That’s because instead of slashing prices and scrambling for customers, the company is launching a campaign called “#BlackForGood”, donating its profits to environmental charities. “This campaign is intended to be a positive and encouraging call to action for those who agree that Black Friday could be better,” according to the movement’s founder, Ning Li. In recent years, Black Friday has evolved into a worldwide sensation, even as some companies, like Typology, fight back against the rising tide of consumerism. Just a few years ago, Black Friday was a purely American phenomenon. But now, in storefronts from New York City to Paris, and everywhere in between, companies are looking to make their mark on the holiday season by appealing to discount shoppers on Black Friday and Cyber Monday — or by appealing to shoppers who just can’t take one more Black Friday promotion.

Black Friday, Cyber Monday go global

The Black Friday shopping frenzy has now truly gone global. This year, shoppers everywhere from Latvia to Brazil are flocking to their local malls and fighting over discounted handbags, clothing, and consumer electronics. Along the way, Black Friday has metastasized from a single day into a week-long festival of consumerism. Stores now start “Grey Thursday” sales on Thanksgiving night, and shoppers can also look forward to spin-off events like Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, and Fair-trade Tuesday. Then there are the other special discount events, from Amazon’s Prime Day to Overstock.com’s Overstocktober, and local copycats like Mexico’s Buen Fin and the UAE’s White Friday events. This year, Macy’s, eBay, Target, and Walmart even staged a “Black Friday in July” summer sales event. These events, and dozens of others like them, prove that there is definite consumer appetite for seasonal promotions, not just around the winter holidays, but at almost any time of the year.

Swimming against the tides

Amid the near-universal sea of sales, how is any one brand supposed to stand out? One alternative Black Friday strategy is simply to refuse to participate. That’s why we find Typology’s approach so interesting. As everyone else rushes to slash prices, companies that swim against the current, and think a little differently or a little more creatively, have a real chance to grab shoppers’ attention. Similarly, since 2015, outdoor retailer REI has won endless column-inches with its #OptOutside campaign, with its 12,000 employees receiving a paid day off, and customers being urged to get out and enjoy some fresh air instead of trudging through a crowded mall. Other, slightly less committed companies make a point of closing their doors or limiting their hours on Thanksgiving Day, and brag about giving their employees a chance to spend some time with their families. That’s what makes REI’s decision to opt-out of Black Friday altogether impressive, eye-catching, and certainly on-brand —but hard for most companies to replicate. (Try telling your shareholders you’ve decided not to open on the busiest day of the year!) That’s why Typology’s #BlackForGood campaign is so smart: instead of simply turning its back on Black Friday consumerism, it’s hoping to harness it for good.

The history behind bucking Black Friday trends

Typology and REI may be relatively unique in the discount-dominated holiday shopping market, but they’re far from the first retailers to buck the trend of discounts and promotions around the end of the year. American consumers have seen #BlackForGood-style events before. In 2016, for example, Patagonia saw a fivefold uptick in Black Friday sales after pledging to donate 100% of daily takings to environmental causes. More recently, online fashion retailer Everlane has pledged to remove 1lb of plastic from the ocean for every product it sells, while Cuyana is matching every item it sells with a donation to victims of domestic violence. For companies outside the United States, though, such campaigns are as new as Black Friday itself. That’s why it’s so exciting to see companies like Typology seeking new, socially conscious approaches instead of simply emulating American box stores, slashing prices, and hoping for the best. By bucking even a relatively recent trend, they’re making their mark on the space and standing out from the competition.

