ID 145 Akeneo PXM For Dummies Document

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Product
Experience
Management
Special Edition
By John Evans,
Salvatore Accaputo, and
Daniela da Silva
These materials are © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Any dissemination, distribution, or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited.
Product Experience Management For Dummies®, Special Edition
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................ 1
About This Book.................................................................................... 1
Icons Used in This Book........................................................................ 2
Beyond the Book................................................................................... 3
CHAPTER 1: Navigating the Experience Economy............................ 5

Understanding the Experience Economy........................................... 5
Recognizing the Need for Innovation................................................. 7
Fulfilling the Need for Agile Product Data........................................ 10
Defining PXM....................................................................................... 11
CHAPTER 2: Crafting Compelling Product Experiences............. 13

Creating Value with PXM.................................................................... 13
Developing Buy-In............................................................................... 15
Putting Together a PXM Solution...................................................... 16
CHAPTER 3: Starting the PXM Journey.................................................... 21

Collect................................................................................................... 22
Standardize.......................................................................................... 22
Enrich.................................................................................................... 22
Contextualize....................................................................................... 23
Distribute.............................................................................................. 23
CHAPTER 4: Understanding a Product Information

Management Solution............................................................ 25
Why Retailers and Brands Need PIM Now....................................... 26
Seeing How PIM Works....................................................................... 27
Looking at Must-Have PIM Features................................................. 28
Benefitting from a PIM........................................................................ 32
CHAPTER 5: Discovering a Digital Asset

Management Solution............................................................ 35
Learning How DAM Works................................................................. 35
Benefitting from DAM......................................................................... 37
Looking at Must-Have Features......................................................... 39
Improving Customer Interactions by Using DAM............................ 40
Looking at DAM System Types.......................................................... 41
Choosing Your DAM Solution............................................................. 43
Table of Contents iii
CHAPTER 6: Understanding a Product Content
Syndication Solution................................................................ 45
Learning about PCS Solutions............................................................ 45
Looking at Must-Have PCS Features................................................. 48
Benefitting from a PCS Solution........................................................ 54
CHAPTER 7: Ten Keys to Successful PXM Practices....................... 57

Collect Product Data from Reliable Sources.................................... 57
Supplement Technical Product Data with Usage Data................... 58
Use High-Quality Images, Video, and Other Digital Assets............ 58
Research Differences by Market....................................................... 58
Create a Holistic, Full-Fledged Channel Strategy............................. 59
Leverage PXM Process Automation.................................................. 59
Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration............................................. 59
Track Performance.............................................................................. 59
Remember That Context is King!....................................................... 60
Think of PXM as a Journey.................................................................. 60
iv Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition
Introduction
C
ustomer experience has become the centerpiece of most
marketing strategies today. Marketers have begun to realize
that it’s the biggest differentiator a brand or a retailer has
in today’s overcrowded market. And great customer experience
starts with a compelling product experience. Customers have
their pick of channels, so standing out among the crowd with
relevant product information is imperative.
For this reason, Product Experience Management (PXM) tools are

a necessity. You want to be able to compete on all the shopping
channels and new marketplaces that arise. The ability to prepare
your product catalog to flow into every channel in the required
format is no easy feat. This book was created to address this
problem.
About This Book

Welcome to Product Experience Management For Dummies, S pecial
Edition. This book covers several topics you won’t easily find
elsewhere. It presents PXM as a connection between three types
of capabilities — Product Information Management (PIM), Digital
Asset Management (DAM), and Product Content Syndication
(PCS) — that each excel in its respective area to produce the best
possible PXM solution.
You look at
»» Navigating the experience economy: In the 21st century,

most goods online have become commoditized. You look
at how this situation has evolved. Control has shifted to
buyers — they can explore many options and find the lowest
price. Technology has enabled a variety of new ways to shop,
and you need to be ready to accommodate all of them.
»» An in-depth definition of PXM: PXM involves more than
technical data. It also means you need to create content that
delivers an emotional connection. You discover how to move
from managing data to crafting and delivering experiences.
Introduction 1
»» Understanding a PIM solution: At the heart of the ability
to manage product information is PIM. PIM solutions are
increasingly more sophisticated, and choosing the right
one is key to developing product experiences that win
customers.
»» Understanding a DAM solution: DAM solutions help you
organize your digital assets in one central location and find
any kind of digital asset (for example, image, document,
video) you need. It also protects your assets with version
control and allows you to manage roles and permissions.
»» Understanding a PCS solution: A PCS solution is key to
preparing your data to integrate with all your disparate
shopping channels. It helps you manage and structure data
feeds so you can efficiently syndicate product data to major
online channels, such as Google, Facebook, or Amazon.
Icons Used in This Book

