Every click, every purchase, every interaction; today’s world generates an incredible amount of data at every moment. From the algorithms that personalize your social media feed to the systems that keep global supply chains moving, data is at the heart of it all.

But all that data doesn’t organize itself. Without a clear structure, it can quickly become messy, inconsistent, and impossible to use effectively. That’s where data modeling comes in. Think of it as creating a blueprint that turns raw information into something meaningful, or a guide that helps everyone in your business understand, manage, and make the most of your data.

What is Data Modeling?

Data modeling serves as a blueprint for how data is structured and how it interacts within a larger system. It involves creating a visual representation, often called a data model, that illustrates the flow and processing of data, which is crucial for organizing and standardizing data and ensuring it can be effectively understood and utilized across various applications and teams.

Why is Data Modeling Important?

Data models play a pivotal role in bridging the gap between complex data systems and human understanding. By offering a simplified representation of data interactions, data models facilitate better communication among stakeholders, developers, and analysts. This common language ensures that everyone involved in a project is aligned on data usage and processes.

Without a robust data model, managing data can become cumbersome and prone to errors. Data modeling provides a clear framework for data storage, retrieval, and utilization. This structured approach minimizes the risk of data inconsistencies and inefficiencies, ultimately leading to more reliable data management practices.

Data modeling has evolved significantly over the years, adapting to the changing needs of businesses and technological advancements. From traditional relational models to modern NoSQL and big data models, data modeling practices continue to innovate, offering new ways to handle ever-growing data volumes and complexities.

Types of Data Models

Data models can be classified into three primary types: flat, hierarchical, and flexible. Each type serves a distinct purpose and offers varying levels of detail and abstraction.

Flat Data Models

A flat data model is the simplest way to structure your product data; imagine a basic spreadsheet where each row represents a product and each column holds an attribute (like name, price, description). This approach is easy to understand, quick to set up, and integrates well with systems that expect data in straightforward, tabular formats. There are no complex relationships or dependencies to manage, which can make it appealing if you’re just starting out or working with systems that don’t require a lot of nuance in the data.

However, the simplicity comes at a cost. Flat models tend to create redundant data because there’s no way to reuse information across multiple products or categories. They also don’t scale well. As your catalog grows, maintaining consistency becomes difficult, and making changes becomes cumbersome. If you’re managing products across multiple channels or needing to reflect more sophisticated relationships between items, a flat model can quickly become a headache.

Hierarchical Data Models

A hierarchical data model organizes product information more like a family tree. At the top, you have broad categories, which branch down into more specific categories, and finally to individual products. This structure allows attributes and rules to cascade down. For example, if you assign a “material” attribute to a category like “shirts,” all shirts beneath that category inherit the material property by default. This can save time and help maintain consistency across your catalog.

This model is especially useful for businesses that already have a well-defined taxonomy or need to align closely with systems like ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) platforms, which often operate hierarchically. But it does introduce complexity. Setting up and maintaining a hierarchy can be challenging for admins, and navigating it can feel rigid for end users. It can also make it harder to adapt quickly to new business needs, and over-reliance on the hierarchy might limit flexibility in sales and supplier operations.

Flexible Data Models

A flexible data model combines the best aspects of both flat and hierarchical models while minimizing their downsides. It gives you the governance and consistency of a hierarchical structure, ensuring data integrity and compliance, but also the agility of a flat model to adapt and organize information based on business needs. This hybrid approach allows businesses to store all the attributes, relationships, and context required to create compelling product experiences and drive customer behavior, making this data usable for business teams, not just IT.

With a flexible model, you don’t have to sacrifice control for speed. IT teams still get the integration and stability they need, while business users can move quickly, making changes and tailoring product information to meet market demands without waiting for technical support. This harmony between governance and agility empowers everyone, ensuring product data stays reliable, scalable, and impactful.

If there’s one thing we love at Akeneo, it’s diversity. With teams based across the globe, we know firsthand the power of different perspectives. And we wouldn’t be who we are without our incredible customers who reflect our attitude, being trailblazers not just in their industries, but in their regions too!

That’s why we’re proud to spotlight the winners of our 2025 PXM Champion Global Award, an annual recognition of brands that have mastered the art of scaling internationally through smart, strategic product information management. This year, Triumph Motorcycles, Igus, and Tiffany & Co. impressed us with how they leveraged Akeneo to overcome complexity, streamline global operations, and create consistent, high-quality product experiences worldwide.