The future of Black Friday

It’s clear that shoppers, both in America and around the world, are hungry for creative, socially conscious approaches to Black Friday. According to one global survey, for example, 81% of consumers want companies to help the environment, and almost half would switch from market-leading brands to support smaller, eco-friendly companies. And while four-fifths of shoppers remain motivated by discounts and special offers, two-thirds say they’ll forgo those savings and pay extra to support sustainable brands. That makes eco-friendly, socially responsible promotions like Typology’s #BlackForGood campaign a smart branding exercise. Increasingly, products are seen as embodiments of brands, and while consumers always want to get a great deal, they also want to support brands that share their values. At Akeneo, we’re seeing that trend play out across all the markets we serve, in Europe, the United States, and worldwide. Companies are starting to understand that it’s important to be mindful about how they manage products, and to take a more careful and internationally informed approach to commerce. We’re seeing more and more clients warm to initiatives such as fair-trade sourcing, carbon footprint reduction, and recycling or second-hand purchasing programs. The #BlackForGood campaign is a sign of how effective it can be to commit to such strategies, and take mindful marketing and product management to the next level. As Black Friday spreads around the world, it’s creating big opportunities for brands that are bold enough to stand apart from the pack, and broadcast their values instead of simply slashing prices. If your company is brave enough to stand apart from the pack, take risks, and find creative, value-driven sales strategies, you too could find that this year’s Black Friday will be a holiday to remember. Take Control Of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday Shopping With PIM! Learn how PIM can help your team conquer expansions with relative ease by reading our blogs on Turning A New Commerce Channel Into A Success and Expanding To New Locales today!

As more millennials and digital natives grow into positions of  B2B buying responsibility, the procurement process has taken on more and more attributes of B2C selling, including an emphasis on eCommerce and other emerging channels. Researchers expect B2B eCommerce to reach nearly $2 trillion in revenue in the U.S. alone and account for nearly 20 percent of all B2B sales by 2023. Now, this digital transformation is forcing teams to embrace new digitally-enhanced selling motions for manufacturers, distributors and wholesalers – and a new view of product content. Smart sellers are increasingly investing time and money in improving their user experience, and with good reason — Forrester has found that 79% of B2B buyers say they value information that’s tailored to fit their industry, role, or department. The way to meet this high bar for product content to your potential buyers is with high-quality, accurate, and consistent product information. Without this, your efforts to tackle these new buying realities will almost certainly fall short, as customers abandon purchases from your site and move on to other manufacturers or distributors. Make sure your team is ready to succeed in this brave new B2B world with this new webinar from Akeneo and featured guest Allen Bonde, Vice President & Research Director at Forrester, taking place on December 11, 2019. We’ll examine the state of omnichannel commerce in the B2B space, review Forrester’s new B2B marketplace research, and see how consumer-style experiences are shaping the future of B2B relationships. We’ll also explore the ways we see PIM breaking out of its operational roots to play a broader role in experience delivery. Watch now to learn:

• Why digital channels like marketplaces are gaining traction with buyers and sellers
• How B2C sets the standard for B2B when it comes to choice, convenience, and overall customer experience
• How sellers need to rethink their marketing approaches for omnichannel commerce
• What it means to embrace an “adaptive PIM” mindset

WATCH NOW

FeaturedCustomers, a leading customer success content marketing platform for B2B business software & services, evaluated the entire Product Information Management Software space for their report. After reviewing almost 800 customer testimonials and case studies, selected just 18 companies that met their criteria. This includes Akeneo, which was named a winner of the Market Leader Award in the PIM category! The Market Leader designation was awarded based on a review of almost 800 customer testimonials and case studies, with Akeneo, the most used PIM platform in the world, receiving an average rating of 4.7 out of 5. The full report, along with Akeneo’s profile, which includes detailed product scorecards and numerous testimonials from satisfied Akeneo customers, is available for you to download here. Thanks to FeaturedCustomers for including us in the report! Get the best in product information management with Akeneo! See how product information and data lie at the heart of B2B eCommerce success by downloading our newest eBook, PIM — Unlocking Rapid Omnichannel Growth, or contact us today.

It’s no secret that the holiday season can be a particularly busy, and therefore profitable, time of the year for many businesses, particularly retailers selling holiday gifts and wares to consumers around the globe. But with Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it can also be a stressful time for these businesses, as they struggle to keep up with the increased demands and work that needs to be done to turn this hectic season into a success. One of the biggest challenges during this busy time of year is setting yourself apart from the competition. The main draw for consumers during Black Friday and Cyber Monday remains price. But, if every company is slashing prices, how can you differentiate yourself? The key is providing a compelling product experience, and that requires you get your product catalog in order and make sure your product information is primed for success. But making these seasonal changes in your product catalog isn’t as simple as flipping the calendar to the next month. Updating and expanding a product catalog is a labor-intensive, heavy-duty process, one that involves adding new products from manufacturers and suppliers, onboarding new photos and other digital assets, and updating hundreds or thousands of SKUs on multiple sales channels. That’s a lot to take care of, especially once you consider that the holiday season lasts just about two months at most. Those two months, of course, are crucial to the success of many businesses, so we’ve designed this guide to help you and your team prepare for the holiday rush and ensure this is truly the most wonderful time of the year.

