Our lives are full of cycles. The seasons come and go, bringing change each year. The economy runs in cycles, from bear markets to bull markets and back again. Businesses go through predictable phases of growth and decline.

Many of the cycles in our lives we do not control. But there is one that businesses can control: the product lifecycle.

As globalization drives down prices, regulations increase complexity, and the economy shifts in unpredictable ways, it’s time to focus on product lifecycle management as a way to improve your bottom line.

 

What is Product Lifecycle Management?

Product lifecycle management (PLM) is the process of directing, supervising, and handling a product as it moves from the early stages of design to the go-to-market phase, and eventually to retirement. Effective PLM can help you make better business decisions across the board, creating higher-quality products, pricing and promoting them correctly, adding features, expanding to new markets, providing customer service, and eventually deciding if and when to retire the product.

PLM can be a highly complex form of data management. It includes product design files, supply chain information, customer management, and sales information. It also involves multiple departments, like design, engineering, and sales, thousands or millions of SKUs, and multiple global locations, especially when it comes to eCommerce product management for larger enterprises.

 

Who Needs PLM?

PLM is especially important for manufacturers, who need to design, engineer, and market their own products, as well as the distributors and retailers who then work with those products. As more and more of these organizations move online and embrace the digital transformation, product management for eCommerce becomes even more important. When you sell online, you need to manage the lifecycles of thousands of products in real-time. Otherwise, you can’t deliver the product experience—and therefore the customer experience—that will keep your buyers coming back.

 This is where product lifecycle management software can help. A good PLM system will incorporate your product data into a single database that can then be used throughout the entire lifecycle. It can import data from a variety of sources, including your enterprise resource planning (ERP) software, and automate many tasks, so you can maximize the profits from every product.

 

What Are the Product Lifecycle Stages?

The traditional way of looking at PLM is the five-stage model by Theodore Levitt. Levitt first introduced this model in 1965 in the Harvard Business Review, envisioning the classic bell-shaped curve that would soon be taught in business classrooms around the world. Levitt’s five stages were: 

1.Development 

The development phase includes ideation, concepting, and design. It includes competitor and market research that influences the ultimate design of the product, as well as validation, analysis, prototype development, and field testing. Consumer feedback is gathered and changes are made until the product is finalized.

2. Introduction

 

The introduction phase includes production and going to market. Supply chains are determined, production methods are optimized and then scaled, and distribution channels are found and activated. The introduction phase is heavy on marketing and advertising, but low on sales, making it the most expensive phase.

3. Growth 

The growth phase is all about increasing demand for your product and scaling your operations. Maintaining and expanding your reach, ensuring your product is in stock, pricing it correctly, providing customer service, establishing better distribution, and differentiating yourself from your competitors are all important during the growth phase. In the eCommerce product lifecycle in particular, the growth phase can occur rapidly.

4. Maturity 

The maturity phase is usually the most profitable. You have attained a high market share and perfected your pricing and distribution strategies. However, many consumers have now bought your product, and you may be reaching market saturation. The focus in this phase is to increase customer loyalty and add new features to give them a reason to continue to buy your product.

5. Decline 

The decline phase occurs when the market becomes too competitive, the technology is outdated, the market is too saturated, or customers simply lose interest. You’ll need to manage the retirement of your product, including scaling down production, selling remaining units, and continuing to provide customer service and alternative products to your loyal customers.

 

Alternatives to the Traditional PLM Model

The answer to “What is product lifecycle management?” isn’t always so straightforward. Since Levitt published the traditional product lifecycle management model, business leaders and economists have been tweaking it. Some leave out the development phase because it occurs behind the scenes. It also doesn’t apply to some eCommerce product management, especially for retailers and distributors who do not manufacture their own products.

Forty years after Levitt first published his lifecycle model, Harvard business professor Youngme Moon wrote another article in the Harvard Business Review: “Break Free from the Product Life Cycle.” She argued that by embracing the traditional model of product lifecycle management, businesses may be accepting the stages of maturity and decline when they don’t need to. Many businesses can reposition their products to either move them more quickly into the growth phase or cause them to revert back to the growth phase from the maturity phase.

With the introduction of product lifecycle management software, it’s easier than ever for businesses to collect, organize, and manage their product data. This in turn lets them better predict the product lifecycle, and prolong the growth phase or even revert back to it. The increasing complexity of the eCommerce product lifecycle means software is even more important.

 

Benefits of Product Lifecycle Management

When used effectively, PLM has positive effects on your bottom line and is an essential part of your digital ecosystem. With the right knowledge, captured at the right time, and shared with the right people, organizations can facilitate collaboration and make better decisions and predictions throughout the product lifecycle. That means you can: 

• Produce higher-quality, safer products
• Get products to market faster
• Reveal hidden opportunities in markets
• Reduce errors and costs
• Reduce waste of both materials and time
• Produce better bills of materials and requests for quotes
• Predict and manage seasonal changes
• Improve your forecasting
• Maximize your supply chain efficiency

 

Examples of Product Lifecycle Management

Product lifecycle management examples can be found in nearly every industry, especially the automotive and aerospace industries, which were some of the first to adopt the model.

 One modern example in the automobile world is Tesla. The company introduced its first car in 2008 and the famous Model S the following year. As a pioneer in the electric car space, Tesla’s introduction phase was characteristically slow. The pricing was premium and demand was low. With the release of the Model 3 and its more affordable pricing, Tesla entered the growth phase, where it currently stands.

Tesla currently dominates its competitors. The company sold nearly 500,000 cars in 2020 and nearly 910,000 in 2022, an impressive growth rate. They are also constantly introducing new features to the same models to help prevent their product from reaching the maturity stage too quickly.

The strategy of introducing new features and retiring others is common today in technology and eCommerce product management. This helps them stay in the growth and maturity phases as long as possible. We’re all familiar with brands like these: Apple, as well as other smartphone makers, are some of the most well-known.

