Start your digital transformation journey with PIM
Retailers, brands, manufacturers, and distributors are at the sharp end of an ongoing transformation in eCommerce. Technology-enabled capabilities are driving behavioural change among purchasers, so industry players are compelled to respond. To have a realistic chance of competing, digital transformation is no longer a choice of destination, but a necessity. That destination is in flux and will continue to be so. That means planning, to future-proof your business’s sustainability and to enable sustainable growth.
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Digital transformation – why?
From what state do you wish to transform? The implication of this question is that the current situation is problematic and that the root causes arise from deficiencies which are leading to substandard processes. The resulting impact on the customer is unfavourable – a chronic lack of searchability leads to low conversions, high product returns, abandoned carts, and an exodus of potential customers to your rivals. Customer loyalty is quite a stretch, revenues drop, cost of correction rises, and KPIs are never achieved. The road to hell is paved with good intentions, but intentions are not strategies!
What are the typical problems facing companies yet to attempt digital transformation?
Inaccurate product information
Inferior quality, missing and inconsistent product information across your sales channels has a noxious impact on your customers’ experience
Costly and time-consuming processes
Manual processes cause data accuracy problems and unprofitable use of time (having highly paid staff correct and amend inaccurate data is an expensive and wasteful use of their time). These problems undermine introduction of new products and creativity in marketing to name two impacts – overall, the time and effort need to keep product data relevant and correct is not what is needed in a fast-moving eCommerce environment.
Legacy tech stacks
Old systems held together with spit and sawdust have neither the capacity nor the agility required to grow and expand an offer which is becoming more diverse (and more complex), due to the rapidly increasing volume of product data available and, relevant for a quality customer experience.
Start with Data – technology is the door, but planning a strategy is the key
There are no shortcuts to digital transformation. It is not simply buying an impressive technology solution (as a PIM undoubtedly is) and assuming its power and capabilities will instantly transform your company into a digital behemoth, sweeping all before it.
At Start with Data, we are as much about facilitating transformation, as expertly guiding you to the best technology solution for your product information management. What you need are root and branch changes in your business – processes, people, and organisation.
As you travel towards genuine competitiveness in digitally driven commerce, these fundamental changes require organisational recalibration in terms of delivering on business aims. The mission and practices behind full-scale digital transformation can only be embedded and acted on by analysing and finding the pain points in the organisational culture – this means entrenched attitudes, assumptions, and activities. Our expert business consultants, with extensive experience with brands, manufacturers, distributors, and retailers are perfectly equipped to work with you to create a digital transformation roadmap to approach this seismic change with confidence.
From silos to collaboration
Look holistically at your business. Progress on the digital transformation journey only happens if everyone is singing from the same song sheet. You can streamline product data management, simplify processes, and increase efficiency if an embedded culture of collaboration, ownership and communication is in place. You need input and commitment from all key stakeholders to get the buy-in to ensure that your journey towards digital is coherent and, ultimately, successful.
PIM solutions and digital transformation
Improvements in business processes
How does a PIM form a foundational part of your digital transformation strategy? To begin with, in eCommerce, you are operating in a fiercely competitive and saturated market. What makes you stand out is the quality of your data, because it informs how well you can use that product information (for example, in enriching data assets or making your products searchable), the degree of customer satisfaction with your product experience, and the usefulness of the insights you extract from multiple interactions with your market.
Some key benefits PIM product information management software brings to how you work are:
- product information stored and universally accessible from a secure and centralised hub the golden record (or single source of truth) for your product information
- a business-user-friendly interface, where one-screen visualisation gives a straightforward overview of the status of your product data
- significant gains in process and workflow efficiency
- measurable business improvements, with greater speed, more efficiency, and increased cost-effectiveness
- as a cloud-based and service-supported solution, it enables an agile approach to onboarding, enriching and syndicating product data, shortening time to market
- scalability to new markets or increasing the volume of SKUs is entirely feasible
What does PIM software offer?
Product-centric businesses generate product data at every stage of the value chain. While other systems in your tech stack mange other kinds of data, such as engineering, process details, stock control or product development, there is a great deal of crossover data, and a PIM’s capacity to integrate with existing systems makes it a foundational part of any digital transformation strategy. Even with a modest growth strategy, the amount of product data likely to be generated from her onwards is only going to expand. Digitally mature businesses need integrated systems to store, structure, normalise, track, access, enrich and deploy product data throughout its life cycle, so integrating a PIM solution is a way of future-proofing your business and ensuring that the quality of your data is set at an extremely high bar.
- Automation of the entire data value chain, from ingestion to syndication to infinite channels.
- Minimal human involvement with product data management, thus limiting the risk of compromised quality.
- Across all departmental requirements, the unique version of the most up-to-date, trusted, and reliable product data.
- Exploiting the added value of integration with and unification of multiple systems (such as ERPs and logistics) so that all elements along the value chain work in harmony and synchronicity.
Part of the emerging digital transformation roadmap plots a route across your product data processes, data governance and required technology changes. These insights create value for your PIM solution business case, providing compelling arguments for sponsorship, identifying required buy-in from stakeholders, and justifying the funding needed to deliver measurable added value.
Start with Data and your digital transformation - an informed, expert and solution-driven partner
Transform your product information challenges into business benefits with our PIM consulting strategy and implementation services. So, you can fuel revenue growth, free up your team, and reduce costs and risk.
Where are you on your journey to product data greatness? Whether you need help devising a winning strategy, selecting, or implementing the right platforms to meet your business goals, or need help managing your product information and systems on an ongoing basis—we’ve got you covered.
All our services have one thing in common, our strategic approach. We understand that to meet your business goals; we need to keep an eye on the big picture, which means your people, processes, and the technology that enables them. That discipline, along with our deep industry and technical expertise, enables us to handle complex data management challenges and create long-term value for our clients.
Get in touch with us to talk in more depth about how we can partner with you to guarantee that your PIM implementation project leads to great results and productive staff!
Ready to take the next step in your product data journey?
For retailers and distributors
We have a highly experienced team of PIM consultants ready to transform your product information challenges into business benefits – Ben Adams, CEO
For brands and manufacturers
We can your business compete and thrive on the digital shelf – Beth Parker, Lead Consultant