Automate seasonal promotions 

On Black Friday, Cyber Monday and throughout the holiday shopping season, companies constantly offer special promotions and alternate product assortments to bring in new customers. These seasonal offerings, however, require them to make changes to their product catalogs — a time-consuming and demanding process in any season. But this challenge becomes even more fraught during the short time period of the holiday season, which can lead to an increase in inaccurate or inconsistent product information reaching customers, particularly if you’re using poorly suited tools or generalized solutions like Excel spreadsheets. This, in turn, can lead to a decrease in conversion rates or an increase in returns, both bad news for retailers this, or any, time of year. Akeneo’s Product Information Management solution can help you solve these problems with a host of features designed to help you easily and efficiently make changes to your product catalog. Automation and a business rules engine can help you move more quickly, while bulk editing, category modeling, and collaboration and workflow capabilities can help you manage the product information enrichment processes and reduce inaccuracies in product information.

Move even faster than Santa Claus

On Christmas Eve, Santa needs to move pretty quickly to get gifts all around the world — and just like Father Christmas, brands and retailers need to move quickly during the holiday season. As we mentioned above, long catalog or product information enrichment processes mean less time during the holiday season to market promotions and lost sales as a result. But while speed is crucial, companies can’t afford to make errors out of haste, or they’ll watch their customers move on to another retailer who can help them find out the information they need to feel comfortable making a purchase. As with seasonal catalog shifts, automation features can help you add, onboard, and enrich new products quickly, without increasing the risk of errors or inconsistencies. Akeneo PIM can also help you more efficiently distribute your newly enriched product information to a wide range of channels thanks to our diverse ecosystem and community, including premium connectors that tightly integrate with ecommerce platforms, print solutions, and more.

Get happy for the holidays

The holiday season is all about emotion, and that’s especially true when it comes to product information. Customers are far more likely to make purchases, and become repeat customers, if you can forge an emotional connection between them and your brand. This is particularly true during the holiday season, when consumers are particularly open to appeals to a sense of nostalgia or emotions. According to a report from Adweek, 70% of users who feel a connection to a brand spend twice as much as those who don’t, and 81 percent of those respondents also promote their favorite brands to family and friends. By taking time-consuming/tedious tasks off your employees’ plates, they can devote more time to crafting promotional content, descriptions, and other assets to help motivate holiday buyers and help your team dominate the holiday shopping season. This will lead not only to increased conversions but increased customer loyalty and even new customers thanks to a rise in referrals and recommendations.

Take Control Of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday Shopping With PIM

Make sure your team is ready to make the holiday season the most wonderful time of the year with PIM! Akeneo PIM is the solution to help you prepare for Black Friday, Cyber Monday or any other seasonal event. It makes seasonal collections and contextual sales a breeze, and helps you more easily and quickly respond to quickly changing customer demands! Take Control Of Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Holiday Shopping With PIM! Learn how PIM can help your team conquer expansions with relative ease by reading our blogs on Turning A New Commerce Channel Into A Success and Expanding To New Locales today!

The industry’s landscape is changing, and rapidly. B2B eCommerce sales in the U.S. alone grew by 11% to more than $1 trillion last year, and annual B2B sales are projected to top $10.6 trillion around the world in 2019. This growth is largely the result of a much broader array of sales channels to reach potential buyers. Thanks to these new channels, B2B businesses now have new methods of connecting and interacting with B2B buyers, a growing group of whom count themselves as digital natives. As a result, leading-edge B2B manufacturers, distributors, and organizations have little choice but to embrace these tidal changes to remain competitive.  Those that resist, meanwhile, will likely find themselves left behind to languish in the digital dust. As a result of all this upheaval, B2B manufacturers and distributors alike are pursuing these new trends and innovations — and facing the new challenges that accompany them.