 

Best Practices for Product Lifecycle Management

Turning your company into the next Tesla takes more than an innovative product and product lifecycle management software. The product lifecycle is complex and many markets are already very competitive, which makes it difficult to reach the growth stage. Following some product lifecycle management best practices can help.

• Differentiate your product. Beginning in the development phase, think about how you will position your product against the competition. Your positioning will affect your product design. For example, if you decide to make a more affordable version of the product or a more powerful version, this will affect what goes into the product.
• Set the right pricing. In many industries, especially eCommerce product management, pricing is always changing depending on the supply chain, consumer sentiments, and even the time of year. Effective PLM helps you tailor your pricing strategy to the part of the lifecycle your product is in as well as outside factors. For example, discounts in the introduction and maturity phases can help increase demand.
• Be ready to innovate. One of the best ways to extend your growth and maturity phases is to constantly iterate on your product. Adding new features isn’t the only way. You can try new marketing strategies, bundling your products, or cross-selling. You can even change your business model entirely, like Netflix did when it made the switch from DVD rentals to streaming.
• Measure your success. You’ll only know if your PLM is succeeding if you measure it continuously. Fast lead times are an indicator that you’re meeting customer demand. Less waste of materials, labor, and money means your supply chain is efficient, while excess materials and products may mean you overestimated demand. Low numbers of returns and complaints mean you have happy customers and quality products.

So what is product lifecycle management? Ultimately, it’s a way to ensure you’re selling your products efficiently. By creating quality products, setting the right prices, and ensuring that you have items in stock, you’re not only saving your business money, but creating an excellent customer experience.

At Akeneo, our product information management (PIM) software is all about providing an amazing product experience that leads into the best customer experience you can offer. Learn more about our PIM, as well as the differences between PIM versus PLM, then contact us if you have any questions. We’re always here to help you sort out what you need.

If you’re in eCommerce, you know that making order out of chaos is a big part of the job. 

You’ve got suppliers around the world. Warehouses around the country. Online stores and third-party channels. Digital catalogs in the cloud and print catalogs hot off the presses. And brick-and-mortar stores haven’t gone extinct: U.S. retailers announced twice as many store openings as closings in 2021.

You’ve got a lot going on. How can you keep track of it all? One process stands out for eCommerce in particular: inventory management. 

From your local corner store to retail giants like Amazon, everyone needs eCommerce inventory management software, but different tools work better for different teams. So how do you find the right one for your organization? That’s what we’re here for. 

 

What is eCommerce inventory management software?

eCommerce inventory management software tracks and manages your products so that you always know the amount in stock, its location, its price, and how fast it’s selling. It helps you source, store, and sell your products as efficiently as possible. 

eCommerce inventory management itself can be grouped into four categories:

1. Raw materials. The materials that go directly into your product, like fabric and thread for a clothing manufacturer.
2. Production goods. Items used to make your product that aren’t directly a part of it, like sewing machines for clothing. 
3. Works-in-progress. Products that are still in the design phase, like next season’s fashions.
4. Finished goods. Products that are ready for sale, like current fashions either in a warehouse or on the rack. 

When it comes to eCommerce inventory management software, we’re usually talking about the fourth category: finished goods. The previous stages are typically managed by other types of software, like product data management (PDM), and all are part of product lifecycle management (PLM), which often has its own tools to manage as well. 

It’s all a part of building the right ecosystem, but inventory management software is especially important.

 

Why is inventory management software important for eCommerce?

There are so many benefits of eCommerce inventory management systems, it’s hard to know where to start. So let’s just dive in. 

• Better forecasting. Even the most basic eCommerce inventory management software provides insights into what you have and where it is, from the warehouse to your customers’ doorsteps. That means you know when to restock, how much to buy, and where to store it so that you make the most profit. 
• More successful product launches. When you know what’s selling—and what’s not selling—you can apply that information to future product launches. Did customers go crazy for your stuffed pickle dog toy, but weren’t sold on the red rope? We see more fun food-inspired toys in your future. 
• Improved quality control. Inventory management software will tell you when something was made, when it arrived at the warehouse, and when it needs to be sold, so you know exactly what to prioritize. Instead of stock going missing, you can get it out the door before it goes out of date—or out of fashion. 
• Positive omnichannel customer experiences. Your goal is always to keep your customers coming back. How do you do that? By providing an amazing buying experience wherever your customers are. eCommerce inventory management software will sync with your digital product catalog and other channels so that your inventory counts are always correct, and your customers always get what they ordered.

Ultimately, effective inventory management for eCommerce helps you make the most possible profit from each and every item you sell. And that keeps you in business.

 

Essential features of inventory management software

It’s not an exaggeration to say that inventory management can make or break your business, so you want to spend the time to find the software that’s right for your organization. Here’s what to look for.

Real-time tracking

If your eCommerce inventory software doesn’t update in real-time, then you—and your customers—don’t actually know what’s in stock and what’s out-of-stock. You need to know what’s been ordered, what’s been bought in-store, what’s been delivered, and what’s been returned. And you need to know it in real time. 

Automation

It seems like everything is automated these days, and just like your sales and marketing software, your car, and your electronics, your eCommerce inventory management software should be too. When inventory management and optimization happens automatically, you free up your employees to focus on planning for the future. 

SKU scanning

Real-time capabilities and the smartest AI in the world don’t mean anything if you can’t easily input your SKUs. Keeping tabs on your stock is a fundamental task of eCommerce inventory management, so you’ll need software that integrates with the barcode scanners you use. 

Syndication

Modern eCommerce operates on a plethora of platforms: Amazon, Facebook, Alibaba, eBay, Etsy, Google Shopping, plus new channels you may not even be aware of yet. Can your eCommerce inventory management system syndicate all those systems? It won’t do you much good if it isn’t able to track what’s being sold on third-party sites and easily sync to new channels as they emerge. 

Price optimization

Price is easily one of the most important factors in inventory management. Is your price too high, or too low? Should it change seasonally? When should you put items on sale or on clearance? How can you make the most profit? These are all things your software should be able to tell you. 