Throughout this book, you see different icons. Here’s what they
mean.
This icon provides you with ways to do things faster or more easily.
Because PXM is a relatively new concept, we try to point out new
ideas and how they fit together. We include things we think might
help provide a solution to something you’re looking for.
This icon points out foundational PXM points that are useful.
We use this icon when we want to include some information for

those who want to go a bit deeper into the technical details of
PXM.
The Warning icon alerts you to things that can be harmful to you
or your company.
2 Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition
Beyond the Book
This book is aimed at helping you learn more about PXM and the
components that help you create great product experiences. Some
resources that you’ll find helpful that go beyond this book include
»» www.akeneo.com/white-paper/product-information-
management-101 : Are you new to the concept of PIM? If
so, check out this PIM 101 e-book and learn how Akeneo
radically simplifies the process of creating, maintaining,
and using product descriptions and specifications for online
and offline product catalogs.
»» www.tessa-dam.com/basics : Whether you’re already using
a DAM system, evaluating a purchase, or getting a fresh start
on the subject, this summary gives you a comprehensive
overview of features and helps you understand the business
benefits that a DAM system brings to your business. By using
best practices, you gain detailed insight into the processes
and the digital asset life cycle. You find more information
here to get the most out of your system.
»» https://productsup.com/blog : Want to learn more about
feed-based marketing and PCS? Productsup regularly shares
relevant news, tips, and insights for the commerce industry.
From product data optimization hacks to creating a success-
ful cross-border strategy or how to automate manual
processes, you can grow your expertise, master PCS, and
unlock your revenue-generating potential.
Introduction 3
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Developing an understanding of the
experience economy
»» Recognizing trends that create the need

for innovation
»» Seeing the need for agile product data
»» Defining PXM
Chapter 1
Navigating the
Experience Economy
T
he Internet creates a vast commoditization of goods. With
relative ease, you can find the product you want at the
lowest price and have it delivered quickly. To get a customer
to pay attention, you need to create a memorable experience.
There must be a reason why customers buy your product over
another.
In this chapter, you look at what Product Experience Manage-

ment (PXM) is and why you need to have the right system in place
to provide a satisfying and emotionally charged experience that
makes your product compelling to buy.
Understanding the Experience Economy

In 1999, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore wrote a book entitled The
Experience Economy. The context is about how people trade money
for time. This concept and the progression of economic value
help us understand how we arrived at the place where customer
experiences are the centerpiece of business models.
CHAPTER 1 Navigating the Experience Economy 5
Pine and Gilmore say that in today’s economy people differentiate
themselves from their competitors by moving up the economic
value chain to provide excellent customer experiences. This value
chain concept is shown in Figure 1-1.
FIGURE 1-1: The progression of economic value.
To help explain this concept a bit more, here is how this value
chain evolved:
1. The value chain started with commodities.

The agrarian economy was based on commodities. In a
commodities-based economy, people didn’t care about the
brand or the features; they only cared about the price.
2. Next came goods.
An industrial economy, which was based on manufactured
goods, came next. People paid more for a product that
enhanced a commodity by adding some perceived value and
adding their brand name to it.
3. The next economy was services.
Value was added by packaging goods with services. In the
current services economy, goods have become commod-
itized so that price is now the main difference — think about
how long-distance telephone service or cable television is
sold on price.
4. Finally, the experience economy arrived.
Goods and services are no longer enough. With everything
becoming commoditized, it’s time to move to a new level of
economic value that’s focused on staging experiences for
your customers. Experiences become a distinct economic
offering. This is where growth will come from and where we
need to innovate.
One of the key distinctions in economic value between a service

and an experience is how time is used. What does this mean to you
as a company? To truly differentiate, you need to move beyond
offering “time well saved” as a value proposition. You have to
create a “time well spent” experience, so customers want to
spend time on your websites or in your store. The more time they
spend with you, the more money they may spend.
Give careful attention to the idea of time well spent. If you’re a

brand or a retailer who has a fascinating in-store experience, you
may be able to charge admission to enter the store or participate
in a special event. If you’re an online retailer, look at your cus-
tomer journey and think about how you can create an emotional
connection for visitors to your e-commerce site.
Recognizing the Need for Innovation

If you read the preceding section, you now know why experience
has become the currency of the realm for brands and retailers.
If you didn’t read that section, take a gander when you get a
chance. But in this section, we give you the key areas that drive
innovation in commerce.
Increasing retail disruption