Print

Print has long been a crucial part of any B2B seller’s arsenal. For decades, print catalogs have allowed sellers to reach out to customers and potential customers alike and share information about their offerings in a manner that was easy for customers to understand, and appealing to their eyes as well. Even now, despite all the recent changes to the B2B space, print isn’t dead yet — in fact, it’s still a critically important touchpoint for those in the space. Many companies remain highly dependent on print catalogs for the same reason they first came in to favor. Print selling may be old hat by now, but that doesn’t mean it’s simple for B2B businesses to create this collateral. Those that do still print catalogs face a host of challenges, starting with finding a way to create and manage product information in a wide range of formats, including everything from hard-copy catalogs, PDF files, solution brochures, product data sheets, and other materials. All of these different types of content require long product descriptions, detailed technical information, images, usage information, regulatory information and many other pieces of important product information, which can be difficult to manage. This information also needs to be contextualized to give customers a top-flight experience. Companies that rely on printed materials also need a way to scale these materials when expanding to new geographic markets. Obviously, text needs to be translated to match the language of the new market — but that’s not all. Measurements must be converted to local units, and images, other digital assets, and even your product assortment must be adapted to meet local taste and preferences.

Digital Transformation 

Print catalogs may still carry some serious weight among B2B buyers, but changing buyer behavior means that companies need to be sure their customers can research and buy products online. This is especially true as more millenials, Gen Z’ers, and other digital natives enter the workforce and rise to positions of B2B buying authority. These customers expect B2B buying to function in much the same way that B2C commerce has operated for years, where convenience and customer experience now rules the day. Embracing digital transformation isn’t only about allowing customers to buy products from an eCommerce store, however. It could also mean beefing up an existing website or digital channel to help B2B buyers better research products, creating new, interactive methods of sharing product information with customers, or even using a digital platform to help field workers and remote sales reps access centralized product information while meeting with buyers. It can also mean offering new interactive ways to share product information with prospective buyers, such as product configurators. These allow your teams to use a digital application or platform to select the options you want for a system. There are plenty of obstacles standing in the way of this transformation, of course. B2B players need to make sure that the information customers find on their website is accurate, consistent, and emotionally compelling, while also presenting it in the proper context for this new digital channel they’re selling on.

Omnichannel 

eCommerce sites aren’t the only new sales channel B2B companies are tapping in to. While some companies are turning their websites into eCommerce stores or digital information pages, others are expanding to other new and emerging channels in hopes of winning over these digital native buyers. Some, for example, are moving their offerings to online marketplaces like Amazon Business, Zoro.com, and GoDirectTrade. Others, meanwhile, are looking to the devices that customers tend to have in their hand all the time — the smartphone. Many are now looking to mobile channels to bring in more customers, both by allowing for mobile searching and research, and for mobile purchasing. Others, meanwhile, are using mobile devices to get information into the hands of employees in the field. No matter what mobile manner companies are using to share information, however, each will have its own requirements for the information available and depicted. That means that using one set of product information to rule them all won’t fly here — you need to adapt your content to each and every channel you share information or sell products via.

Collaboration 

These new trends in B2B business aren’t just about new ways to sell and communicate with customers — it’s also about how companies communicate internally. Many B2B manufacturers and distributors, for example, are seeking ways to create accurate and comprehensive product information in context and simplify exchanging that information among each other. Manufacturers, in particular, are under increased pressure to export product information specific for a distributors requirements or for warehouses where customers buy and pick-up. This requires them to create exports of subsets of their catalog or customized data values by distributor — and as a result that distributor is effectively a separate channel that the manufacturer must now deal with. B2B distributors, meanwhile, also typically rely on industry-standard formats to acquire product information but also need a place to enrich it beyond what’s included in standards such as ETIM, BMEcat and  FAB-DIS. Once that happens, they need a place to track the flow of information and store the enriched product data — all easier said than done.

