Akeneo set out to help with those two dimensions by introducing an AI assistant, Franklin. This assistant helps fill in empty attributes with trusted normalized values, identify and correct erroneous attribute values, and suggest catalog improvements by proposing new attributes. We tested Franklin in the US market over three years and — after collecting feedback from our early adopters — determined that we need to do a deeper deconstruction of the components. We realized that we need to embed Franklin features deeper into existing data enrichment workflows to positively impact the quality of the data  With that in mind, we have decided to put the Franklin Insights feature on hold and re-introduce it at a later date in a different way in our application. We also want to ensure global coverage for our global customers. And you know what? We’re excited and proud to do it. We’ve learned a lot about how you, our customers, interact with AI in the context of PXM, and how and when you’re ready to use it. We are committed to innovating – and ensuring that innovation is truly actionable and makes a difference for our customers. Stay tuned for more to come with Franklin in the future!

A system of record for accurate, up to date, and complete product data with all the necessary attributes, stored in a platform that mandates governance, empowers collaboration, and facilitates syndication to all of your sales channels is critical to delivering a product experience that can help unlock growth for your business. However, the leaders that typically approve the investment in PIM projects always ask the payback question — what is the ROI from this project? The good news is that qualitative measurements abound. Let’s dive into the following metrics getting down to the calculations you can run for your own analysis.

Better conversion rates 

PIM tools have been credited with helping improve conversion rates through better quality and more complete product information. With better product information, PIM improves search functionality and Google indexing, which helps increase both conversion rate and average order value. Here’s an example of how PIM can help increase online revenue. Let’s take an eCommerce site that gets 10,000,000 sessions per year that has a pretty typical 2% conversion rate, and generates 200,000 orders annually. Implementing Akeneo PIM gives them a 3% relative lift in conversion rate, equating to a new conversion of 2.06%. Now, those same 10,000,000 sessions will generate 206,000 orders. Multiply the difference, 6000, by your Average Order Value (AOV) and you get the revenue lift you can conservatively expect from your new PIM. In this scenario, with a $100 AOV, this merchant would realize an additional $600,000 in revenue per year from their PIM. Not too shabby!

Fewer returns

It’s not just about convincing customers to buy your products, of course — it’s also about making sure they are satisfied with their purchase and won’t be returning the product. Product returns are a growing concern for merchants — estimates show that up to 40% of online orders are returned by customers — and with an average cost of $25 per return, it’s easy to see how much this can cost a merchant. Reducing the rate of returns can have a huge impact on the bottom line, and many returns are caused by customers not understanding the product they’re buying. In other words, low-quality product information and poor product experiences drive higher return rates. The governance and collaboration capabilities a PIM offers guarantees that merchants will provide better product experiences. Therefore, most of our merchant customers factor in a 10% reduction in returns into their ROI model. Staying with our merchant from the previous example, you’ll recall they do 200,000 transactions per year. If 30% of those transactions get sent back by customers, that’s 60,000 returns per year. At $25 per return, this merchant has to carry a negative $1.5MM line item in their books — ouch! Reducing the return rate by a conservative 10% will reduce the number of returns by 6,000. The new, lower return rate of 27% means the company faces only 54,000 returns, saving the company roughly $150,000.

Efficient enrichment 

We all know the expression time is money. But for merchants, particularly in the modern omnichannel world, it’s not just an old adage — it’s a fact of life. Fortunately for Akeneo customers, however, the strong collaboration around product data enrichment powered by a top-notch PIM  means fewer people can enrich product data in less time. Merchants continually report that a PIM significantly reduces workload. To determine the productivity cost associated with product enrichment, our merchants analyze how many Full-Time Employees manage product data in some way, shape, or form. They then average out how many hours these employees spend on product data. Lastly, most leaders tell us they expect a 5X return in productivity from their employees. This gives us all the data points you need to calculate your productivity cost. Let’s revisit our merchant example. Today, they have 10 employees that earn an average of $100K who each spend 25% of their time working on product enrichment, costing the company roughly $250,000. However, a PIM can reduce enrichment time by at least 50%, saving $125,000 in raw cost.