The status quo in retail has been disrupted. The increasingly
dynamic efforts in retail mean that merchants need to continually
innovate to remain ahead of and differentiated from their online
and offline competitors. Similarly, brands need to ensure that
their products are represented correctly in new channels, which
brings new buyer interaction paradigms, such as voice search.
A great example of increasing retail disruption is Amazon’s
dominance in online sales and its initiatives to move into a vari-
ety of channel models, such as Whole Foods brick-and-mortar
stores and the increasingly popular Echo device and Alexa voice
assistant.
Changing behaviors and

characteristics of buyers
Now that e-commerce has been in place for well over 20 years,
a new wave of millennial buyers is coming of age in an era
where it has always been possible to shop and buy online. In the
business-to-business (B2B) sector, the phenomenon is particularly
acute — B2B is generally later to market in offering e-commerce
sites compared to the business-to-consumer (B2C) sector.
Millennials look for Amazon–like customer experiences every-

where and are accustomed to doing significant product research
before entering a store or purchasing online. B2B and B2C mer-
chants need to innovate to keep pace with the way buyers want to
interact with and be informed by each channel.
Proliferating e-commerce channels

New channels and formats appear quickly. Buyers rapidly adapt
to new technologies and change the way they shop. For example,
they use voice assistants, buy from mobile applications, and use
social media sites like Instagram.
Some online retailers are using in-store techniques such as

pop up shops, concept stores, and showrooms. Each of these
channels offers a different way for customers to interact with
your products — and as a result, you’ll need to manage different
product experiences for each channel.
Each of the trends we discuss in this section has significant

implications for how product information is prepared and
delivered. The ultimate objective of PXM is to enable marketers
and commerce teams to easily and efficiently manage product
information and deliver it in context using adaptable, flexible,
robust, and built-for-purpose tools.
Diversifying channel-specific needs
Technology innovations are developing at a fast pace. The adop-
tion of voice assistant technology is growing and one study
reported that 26 percent of smart speaker users have ordered
something via voice.
These new channels require product information to be made avail-

able in different contexts. Even the way people search via voice
versus typing is different. A paragraph-long product description
and rich images will work for print and e-commerce sites, but
a product description for a voice assistant will need to be much
shorter. Merchants must, therefore, prepare their product data
in different contexts for such things as voice-activated shopping
assistants that are becoming increasingly popular.
Globalized and cross-border commerce

Online shopping makes it easy for consumers to access
global markets. According to Forrester Research, cross-border
e-commerce is set to reach $627 billion in sales by 2022, making
up a grand total of 20 percent of e-commerce as a whole. That’s a
substantial audience.
This development requires that brands and online retailers cre-

ate and execute a seamless international e-commerce strategy.
From a product information standpoint, this means your product
catalog needs to
»» Be available in the local language.

»» Use the appropriate technical information to accommodate
different sizes (for example, US versus UK versus European
versus Asian shoe and apparel sizing).
»» Consider local norms, including culturally-appropriate
imagery and regulatory requirements for things like
ingredients.
Handling cross-border and global commerce not only increases

the size and complexity of your product catalog but also creates
the need to consider what the best product experience means for
each locale and each channel used in that locale.
Growing expectations and need for
omnichannel experiences
Consumers don’t care what device or channel they buy from. They
want to experience a consistent and contextual product experi-
ence across all channels. Imagine the confusion that would result
from customers finding differing product descriptions or pricing,
depending on which channel (print, store, or online) they were
on. While product information should be consistent and accurate
across multiple channels, it does not mean that it needs to be
uniform — you need to put product information in context.
Complex and fast-growing

technology ecosystems
New technologies are constantly popping up. One of those that
has great potential is artificial intelligence (AI). You may already
see AI becoming part of your online experience in the form of
recommendation engines and improved search capabilities. As AI
becomes even more prevalent, people expect brands and retailers
to anticipate their needs and give them exactly what they want
with less time and effort. AI will increasingly be used to provide
merchants and brands with product intelligence they can use to
help craft more compelling product experiences.
Other emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and

augmented reality (AR) are already being tested in numerous
markets. It’s not hard to imagine that customers will begin to
expect such technologies to create even more spectacular immer-
sive customer and brand experiences, which will have implica-
tions for how product information is delivered. So be prepared for
the next big thing whatever that might be.
Fulfilling the Need for Agile Product Data