Forecasting

You don’t just need to optimize your price points. You need to optimize the inventory itself. If your sales vary based on season, holidays, customer trends, or economic factors, your eCommerce inventory management software can help you predict the future, so you know what you need to order, reorder, and unload. 

Integration across channels and locations

If you have physical stores, you’ll need software that integrates with your POS system and transmits all sales and stock level details. You’ll be able to see your overall inventory as well as what you have at each store. The same goes for multiple warehouses: Your inventory management software should be able to input and track data from each warehouse, making it easy to see what you have and move product from place to place. 

Reporting

We hope you’re a data nerd, because you’re going to have a lot of data. Why not use it? With detailed reporting dashboards and capabilities, eCommerce inventory software can provide valuable insights into customer behavior, order fill times, delivery times, inventory control, when to reorder, and more. That helps you optimize your operations and keep your costs down. 

Customer support

You’re all about customer support for your own business, but it may never cross your mind when it comes to your tech stack. It should—fast, knowledgeable, and friendly customer support can make a big difference when you need a problem fixed. Getting questions answered quickly can also decrease your onboarding and training time. 

Your eCommerce inventory management system is an essential tool to help you create fast, seamless customer experiences across all of your channels. It should make your life easier, not harder, by integrating with your existing systems. And ultimately, it should make your customers happier and keep them coming back. 

Ready to hear more? Request a demo with an Akeneo expert and see how our hassle-free software can help your business run more efficiently. 

Companies exploring Product information Management (PIM) solutions often find themselves directed, through marketing and sales activities or internal stakeholders, to also explore Master Data Management (MDM) solutions. This isn’t surprising considering that on the surface these two software offerings appear to serve similar purposes within the data ecosystem. Further complicating the discussion is that PIM is actually considered a specialized subcategory of MDM, and in recent years, some MDM vendors have begun trying to blur the distinction between the two systems. So let’s take a look at both to understand what makes them different and how PIM’s deep focus on marketers and their ability to drive brand value through product experiences makes them distinct from MDMs and an important offering for any retailer.   

What is MDM? 

Master Data Management (MDM) is a category of software that centralizes and standardizes different data types and processes from multiple systems within an enterprise to build a “Master” record. Modern enterprises include dozens of disjointed systems that store critical Customer, Product, Supplier, Location, and Employee information in both structured and unstructured formats. MDM platforms are IT driven solutions that bring harmony to this chaotic ecosystem by synchronizing and standardizing data across the entire ecosystem to provide a golden record that eliminates the potential for redundancy, duplication, and miscommunication. This stewardship over the entire enterprise’s data makes it a valuable tool for Business Intelligence (BI), the establishment of data policies and guidelines, regulatory compliance, and improving operational efficiencies.   

What is PIM? 

Product Information Management (PIM) is considered a subcategory of MDM but differentiates itself by limiting its scope to being the Master for just Product information. PIM solutions are business driven applications that provide marketers a single place to collect, manage, translate, and enrich product information and media to create catalogs that can be quickly distributed to multiple sales channels and markets. PIM systems offer robust support for omnichannel commerce by providing a wide range of connectivity solutions for eCommerce platforms, marketplaces, mobile apps, and social media. PIM software’s focus on Product Experience makes it critical to companies looking to ensure their brand provides a consistent high-quality experience across all customer touchpoints. The benefits of PIM can be measured in higher conversion rates, lower return rates, and faster time to market for new products.   

MDM vs PIM

In the past, technical product information compiled in an MDM from supplier feeds, data hubs, or internal systems (PLM/ERP) may have been sufficient, but the rapidly evolving demands of digital commerce require more. Companies must increasingly be equipped to provide compelling, high-quality, and contextualized product information to a wide-range of customer touchpoints at a moment’s notice. Product information can no longer be treated as a commodity; it is an important differentiator in the digital world, a business function ruled by marketers and merchandisers who collaborate with a wide range of internal teams and external partners and suppliers to deliver technical, visual, instructional, and emotional product information that is localized for and compliant with international markets. It is PIM software’s capacity to support these requirements that have made it a distinct and rapidly growing software category.  MDM and PIM platforms serve distinct but complementary functions within a business ecosystem, and many enterprises use both systems. MDM platforms can feed core product information aggregated from across the ecosystem into a PIM system. This information is then tailored and enhanced by marketers and combined with assets within the PIM before being distributed across all of a company’s sales channels. When companies don’t have an MDM solution, PIM software can be a much faster and cheaper way to cleanse and govern product information to support digital commerce activities, though they make poor MDM substitutes when it comes to managing an entire company’s data management needs. For companies that do already have an MDM, the addition of a PIM platform gives their marketers a better place to build superior product experiences with support for digital commerce. There is sometimes a temptation to forgo PIM software in favor of the “all-in-one” solution that MDM platforms appear to offer. Companies that go down this path tend to do so because of an underappreciation of the importance of quality product information to the business. From their perspective, products are simple lists of attributes attached to a SKU to describe the basic technical information about a product (height, weight, generic color etc.). And when this is the extent of your Product Information, it does seem only logical to consolidate it along with all the other 0’s and 1’s within an MDM. But product information is much too important to be treated in this manner, because ultimately product information is critical in driving customer experience. We must consider this human element and provide a compelling experience to customers as they prepare to make that buying decision! Consolidating, reducing, and standardizing our sales data in an MDM makes sense, but do we really want to manage our customer’s product experiences the same way we handle last month’s invoices?

MDM to PIM Integration Best Practices 

When integrating an MDM system to a PIM system, establish a single source of truth for each data field and determine who can access and manipulate what within each system. Bring only relevant customer-facing information from the MDM into the PIM and determine how frequently the data needs to be updated. Core product information is often populated from the MDM into the PIM, enriched by the marketing team, and then passed back into the MDM for reporting and dissemination. API-based integrations are preferred. PIM and MDM platforms are distinct but complementary technologies that both play an important role within a company’s ecosystem. While MDM platforms provide a powerful but resource intensive solution for IT teams to provide governance, reporting, and standardization across the entire enterprise, they can’t build compelling product experiences. Only Marketers, empowered to collaborate in a PIM platform engineered specifically for their needs, can provide the high quality, differentiated product experiences modern commerce demands. Don’t treat product information as just another piece of data to be managed, nurture it in a PIM and turn it into a competitive advantage to drive sales and unlock growth.