These brands are clear leaders in internal transformation and operational excellence. Faced with rising customer expectations and growing pressure to move faster, they made a bold, strategic move to optimize their product operations with Akeneo Product Cloud. In doing so, they not only overcame critical business challenges but also set a new standard for delivering consistent, high-quality product experiences at a global scale.

Facing the Friction: The Roadblocks to Global Growth

In order to truly shine like Tiffany’s diamonds, all three brands had to dig through their fair share of dirt. Before Akeneo, they were grappling with messy product data, inefficient workflows, and disconnected systems, making it harder than it should be to deliver great product experiences:

• Scattered systems and siloed data: Before turning to Akeneo, all three brands were juggling fragmented systems, from legacy PLMs to outdated CMSs and spreadsheets that refused to cooperate. With product information scattered across multiple platforms, managing updates, translations, and channel-specific variations was more guesswork than strategy. For teams trying to scale globally, this lack of a single source of truth meant slow turnarounds and constant firefighting.
• Manual overload and process bottlenecks: Managing thousands, or even millions, of products manually is no small feat. Triumph Motorcycles wrestled with time-consuming processes to launch and localize product content, while Igus faced bottlenecks in translating data across 44 locales. Without automation or streamlined workflows, every product update became a chore and came with a delay.
• Global growth, local chaos: Expanding into new markets sounds great until the data has to follow. From adapting product information to meet local regulations (Triumph) to managing multichannel delivery in the Middle East and Asia (Igus), scaling internationally came with a tangle of language barriers, formatting inconsistencies, and regional requirements that were tough to meet without structured, centralized data.
• Customer experiences lost in translation: For Tiffany & Co., inconsistencies in product listings—caused by misaligned hierarchies and data handoffs—led to confusion, missing information, and errors on the digital shelf. Meanwhile, Triumph’s outdated infrastructure made it hard to deliver consistent product stories across dealer networks, and Igus struggled to maintain translation accuracy and brand alignment across global storefronts. Without clean data, creating seamless shopping experiences was nearly impossible.
• Governance gaps and unclear ownership: Without strong data governance in place, product information became a free-for-all. Tiffany & Co. encountered misalignments across partners and platforms, while Igus lacked clearly defined user roles to delegate content responsibilities globally. This resulted in slower launches, internal confusion, and missed milestones when it mattered most.

Picture this: You’ve just finished a portrait sketch, only to realize it looks more like a potato with eyebrows than the person you were trying to draw. So, what do you do? You don’t throw away your pencils in despair, you figure out what went sideways and give it another shot, this time with a sharper eye.

Brands are no different. The smart ones don’t blindly stick to the same scribbles if they aren’t looking right. They pause, reflect on themselves, and ask the big questions: Who are we? And do we look strange to the world? This self-reflection isn’t a sign of a crisis, but a strategy. And it has a name: Brand Discovery.

What Is Brand Discovery?

Brand discovery is the process of uncovering and defining the core of who your brand is beyond your logo, color palette, unique selling propositions (USPs), unique value proposition (uvp), or catchy tagline (though those are all important!). It’s about getting clear on your mission, values, voice, audience, market position, and what makes your brand truly unique.

Think of it as a step-by-step into your brand’s DNA. It helps you answer critical questions like:

• Why do we exist (beyond making money)?
• Who are we trying to reach, and what do they care about?
• What do we want people to feel when they interact with us?
• What does the brand do well, and what areas need improvement?
• How are we different from everyone else shouting in the same space?

Done right, brand discovery gives you the clarity and confidence to build consistent messaging and meaningful customer experiences, which makes a brand that people actually remember.

Why is Brand Discovery Important?

Brands can’t just do anything they want for the sake of it and call it a strategy.  Especially when they’re trying to build a name for themselves that resonates with their target audience and differentiates them from their competitors. Without transparency, teams end up sending mixed messages, and customers are left scratching their heads! A strong brand foundation makes sure everyone, from marketing to sales, tells the same story.

More than just internal alignment, brand discovery gives you an edge in today’s digital landscape. It reveals what sets you apart and ensures that every move you make, from campaigns to product launches, stays true to your identity. 

