that match their preferences and needs. A personalized experience not only leads to higher customer satisfaction, but also stronger customer loyalty.
• Simplified inventory management: An efficient product taxonomy structure allows for easier inventory tracking and organization. With a well-defined product hierarchy, your internal teams can more efficiently manage stock levels, monitor product performance, and make informed decisions regarding product assortment and merchandising.

How Does a PIM Solution Support Product Taxonomy Management?

Let’s revisit that last bullet point. Product taxonomy can simplify your product management processes… if you’re using the right tools. A product information management (PIM) solution is the secret weapon to take your product taxonomy management to the next level. 

Manually managing taxonomy can be inefficient and error-prone, especially at high inventory levels. With thousands of products, it’s easy to imagine accidentally applying the wrong tag or sorting a product into the wrong category. PIM solutions allow you to automate many of the mundane tasks associated with taxonomy management, such as data entry, updates, and validation. This not only saves time and resources so your team can focus on higher value tasks, but also reduces the risk of inconsistencies and errors in your product data.

PIM systems also help by centralizing all of your product information, including taxonomy structure, in one place. This creates a reliable and consistent record that can be accessed by marketing, sales, IT teams, and other stakeholders. By creating a single source of truth, you can ensure that everyone is working with the most up-to-date and accurate information, essential for maintaining a well-organized product taxonomy.

Whether you’re selling through your own D2C site or partnering with retailers, PIM tools make it easy to syndicate your product content and taxonomy across all your sales channels. This means your customers receive consistent and accurate product information, regardless of where they’re shopping. 

Product Taxonomy Best Practices

Of course, the better you structure your product taxonomy, the more impactful it will be to your bottom line. To optimize your product taxonomy, make sure to follow these best practices: 

Use logical organization and clear naming conventions

Your product taxonomy should be easy for both internal teams and customers to understand. Each category, subcategory, and tag should have clear, descriptive names that accurately represent the products within them. (Remember our bed frame example at the start?) For eCommerce, consider using terminology that aligns with common search terms to support SEO. Pro tip: Create a visual representation of your taxonomy hierarchy to further help users navigate where they want to go.

Prioritize the customer

Nobody wants to navigate through ten different categories and subcategories to find the one product they’re looking for. The golden rule is to enable customers to reach their product in three clicks or fewer by providing intuitive navigation options and filters. Consider what kind of information and product attributes are most valuable to your customers during their decision-making process (ex. are desk buyers more concerned about the color or the size?), and incorporate these details into your taxonomy.

Utilize PIM tools for automation and efficiency

Remember how we said a PIM solution can help? The best taxonomy structures are managed by a PIM tool which can automate and easily maintain your categories and tags. Not only does this cut down on time and errors, it allows you to easily review and update your product taxonomy periodically to make sure it remains both relevant and effective.

Product taxonomy affects search engine rankings, customer experience, conversion rates, and more, making it an absolutely critical aspect of your business’s success. By adhering to best practices and tapping into PIM tools, you can make your taxonomy management more efficient for both your consumers and your internal team. Always a good sign for your bottom line. 

Want to see how Akeneo’s PIM solution can help support your product taxonomy management? Let’s talk. 

Why does it matter? With an effective product management strategy, you’ll be better positioned to attract and retain customers, increase sales, and stay ahead of the competition in the fast-paced world of eCommerce. Plus, by staying on top of emerging product trends and evolving customer needs, you can ensure that your products remain relevant and in-demand. Not to mention, effective product management can help you streamline your operations and improve your time-to-market.

In this article, we’ll explore the ins and outs of eCommerce product management, including what it is, what an eCommerce Product Manager does, and how a Product Information Management (PIM) solution can help streamline your product management process.

What is Product Management in eCommerce?

Product management involves overseeing the product roadmap, or the entire lifecycle of a product from its initial creation to its end, with the goal of creating products that meet customer needs and generate revenue for the business. It involves working cross-functionally with teams such as marketing, design, and engineering to develop, launch, optimize, and promote products. 

While eCommerce product management involves the same basic principles, it specifically optimizes the entire online shopping experience, from product discovery to checkout and post-purchase support. Today’s consumers have high expectations when it comes to the online shopping experience, demanding seamless navigation, personalized product recommendations, and fast customer support. Investing in effective eCommerce product management helps brands meet these expectations, leading to a more loyal customer base. 

Because things are ever-changing in the world of eCommerce, the most effective product management also incorporates monitoring the competitive landscape, following the latest eCommerce trends, and keeping up with consumer demands to stay ahead of the competition.