Have you ever wondered what the actual business impact is on a piece of technology? Whether it’s for your own personal interest or to convince your boss that it’s a necessary investment, proving the economic impact of software can be the difference between acquiring a platform that revolutionizes the way you work or sticking to the status quo.

One of the most frequently asked questions we get here at Akeneo is about the return on investment (ROI) that organizations may realize by implementing a PIM solution. That’s why we commissioned Forrester Consulting this past year to conduct a Total Economic Impact (TEI) study to quantify results that existing Akeneo PIM customers have seen to provide those interested with a framework to evaluate the potential financial impact of Akeneo’s PIM solution on their organizations.

For the purposes of the study, Forrester collected and aggregated feedback from a number of representatives with experience using Akeneo’s PIM solution in order to better understand the benefits, costs, and risks associated with this investment. 

The results were astounding; for a full breakdown, you can download the report here, but let’s dive into a cursory view of a few key issues that these organizations were facing, and how they used Akeneo’s PIM software to help.

Many of the interviewees noted how their organizations struggled with common challenges, including:

 

1. Lacking a single source of the truth 

Without a PIM solution in place (or an inefficient, outdated PIM system), many organizations saw product data scattered everywhere. Some data is stored in the ERP, in legacy technology, or even in random spreadsheets, meaning that multiple departments had different parts of the product record. Users faced constraints on available fields, field sizes, product categorizations, and organizing product data for intended product data users. 

Duplicate effort occurred in maintaining the data and excess effort occurred accessing the data. Ensuring data quality was not possible, so inaccurate input was not caught and departments frequently had common data that conflicted.

With no central repository of product data, organizations struggled with:

• Labor redundancy
• Data duplication
• Incomplete data
• Ineffective data sharing
• An abundance of data errors

 

2. Slow to expand ways of selling

The report also uncovered that many organizations felt that they lacked the combination of resources, technical skills, and nimbleness to respond to new market opportunities.This meant that teams were slow to respond to new markets and channels, and struggled to take advantage of new revenue streams. This hampered not only their ambitions to expand selling channels, but also bottle-necked the number of products they were able to sell through various sales channels and approaches, such as upselling, cross-selling, selling by product groupings, and product rankings.

This also meant that distributors were losing new product placement opportunities because competitors were able to provide new product information to retailers and eCommerce partners faster than they were able to.

 

3. Inefficient internal operations

Several organizations interviewed stated that product managers were being forced to spend a large amount of time on inefficient activities such as collecting and managing product data, which in turn led to inefficient activities to activate that data with channel partners or with their own catalogs and eCommerce systems. Creating redundant work for these product catalog managers meant that they were spending more time hunting down and organizing product information (or even worse, creating it from scratch when it already existed somewhere) instead of utilizing their precious time in a better way.

Do any of these struggles ring a bell? Good news is you’re not alone – the better news is that Akeneo PIM can help. Our easy-to-use interface and administrative workflows meant that we were able to provide these organizations with complete and accurate product information and an easier process for internal and external product data communication.

In particular, the Forrester report found that, after implementing Akeneo PIM: 

 

1. Revenue increases of $10.4 million due to faster time-to-market (TTM) 

With a centralized system of product information, organizations interviewed were able to expand the number of products sold and facilitate new product adoption sooner due to an improved time-to-market (TTM). In addition, Akeneo PIM offered a single source of record for all teams and product managers to reference and utilize, leading to more value-add work, more new products, and more innovative products. With complete and accurate product information, distributors gained a competitive advantage as they were able to enter new markets faster and smoother.

2. Revenue increases of $45.4 million due to Akeneo-enabled data management and quality improvements

The ability to centrally store and manage all product information allows organizations to improve the experience for managing data and supports better insights into data quality. This also enables these organizations to supply all their sales and marketing channels more easily with rich, search-engine-optimized (SEO) product information that leads to improved product performance on partner and eCommerce sites. 

This also means less redundant work for product managers; when they are able to trust that their product data is accurate and up-to-date, they spend less time double-checking the information and more time on valuable activities. Lastly, improved data quality and management means that organizations were able to open new streams of revenue through additional cross-selling and upselling practices. 

 

3. Operational improvements through return reduction due to quality and decision accuracy of $1.1 million over three years

One of the biggest killers to revenue and hinderances to growth is returned products, and ambiguous product information is one of the top reasons customers return online purchases. By improving product information completeness and quality using Akeneo PIM, the organizations that were interviewed for the report experienced a reduction of returns, leading to operational savings related to the shipping and handling costs of the returns as well as any discounting or write-offs associated with the returned items. 

When customers know what they ordered and receive the product they expected to receive, they are far less likely to make the return and far more likely to come back again as a repeat customer.

At the end of the day, Akeneo PIM provides an easy-to-use interface for organizations to centralize, manage, optimize, and communicate their product information across internal and external teams, saving these businesses time, money, and resources.

For a deeper analysis of these results and more fascinating insights into how PIM can revolutionize your business, be sure to download the Total Economic Impact Report of Akeneo’s PIM in its entirety today, or reach out to an Akeneo expert to see how you can get started.

 

 

After working with dozens of companies over the last few years to build Akeneo solutions, I’ve spent more time than you can imagine talking about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This isn’t surprising because ERP solutions, now reimagined as Digital Operations Platforms (DOPs), are a foundational element within the technology stack of most companies, and represent a large investment in time, money, and tears (we’ve all been there). And when PIM enters the mix, companies naturally want to understand the strengths and limitations of each system and how they should interact with each other. So let’s break down exactly what ERP tools are and get a better understanding of their importance to product inception and basic enrichment, their limitations in supporting customer experiences, and best practices for integrating them with PIM solutions.  