Accelerated time-to-market

Increased enrichment speed can not only help your company save money, but help them bring more revenue in as well. One big pain point merchants often express is how long it takes for them to get a new SKU merchandised and ready to sell. It is common to hear it takes 6 weeks or more to collect all the right data, fill in all the attributes, ensure it is correct, and then list it across sales channels. These merchants have products that are ready to ship today, but they have to sit there losing money until the product data enrichment cycle is complete. When all of that downtime is multiplied by all the new SKUs that get produced every year, the losses add up. It has been proven that a PIM like Akeneo has allowed merchants to get new products live up to 80% faster. What does this mean in the real world? The simplest way to estimate the value of improving time to market is to start by estimating the number of new products you release every year. Next, apply your average sales price to each of those SKUs. With this data you can estimate the value these SKUs add to your business per day. Finally, multiplying this daily value by the number of days a PIM like Akeneo shortens your time market gives you your ROI. The easiest way to calculate this metric is with a series of proportions. The first says that if I currently generate $20,000,000 per year with my 50,000 SKUs, I should generate $22,000,000 with 10% more or 5,000 additional SKUs. The next proportion equation says that if I generate $2,000,000 in additional revenue in 365 days, I should generate $5,479.45 per additional sales day. Now that I know the revenue per day I can expect from my new SKUs, I can calculate how much incremental revenue that I can earn by chopping Time to Market by half. In this case, our merchant earns $115,068 by reducing Time To Market by 50% or 6 to 3 weeks.

Easy catalog expansion

Once you’ve fixed conversion and return rates and accelerated your enrichment and time-to-market processes, it’s time to take your PIM to the next level by using it to expand your product line. In fact, many Akeneo customers tell us they’ve been able to expand their catalog by exploring endless aisle capabilities. Some begin working with dropshipping suppliers, some create their own marketplaces, and others are empowered to stock bigger and better product lines. No matter how they go about it, more products mean more sales, and it’s all possible thanks to Akeneo PIM. The merchant in our example recently decided to expand its catalog by roughly 10,000 SKUs, 2,500 in each of the next 4 quarters. Using the same proportion we used in the Time To Market section, we can begin to estimate what these new SKUs mean to the business. If our retailer earns $20MM with 50,000 SKUs, how much will they earn with 60,000 SKUs instead? With help from PIM, they could see as much as $125,000 in new revenue, depending on when the products are released and whether these are considered core products or accessories. 

Simple sales channel expansions

Akeneo PIM can help you not only expand the number of products you sell, but also increase the number of channels you sell them on. In fact, many of our customers have used Akeneo PIM to easily package product data and distribute it to all of your sales channels. Increasing the number of sales channels your products are available on makes it easier for potential customers to find your products. That means they’re more likely to make a purchase — so how much extra value can new sales channels bring to your business? Start by taking the number of new channels they’ll begin selling on and multiply that by the number of products they plan to sell there. For example, our retailer wants to open up 3 new channels selling an average of 2500 of their products in each of them. Because it will take time for the new channel to ramp up, we’ll estimate that a new channel will initially add 5% of the value of their existing business, or in the case of our example merchant, roughly $150,000 in revenue.

Get great ROI with Akeneo PIM

For merchants that take full advantage of a PIM, the ROI is no doubt outstanding. They’ll see a nice lift in revenue from a higher eCommerce conversion rate, they’ll reap the benefits of lowering their rate of returns, and they’ll be able to enrich more products with fewer people in a shorter amount of time. From there, they open up new sales channels and even explore carrying additional products or becoming a marketplace of their own. Taken together, our $20 million merchant has generated nearly $1 million in new revenue and saved $275,000 in cost from using Akeneo PIM. Want to learn more about how to calculate ROI from Akeneo PIM? Contact us and we’ll walk you through our ROI model using your data and assumptions.

