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

In this week’s edition of the Ziggy Customer Campfire Series, we’re calling up our friends in Italy to relay the story of smartphone accessories seller SBS Mobile. Smartphone and tablet technology is constantly being updated and improved upon, forcing accessories providers to move quickly and offer an extensive range of products to remain competitive. So, in search of a solution to their increasingly complex product catalog, SBS Mobile decided to implement Akeneo PIM — and was quickly glad they did! SBS Mobile was able to take control of product information by instituting a single source of truth for product data management and enrichment, accelerating time-to-market while increasing product data quality and easing expansion to new territories. Watch the video below and discover how SBS Mobile used Akeneo PIM to conquer product data complexity, unite their IT and Marketing teams, and grow their business. https://youtu.be/fwYJ_Vxmexs

In this week’s edition of the Customer Campfire Series, Ziggy heads to South Africa to hear the tale of omnichannel retailer JD Group, a company with a simple mission statement: Bring quality, durable goods to customers at a fair price. In their pursuit of this goal, the company had built a massive catalog filled with thousands of different furniture, appliances, and consumer electronic products. But this massive product catalog was becoming a challenge for the company to manage. With JD Group’s scattered and siloed product information, the many different sales channels and merchandising teams across the company yearned for a centralized authoritative source of product information. Check out the video below to discover how JD Group took advantage of Akeneo PIM’s out-of-the-box functionality – and its flexibility to support their specific requirements — which enabled them to slash time-to-market from 6 days to 6 hours, boost productivity, and deliver a great product experience! https://youtu.be/ogix9dKrqYU

That includes everyone’s favorite three-headed hydra, Ziggy! She’s gathering the Akeneo PIM community around the campfire to share stories of scary product information problems and heroic PIM solutions, featuring the Akeneo customers that lived to tell the tale, as part of the new Customer Campfire Series! In our first campfire fable, we travel to Omaha, Nebraska, to hear the story of Midland Scientific. The company has staked out a reputation in the scientific community, growing to become a leading distributor and seller of scientific and laboratory equipment. With over 400,000 products for sale, Midland needed a fast and cost-effective way to manage the diverse and complex product information demands of its growing catalog. Watch the video to hear Rodrigo Neves, Technology Officer at Midland Scientific, as he explains how Akeneo PIM helps Midland Scientific manage a diverse and highly technical catalog, increase productivity, and provide a compelling product experience — all while cutting enrichment costs from $5/SKU to $1/SKU. https://youtu.be/biEZ2g7XwIo