What is ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a category of business management software that centralizes, manages, and provides insights into core accounting, manufacturing, supply chain management, sales, marketing, and human resource business processes within an organization. Common characteristics of ERP solutions include a modular design with easy internal integrations, a shared database and data format, a consistent user interface, and the ability to manage real-time transactional data. Like most software solutions today, ERP solutions are moving towards cloud-based deployments and SaaS, but many companies still use legacy on-premise solutions that in some cases can be heavily-customized. The substantial implementation costs of ERP solutions and their criticality to core business processes make ERP solutions a significant investment for most companies.  

ERP Systems and Product Experience Management (PXM)

 ERP solutions play an important role in Product Experience Management(PXM) for many companies because they have traditionally served as a point of origin for products and an initial collection point for basic product information. Distributors, wholesalers, and retailers originate products in their ERP systems as part of the procurement process from suppliers, while manufacturers may utilize a Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) system to develop a product before passing it onto their ERP system. In both scenarios, the ERP system is typically where the Stock Keeping Unit (SKU) is generated to identify and differentiate products across various applications in the ecosystem.  While generating SKUs within the ERP system remains the modus operandi for most companies, a recent shift has seen some businesses in industries like Fast Fashion and Home Furnishing challenge this approach. For these companies, time-to-market and customer and product experiences drive the product creation process; brand managers and marketers originate products within their Product Information Management (PIM) system before passing it onto their back-office systems (ERP). To support this shift, many PIM vendors include capabilities for customers to generate incremental SKUs based on their unique naming conventions (Department IDs, Product Category, Supplier, etc.). It’s important to note here that regardless of where the product information originates, ERPs are still a necessary part of the ecosystem because PIM systems cannot be used to manage the rest of the vital back-office operations ERP systems perform.  ERP systems can play an important role in the creation of products in a company’s ecosystem, but they are not designed to create, manage, or distribute compelling product experiences for customers. ERP systems have rigid data models that inhibit product marketers from creating rich differentiated experiences with high levels of data governance, lack support for contextualization of product data (By Region, Language, and Sales Channel), and don’t have the ability to manage Media and Asset content. ERP systems also lack dedicated features to support product enrichment, which relies heavily on collaboration, automation, translation, and a user-interface built for marketers. Finally, getting data out of ERP systems can be a challenge; they don’t have syndication capabilities and store sensitive financial and customer information that brings additional security concerns that can complicate integrations with external systems. 

It’s critical to identify what data is actually relevant to crafting the customer experience when considering how your ERP system will support PXM. ERP systems manage a lot of information around procurement, fulfillment, internal reporting, and bill of materials that is important to the business, but irrelevant to customers. Leave this data in the back-office where it belongs! ERP systems do house useful product data though, because they are where procurement and product development teams populate basic product details like Name, Price, Basic Color, Short Description, and Dimensions when onboarding new products. This data may be a useful reference point or even a source of truth for brand managers and marketers building compelling customer-facing information in downstream systems (like PIM). Failing to delineate this useful customer-facing information from operational “back-office” data means more work for business-users in downstream systems, more complex integrations, and in extreme situations, it could mean a digital commerce experience that’s handcuffed to the catalog structure of a 15 year-old ERP system!   

ERP and PIM Integration Best Practices

When integrating an ERP system to a PIM system, establish a single source of truth for each data field and determine who can access and manipulate what within each system. Bring only relevant customer facing information from the ERP into the PIM and determine how frequently the data needs to be updated. Most ERP to PIM integrations communicate one-way (from ERP to PIM), but bi-directional integrations are sometimes necessary (though these are often more time-consuming and expensive). API-based integrations are preferred and will often require middleware software to support. Flat-file exports are also a viable solution when outdated ERP systems or security concerns preclude the use of APIs. Flat-file exports from an ERP to a PIM can also be more economical and are perfectly sufficient for smaller product catalogs that are updated less frequently.  Note: Many ERP systems do not support Model Variant relationships between products (e.g. T-shirts in multiple sizes and colors, TVs by screen size etc.). This relationship is expected by customers and should be built out to support digital commerce, either in a middleware layer or a PIM system.    ERP Systems are an important part of a company’s back-office ecosystem, but they should not be used to build, manage, and distribute customer-facing product experiences. PIM systems provide unique capabilities to manage product catalogs that cannot be replicated in an ERP. When approaching a digital transformation with PIM and ERP, build a composable solution that utilizes the capabilities and intended design of each system to maximize their value.   Still unsure of where to start? Feel free to reach out to us, and an Akeneo Expert will gladly walk you through first steps.

There’s nothing quite like cracking open a fresh, print catalog.  The colorful images. The leisurely flipping of pages. That new-catalog smell. It’s enough to inspire even the toughest customer to consider a purchase.  Yet the digital transformation is here, and eCommerce sales are on the rise, even for industries that traditionally operated with print catalogs only. The Granite Group, a wholesale distributor and Akeneo customer, says its eCommerce share of sales was about 20% in 2021—well above industry standards. What’s a traditional, print-catalog business to do?  The good news is that print catalogs aren’t going anywhere. They’ll remain integral to many sales processes, but they’ll need to be supplemented with digital product catalogs. The even better news is that you can use digital catalog software for both print and eCommerce, creating an omnichannel strategy that keeps up with the times.   

What is a Digital Product Catalog?

A digital product catalog is an interactive listing of all of your products that’s hosted on a website, like a digital brochure. The most basic type will allow customers to browse and see product information. More advanced digital catalogs also allow customers or sales reps to:

• Make purchases directly through the website
• Search for what they want
• Compare items based on features and price point
• Filter items by desired attributes
• Watch videos or see 3D models

On the business side, there are lots of potential features that make it easy to create a digital catalog and see its benefits:

• Easily create custom and shared catalogs 
• Update product information
• Track and manage your sales
• Optimize for mobile and other new channels

Digital product catalogs weren’t always so packed with functionality. Back when the internet was just getting started, digital catalog creation might have involved simply uploading scanned PDFs of your print catalog. We’ve come a long way.   