From slow time-to-market to rising costs, from inefficient processes to collaborating with suppliers, you’ll need to battle a long list of foes if you want to see good product experience triumph in this age-old struggle. These obstacles can dramatically decelerate your operations, drive your time-to-market down to a crawl, or cause your product data enrichment expenses to skyrocket as you watch your cost-control structure crumble, threatening your growth. But never fear! Akeneo’s very own team of product experience superheroes are here to help you in your battle to create compelling product experiences for customers. The Akeneo PIM Fantastic Four includes: The Extraordinary Efficiency: Our first hero is here to eliminate expenses and help companies of every kind safeguard valuable resources. He offers colossal cost-cutting strength and blazing time-to-market speed to ensure your product data management processes run smoothly. The Awesome Adapter: Need to update or change your product catalog to keep up with seasonal changes or shifting consumer tastes? No problem. This hero has you covered, with rapid product repositioning features, perfect pivoting tools, and crystal clear communication capabilities. The Outstanding Onboarder: The team’s supplier relations expert helps you overcome even the most daunting onboarding obstacles. He’ll help you accelerate time-to-market, get better quality information from your partners, handle the long tail of suppliers with ease. The Marvelous Minimum Viable PIM: The fourth and final team member helps you fight against rising costs and slow timelines by providing flexibility and getting your PIM project off the ground with ease! Want to learn more about our team of heroes, and see how they’ve already helped businesses of every shape and size take on their product experience challenges and come out on top? Download our new eBook, The PIM Fantastic Four: Keys to Unlocking Growth today!

Download the eBook

My formative years were a good time for such teams. The Chicago Bulls dominated professional basketball, winning 5 championships in 7 years. Meanwhile, the New York Yankees set records for wins on their way to 4 Major League Baseball championships in 5 years, and the New England Patriots ruled American Football, winning an unprecedented 6 Super Bowls since 2002. Each of those teams had their signature superstar — Michael Jordan was, and still is, considered the greatest basketball player to ever live, as is Tom Brady in football, and Derek Jeter was recently elected to baseball’s Hall of Fame. But what made those teams so dominant, what propelled them to title after title, was the deep, well-constructed roster each team boasted. Succeeding in omnichannel commerce is no different. You can’t build a championship team with just one person. You need to construct a deep roster of talent to come out on top in any industry. So, with that in mind, we thought we’d put the spotlight on the different members of a championship-winning PIM team.

Leadership teams 

When it comes to any major project, it’s crucial to get your leadership team on board, and PIM is no exception to that rule. In fact, because PIM requires you to get buy-in from a wide range of teams in your organization, it’s even more important that you have members of your company’s leadership team on board with your PIM project from the very beginning. That way, they can help ensure everyone leans into PIM and get the solution up and running quickly and efficiently. How do you get your leadership team on board? Start by demonstrating the value PIM can bring to an organization and the potential return on investment implementing PIM can bring, including lowered enrichment costs, higher conversion rates, and more.

IT teams 

At first glance, it may seem like the IT team is not directly invested in the business outcomes, meaning that they might not be primetime players on your PIM team. Think again — the IT team often does the heavy lifting when selecting a PIM, and just as importantly, making sure it integrates and plays nicely with the rest of your existing tech stack. They also typically play a role in implementing and maintaining the data governance and product information hygiene processes that allow you to get the most out of your PIM. Your IT team plays a significant role in just about every software implementation, and PIM is no different. So, make sure you have an IT specialist on your team to help you understand the ramifications a PIM can have for existing infrastructure and operations. They’ll also help ensure the continued good governance and use of PIM after it is rolled out.

Media managers 

In the omnichannel age, digital assets are king. Customers want, expect, and even demand to see your products in action via photos, videos, PDFs, and more. What’s more, they are much more likely to make a purchase if they do interact with these digital assets — 73% of consumers who saw a digital photo or video on an eCommerce site made a purchase, according to Hubspot. What’s more, they don’t expect only to see this information on your eCommerce website or in physical stores — they also expect to see it on mobile apps, via social media pages like Pinterest, Instagram, or Twitter, and many other channels. That means you need professionals dedicated to managing these vital assets in the form of media managers. Empower them to centralize your product images, videos, user guides, and more, stored both internally and externally, in one place, and use Akeneo PIM to enrich that information to ensure it is presented in the proper context for the channel you’re selling on. This will allow you to enhance your customer experience with compelling images and videos and cause conversion rates to climb by as much as 400%.

Translation and localization teams 

When you’re selling products across borders, you need to speak the local language — and so much more. Research indicates that consumers worldwide are increasingly buying products from international merchants, thanks mainly to the ease of buying from anywhere in the world online. But while they’re more than happy to do business with merchants in other countries, they expect those sellers to speak their language and provide product information in the proper context for the market they’re in. That includes everything from translating product descriptions to converting measurements into local units, even updating product collections or digital assets to fit the norm of a new market. That’s where your translation and localization teams come in. By getting them on your PIM team, you can make sure product information is prepared for every market you sell in — and with Akeneo PIM, they’ll be able to work more quickly than ever, accelerating time-to-market and lowering enrichment costs along the way.