Brand Image 

As this digital transformation works its way across the industry, B2B players are now also increasingly invest in their brand image. Building a positive brand image starts with building credibility and trust with customers. This can be done by promoting brand values, appealing to patriotism or other positive feelings, ‘going green’, providing expertise or service after a sale, and more. But no matter how you decide to build your brand image, it’s crucial that the information you provide to customers isn’t just compelling enough to help them form a bond with your brand, but accurate and consistent enough that they can feel comfortable trusting that information. Inaccurate, inconsistent information is the quickest ticket to a ruined relationship with a customer and a poor brand image. Establish trust and credibility is only part of the deal, however. Companies also need to differentiate themselves from their competition, so that they are seen as the experts in their profession, not just in the products themselves but also how they are described, how they work, how they can be used, and more. This once again requires highly accurate and consistent information — after all, no authority on a topic would put bad information up on their own site. Brands can also drive a positive image by offering their customers a superior experience — just as B2C brands often look to do. John Deere, for example, offers ‘Drive Green’ events that invite customers to test drive equipment — something you’d never see in a catalog. But, just like with other brand image factors, offering these exciting experiences requires contextual, accurate, and consistent product information

Data Governance

Our last trend is one that impacts many of the other topics we’ve already discussed — namely, data governance. Data governance is all about information accuracy, compliance, and control over both the teams and the processes involved in product information management. But it doesn’t stop at making sure that you’ve got accurate, consistent data being enriched via airtight workflows and by a top-notch team. Data governance also means encouraging interoperability with internal and external systems alike, making sure there are no kinks in your information’s path to publication. Finally, data governance is also designed to provide your customers with an easy buying process. As more and more purchasing decisions are made not just by individual buyers, but whole teams and departments, information is increasingly consumed by a wide range of individuals with their own priorities and skills. That means your product data needs to be able to speak to anyone and everyone involved in the buying process from the end-users to procurement to finance to legal, and much, much more.

Bring your B2B business into the 21st century

No matter what B2B trend or challenge you’re trying to conquer, the common thread through all of these and many other topics, is high-quality, accurate, and consistent product information. Without this, your efforts to tackle these new buying realities will almost certainly fall short. Discover how Akeneo’s Product Information Management (PIM) solution can help your company embrace new trends in B2B commerce by optimizing your product information, helping your team create compelling customer experiences and excel in B2B eCommerce by eliminating errors and inconsistencies in your product information. This means your team can work together more effectively and efficiently, easing the enrichment process by taking tedious, time-consuming labor off their hands. Now, they’re free to craft emotionally compelling product descriptions, create beautiful product assets, and make sure all product information is accurate, consistent, and presented in the proper context for the channel your customers are using. Ready to beat B2B challenges and make sales boom? See how product information and data lie at the heart of B2B eCommerce success by downloading our newest eBook, PIM — Unlocking Rapid Omnichannel Growth, or contact us today

That means it’s time for companies of all shapes and sizes to start preparing to succeed in the new year — but what exactly does that mean? To answer that question, we’ve searched far and wide to find predictions on what trends, technologies, initiatives, and more are in store for the year to come. Here’s a recap of notable trends happening in both B2C and B2B, and our perspective on how they apply to managing your product information. If you want more information on these trends or find out more about what’s coming up in the next year, click through on the links to learn more.

Trend #1 – Help customers move quickly

The days of the one-size-fits-all experience are coming to an end. Already, consumers increasingly expect companies to provide compelling, convenient, and one-of-a-kind experiences tailored to exactly their wants and needs. As Forbes says, “Today’s consumers don’t just want their products fast, they want to be able to get information about them quickly,” and this trend is one of the reasons AI is becoming important in digital retail. As we have blogged before consumers should be able to get product information anytime, anywhere. Retailers can use AI-based technologies to help ensure that product information is accurate and complete. These technologies can verify if the information a retailer has is accurate, and can also uncover additional product attribute information that may be missing. AI can also be used to suggest better product categorization or even suggest missing attributes in your product data, or better product categorization. And of course, content also needs to be presented in the proper context for the channel it’s being viewed on — desktop-based eCommerce websites, for example, have different rules than social shopping offerings or mobile apps.

