When we teamed up with our friends at Akeneo last month to begin planning our upcoming webinar, Expanding Across Borders, we had no idea how quickly and dramatically the world would change in the few weeks that would follow. Now that everyone has settled into their “new normal,” we’re excited to offer an opportunity for people to come together (virtually, of course) to learn about the latest trends and insights around cross-border commerce from our expert panelist, Ulla Weinigel Bergvall, Customer Service Director at Pierce AB. Personally, my new routine has included exploring the full discographies of some of my favorite bands as I work from home. This week, I’m diving into Led Zeppelin, one of the most famous British rock bands of all time. The title of the first song on their debut album, “Good Times Bad Times,” got me thinking about where we’ve found ourselves in this moment in history, how we ended up here, and, ultimately, what we’re going to do about it.

A Little Historical Perspective

When you look back in history, there have been plenty of ups and downs. Take just the last 100 years for example—we’ve seen a lot of good times (major medical advancements, a man on the moon, the Internet) and plenty of bad times, as well (two world wars, the Great Depression, major natural disasters). While we’re certainly living through an extraordinary time right now, I find some comfort in knowing that we’ve persevered through worse in the past. Much worse, in fact. The year that comes to mind specifically is 536 CE: “A cataclysmic volcanic eruption in Iceland spewed ash across the Northern Hemisphere early in 536. Two other massive eruptions followed, in 540 and 547…A mysterious fog plunged Europe, the Middle East, and parts of Asia into darkness, day and night—for 18 months…Snow fell that summer in China; crops failed; people starved. The Irish chronicles record ‘a failure of bread from the years 536–539.’ Then, in 541, bubonic plague struck the Roman port of Pelusium, in Egypt. What came to be called the Plague of Justinian spread rapidly, wiping out one-third to one-half of the population of the eastern Roman Empire and hastening its collapse.” Suddenly being forced to stay home, order takeout, and binge entire seasons of old TV shows doesn’t seem so bad! Fast forward to today and it’s clear we have much to be grateful for, even in this new age of worry and uncertainty: namely, a digitally connected world that gives us the ability to not just work and socialize from home but also coordinate a rapid response to the current challenge and fight back hard against this virus in a way that has never before been possible. As for businesses, there are many examples of companies successfully navigating tough times throughout history (DuPont, Hewlett Packard, Nokia, Berkshire Hathaway, and Apple, to name just a few). When we look at these companies, one thing becomes clear: Adaptability is key to businesses succeeding under any circumstances.

How PIM + Translation Management Systems Can Help You Adapt

The popularity of PIMs continues to increase, as they are quickly becoming the main repository for brands to store their content. Additionally, new technology innovations are giving a growing group of consumers and companies alike access to the Internet and pushing commerce forward. It’s clear that cross-border commerce is a trend that is likely to increase in the coming years. However, some challenges stand in the way. The adaptation and translation of written product descriptions, product measurements and data, multimedia assets, and other pieces of product information is often a time-consuming, labor-intensive, and resource-heavy process, one that is frequently fraught with potential pitfalls and errors that could spell disaster for even the most well-considered cross-border expansion plans. From simple language translation and unit conversion to more precise localization and even complying with the local rules and regulations, these roadblocks can slow down expansion efforts or cause brands and retailers to struggle in new markets. This is what makes it imperative to ensure that product information is comprehensive, relevant, and accessible—and why expanding businesses would be wise to invest in PIM. By using a robust PIM solution and automated translation features, these processes can be made easier, more efficient, and more profitable for companies that do decide to take on the cross-border challenges. PIM solutions have helped many companies like yours become cross-border success stories and cut down time-to-market by as much as 300 percent, boost sales by 400 percent, and reduce returns, all while making your marketers more productive. Great challenges present us with great opportunities, and Translations.com and Akeneo are here to help your business navigate, adapt, and succeed. Join us on June 4th for our Expanding Across Borders webinar, download a free copy of our latest joint-white paper, or reach out to us directly at [email protected].

About Translations.com

Translations.com is the world’s largest provider of enterprise localization services and technology solutions. From offices in over 100 cities on six continents, Translations.com offers a full range of services in 170+ languages to clients worldwide. More than 5,000 global organizations employ Translations.com’s GlobalLink® Product Suite to simplify the management of multilingual content. Translations.com is part of the TransPerfect family of companies, with global headquarters in New York and regional headquarters in London and Hong Kong. For more information, please visit www.translations.com.