How a Digital Product Catalog Can Benefit Your Business

No matter your industry or vertical, business success starts with customer experience. Your customers may be sales reps or distributors, but the story remains the same: Providing a seamless, immersive buying experience via a digital catalog helps move your customers more quickly from discovery to purchase.  What if you don’t have a digital product catalog? Or, what if your catalog is very basic, like that early-2000s scanned PDF version? The truth is that you could fall behind the competition.   We’ve all heard the story about how the human attention span is only 8 seconds, which is shorter than a goldfish’s. It isn’t exactly accurate, but studies have shown that our attention spans are indeed getting shorter.  There’s no telling your customers’ exact attention spans, but chances are if they head to your website and can’t find exactly what they’re looking for, they’ll bounce—and they’ll do so quickly. But give customers the product information they want, when they want it, where they want it with an easy-to-use digital catalog, and you’ll create loyalty for a lifetime.  Digital catalogs aren’t just for customers and sales reps. They also allow manufacturers, retailers, and their internal teams to have a single source of truth when it comes to product information. With digital catalog software, your catalog can automatically update product information so that everyone is on the same page. And that has big benefits for your business, including: 

• Increasing agility. Print catalogs can take six months to a year to update. That dramatically affects your product release schedule and your time-to-market. If you operate in print or even in a basic digital catalog, you may wait to release new products. When you create a modern digital catalog, you can release your products whenever they’re ready—helping you stay agile and keep up with the competition. 
• Streamlining operations. Digital catalog software ensures your engineering, product, sales, and marketing teams are all working with the same information, and the benefits are immeasurable. You’ll make fewer mistakes. You’ll communicate better. And you’ll always know the status of your products. 
• Offloading inventory. Because print catalogs are time-consuming, many businesses only create one or two versions. With digital product catalog software, you can easily create as many versions or layouts as you want. The best idea? Create a catalog for old and surplus inventory you want to offload. Customers get a deal, and you get to focus on the future. 

The bottom line: Digital catalogs aren’t just good for business—they’re the future of business. Are you ready to get on board?  

Digital Catalog Creation: The Basics

Learning how to create a digital catalog can seem overwhelming. You have thousands of SKUs. Incredibly detailed product specifications. A global network of manufacturers and sales people. But that’s exactly what digital catalog software is for. Choose your software The first step is always to choose your digital catalog software. This is your central system for inputting data, organizing product information, and creating your catalog.  There are various tools and price points available, but the more features you have, the better. Videos and 3D models are becoming must-haves, and you’ll definitely want to provide the ability to search, filter, and compare.  Input your data The biggest barrier to digital catalog creation is often the sheer amount of data. This is another area where catalog design software comes to the rescue. Digital catalog creators like Akeneo Product Cloud allow you to easily input raw data from many different sources, including spreadsheets and product data management software. You can combine, enhance, and refine data until you have a complete and accurate description for every product.  Create a tagging system Even the most basic digital catalogs today allow customers to sort, filter, and search products. Product tagging is the foundation of these features. First you’ll need to categorize your products by function, size, type, and so on. Then you’ll tag each product so they can be found based on these attributes. Again, digital catalog software can help you automate this process. Sync your channels Using the same SKU, model number, and name for each product, across all of your channels, is essential to avoid confusion among both customers and your employees. From in-store to your website to your print catalog, consistent information makes it easier to find what you’re looking for. Your software should do this automatically.  If you don’t have a digital catalog, it’s time to bring your business into the future. And if you do have one, you might want to take another look and consider if it’s providing all the features you need. Because your digital product catalog shouldn’t just list your products—it should provide an immersive, seamless customer experience that encourages conversion.  At Akeneo, we’re experts at digital catalog creation, product information management (PIM), and customer experience, and we have industry-leading software that allows you to take advantage of that expertise. Start your free trial and let’s see how we can help. 

In today’s fast-paced, dynamic, and exceedingly competitive commerce world, retailers and distributors need a healthy commerce ecosystem to succeed. Why? There have never been as many opportunities in the commerce industry, nor has there been as much competition.

From online retailers like Amazon and Etsy lowering the barrier to entry for entrepreneurs to sell products, to social media platforms like Instagram and Tik Tok entering the retail space, the eCommerce landscape has just exploded over the past few years and advancements in technology, increased competition, and the growth of available channels have made it easier than ever to buy and sell online.

 

eCommerce: Steadily growing, and showing no signs of stopping

As businesses came online during the COVID-19 pandemic, the global trend toward digitization surged ahead. Even with the recent rise in inflation, as regions began to reopen and consumers could shop in-person, eCommerce growth continues to climb. Merchants continue to follow consumer demand online, and this growth means more brands competing for customers.

Due to this increase in competition, the digital advertising dollar is not going as far as it used to. A recent study by Adobe saw that the rising cost of digital advertising was moving five times faster than inflation in the United States.

As the barrier to entry thins and the digital space becomes more crowded, brand identity and brand awareness will only become more crucial to draw more organic acquisition and retain more customers.

Not only are new competitors emerging, but new channel opportunities are as well. Brands and retailers need to be where their consumers are online to be top of mind, make an impact, and capture the sale. The typical social media user now spends about 15% of their waking life using social platforms; people around the globe are spending even more time scrolling through social feeds which leads to spending their money online.

Implementing an omnichannel product activation strategy is essential, and successful brands are the ones that are meeting customers where they already spend their time. The omnichannel opportunity is all about giving consumers choice and options around where, what, and how they engage with retailers and their products to make a purchase.

 

Utilizing the Product Ecosystem to Support Commerce Trends

Staying on top of commerce trends is not an option — it’s a necessity. For commerce business owners, keeping up-to-date on industry trends is particularly important to stay competitive and identify new opportunities. Partnering insight into commerce trends with a comprehensive, scalable, and well-functioning commerce ecosystem is the key to staying competitive and supporting your commerce business.