Catalog managers AKA Julias 

We’ve saved perhaps the most essential member of your championship-winning starting lineup for last — the marketers, product managers, and commerce teammates who are responsible for managing your product catalogs, or Julia as we call that persona here at Akeneo. When it comes to managing product information, your catalog management teammates are your MVPs. The product collections they create, curate, update, and manage are the basis of any good PIM system. Without this foundation of accurate, consistent, and compelling product information, your product enrichment efforts would likely never get off the ground. What does all of this mean for your PIM project? It means that the project should center around the needs of Julia, with other concerns such as migration, integration, and customization, falling behind. Ensuring that catalog managers are the focal point of your team is how Akeneo customers have seen massive returns on investment, including 500% reductions in enrichment costs, and more.

A deep bench

Of course, it isn’t just about the big stars and starting players. For a team to be genuinely great, every member of the organization has to commit to the game plan and find a way to contribute. The same is true when it comes to PIM. For a PIM project to truly be successful, you’ll need everyone involved with using the software, from leadership teams and IT heads, to catalog and media managers to the many, many other departments that will use information and resources created and enriched in your PIM. This can include development teams, manufacturing teams, external groups like suppliers, and everyone in between. So, make sure you don’t underestimate the change that you are going to impose on your entire organization. Using a new tool requires understanding a new process and establishing new habits. Ensure your team has the proper functional and technical training they need to fully understand how to use the PIM and understand the benefits of fully adopting it for catalog management. That way, your team can take home the top product information prize! Want to find more tips on using PIM to take your team to the next level? Discover how Akeneo PIM can help you create a great employee experience on our blog, or download our PXM for Dummies eBook!

Over these last few months, we have seen a great shift in online purchasing behavior, defined by the closing of brick and mortar stores, which has forced shoppers to rely more heavily on online shopping. This change in customer behavior requires companies of every shape and size to reconsider their business models and take a hard look at their omnichannel commerce capabilities. From engaging with eCommerce for the first time to bringing in-store items online and assessing online catalogs, both newbies and well-versed commerce businesses must take a hard look at how they sell. As a result, nearly every business is looking to reduce complexities that are often illuminated by relying more heavily on commerce. From the complexities surrounding sourcing, management, distribution, and business models, you may think there are just as many complex solutions. Luckily for all of us, there is a one-stop-shop solution to managing all types of complexity — Akeneo PIM! So how does PIM help you simplify the many complexities that can plague eCommerce? Allow us to explain…

1. Sourcing Complexity 

We have seen already an unprecedented rise in demand for products like cleaning supplies and PPE (Personalized Protective Equipment). Businesses that sell these products have been scrambling to onboard new suppliers and vendors that can produce products at the quick speed at which they are becoming relevant and irrelevant. This can create an issue for your business, however. Different vendors may categorize the same product in different ways, leading to challenges with establishing consistent product information and sorting criteria. With Akeneo PIM, you can mitigate the issues caused by inconsistent labeling and data from multiple vendors and sort through the technologies that each vendor employs, helping you determine the different language that vendors’ technologies are using for the same products.

2. Management Complexity  

As we mentioned, COVID-19’s impact on demand for PPE and cleaning supplies is unprecedented. For more context, in March of 2020 alone, the sales growth for aerosol disinfectants and multipurpose cleaners rose by 385% and 148% respectively. With such a large influx in demand, businesses are struggling to keep up due to their reliance on people and processes managed by person-to-person communication. Akeneo PIM allows you to optimize your workflow by moving away from outdated solutions and processes that are subject to human error. In their place, they leverage a business-wide governance model through a PIM that helps to validate data, establish a universal set of rules to govern products, and provides a dashboard to manage product performance.

3. Distribution Complexity  

An increase in both supply and demand will cause you to consider how and where you are disseminating information about your product data. It is crucial that you publish consistent, accurate, and relevant data through your channels, whether that be your own website, a 3^rd party marketplace, search engine, or otherwise. As you experience changes in supply and demand, there is a greater likelihood of errors with respect to inventory accuracy and product description as you add more items to your site. With a PIM, you can integrate your website and your marketplace, assuring that you have a central location to manage products efficiently. A PIM can also help you with data translation and copy. It is critical to assure that the copy you are putting out at a rapid rate is correct with respect to data, grammar, content, and sentence structure. Leaving all four of these variables to human error causes too great of a risk, digitizing these with a PIM eliminates worry, confusion, and backlog as your catalog fluctuates rapidly.