Of course, they knew they would need a product information management (PIM) solution if they wanted to take home this checkered flag. But it couldn’t be just any system — Norauto required an easy-to-use solution that was capable of rapidly accelerating time-to-market, organizing digital assets alongside product data, and creating an authoritative catalog that business units and product managers could consult without having to contact a supplier each time they needed product information. So, they turned to Akeneo PIM. Check out the video below as Jeoffrey Depinoy, Product Owner at Norauto explains how and why Norauto chose Akeneo PIM to deliver a cost-effective, easy to use solution for their global business and brands. He also offers insight into how PIM helped boost productivity, ease team collaboration, and increase efficiency. https://youtu.be/hRigh4kaFMU

Well, we’ve got just the thing! Check out our new collection of #ZiggytheHydra inspired virtual backgrounds to add some spice and excitement to your next video call. Maybe you want your friends, family, or coworkers to see you rocking out with Ziggy at a heavy metal concert. Or you want to bring a fresh new perspective with a view of you working at the beach, in a garden, while shopping in a store, or – for the ultimate in social distancing, even from deep in outer space. No matter what you’re looking for, these backgrounds are sure to help make your next video meeting an experience no one will want to miss! Grab your chance to take you and your meeting-mates on an adventure! Download our set of virtual background images below and share your favorites using the hashtag #ZiggyTheHydra!

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Et bien, nous avons la réponse ! Découvrez notre nouvelle collection d’arrières-plans inspirés de #ZiggytheHydra pour ajouter une touche épicée et fun à votre prochaine conférence vidéo. Vous souhaitez peut être que vos amis, famille ou collègues de travail vous voient danser lors d’un concert de heavy-metal,  vous prélasser sur la plage ou dans un jardin ou simplement faire du shopping dans un magasin accompagné de Ziggy. Voire pour le summum de la distanciation sociale, vous pourrez assister à votre web-conférence depuis l’espace ! Quelques que soient vos envies, ces arrières-plans vont bien entendu vous aider à faire de votre prochaine conférence vidéo une expérience à ne pas manquer  ! Transportez vous (ou vos collègues) dans une nouvelle aventure! Téléchargez notre gamme d’arrières-plans en cliquant ci-dessous et partagez vos coups de coeur en utilisant le hashtag #ZiggytheHydra !

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The company suffered from inefficient product data enrichment processes that slowed time to market and hindered their catalog and market expansion plans. But soon after implementing Akeneo PIM, MelchioniReady had solved its product information problems with the aid of open-source integrations, an easy-to-understand user interface, and features designed to make it easier to expand to new channels and locales. So how did Akeneo PIM help this eCommerce get ready to scale their business with ease? Check out the video below, as Fabrizio Miccoli, Data Governance Manager at MelchioniReady and Marco Giorgetti, Account Manager at MageSpecialist, explain why they were looking for a Product Information boost and how Akeneo PIM helped them to fuel rapid growth, expand across borders and channels, reinforce their partnership, and pave the way to success with Akeneo’s integration. They also share their tips and tricks for a great PIM implementation.

But it’s not just the panic-buying of items like toilet paper, hand sanitizer, and pasta that have impacted consumer behaviors. The elimination of in-restaurant dining, closing of nonessential businesses, and emphasis on staying home to stop the spread of the coronavirus have all brought on changes in a wide range of industries and sectors. And while some things may return to normal once the restrictions have been lifted, consumer behavior is a fickle beast, and will not snap back to pre-isolation norms so quickly. So, with that in mind, here are some observations about how certain retail sectors are faring and what they might expect to experience as the pandemic subsides.

Grocery: omnichannel in action

Now As consumers contend with confinement rules and the reality of reduced store hours, many are embracing digital ordering options. The share of consumers saying they shop online for groceries has grown from 11% of those surveyed before the pandemic to 37% now. Instacart, the biggest independent grocery-delivery service, saw a surge by roughly 150% in digital order volume. Digital ordering has picked up so much that Amazon-owned Whole Foods is struggling to keep up with demand for online grocery sales, while national chains like Walmart have expanded hours for pickup and delivery in response to increased consumer interest in online orders. The Future When the current lockdown eventually subsides, many experts believe consumers will return to in-store shopping, but online grocery shopping will also become a fixture for many consumers. Both in-store and online, grocers need to prepare for this new reality. Akeneo customer Franprix, for example, launched an app designed to make it easier for customers to buy groceries from the comfort of their own home. Part of US grocery giant Kroger’s push to omnichannel selling, which includes mobile ordering, grocery pickup, and delivery programs, has shown impressive growth rates since they launched well in advance of the current pandemic.