Benefits and Challenges of Brand Discovery

Benefits:

Brand discovery isn’t just good PR, it’s the groundwork for long-term growth. Done right, it can:

• Build alignment and clarity: Your team gains a shared understanding of your brand’s values, so everyone is moving in the same direction.

• Strengthen customer connections: When you understand your audience and what you stand for, you can create and tailor messages that actually resonate, not just fill space.

• Differentiate yourself in the market: In a sea of similarity, brand discovery helps you stand out by uncovering what makes your brand truly unique!

• Smarter decision-making: With a clear brand identity, everything from product development to partnerships becomes more strategic and on-brand.

• Fuels confident expansion: Brand discovery allows you to adapt to new markets or audiences without losing your core. Discovery keeps your messaging cohesive, even as you grow.

The sun’s out, the shades are on, and at Akeneo, we’re bringing the heat with our Summer Release 2025! Just like your favorite summer getaway, this release is all about relaxing the workload, lightening the lift, and giving your teams the freedom to move faster and smarter.

From AI-powered data modeling to next-level catalog management and visibility enhancements, this release is designed to help you ditch the data bottlenecks and cruise into smoother, more scalable product experiences. Whether you’re launching a new channel, expanding your global footprint, or just trying to make your daily tasks a little less manual, these updates are here to make your summer (and beyond) a whole lot brighter.

Let’s take a look at five new capabilities now available within Akeneo Product Cloud.

1. Break the data bottleneck with Data Architect Agent

For many organizations (especially those just getting started with PIM), data modeling can be a painstaking, months-long process. But now, thanks to a combination of Akeneo’s new data modeling expertise and AI, Akeneo’s Data Architect Agent (DAA) can generate accurate and flexible data models in a matter of days, rather than months.

DAA accelerates time-to-value by empowering teams to explore and adapt their data structures early in the onboarding process, reducing cost and minimizing the risks of expensive rework later on. With intuitive suggestions, dynamic customization, and AI-assisted iteration, teams can confidently model once and adapt forever with DAA.

Even better, we’re introducing Flexible Attribute Expansion alongside it, which lets you adjust product attributes on the fly (like configuring attribute properties to localize content for new markets or meeting new regulations) without needing to rebuild your entire data model. It’s all about staying nimble while keeping your data clean and consistent. Together, these tools future-proof your investment and keep your product data nimble in an ever-changing digital environment.

Learn more about Akeneo’s Data Architect Agent.

Let’s be honest, no one ever launched faster or scaled smarter by wrestling with spreadsheets. They did it with clean, connected, and scalable product data, and by employing the right technology (hint: that means Akeneo!). 

This year at Unlock 2025, we proudly recognized Steelcase, Courir, SellerX, and Ploonk with this year’s Accelerator Award for utilizing our technology to tackle that exact problem: cleaning up their product data management processes and implementing strategies that accelerated their time to market.

While each of these innovative brands operates in a different industry, they all faced a common obstacle: fragmented manual product information workflows that held them back at the exact moment they needed to move faster. 

The Common Challenge: Fragmented, Manual, and Risk-Prone Processes

Despite their unique business models, these four brands were all struggling with similar bottlenecks:

• Disconnected systems, disjointed data: When product data is scattered across flat files, legacy platforms, and isolated databases, maintaining consistency becomes nearly impossible. Courir, SellerX, Steelcase, and Ploonk all struggled with fragmented systems that didn’t talk to each other—whether it was managing assets manually, working with marketplace-specific catalogs, or loading supplier data across regional environments. Without a single source of truth, teams faced duplicated work, mismatched product information, and increased room for error across every channel and market.
• Manual overload at every step: From writing product descriptions post-launch to mapping device compatibility line by line, these brands were stuck in workflows bogged down by manual effort. Courir often completed enrichment after products were already live, Steelcase manually linked thousands of images, and Ploonk had to re-import and update titles each time a new phone was released. SellerX depended on flat file uploads for hundreds of marketplace listings, often with no automation in place. This resulted in delays, duplicated work, and teams spending more time updating spreadsheets than driving strategy.
• Visibility gaps and collaboration friction: When tools aren’t shared and workflows aren’t synced, cross-team collaboration suffers. Brand managers at SellerX lacked the visibility to confidently manage data across platforms, while Courir’s regional teams couldn’t enrich consistently or quickly due to decentralized processes. Without a unified view of product data, it became harder to coordinate launches, catch errors, or respond to market needs, turning teamwork into a game of guesswork.
• Systems that couldn’t keep up with growth: As these businesses scaled—whether expanding catalogs, launching into new regions, or onboarding new brands—their tools couldn’t keep pace. Steelcase’s legacy architecture couldn’t support the scale or nuance of their growing product experience strategy, and Ploonk’s increasingly complex mapping requirements became nearly unmanageable. SellerX inherited brands with no PIM in place at all, making integration difficult and time-consuming. Without flexible, scalable infrastructure, growth ended up creating friction at every turn.
  