4. Business Model Complexity  

Shipping products from different places can lead to a great amount of complexity and human error. As your business grows due to your increased catalog size and demand, you may have to take a harder look at your business plan, and whether it is still working for your business. Your company needs may change, and quickly. Akeneo PIM can help you manage your logistics effectively at scale.

Manage eCommerce complexity with PIM

Complexity in your product catalog is inevitable. With a PIM acting as a master catalog or organizational tool for all your product information, it ensures a positive and consistent commerce experience for your customer. As you work through the upswings and downturns of demand, both reducing human error and boosting customer experience is more critical than ever. Akeneo’s PIM offering will help you orchestrate the acquisition, enrichment, and distribution of consistent assets, leading to a more efficient leveraging of data, and an improved overall business model. MRM Commerce is focused on end to end commerce, from commerce strategy and digital transformation to commerce visual and interaction design, Amazon/marketplace optimization, and commerce platform implementation for platforms such as Salesforce and Magento. We help brands grow meaningful relationships with people through commerce.

All these seasonal events and changes mean that brands and retailers need to work double-time to adapt their product catalogs and keep up with the changing seasons. After all, most consumers won’t be buying new backpacks in October, nor Halloween costumes in November, and most families get their holiday shopping done long before the New Year is rung in. That means you only have a precious few days to make your seasonal catalogs and promotions count. But making these seasonal changes in your product catalog isn’t as simple as flipping the calendar to the next month. It means onboarding new products from manufacturers and suppliers, adding new photos and other digital assets, and updating hundreds or thousands of SKUs on multiple sales channels in time for the new season, all without succumbing to errors and inaccuracies in your product information. Add it all up, and adapting your product catalog can be a monumental undertaking. Here are four keys that you can adopt to help make the holiday shopping season more successful for you, and deliver a better shopping experience to your customers.

Automate and adapt with ease

Adapting your product catalog for each new season can be a time-consuming and error-prone process. Manually managing photos, videos, and other digital product assets can quickly become a nightmare, but getting products to market on time is critical to meet shoppers’ expectations.  That means you need to rapidly update your assortment, and take advantage of anything you can use to help your product managers take control of your product catalog and adapt information on a timely basis. Akeneo PIM can help your team automate processes, easily model new categories, offer bulk editing, and centrally manage product data and digital assets like photos and videos. Just our customer Turner Price, a foodservice wholesaler that turned to Akeneo when it pivoted their business, modifying their product catalog with additional information required to facilitate selling directly to consumers in just one week.

Get more sales days

When it comes to seasonal sales, time is of the essence, and organizations can’t afford to miss their seasonal window. A long catalog enrichment process could doom your holiday sales plans if the catalog isn’t available during peak buying times. What your team needs is a way to help them significantly increase productivity and keep up with changing seasons — all without making careless errors or providing inaccurate product information to customers. Akeneo PIM can help foster collaboration across the teams involved in onboarding new products, streamline the catalog update process, eliminate errors, and inconsistencies in product information. It can also help ensure that any updates made within the system are distributed to all of the appropriate channels. Akeneo customer Petra, for instance, has already seen the benefit of using PIM to accelerate time-to-market.

Communicate with customers

Accelerating your time-to-market can also help you make sure customers can rest assured any gifts they purchase will arrive by Christmas, Hanukkah, a birthday, or any other special occasion. But around the holiday season, customers could always use some extra reassurance before they complete their purchase. The key is keeping your customers informed and aware of what’s happening with their purchase. That way, their expectations stay realistic, and your relationship with them remains intact. Keep your customers in the know by trusting Akeneo PIM as part of your buy online pick-up in-store offer, just like Akeneo customer Rural King. By efficiently collecting and enriching the right product data to support the program, the company’s BOPIS program increased online sales and in-store foot traffic.