Restaurants: catering without points of sale 

Now Restaurants have seen serious changes in the wake of social distancing and self-isolation. Virtually all have been forced to close their doors, only able to offer delivery and takeout service. Online delivery services have also been stepping up their offerings in order to help fill the gap.  UberEats recently introduced an expanded offering of delivery options to provide on-demand and scheduled “last-mile” delivery solutions for a wider variety of businesses during the pandemic. The Future While services like DoorDash, Grubhub, and many more have popularized online takeout and delivery orders, the impact on the industry in recent weeks has been tangible — and likely won’t be going away any time soon. Restaurant owners are already preparing for what is expected to be a new normal — a future filled with an increased omnichannel presence, ranging from reservations-only scenarios, to digital menus designed to “sell” meals via expanded mobile and online ordering and delivery options.

Live Events: going virtual

Now If you were planning a road trip to follow your favorite team or scheduling your summer music festival of epic proportions only to see your plans go up in smoke, you weren’t alone. Trade associations and businesses have canceled conferences, musicians have canceled tours, professional sports leagues have canceled and postponed games, and movie theatres have gone dark as consumers have no choice but to stay home. The Future The future of live events remains in doubt. Some live event companies, like Akeneo customer Adam Hall, have pivoted to virtual events hosted in online environments in order to fill demand during the pandemic. Others, including Akeneo customer 365Tickets, have pivoted their business models to offer new services based on their proven technology stack, helping strengthen and grow their business both now and into the future.

Apparel & Footwear: fitting with evolving customer demand

Now While many retailers like Nordstrom and others have already embraced digital transformation, the closing of stores has still had big impacts on fashion retailers. Many sellers have been offering big discounts, free delivery, and extended return policies in recent weeks as they look to reach consumers who are no longer buying new clothes for work, weddings, or any other public appearance, while others, particularly online sellers, are seeing a surge in digital orders thanks to interactive and immersive experiences. The Future While industry analysts expect consumer spending on apparel and footwear to rebound following the pandemic, digital transformation will accelerate in the near future. Retailers who lag behind the curve will suffer as consumers continue to shop online for “non-essential” items. As a result, brand experience will become a key differentiator in the industry as fashion and apparel companies work to further offer more advanced digital experiences according to Vogue Business. This could also lead to a rush to deliver more detailed product information and expand product assortments which demands a search for new suppliers, as was the case with Akeneo customer Kurt Geiger.

Assortments, the supply chain, and the need for efficiency

Virtually all retail sellers are seeing massive changes as a result of the current pandemic. Organizations across the entire commerce landscape have been forced to deal with new challenges and implement novel practices in order to stay in business during these unprecedented times. So what does all of this mean for your organization?

• It means that you need to be able to sell without brick-and-mortar locations or physical points of sale today, and get ready now to accelerate your omnichannel initiatives.
• It means you need to adapt your offering to shifting demand today and prepare for new consumer priorities and values, including a growing appetite for local businesses and more local supply chains.
• It means you need to modify your internal structure to suit the needs of remote workers and distributed teams, both today and into the future
• As organizations try to survive in the short term and prepare for growth in the future, an increased and urgent focus on cost reduction and rapid ROI across the board.

That may all seem pretty daunting, but there is good news — Akeneo PIM is here to help. With Akeneo’s robust, industry-leading Product Information Management SaaS solution, you can:

• Easily adapt your product assortment to keep up with changing demand
• Rapidly onboard product information from new suppliers for existing or new items
• Expand to new channels and locales
• Increase catalog management efficiency and time to market

Best of all, this can be accomplished while cutting costs and delivering a rapid ROI. Take your catalog management processes to the next level with PIM! Learn how Akeneo can help you expand to new channels and create great digital experiences with ease. Download our free eBook PXM for Dummies to learn more about PIM and PXM, or contact Akeneo today. 

But implementing any new software solution in your organization can come with challenges or difficulties and PIM is no different — that’s why Akeneo employs a team of PIM experts as consultants, ready to solve any problem and answer any questions that arise during the PIM implementation process, with the ultimate goal of ensuring your PIM helps realize better business results and rapid ROI. In the latest edition of the PXM Pioneers’ Pulpit, host Brendan Murray caught up with a pair of Akeneo functional consultants, Adam Beatty and Brad Johnson, to offer insights they’ve gained during dozens of customer implementation and training sessions. Miss the live taping? No problem! We’ve compiled a few of Adam and Brad’s best tips and tricks in this blog, so read on to learn how to make your PIM project a success, and find our full discussion in the video below.