From Bottlenecks to Breakthroughs with Akeneo Product Cloud

Turning ambition into action doesn’t just take strategy but also enablement. By adopting Akeneo Product Cloud, these award winners equipped their teams with scalable, user-friendly tools that turned a manual mess into a streamlined execution. Here’s how they did it:

• Accelerating go-to-market speed: These brands used Akeneo to speed up time-to-market while reducing errors. Thanks to Akeneo, Courir now publishes localized product pages instantly across regions, and SellerX reduces mapping mistakes and launches faster across marketplaces. Steelcase drastically lowered the time spent loading and linking supplier data globally, and Ploonk automated title generation and compatibility mapping, allowing them to launch complex product variations quickly and accurately across channels.
• Building a single source of truth for product data: Each of these brands began by consolidating their product data into Akeneo Product Cloud, eliminating the chaos of flat files, spreadsheets, and disconnected systems. Steelcase used Akeneo Product Information Management (PIM) and Akeneo Supplier Data Manager (SDM) to validate and enrich supplier data across regions, while SellerX brought order to 409 active catalogs, giving teams consistent, structured information they could actually trust.
• Automating the complex, eliminating the tedious: Manual tasks like title updates, media assignment, and localization were slowing teams down. Ploonk automated over 1,000 rules using Akeneo’s rules engine and reference entities, and Courir cut media management time by 66% by automating description generation and short-form video uploads with the custom Bee App Connector.
• Connecting to the tech stack with ease: Akeneo’s composable infrastructure made it easy to connect with existing systems. Courir integrated Akeneo with Salesforce Commerce Cloud for real-time publishing, while SellerX used Akeneo Activation to syndicate data directly to Amazon across multiple regions. Steelcase ensured enriched product content and assets synced smoothly across various platforms.
• Empowering teams and increasing autonomy: Akeneo enabled non-technical users to take charge of product data without relying on IT. Courir’s merchandisers now update content in real time, Ploonk’s teams handle localization and catalog logic independently, and Steelcase gave regional teams autonomy to enrich and validate supplier data with confidence.
• Creating a foundation for global growth: From global syndication to localized content delivery, these brands are ready for what’s next. SellerX scaled syndication across continents, Courir simplified multilingual publishing, and Steelcase built a flexible, future-ready infrastructure. Ploonk, equipped with automation, handles complexity at scale without adding friction.

There’s more to a product than meets the eye. A t-shirt might look like it fits, but knowing the exact measurements makes all the difference. A camera might catch your eye on the shelf, but reviews and specs reveal whether it’s truly right for you.

That’s the power of product content. When customers have access to accurate, timely information, they’re able to buy with confidence. And when that information stays consistent across every channel, it builds trust and fuels long-term growth.

What makes it all possible? Product content management.

What is Product Content Management?

At its core, product content management (PCM) is the process of creating, managing, and distributing enriched product information across multiple channels, ensuring that product data is accurate and centralized. PCM acts as the backbone of a smooth digital commerce experience and empowers businesses to present their products clearly and compellingly no matter where their customers encounter them. 

The content involved in Product Content Management is broad and diverse, including:

• Product titles and descriptions: Descriptive text that communicates what a product is, what it does, and why it’s valuable.
• Images: High-quality visuals that showcase the product from different angles and in various contexts, helping customers visualize what they’re buying.
• Technical specifications: Detailed technical information such as size,  materials, compatibility, and features that ensure customers get the right  measurements of a product.
• Customer reviews: User-generated feedback that adds credibility and helps other shoppers get a better idea of how a product would be.
• Enhanced content: Rich media elements like videos, comparison charts, or  interactive media (such as Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality) that create a more  immersive product experience.