Broadcast your values

Modern shoppers don’t just want to know about your brand’s products, and when they can expect them to arrive — they also want to know your values. In recent years, brand values have emerged as an important buying criterion. Buyers and shoppers want to know where products are made, are they ethically produced or sourced, sustainable, cruelty-free, and so on. Let them know what you stand for by easily and efficiently adding new attributes and rewriting descriptions in one central system and rapidly populating them to all sales channels in context. Akeneo customers like Made.com, for instance, have attracted attention and acclaim for using PIM to make information about brand values the centerpiece of their brand strategy. Improving product enrichment and management processes can benefit every part of your business, from your team to your customers, and even your bottom line. Try out these tips to make sure your team is ready to conquer the Christmas rush, beat the summer heat, get back to school, and bloom with spring flowers.

Check out more insights and recommendations from new Akeneo research in our Akeneo Global B2B Survey 2020: 5 Takeaways on the Rising Importance of Product Experience eBook, or learn from Akeneo success stories by checking out some customer stories!

It’s with deep regret that I inform you of our decision to cancel the 2021 edition of our Akeneo PIM Summit (APS) in Paris, France. APS is a much-anticipated and highly energizing event for Akeneo, our customers, and our partner ecosystem, and we will greatly miss our annual gathering. However, in these uncertain times, we must put the safety of our employees, customers, and partners first. Given the unpredictable evolution of the COVID-19 situation, we do not want to take any unnecessary risks. We are looking at ways to keep our APS spirit alive throughout 2021 without our in-person reunion and welcome your input. Feel free to email us your ideas and suggestions at [email protected].  In the meantime, make sure you ask your Akeneo Customer Success Manager or Partner Manager about the recently launched PXM Pioneers Program! We are more eager than ever to build up a dynamic community, continue our conversations, encourage peer networking, and share best practices. Our community is strong, and don’t forget we’re here to support each other! I wish all the best to you, your teams, and your families. Keep well and stay the course! Best Regards, Fred de Gombert, CEO

While it may not be managed by human resources, your website is your hardest-working employee. It’s always on, always available, and often the chance any customer has to interact with your business — and we all know the value of a good first impression. In recent years, online selling platforms have become more popular with sellers and customers alike, making it easier than ever to start selling online. But designing and developing an eCommerce store that performs well and properly reflects your brand can be difficult.

“Proper planning prevents poor performance.” 

We’ve all heard the saying before, but it rings especially true when it comes to web design. Before embarking on any website project, set the tone for your team. Ask yourself what kind of site you want to have, who your audience is, and what you want your site to accomplish. These simple questions will act as a great starting point, and help make important decisions about your website such as what platform you will use and your site’s information architecture. These decisions are crucial to your success in the eCommerce landscape — so how can you be sure you’re avoiding the pitfalls and bad decisions that lead to disaster? Never fear — through the years, we at American Eagle have encountered many eCommerce website mishaps, both large and small. Take a look at some of the lessons we’ve learned along the way, and discover how to avoid these 7 Deadly Sins of eCommerce Site Design.

1. Not spending enough time planning the site

A successful eCommerce venture requires you to manage several new responsibilities, from product information to shipping providers and even site search. Decide early on what you want your site to do, and make sure you set aside more than enough time for planning. By setting measurable goals and tracking progress along the way you can ensure your site is successful.

2. Putting design ahead of functionality

An aesthetically pleasing site is certainly important, but too many companies place design ahead of usability. Web design is both art and science, meaning functionality is just as important as the look and feel of a website. A great eCommerce website should be navigable, your products should be easy to find, and it should be easy for customers to checkout and find support. Don’t make the mistake of muddying up your site with unnecessary animations and flashy graphics. Instead, give your customers what they want: features to extend your site’s functionality such as advanced search, live chat, and user-generated reviews.

3. Out-of-date product information

While it seems obvious, you may be surprised how many companies bring over old information during a redesign. If your company has made changes to its product catalog or other aspects of its business, it’s worth taking a deeper look at the content to make sure it’s all up to date. Outdated or inaccurate information can steer customers in the wrong direction and reflects poorly on your entire company.

4. Information overload

Be wary of providing too much information — it’s better to be concise and to the point with your content. When a customer shows up to a wall of text on your website, they will often become overwhelmed and avoid reading it. Make sure the information that you need to include is easy to read and well organized. Break up text by using content headers, and be sure to include digital assets like images and videos to give your customers a better product experience.