The key to successful implementation? Preparation, preparation, preparation

So you’ve picked Akeneo PIM to help you create compelling product experiences using a foundation of accurate and comprehensive product information — now what? How do you make sure your new solution is implemented without major difficulty? According to Adam and Brad, it’s all about preparation. “I think one the most important things that, surprisingly, gets overlooked, is the amount of work that needs to happen before we get data into a PIM,” Brad noted. “I often tell people that I can teach you Akeneo and the UI in an hour and a half. It’s all of the other work, making your data nice and neat before we get it into the PIM…so we can be confident in that data.” Adam also preached preparation, imploring new Akeneo customers not to forget to clearly outline the objectives for a PIM project before they go live. “The key is to have a strategy,” he said. “It sounds kind of obvious but…it’s important to have a strategy and understand exactly what you’re trying to accomplish. Are you trying to get a faster time-to-market for new products? Are you trying to implement data governance? Are you trying to improve SEO? Do you want to support future expansion? It’s crucial that you understand those goals and have a strategy to work toward them.”

Common challenges — and how to conquer them

Our pair of Akeneo experts also helped identify challenges that new PIM users frequently face. One of the biggest issues? Not truly understanding the scope of a PIM project and the different members of your team that need to be engaged in order to make it a success. Specifically, Adam said, PIM users need to make sure they have Julia on board. “Julia” is Akeneo’s stand-in for the catalog managers responsible for maintaining product information for a company — and without them, your PIM project may never get off the ground. “Sometimes, projects are driven largely by the IT team, but the people that can really fix and model the data appropriately are what we at Akeneo call ‘Julia’ — those product content marketers…the people who really have an intimate knowledge of the product,” Adam said. “Those are the people that really need to be involved in this process of cleaning a data model, improving a data model…You need to take that time as a business to understand how you want to structure it, and you really need to make sure you have those experts involved in the process.” Brad said that having those all-important product content experts working with Akeneo is a key ingredient for a prosperous PIM project. “It really helps to understand how Julia works because that’s really the problem at the end of the day,” Brad said. “So having all your Julias there is really key so we can work with them to make their lives a little better.”

The critical need for communication

No matter what challenges arise, Adam and Brad said that the biggest thing PIM users should keep in mind is that it requires a wide range of voices and efforts in order to go live successfully. That means it’s crucial to make sure all members of the organization are on-board with PIM. “It’s really important to remember that an Akeneo project is a collaboration,” Adam said. “It’s very cross-functional and impacts many different players across an enterprise. So, make sure that everyone is working together and understands the overall objectives, and make sure there’s a stakeholder to hold everyone accountable and make sure the project succeeds.” But how can you get all these different members of your team on-board? Brad said that the companies that find the most success with PIM are those that make sure everyone has a seat at the table. “I think it’s really important to have decision-makers from different parts of your organization,” he said. “We’re going to be making decisions about how the data is, about what it looks like in Akeneo, and if we don’t have those people there…it drags the process out…so having the right decision-makers about the products there is really important.” Want more insights and best practices from Brad and Adam? Check out the full video below! Or, if you’re hungry for more information on the sweet science of Product Experience Management, check out our eBook, PXM for Dummies!

But the biggest advantage? It might just be replacing your office’s typical soundtrack of overheard conference calls, water-cooler chatter, and the clacking of neighbors’ keyboards with your own favorite songs to help pass the time. And if you’re looking for some new tunes for your self-isolation soundtrack, we have just the thing: the Akenehome Spotify playlist! This playlist is the ultimate quarantine companion — it comes fully stocked with more than 100 songs featuring artists and song titles inspired by the current pandemic. Each track was suggested by different members of the Akeneo team, and the playlist includes a range of genres, from classic rock to hip hop to oldies and everything in between. So turn on, tune in, and dance to your favorite songs on the Akenehome playlist! While you’re at it, share your songs with the Akeneo PIM community on LinkedIn and Twitter with the hashtag #Akenehome, and see which tunes are the community’s favorites!