Advantages and Disadvantages of PCM

Product content management might not wear a cape, but in the world of digital commerce, it’s nothing short of a hero. Still, like any hero’s journey, PCM has both high points and hurdles.

Advantages of Product Content Management

• Convert browsers into buyers: Think of enriched content as your silent salesperson. Clear descriptions, polished visuals, and precise specs help customers make confident decisions, no in-store staff required! In fact, incorporating user-generated content like reviews and photos can boost conversion rates by up to 91.4%.

• Reduce returns: Mismatched expectations are the top culprit behind product returns; in fact, nearly 60% of consumers have returned a product due to inaccurate or misleading product descriptions. Accurate, detailed content sets the right expectations upfront, leading to fewer “this isn’t what I ordered” moments.

• Speed up time-to-market: Centralized content means teams aren’t sending panicked emails and sorting through spreadsheets to track down the right product details. Launching new items becomes faster and far less stressful with efficient data management, businesses, often achieving a 20% reduction in related costs.  

• Power omnichannel consistency: From your website to Amazon to social media channels and beyond, PCM keeps your product content consistent and on-brand across every channel. 
• Build brand credibility: High-quality content doesn’t just inform, it builds trust; and trust leads to loyalty, which leads to repeat business (and maybe even a few happy tweets).

Challenges of Product Content Management

• A data avalanche: With hundreds—or thousands—of products to manage, keeping content up to date can feel like trying to organize a tidal wave. Without the right tools, chaos is one click away. In fact, 40% of B2B organizations still rely on manual methods for product data, leading to outdated product descriptions and inconsistent pricing.
• Everyone wants a piece: Marketing, product, eCommerce, legal – everyone has a say in product content. Managing all those voices without stepping on toes requires both structure and diplomacy.
• Picky channel requirements: Every platform seems to want something different; different image sizes, character limits, mandatory fields, etc. Meeting all their specs can feel like an impossible task!
• Quality can slip through the cracks: When managing massive volumes of content, a single typo or outdated spec can sneak through and lead to big problems like lost sales, negative reviews, or worse, regulatory issues. Basically, everything you don’t want.
• It’s a marathon, not a sprint: PCM isn’t a one-and-done effort. It requires ongoing maintenance, updates, and oversight. But when done well, it’s an investment that pays off again and again.

Typically a two-day affair taking place sometime around Amazon’s anniversary in July, Prime Day is one of the most highly anticipated eCommerce events to get all your favorites shipped directly to your house at a fraction of the original cost.

Now in its tenth year, Prime Day is officially set to occur from July 8th through July 11th, taking place in 26 countries after record-breaking sales last year. 

What began as a way to celebrate Prime members has grown into a massive mid-year shopping holiday that sets the tone for the entire summer retail season. Consumers mark their calendars, retailers brace their inventories, and competitors scramble to roll out parallel promotions. In a sea of deep discounts and lightning deals, only the best-prepared product experiences rise above the noise.

Regardless of what you’re selling on Amazon, Prime Day is your chance to win hearts, carts, and conversions. And that all starts with product information that’s complete, compelling, and conversion-ready.

How Brands Can Prepare for Amazon Prime Day 2025

As we mentioned, this year’s Amazon Prime Day is slated for July 8-11th, which means that now is the time to ensure that your presence on Amazon is ready for one of the biggest digital sales events. Below are a list of things you should consider to optimize your Amazon readiness – because your competition likely already has. 

As an example, we’ll be following the fictional company TechGear along as they optimize their Amazon storefront and listings for Prime Day 2025.

1. Optimize your product pages

Optimizing your product pages is a vital step in preparing for Prime Day success. The worst thing that could happen is you spend lots of time and energy on getting shoppers to your product page, only to lose the sale because of poor or missing product content!

There are a few key ways our friends at TechGear can optimize their Amazon product pages:

Conduct a thorough audit of product listings

Before Prime Day arrives, TechGear can meticulously review their product titles, descriptions, images, and other relevant details, ensuring that all information is accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across their entire product catalog.

For instance, TechGear could verify that their headphone listings have compelling titles that include key features such as “Wireless,” “Noise Canceling,” and “Long Battery Life”, and that their product descriptions are informative and up-to-date, highlighting the unique selling points of each product.