5. Ignoring mobile users

Mobile isn’t the future, it’s ‘now.’ Mobile web usage has already outpaced desktop usage and if shoppers can’t easily purchase through their smartphones, you could be turning away more than half of your customers. Moreover, search engines like Google tend to rank sites higher if they’re mobile friendly. Design with a mobile-first approach and make sure your site is responsive to ensure it works on all devices.

6. Not tracking analytics

Going through a redesign or new website build takes time, money, and energy. Make sure you are getting a return on your investment by tracking your progress. From Google analytics to more sophisticated analytics platforms, you can get a wealth of information on your customers and what pushes them to purchase. What you end up measuring depends on your own goals but some important data points for eCommerce sites are:

• Conversions
• Average Order Value
• Page Views
• Traffic Source
• Bounce Rate

7. Going it alone

When reimagining your eCommerce presence, remember that you don’t need to go at it alone. Partner with an experienced agency that has a proven track record of success. If you’re in the market for a new website, the strategic advisors at AmericanEagle.com can help. Feel free to contact us to see what we can do for you!

Welcome to the final edition of the summer Ziggy Customer Campfire Series! We’re headed to Germany to visit SLV, a company with a strong reputation for developing, producing, and marketing high-quality and future-proof lighting solutions. As SLV went through a digital transformation, the company realized it needed to modernize and centralize its time-consuming and resource-intensive data sharing process, which relied heavily on Excel sheets. They switched on Akeneo PIM, went live in only 3 months and quickly saw results: team members trained in a few hours, and enrichment and translation effort dropped by 80% Watch the video below to hear Oliver Kleinjans, Team Leader, Sales Master Data Center for SLV, explain how SLV uses Akeneo PIM to make their products shine!

At Akeneo, we’ve long been evangelists for Product Experience Management (PXM), so we were thrilled to see Gartner recognize the movement in a detailed new report entitled Evolve From Product Information Management to Product Experience Management With a 360-Degree Analytics Strategy (Gartner subscription required). “Organizations need to evolve from product information management to product experience management,” writes director analyst Simon Walker in the report. “In doing so, data and analytics leaders will unlock greater business value through their programs by connecting product information to product analytics to optimize product experiences for customers.” We couldn’t agree more — and we were thrilled to see Akeneo named in the report as an example PIM vendor. The report explains, “Packaged solutions for PIM provide marketing, commerce and product teams with the ability to create, maintain and draw on a single, trusted and shareable version of rich product content and digital assets for the purposes of multichannel marketing and unified commerce.” Online merchants have always made an effort to manage product information, including product dimensions, descriptions, and assets such as pictures. But with the advent of PXM, they’re managing how customers consume that information. By fine-tuning every detail, brands can offer not just consistent product information, but a delightful online experience that delivers accurate information while also building loyalty and engagement. Gartner states that the Product 360 is “a 360-degree view of products connects all trusted product data assets in order to fulfill specific channel requirements.” When someone in Tokyo searches for a machine part, for instance, a well-optimized PXM platform delivers not just a generic list of product information, but a tailored experience: a Japanese-language product description that aligns with the customer’s specific pain points, perhaps, along with videos or interactive tools that perfectly illustrate the product in an appropriate setting. In other words, where PIM optimizes information, PXM leverages that information to put the customer at the center of the product discovery and sales process. By integrating information from disparate data sources, a robust PXM solution can help brands communicate about their products online in rich, compelling, and consistent ways, without constant intervention or oversight from marketers and sales teams. PXM tools can also incorporate customer-behavior data to further refine the product experience, allowing brands to ensure they delight customers at every possible touchpoint. That’s crucial in the B2B setting: a recent Akeneo survey found that 56% of B2B professionals view PXM as the key to boosting sales, and 45% believe they could increase their prices if they optimized their customer experience. While B2B brands recognize the power of customer experience, though, many are still struggling to achieve results, with more than half saying they lack dedicated PIM and PXM capabilities. The tools and best practices needed for success already exist, and companies like Akeneo are ready to help brands build out the PXM solutions they need. So check out Gartner’s report for specific recommendations and insights about what PXM can do for your brand. And, when you’re ready to unlock your full potential, get in touch with Akeneo. Gartner “Evolve From Product Information Management to Product Experience Management With a 360-Degree Analytics Strategy,” Simon Walker, 5 May 2020