Trend #2 — Breaking borders

Retail Touchpoints just published their annual eCommerce Tech Preview for 2020. This forward-looking report offers perspectives from a dozen industry experts. One interesting trend is enhancements in managing product content and how to ensure it is tailored for use globally as well as in local markets. We believe context is king when it comes to product information. Cross-border commerce is a growing phenomenon in the internet age — customers are projected to spend $3.5 trillion on purchases from merchants outside their own country in 2019 alone. What’s more, that figure is set to balloon to nearly $5 trillion in just two years. With this increase in international spending comes obvious opportunities for merchants as well as new challenges for product information. Just as your content needs to be tailored to meet the unique needs and advantages of a specific channel, it also needs to be put in context for the geographic market a customer lives in. That means thinking globally and acting locally by expanding to new markets and giving them product information in the language they speak every day. It’s about more than just language, however — you also need to make plenty of other changes to localize your product catalog. That could include everything from adjusting measurements for local units and values, to changing product images to fit the context of a given country, even changing your entire product assortment.

Trend #3 — Brand creation

A report by Summit Partners on eCommerce trends includes the observation that brand creation is changing. Nowhere is this occurring more rapidly than in the context of social interaction and engagement in a community. Creating a brand today is as much about external factors as it is about internal factors — and product information is at the center of all of it. Building trust and a relationship with a customer requires that the brand provide accurate, correct, and consistent information. If customers don’t feel your information can be relied upon for one reason or another, they’ll surely abandon your store for a competitor’s, or just abandon a potential purchase altogether. It’s also important to ensure that your product information isn’t too sterile — even in the B2B market. Customers are far more likely to make a purchase if they consider your customer experience to be a positive and exciting one.

Trend #4 — Social shopping

Another trend highlighted in the Forbes article is the social shopping phenomenon. It’s no secret that social media has a huge influence on commerce these days — after all, there’s a whole industry of social media influencers doing just that every day. Social media has long played a role in industries like fashion, home furnishings, sporting goods, and more. Already, 3.5 billion people around the world are connected to social accounts, and what’s more, 72% of consumers on Instagram and 55% of those on Pinterest users have made a purchase based on something they saw on the site. Now, as platforms like Facebook and Instagram add direct eCommerce features, they are becoming an even more important sales engine. Other brands have elected to create their own social media platforms and integrations in hopes of better connecting with like-loving consumers, a trend that will likely continue into the new year. In either case, it’s crucial to include plenty of accurate, consistent product information, presented in context for the particular social media work, in order to find success with consumers.

Trend #5 — B2B investment in social media

B2C players aren’t the only ones going social, however. While social media hasn’t been host to the same number of B2B integrations, more and more of these sellers are moving to social platforms to reach new customers. But while they are embracing social media in much the same way that consumers have, B2B buyers do so in different ways, and through different platforms than consumers typically utilize — and it’s crucial to know the difference. The key is finding the channel your target audience is most active on, paying specific attention to emerging social media channels or niche platforms that speak to a certain demographic or interest group. According to a piece from B2B Marketing Zone, LinkedIn will likely be especially relevant in the B2B space. More than 590 million active professionals are on Linkedin and 80% of B2B leads from social media come from LinkedIn. The platform has over 60 million senior-level influencers, 40 million decision-makers, and 10.7 million opinion leaders, and is predicted to keep growing in the near future. This means that product information must be tailored to fit this business-focused platform.

Trend #6 — SEO must be kept up to date

Like social media, search engines are becoming a growing driver of B2B sales as more B2B organizations embrace eCommerce and omnichannel offerings. But, as B2B Marketing Zone points out, showing up at the top of these customer searches is often easier said than done. Google changes its algorithm constantly—several times a day in fact, and from hundreds to thousands of times per year.  Because Google changes its algorithm constantly, it pays to have dedicated SEO specialists to keep up with changes so you can remain among the top search results. Fortunately, while it remains crucial to remain as current as possible when it comes to SEO changes, the best way to ensure that your site ranks well among competitors is to craft a compelling, high-quality and relevant content. It’s also important to be aware of how new innovations and emerging touchpoints are changing how customers search for products, and by extension, how SEO is calculated. As voice assistants like Amazon’s Alexa become an increasing part of commerce, SEO results will skew increasingly in favor of the ways in which these new searches are conducted. These are just a few of the emerging trends we’ve highlighted. Check out the remaining predictions in the articles and posts here and look for trends that are applicable in your industry! Get ready to conquer these and other 2020 trends with PIM and PXM! Learn how PIM and PXM can help your company make next year its best yet by reading our blog on Turning A New Commerce Channel Into A Success or get in touch today!