Of course doing this page-by-page is impossible, so it’s helpful to have a centralized source of truth like a Product Information Management (PIM) system that gives you visibility at scale across your product catalog, allowing you to make mass changes to quickly optimize the product information.

Utilize A+ Content

Amazon A+ Content enhances product pages with rich multimedia elements, including additional images, videos, comparison charts, and compelling storytelling.  This section of an Amazon product detail page is an opportunity to tell your brand story and connect with shoppers.

For TechGear, Prime Day is the perfect opportunity to ensure as many of their product pages as possible have A+ Content with lifestyle imagery and brand storytelling to showcase the benefits of their products and increase customer engagement and conversions. They could create visually appealing modules, maybe even 3D-rendered models, and could split-test different variations of their A+ Content, enabling them to identify the most effective elements and layouts.

Generate reviews and address feedback

Customer reviews play a vital role in the Amazon shopping experience – just because they’re at the bottom of the page, doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be at the top of your priority list!

Positive reviews from satisfied customers build trust and encourage potential buyers to make a purchase. TechGear should proactively engage with their customers and encourage them to leave reviews, especially those with pictures and videos showcasing the product in action. This social proof will help build credibility and attract more customers during Prime Day.

TechGear can also audit their existing reviews and address any negative comments or customer concerns ahead of Prime Day, showing their commitment to customer satisfaction and building a positive brand reputation before the increased flurry of customer activity.

Take advantage of Amazon Posts

Similar to social media feeds like Instagram, Amazon Posts allow brands to create a stream of curated posts showcasing their products in action. By utilizing Amazon Posts effectively, TechGear can keep their products top-of-mind for consumers during Prime Day by publishing posts showcasing customers using their bluetooth speakers during workouts, gaming sessions, or while traveling.

Or maybe TechGear just wants to generate some buzz and awareness, so they feature their best-performing ASINs, like their highest-rated items or best sellers to capture the attention of customers who are actively searching for popular items on Prime Day.

2. Offer multiple ways to save

To entice customers and maximize sales during Prime Day, offering various ways for them to save is crucial. Amazon provides several effective strategies that brands can utilize to drive engagement and conversions. 

Lightning Deals 

Lightning Deals are time-limited discounts on select products that create a sense of urgency among shoppers. These deals are prominently featured on Amazon’s website and can be highly effective in driving impulse purchases. 

For our friends at TechGear, a Lightning Deal could be reducing the price by 30% on their best-selling headphones for a limited time during Prime Day. This deal would catch the attention of shoppers casually browsing for headphones and encourage them to make a quick purchase before the deal expires.

Prime Exclusive Discounts

Prime Exclusive Discounts are special discounts visible only to Amazon Prime customers. These discounts showcase the discounted price alongside the regular price, highlighting the percentage saved. 

TechGear could offer a Prime Exclusive Discount on their latest smartwatch, displaying the original price crossed out and the discounted price next to it, indicating a 20% discount exclusive to Prime members. This exclusive offer would incentivize Prime customers to take advantage of the savings and potentially drive more browsers to subscribe to Amazon Prime to get access to the exclusive discount.

Coupons

Coupons on Amazon are displayed with an eye-catching bright green tag, making them easily noticeable for customers. These coupons provide instant savings on eligible products.

For example, TechGear could offer a coupon for 15% off their entire range of phone accessories, including cases, chargers, and screen protectors. When customers visit the TechGear Amazon store, they would see the bright green coupon tag, encouraging them to apply the coupon and enjoy the discounted price at checkout.

Non-Amazon promotions

Outside of Amazon, brands like TechGear can employ a number of strategies to drive customers to the popular marketplace during Prime Day, including social media promo codes, influencer codes, custom marketing pages, and buy-one-get-one (BOGO) deals. 

TechGear could leverage social media platforms to run a Prime Day promotion where they provide a unique promo code only to their social media followers that offers an additional 10% discount on all purchases made during Prime Day. Or they could collaborate with influencers in the tech niche who would promote TechGear’s Prime Day deals through their channels, sharing exclusive discount codes with their followers. 

This omnichannel approach leads us nicely to our third strategy.