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Omnichannel is a buzzword that really has a different meaning for everybody.  But what does the term mean to your organization? To some, it is lumped in with other trendy terms like “digital transformation.”  However, after we get past the buzzword bingo and take a closer look, there are often some key areas that are being left behind in this race. It is amazing how many conferences, webinars, and industry experts spend 100% of their omnichannel sessions speaking about entirely online touchpoints.  While these digital channels are incredibly important, even essential for a modern organization, these discussions often cast aside or ignore the “omni” part of omnichannel entirely.  It is easy in the age of digital transformation and eCommerce to forget about some of the less obvious areas where there has been little to no innovation or automation over the last 15 years. One of these areas of potentially huge, but oft-ignored, ROI is publishing, which can affect both the generation of top-line revenue as well as bottom-line cost savings.  Using the clean and consistent data provided by Akeneo PIM, modern publishing platforms can enable your organization to excel at delivering superior and truly omnichannel experiences. In today’s world, publishing goes well beyond the traditional paper catalog or product brochure —  though those publications remain more important and relevant than many give them credit for. These publications are still an ideal platform for new product discovery and introduction, but in most instances, the processes used to create these are archaic at best. We are constantly amazed — though not always positively — at some of the things we hear from organizations across the spectrum of verticals and of different sizes.  Unbelievable as it may be, there are companies that spend 12-18 months working to produce a single publication. Most of the layouts we see are still done manually via copy and paste and Excel exports — then, by the time the publication is ready to go to print, much of the information is out of date, once again lengthening the process further as more revisions are made. Even purely “digital” publications seem to follow these patterns.  For instance, the prototypical PDF datasheet downloadable from many websites and webshops often follows a similar process, no matter who produces it.  Whenever a new product is released or updates are made, an employee must get a data export from IT, manually open up Adobe InDesign, make the change, send for proofreading and approval, generate the PDF, and finally someday publish it to the website. These are just a few examples of the many scenarios that we encounter frequently. Publishing and other offline touchpoints have been largely ignored thus far in the digital transformation initiatives of most marketing departments.  The ideas of segmentation, personalization, A/B testing, AI, etc. remain out of reach of the publishing world to this point. However, a new generation of tools is now available, including tools that offer layout automation, headless publishing, personalization, and more. Rather than furthering the narrative that offline is dead or dying, these tools enable the marketer to deliver a true omnichannel experience.  They also have the ability to show very robust ROI from your Akeneo PIM system. Imagine producing a catalog, complete with published data sheets and other associated printed or digital material, 80% more efficiently in terms of time and cost. What if you were able to produce ten 200 page variations of a catalog for various segments versus one 1000 page monolithic catalog for all?  This ROI comes from both a better-targeted publication and then you would also save the 800 pages in printing costs. As an added benefit the time gap between online and offline narrows significantly.  Suddenly these publications go from being a legacy necessity to a strategic capability. Creative marketers and agency partners transition from being copy and paste editors to true strategic marketing. Marketing automation platforms are now able to easily incorporate these capabilities into your campaign planning.  And, because clean and consistent data is needed for this level of automation, your PIM serves as the foundation for all of this automation and capability. Whether you are assessing what a PIM may be able to do for your organization, are in the process of implementing, or looking to take better advantage of the system you have up and running, be sure to take a look at how you are leveraging the information that is in the PIM, and whether there may be a large hidden cost that can be reduced or market opportunity to take advantage of.  Product and Content Management for the sake of data organization has some inherent value, but the organizations that will succeed the most are the ones who excel at not just managing their content but better leveraging it. While digital channels and outputs often drive the initial push for a PIM solution, there is often very large ROI that remains obtainable by modernizing some critical but legacy processes as well. Jonathan Dropiewski is President/CEO of priint Americas, developers of print:Suite, the leading Global Platform for Publishing Automation and Personalization.  www.priint.com

It’s a new profession. It’s the foundation of your customer experience. It’s the subtle science of delivering product information in context, adapted and scoped by channel and locale to match the buying experience at every touchpoint. It’s the ability to provide the right data and insight for every customer, and on every channel. It’s all of this, and much, much more. To help offer a better understanding of what PXM is and what it means for your company, Akeneo’s PXM evangelist, Virginie Blot, recently joined the Alpine Consulting Podcast Series, where she shared her experience helping hundreds of clients manage their product data, and offered tips and tricks to help you master PXM. Listen now to learn: 

• Exactly what PXM is, and how you can use it in your business
• PXM use cases and success stories
• Best practices and tips for managing product information and product experience

 MASTER PRODUCT EXPERIENCE MANAGEMENT