You’ve heard all of the ecosystem acronyms – ERP, PIM, MDM, and PLM, just to name a few, but why are they important? Whether you are B2C, B2B, a distributor or retailer, the end goal is the same – get your products to your consumers.

Most commerce brands have similar ecosystem components. However, the type, number, and scale of the tools or software they use for their online businesses will differ.

Identifying your desired business outcomes, key processes you want to improve, and what metrics you’ll use to measure impact will help guide your decisions on what systems within your commerce ecosystem will be most beneficial to your business.

Your commerce ecosystem can help you with marketing, sales, customer relations, inventory management, and product data and enrichment. Strong product data and the right commerce ecosystem can massively improve the customer experience, improve your time-to-market, and increase sales conversion.

That’s why the team here at Akeneo will spend the next few weeks diving into all the different areas of the product ecosystem, detailing what they are, how they interact with each other, and how to best utilize each piece of technology to create the most compelling omnichannel experiences. From the basics to the best practices, we’ll be providing you with everything you need to better understand the product ecosystem and how to build a scalable technology stack that supports the future of eCommerce.

We are often asked if Akeneo PIM has workflow capabilities for product information. The answer is a resounding “Yes!” and it enables you and your team to collaborate on work with the usability Akeneo is renowned for, with none of the inflexible rigidity other solutions may present. Here’s how. Early in my career in tech (we’re talking 2000s here), I was often in front of customers demonstrating tools for business process management and enterprise document workflows. Things that looked cool, like drag-and-drop workflow designers and approval logic builders. They demoed really well. Thing is, hardly anyone really used them. Why is that? They were just too rigid and inflexible for the realities of the fast-paced and ever-changing digital workplace. Predefined workflows couldn’t take into account every scenario that would throw up a roadblock (like someone on the team suddenly being hospitalized) without the workflow either becoming overly complex or just too simplified to bother. The exception would be highly-regulated industries like government, finance, and pharmaceutical, where strict accountability is required. Workflow capabilities are absolutely available in Akeneo PIM Enterprise Edition, and they are all about giving you and your team the flexibility to make the work of collecting, enriching, and activating your product record flow. It’s all about gaining visibility into the collaboration that needs to be focused on work that ensures your product story gets to market without delay, and is of the highest quality that your customers expect. Tricked-out workflow design tools that most teams won’t use aren’t required here! Let’s take a look at the neat ways you can have a truly collaborative workflow with Akeneo PIM Enterprise Edition.  

Teamwork Assistant

One reason you might need a “workflow” is to ensure that your team stays on schedule and required work doesn’t get left behind. For example, you have a major launch of a new line of products coming up, and everything must be ready in time for your different channel and marketing teams to promote and sell them on the same day. That means everyone collaborating on those products needs to track progress on enrichment tasks that have been assigned to them, and be notified when there are new tasks for them to take care of. That’s where Teamwork Assistant comes in. Each set of products that needs to be worked on is grouped into a Project, based on their category, channel, and locale. For that Project, a due date is set, and those who have edit permissions for the products selected in the Project will be notified when required attributes need to be completed, based on the attribute groups they have edit permissions on. For example, Mary on the marketing team is responsible for ensuring product descriptions are complete, well-written, and aligned to the brand voice. So she has edit permissions on the Marketing attribute group. If a required Description field for a set of products in the Project isn’t completed, she will be notified repeatedly before the Project’s due date to do so. If everything is good to go with the required attributes that she has edit permissions for, then she won’t be bothered, and will only be notified when everything in the Project is complete. As you would expect, everyone involved can see the overall progress of the Project. And to help everyone be productive and focused, they can even see just the products in the Project they need to work on the Product Grid, just like a View.     How is this a different approach than rigid workflow process management? The assignment of the work is made to anyone on the team who has edit permissions for the selected products. So it doesn’t matter if Mary or her teammate Joseph completes the work, as long as it gets done. If Mary were to decide she wanted to escape to a remote island for a few weeks, the work doesn’t stop. Joseph can see what the progress of enrichment is, and pick things up without breaking the flow and without missing the critical deadline that was set.  

Proposals and Approvals

We often see bad product experiences everywhere. “Product description to come when Peter gets back to me with the details” is not something anyone wants to see when researching a product. This is another reason you might need a “workflow”: when collaborating as a team on the product record, you must ensure information doesn’t get out into the wild that hasn’t been checked and approved by a manager first. Akeneo PIM to the rescue here! Akeneo PIM Enterprise Edition provides granular and flexible permissions settings according to your business needs. I won’t go into detail on all of them here, but some that matter for proposal submissions and approving them are the permissions that can be set for a category in your product catalog. These permit user groups to either own products within the category, edit them, view them, or have no permissions at all.  Someone who can edit a product in a category, but does not own the category it’s in, will be able to edit a draft of the product information and then “Send for Approval” – individually, sequentially, or as part of a Bulk Action. The product(s) status will change accordingly, and the users that are part of the group that owns the category will be notified that they have proposals sent for their approval. They can view those in a single place from the Proposals menu under Activities, for a specific product in the Product Edit Form, or by creating a custom View that includes the Draft Status filter. Whatever suits your style of working the best! Whether the manager approves or rejects the proposal(s), the product(s) status will change accordingly: “Working Copy” ready to be published, “Waiting for Approval” or if the proposal doesn’t pass muster, back to “In Progress” it goes.     Notice some of that Akeneo usability and flexibility in the way Approvals work; the permissions are assigned to a group of users, so anyone within them can work as required to get the job done. Mistakes are minimized if not eliminated, and the workflow doesn’t stop because someone forgot to approve things. There’s more details to Proposals and Approvals, so check out the Akeneo Help Center to find out more.  

Making Work Flow

Why am I writing about all this for product information management for commerce businesses like yours? We are asked if Akeneo PIM Enterprise Edition has workflow capabilities. As you can now see, the answer is “Yes, we do! And you’re going to love how it works, and how it lets you get work done!” Ready to experience some of that workflow flexibility for yourself? Get in touch with us, and we would be happy to discuss how you can collaborate more effectively, without the rigidity.