3. Utilize other channels to promote Prime Day deals

While Amazon is obviously the primary platform for Prime Day sales, don’t limit your promotional efforts solely to the marketplace! Leverage off-Amazon advertising channels such as Facebook and Google as these platforms offer sophisticated targeting capabilities, enabling you to promote your Prime Day deals and bundles to potential customers who may not be actively browsing Amazon. 

TechGear could run targeted Facebook ads that showcase their exclusive Prime Day discounts and highlight the unique features of their products. By using precise audience targeting options provided by Facebook, TechGear can reach users who have shown an interest in similar products or who fit their target demographic, driving traffic to their Amazon storefront and increasing the chances of conversions during Prime Day. Or TechGear could utilize Google Ads to capture the attention of potential customers by bidding on strategic keywords and optimizing ad campaigns, ensuring their Prime Day promotions appear prominently in Google search results.

Lastly, TechGear could utilize TikTok or YouTube for video content, enabling them to demonstrate their products in action by showing an Olympic swimmer using their water-proof headphones in the pool or doing a collab with a popular streamer as she reviews their newest keyboard.

Just as our mascot, Ziggy, powers everything we build at Akeneo, a powerful product experience fuels success in modern commerce. We know that a strong product experience is all about delivering the right content, in the right context, through the right channel, and tailored to the right market. When done well, it reflects brand values, drives conversions, and reduces returns. 

That’s why we’re proud to recognize four standout businesses, JC Perreault, Wein Wolf Group, B&S International, and Tikamoon, as winners of this year’s Product Experience Excellence Award at Unlock! 

Each one comes from a different corner of the retail world, from luxury home goods to fine wines and everyday consumer products. But despite their differences, they faced similar challenges. However, with Akeneo Product Cloud, they discovered a shared solution, one that empowered them to deliver enriched, localized, and consistent product experiences wherever their customers shop.

Their Shared Journey: Overcoming Fragmented Data and Manual Processes

Before Akeneo, these brands were stuck wrestling with content chaos and operational headaches that made delivering great product experiences harder than it should be, including:

• Scattered product information: Between spreadsheets, outdated systems, and siloed databases, product information was more scattered than the clouds in the sky. Inconsistencies and inaccuracies ran rampant, making it tough for teams to collaborate, let alone deliver consistent content across channels.
• Time-consuming manual processes: Enriching and managing product data was often slow and hands-on, causing major delays in launching new products or expanding to new sales channels. For some, an underpowered eCommerce platform made things worse by limiting key functionality and flexibility.
• Barriers to digital growth: Without centralized, structured data or automation, scaling digital operations (like launching online stores or integrating with third-party platforms) was difficult if not impossible.
  
• Inconsistent customer experience: When the back end’s a mess, the front end suffers. Without the right technology in place, it became difficult to deliver the consistent experiences today’s customers expect, which often led to customer frustration, lost sales, and higher return rates.

The Akeneo Impact: Creating a Foundation for Award-Winning Experiences

Each winner turned to Akeneo to overhaul their operations and, in doing so, nailed the art of delivering content exactly where and when it’s needed:

• JC Perreault: Recognized for their dedication to creating a seamless, personalized product experience across both physical and digital channels, JC Perreault increased their online product range by 4X—from 3,000 to 12,000 products—and cut time-to-market from two weeks to just 24 hours. Plus, improved data quality led to longer engagement on product pages and lower bounce rates. By unifying in-store and online operations through a shared data foundation, they proved that great product experiences begin with great product data.
• Wein Wolf Group: After delivering an exceptional product experience by ensuring content is sent out in the correct format and tailored to the appropriate geography, Wein Wolf was also a recipient of the 2025 Experience Award. Their product data quality soared from below 30% to 97%, while time-to-market dropped dramatically thanks to reduced manual effort after implementing Akene. As Ramin Movahed-Schwarz, Head of Digital Hub & E-Commerce, eloquently put it, “In our world, the earth does not revolve around the sun, the earth revolves around Akeneo”.
• B&S International: Honored for providing contextually appropriate content across channels and regions, driving higher conversions and lower return rates, B&S International reduced product launch times from over a week to just days and doubled B2C orders during peak periods, like Black Friday, with customers spending more time on their websites. Akeneo’s flexibility allowed them to apply a single solution across their diverse B2B and B2C segments.
• Tikamoon: Celebrated for seamlessly blending compelling storytelling and sustainability with operational excellence, Tikamoon utilized Akeneo to reduce the cost of adding new attributes by 80% and media-related costs by 90%. Their e-merchandising team now manages a 20% larger product catalog (with double the attributes and triple the media assets) without their team having to grow. It’s smart, scalable efficiency like this that gives customers exactly what they need to make confident purchase decisions at every step.