Not too long ago, B2B and B2C organizations alike had just one or two sales channels to worry about: their brick-and-mortar store and a print catalog. But those simplistic days have gone the way of the dinosaur, and the advent of online, mobile, and other connected devices have forced merchants of every shape and size to embrace multichannel and omnichannel commerce by selling products not just via physical stores and catalogs, but through online stores and marketplaces, mobile apps, and more. Connecting with customers in an omnichannel world is easier said than done. It requires that companies craft compelling customer experiences. Creating these top-notch customer experiences requires the building of near-perfect product experiences, which use consistent product information delivered in context for the channel customers are using, wherever, and whomever, their buyers are. That’s where Product Information Management (PIM) and Product Experience Management (PXM) come in. These solutions put customer interaction at the center of everything you do, ensuring your product information is complete, accurate, relevant, and delivered on time, to the right place, everywhere your customers are.

Ready to master omnichannel commerce?

To help you handle these challenges, we’ve partnered with BigCommerce to bring you a guide to how PIM and PXM can help you create successful omnichannel practices. It’s designed to help you discover and master all aspects of your multichannel business to boost conversions, reduce product returns, increase revenue, and make your team happier and more efficient in the process. This valuable eBook will teach you how to:

• Understand omnichannel sales and growth
• Build successful multichannel operations
• Put product information in the proper context for each and every channel
• Scale operations using high-quality, contextual information
• Tackle cross-border expansion and localization
• Create a compelling and effective omnichannel strategy

Scale your operations Product Experience Management! Discover how to use PXM practices to grow and scale your organization across channels and locales in our eBook.  

Higher spending levels on travel means more customers sitting in the airport waiting for their flight. This should be a boon to merchants and retailers who call airport terminals their home. After all, airports already have plenty of the makings of great customer experiences and often have no shortage of restaurants and retail stores to keep travelers busy while they wait for their flight. However, despite this diverse and often luxurious offering, many consumers find shopping or dining at the airport to be a passable experience at best, and often much worse. It’s a bleak scene — but luckily, it’s all beginning to change. Recently, smart merchants and retailers in airports are increasingly investing in providing better customer and product experiences — and seeing results.

Fraport 

High prices, a lack of research-ready product information and omnichannel shopping features often mean that scoping out purchasing or buying new items at an airport retail storefront was like taking a trip back in time to a mall in 1985, shopping without any modern conveniences or innovations. But at Germany’s Frankfurt Airport, the shopping experience is more akin to a major brand’s flagship store than an outdated strip mall. Travelers can use the airports’ omnichannel tools, including eCommerce sites and mobile apps to find real-time information about what retailers are operating in a given airport or terminal, their hours, and even the products they have available for purchase. This helps consumers feel more comfortable with the airport shopping experience, encouraging increased spending before travelers board a flight. And, travelers have an additional choice: items purchased at the airport can be delivered to the gate at boarding time, or even shipped home. In this case, shopping at the airport while otherwise waiting becomes “time well spent” – a cornerstone concept of the experience economy.  By providing a wider array of product information and improved product experiences, Fraport was able to leverage omnichannel selling in airport shopping which led to an increase in average order value as well as an improvement in the customer experience.

Lagardere 

Everyone likes a discount.  This may be the biggest reason that duty-free retail has grown to become a $67.74 billion market as of 2018. But while cheaper prices are compelling to many consumers, research shows that modern shoppers tend to value the experience that accompanies as much or even more than its price when making purchasing decisions. Walker found that organizations believe that by 2020 customer experience will increasingly become more important than price in their business strategy. So, when Lagardère Travel Retail sought to bring its like of Aelia Duty Free stores into the omnichannel age, the company prioritized the digital customer experience. Now, shoppers can access the company’s network of more than 300 stores spread out over 50 airports across 18 countries from their computer or mobile device. They also have access to a wider and more diverse catalog of products after Lagardere worked to optimize its catalog update and product enrichment processes to bring new products to market more quickly and give customers more information about the items available for purchase. This has given Lagardère Travel Retail new revenue streams and avenues to interact with customers and helped ensure that customers shopping via any channel walk away from their duty-free buying experience satisfied.