At Unlock Boston 2022, we proudly introduced to the world Akeneo Product Cloud, our solution for how omnichannel businesses can activate their entire product story across any and all channels that their customers are on, whether owned or unowned, known or yet to be discovered. It’s an exciting vision that will bring Product Experience (or PX) to the same level of importance and business impact as Customer Experience (CX) has been for the last several years. During our introduction of Akeneo Product Cloud we also introduced the concept of Product Activation. In short, Product Activation is a strategy that removes the silos of people, technology, and data that exist within omnichannel businesses and that lead to poor product experiences across any one or more channels. By removing those silos, all the teams who manage each of the different channels where the product record is activated – D2C owned sites, marketplaces, retail network, marketing channels and beyond – are enabled to tell a consistent, complete, and compelling story whether they own the channel experience or not. A successful Product Activation strategy is made up of four essential parts:

1. The first step is managing all the information about a product. Not just the title, description, size, color, and so on, but also all the dynamic data that buyers are looking for, such as reviews, sourcing, pricing, availability, and so on.
2. You then need to connect all the data that is managed with different tools by different people, so that a single product record can be orchestrated as necessary.
3. The next step is activating that product record into all your different channels you need to be on, adhering to the personalized requirements of each channel, whether it’s owned by you or not.
4. Lastly, you need to know how that product record is performing across all your channels, with insights that guide you to the best ways to optimize that product record to help you achieve your growth goals or eliminate poor product experiences that increase returns and negative reviews.

So, the question then becomes, how does Akeneo Product Cloud support such a strategy for delivering those world-class product experiences? Let’s explore.  

Product Data Studios

The first part of a Product Activation strategy is to have the data and assets for the product record created, managed, and enriched. It all needs to be accurate and current as it’s important to you and to your customers. Product Data Studios are made up of specialized tools that manage each aspect of that product record. Today, you are familiar with marketing data and assets managed in a modern PIM like Akeneo PIM. There are also dedicated tools for user-generated content, pricing, availability, and technical product lifecycle information.  Some of these solutions you may already have today and are happy with. That’s great! Akeneo Product Cloud is built on a composable architecture, so you will be able to plug-and-play with the solutions you have in place already.  But what if you need new functionality, or have a gap today? We will be developing our own Product Data Studios to meet the needs of our customer’s Product Activation strategy while delivering that consistent and usable experience that you enjoy today with Akeneo PIM.  

Product Data Platform

So all that cold and hot data is being managed in Product Data Studios, but how does it all come together in a single product record? This is where orchestration in the Product Data Platform comes in. It will dynamically create a real-time golden record of your product story that can be activated across all the channels you need to display that product record.  This is also where developers can access that real-time centralized record to leverage it with other business applications and augment it if needed. For example, for use with commerce search and discovery solutions, or augmenting the customer record in a Customer Data Platform with product information. This is the heart of Akeneo Product Cloud.  

App Store

How do you go about activating that product record across all the channels you need to be on – from your D2C site to Amazon to your retailer to your ad networks? Apps is how this magic happens, connecting to the channels you need to be on directly, or through another solution such as an eCommerce platform or syndication tool.  And where do you find and enable those Apps? Why, an enterprise-grade, SaaS-based App Store of course, with functionality for users and tools for IT and developers to build, deploy, and manage those Apps.  

Performance Analytics and Insights

So your product record is activated across all the channels you need to be on. Congratulations! But the strategy doesn’t end there. How do you know you’re delivering the product experiences your customers expect? How do you know where your teams should focus their efforts on optimizing that product record?  This is where Performance Analytics and Insights come in, as part of the Product Data Platform. We know you already get lots of performance analytics on how your products are selling, how pages are converting. All great stuff. But do you know how elements of the product record are impacting business performance? Do you know which elements your team should spend their time on right now that will ensure great customer reviews? That’s where meaningful insights come in.  These insights will guide you and your team to take immediate action on the parts of the product record that will make a difference in business performance and the experience your customers have. For example, why might a product have high returns, and what can you do about the product experience to turn that around? The product itself may be great, but the product experience may not be. You can control that (much more effectively than trying to control the customer themselves!) and therefore understand how exactly your investment in Akeneo Product Cloud is driving your business growth.  

And what about PXM?

PXM, or Product Experience Management, is still vitally important when it comes to a Product Activation strategy. Success with Akeneo Product Cloud won’t happen overnight. It is a journey in the maturity of delivering world-class product experiences across all your channels. PXM is the set of best practices that guide you on the right journey to take, so that your internal and external team members are effective and productive, and giving you the peace of mind that you are making the most out of your investment in Akeneo Product Cloud.  Still a bit confused on how these all fit together? Check out the illustration below for a simplified view, and download Akeneo Product Cloud 101 for more information.  

  Providing an exceptional customer experience is impossible without providing an exceptional product experience, and that means a consistent and coherent product story across all channels, owned and unowned. Doing so is tricky, and requires a Product Activation strategy that enables truly omnichannel product experiences and supports a composable Product Cloud, like the Akeneo Product Cloud. Ready to see how omnichannel product experiences can unlock growth for your organization? Request a demo of Akeneo today.

Through phases of development, Akeneo Product Cloud will include:

– Product Data Studios, that serve each of the core product record components starting with a modern PIM that natively provides product asset management and syndication capabilities, as the keystone to managing and optimizing the entire product record. Additional Studios will provide support for more dynamic product information elements such as product availability management, pricing optimization, user generated content, and product lifecycle management;

– A scalable Product Data Platform (PDP), to centralize and orchestrate the entire product record consumed from each of the Product Data Studios, with performance analytics to inform business strategies;

– And a native App Store, that makes it easy to activate product data across any commerce channel or business application, in addition to providing solutions for seamlessly augmenting the core product information created in the Product Data Studios and orchestrated in the PDP.

Read the full press release here, and you can learn more about Akeneo Product Cloud here.