Eyeing up pretty products has always been part of the shopping experience. Even if it feels like a distant memory, many of us can still picture our younger selves stepping into a store, tugging at our parents’ sleeves, drawn to toys neatly lined up on a shelf. Or pausing outside a storefront, mesmerized by mannequins dressed in the latest fashions. In every case, we were influenced by the items placed right before our eyes, bringing us one step closer to making a purchase.

And who could blame us? A beautifully arranged display that practically tells you what you want is enough to make anyone stop and look. But what happens when that same powerful experience isn’t limited to a single store, or even a physical location? What happens when it becomes accessible anytime, anywhere with just a few clicks?

Enter the digital shelf. Unlike a single store shelf, the digital shelf spans across websites, marketplaces, mobile apps, social media platforms, and even search engines. It’s wherever your product shows up online, and it’s more dynamic, competitive, and customer-driven than ever.

But while the medium has changed, the mission remains the same: catch the eye, spark interest, and convert attention into action. Just like that perfectly arranged aisle or storefront, the digital shelf requires thoughtful presentation, engaging visuals, and clear and compelling product information that anticipates what shoppers want to know. 

Winning the digital shelf means showing up where your customers are, with experiences that are as persuasive and polished as the best in-store displays, powered by data, strategy, and technology.

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves; let’s back up and take some time to define exactly what the digital shelf is.

What is the Digital Shelf?

It’s no surprise to say that the shopping experience has completely evolved over the past decade, and the experience we once associated with physical stores has now merged with the online space where products are displayed, discovered, and evaluated by shoppers around the world. The digital shelf can now encompass any combination of digital touchpoints that a shopper may encounter as they’re discovering, researching, and purchasing products on platforms such as eCommerce sites, search engines, social media apps, and third-party retail sites such as Amazon or Walmart.

Examples of digital touchpoints include:

• Mobile apps
• Third-party review sites, such as Yelp or TripAdvisor
• Voice search technology, such as Amazon Alexa or Google Home
• AR/VR shopping experiences

The Building Blocks of the Digital Shelf

Even though the digital shelf isn’t made of wood, glass, or metal, it’s just as real, and arguably even more influential. It’s shaped not by physical placement, but by a combination of content, strategy, and technology.

So, what determines which products get seen, clicked, and purchased? Let’s take a look at just a few of the key factors that influence performance on the digital shelf, and why getting them right can make all the difference between a scroll-past and a sale.

Product Visibility Across Channels

As I mentioned, the digital shelf isn’t glued to one spot. It’s everywhere your customers are, whether they’re scrolling, searching, or shopping. Products can pop up across marketplaces, social media feeds, brand websites, and beyond. If a customer can find it, click it, and buy it online, congratulations: it’s part of your digital shelf.

Accurate Content and Information

On a physical shelf, it’s all about eye-catching packaging and clever signage. Online? Your images, titles, descriptions, and more have to do the heavy lifting. Rich and accurate product content is what attracts and converts online shoppers.

Searchability and Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

If a product falls on the digital shelf and no one searches for it, does it even exist? On the digital shelf, visibility often comes down to sharp Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Smart keywords, polished product titles, and strategic descriptions make sure your products rank higher on retailer sites and search engines.

Customer Reviews and Ratings

In-store, shoppers can poke and prod around. Online, they lean on the next best thing: ratings and reviews. Glowing testimonials can lift your product to star status; bad reviews can send it tumbling off the shelf.

Pricing and Promotions

Pricing is highly dynamic online. Shoppers can compare prices in a few clicks, which means brands need to be light on their feet. Flexible pricing, discounts, special promotions, and bundling strategies play a huge role in how products perform on the digital shelf.

Personalization and AI Recommendations

Thanks to browsing habits, purchase history, and even location data, platforms can serve up products tailored to each shopper’s whims and wishes. A personalized experience (especially powered by AI) turns casual browsers into loyal buyers.