Give travelers an experience worth writing home about

Neither of the top-notch customer experiences we’ve discussed here would be possible without near-perfect product experiences. Product experience is the core component of any compelling customer experience — it includes all of your product data, information, and assets, any content that helps define your omnichannel customer experience. With a Product Experience Management (PXM) solution, your team can harness the power of product information and use it to create a compelling experience for all of your eCommerce customers. That way, customers looking to purchase travel and hospitality products who come to your eCommerce site, mobile app, or any other sales channel, are greeted with a buying experience that meets — and even beats — their already high expectations. Give travelers an experience worth writing home about! Learn how PIM and PXM can help take omnichannel experiences to new heights by reading our blog on Turning A New Commerce Channel Into A Success or get in touch today!

Our new round is led by Summit Partners, a leading U.S. investment firm, and includes participation from our existing investors; Alven, Partech, Salesforce Ventures, and Stephan Dietrich. We are honored to join the Summit Partners’ family of great companies, which include Uber, Philz Coffee, and Webex. This is great recognition for the entire Akeneo team and the work we have accomplished thus far. A lot has happened since our previous funding round, led by Partech in late 2016. We launched several new products, grew our team to include 180 talented individuals across five countries, established strategic partnerships with Adobe/Magento and Salesforce, and have seen our community undergo enormous growth. With more than 60,000 installations of our Community Edition, we are proud to say that Akeneo, in less than five years, has become the most used PIM platform in the world. But we are only at the beginning of our journey.

With great power comes great responsibility

A funding round is just a means to an end. With all the cash and the support we now have to fuel our growth, we’re committed to continuing to execute on our vision of building the market’s standard for Product Experience Management. To quote Nicolas Dessaigne, CEO of Algolia: “In the end, we will not be judged by how much we raised but by how much we delivered.” So, let’s take this opportunity to see what’s coming next for Akeneo.

What lies ahead 

We released many product improvements and new modules during the past three years — including Reference entities and Onboarder, among others — and we successfully introduced our Cloud offering in 2017. But there is still a lot more to do:

• Continuously improve Akeneo PIM to remain the most user-friendly and efficient PIM solution available
• Unleash more Product Data Intelligence capabilities to automate product enrichment workflows with AI
• Further develop Akeneo PXM platform capabilities to allow our ecosystem to build and benefit more easily from SaaS-compatible add-ons.

Our primary area of investment with this round will be in our R&D, to continue to innovate and keep pace with our customer and community needs.

Embrace our open source roots

The software industry we are living in needs more transparency and collaboration to reinvent itself. Black boxes and vendor lock-in models are from another time, and should disappear. What makes Akeneo unique is the combination of our best-of-breed enterprise solution and our vibrant open source community. Most open source vendors tend to, at some point in their growth, consider their community offerings as competitors for their enterprise businesses and therefore start slowly killing them. We are — and will continue to be — determined and firm believers in the open SaaS model. We believe that our open source edition is our strongest asset and that we need, now more than ever, to keep investing in our ecosystem of partners and developers. There is still a long way to go, but this is an incredible journey, and we are proud to share it with you!

Onward and upward, Akeneo!

Fred de Gombert, CEO and co-founder of Akeneo

It’s almost time to update to Magento 2 — is your company ready to make the switch? With the deadline fast approaching for Magento 1 customers to upgrade to Magento 2, it is becoming crucial to ensure that all aspects be evaluated to ensure a smooth transition. The Magento 2 upgrade project is really a re-implementation and needs to be approached as such. The complexity and size of that effort will be proportional to the complexity of current customizations to migrate, site improvements to make, and data cleansing and data migration involved. Any internal user experience improvements will likely require a modern Product Information Management (PIM) platform. Any customer experience or sales growth enhancement objectives will likely need rich, granular, and high-quality product content that is best managed in a modern PIM. In this new white paper, Vik Gundoju, a partner at StrikeTru and a thought leader in PIM and eCommerce solutions, discusses how to make the most out of your Magento 2 upgrade and understand:

• Why PIM matters for Magento 2 upgrade
• The top commerce and content challenges addressed by PIM
• Recommended implementation roadmap for PIM, and
• Features of PIMGento, the fastest Akeneo to Magento integration connector