What Does an eCommerce Product Manager Do?

eCommerce Product Managers act as trusty guides along the product journey, focusing on the online retail environment. An eCommerce product manager sets and oversees the product strategy, creates a product roadmap, defines the features, and works with teams across the organization to position the product for success, creating the best possible online experience for consumers. 

Though the exact responsibilities can differ based on the organization and product need, a breakdown could include: 

• • Market research: Identifying customer needs, market trends, and competitive landscapes.
  • Product roadmap: Creating an outline that maps the strategy vision and direction of the product and tracks progress.
  • Product feature definition: Defining product features and working with cross-functional teams to develop and launch the product.
  • Product launch: Leading the launch of the product and ensuring that it is promoted effectively to the target audience.
  • Product discovery: Enhancing search, navigation, and recommendation features to improve product discovery.
  • Online product experience: Ensuring product information is accurate, up-to-date, and well-organized.
  • Product performance monitoring: Monitoring success and making necessary adjustments to ensure that the product continues to meet customer needs and drives revenue.

Why is eCommerce Product Management Important?

The cost of launching a new product can vary wildly depending on the industry or brand, but most often, it falls within the $20,000 – $500,000 range. That’s a big investment for a company of any size… and one you don’t want to lose with a failed launch. 

That’s where product management comes in handy. Instead of assuming a new product will meet consumer needs or resonate in the market, eCommerce product management develops a strategy to set new products up for online success from square one and reduces the risk of a product flop. This strategy is created through digital market analysis conducted to uncover the unique differentiators and needs of online shoppers.

Plus, as eCommerce competition grows and customer needs evolve, product management can help businesses stand out from the crowd and attract and retain customers.

At its most effective, product management helps businesses streamline their operations by optimizing their product offerings, reducing time-to-market, and improving inventory management.

How can a PIM Solution Help eCommerce Product Management?

Speaking of inventory management, a PIM system should be an eCommerce product manager’s best friend. Product managers are often juggling a lot of information, and spend quite a bit of time chasing down product details and assets from departments across the organization. A PIM system makes it easier to manage eCommerce product information in several ways:

• Effectively store and manage product information that can be syndicated to eCommerce channels: A PIM software centralizes product information, making it easier for product managers to oversee and distribute these details to a wide variety of eCommerce channels. This can save time and reduce errors associated with manual data entry.
• Optimize product information for eCommerce channels: A PIM can help optimize product information for eCommerce channels, such as Amazon or a first-party site, by ensuring that the data is complete, accurate, and formatted correctly. This can improve the customer experience and increase sales – a product manager’s dream. 
• Simplify & improve time-to-market: The longer it takes you to gather, enrich, and verify product data, the longer it takes your product to hit the virtual shelves. A PIM can help streamline product launches by providing a single source of truth for product information, assets, and more. This can reduce the time and resources required to launch new products.

Remember, “composability” should be on your list of PIM feature requirements. A composable PIM will offer more flexibility than a monolithic architecture. This allows you to tailor your PIM solution to your specific needs and integrate with other systems in your tech ecosystem, such as eCommerce platforms, such as BigCommerce or Salesforce CC.

Effective eCommerce product management is a non-negotiable for businesses looking to succeed in the digital economy (which is basically all businesses). A PIM system can help manage eCommerce product information, improve the customer experience, and drive sales. By investing in eCommerce product management and leveraging the power of a PIM system, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and succeed in the rapidly-evolving eCommerce landscape.

Want a better idea of how PIM and eCommerce product management can work together to hit your product goals? Get a firsthand look here. 

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What are Product Variants? 

Product Variant Examples 

• Potato chips that come in different flavors, such as salted or BBQ
• Couches available in different fabric materials and/or sizes
• Screwdrivers with long or short handles 
• Shampoo that comes in regular or travel-sized containers

Benefits of Product Variants for eCommerce Sales

• Improved conversion rate: Product variants keep consumers browsing on your eCommerce site longer – and reduce the chances they’ll check out your competitors. The easier it is for them to find the exact size, color, or style they need quickly, the more likely they are to convert.

• Increased sales: Not only do product variants impact conversion rate, they also can affect the total number of sales. Variations can allow you to reach new audiences that may have unique product needs.

• Improved customer experience: Product variants are key to providing a customized and personalized shopping experience, something that over 71% of consumers now expect from retailers. 
• More efficient internal operations: Instead of creating product variants for a t-shirt, some brands create a new product listing for every size and color combination. Not only does this confuse your customers, it definitely does not endear you to the internal team tasked with updating the listings. Product variants = a streamlined process. They allow teams to upload one “master” product and incorporate/adjust variants quickly as they go.

How PIM Can Support Product Variants