To supply great product experiences, you need agile product data.
Agile product data has these key characteristics:
»» Always available: Instead of being locked in proprietary

operational systems, product data needs to be collected,
standardized, enriched, and readily available to your
commerce platforms.
»» Easily transformable: Product information you’ve collected
and standardized should be able to be easily transformed
for the consuming commerce platform — for example, your
e-commerce platform, print system, point-of-sale (POS)
system — as well as marketplaces that typically dictate
product information listing requirements.
»» Consistent and high quality: All technical and qualitative
information as well as imagery and usability details used to
describe your products should be accurate, comprehensive,
and consistent wherever they appear. With poor quality
product data, buyers will quickly move on to a competing
product, or to a merchant who is able to provide more
actionable information.
»» Highly connected to a large ecosystem: Different tech-
nologies are used to run different types of commerce
platforms. Your product information hub needs to be able to
seamlessly connect with relevant platforms as well as related
technologies in use that drive the product experience.
»» Always in the right context: Differing channels, locales,
standards, and cultural norms all play a factor in making
sure product data is delivered in context, so the product
experience is relevant and compelling to encourage
conversions.
Defining PXM
Every day, there are thousands of platforms and channels on
which products are listed, advertised, presented, and sold. For
this reason, brands and retailers need to populate all shopper
touchpoints with
»» Strong, compelling brands and product experiences

»» Consistent stories told in a unified way
»» Product messages, formats, and presentation styles that
match the unique channel they are on
This means that the right product needs to be displayed in

the right format, structure, and style of the respective channel.
Context is king!
This sounds great, so how can merchants and brands create and
master this kind of messaging? Use a PXM solution to overcome
the limitations of using spreadsheets and other ill-suited tools.
Unfortunately, many organizations use spreadsheets and other

manual methods to manage product data, which they’ve found
to be inefficient, time-consuming, and error-prone. With the
need to focus on crafting an experience, using tools that weren’t
designed to support delivering product data in context makes this
task difficult to achieve.
Product information consists of more than technical data. It’s

also about usage and emotional data. By understanding this, you
are able to move from managing data to crafting and delivering
experiences.
PXM is an emerging practice and category of business application,

and we propose this comprehensive definition: PXM is the sub-
tle science of delivering product information in context, adapted
and tailored by channel and locale to match the buying experience
at every touchpoint. Having the right data and insight into the
type of product experience buyers expect is the foundation for any
great customer experience.
PXM requires different tools and practices to enable retailers and

brands to deliver an exciting product experience. We cover the
software you need to create a complete PXM solution in Chapter 2.
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Discovering the benefits of great
product experiences
»» Pursuing buy-in from all executives
»» Building a PXM solution
Chapter 2
Crafting Compelling
Product Experiences
D
id you ever expect that product experience would become
your greatest competitive advantage? Today, customers
expect an emotionally satisfying product experience when
they look at your product information. It’s not optional. Their
expectations are high, and you have to meet them. Your custom-
ers expect a great experience at every touchpoint so your brand
message must be consistent yet differentiated across channels.
In this chapter, you look at how your company can benefit from
implementing a well-thought out Product Experience Manage-
ment (PXM) solution and how to get buy in from your managers.
Creating Value with PXM

In Chapter 1, we give you a comprehensive definition of PXM.
Here, in the following sections, you look at the value PXM brings
to you and your customers.
CHAPTER 2 Crafting Compelling Product Experiences 13
Increasing conversions
One of the major benefits of providing a great product experi-
ence is that your customers reward you with more purchases.
Companies using PXM solutions have reported up to a 400 percent
increase in conversion rates.
Reducing returns
Better product information also results in fewer returns. When
customers are shown high-quality product information and
images that accurately depict the product, they’re more likely to
buy and less likely to return the product. Companies using PXM
solutions have reported up to a 40 percent decrease in returns.
Enhancing brand loyalty

PXM tools allow you to create an emotional connection with your
buyers, which makes them more likely to stay loyal to your brand.
When customers enjoy the experience, they’re more likely to turn
into repeat customers, write positive reviews, and refer their
friends.
Accelerating speed to market

With tools designed to manage product information, you can get
products to market faster across all your channels and regions
because PXM solutions are purpose-fit to manage and feed all
product information across all sales channels.
A quick time to market is particularly important for brands and

merchants offering seasonal products and sales activities. More-
over, it’s also critical for those who regularly update their product
catalogs in response to new product releases or changing con-
sumer trends.
Increasing efficiency and effectiveness

A PXM solution provides productivity tools that automate many
catalog management and product feed management tasks. With
manual tasks out of the way and automated business rules and
workflows in place, your team can be free to focus on perfor-
mance and delivering a great product experience.
Developing Buy-In
Buy-in from company executives is key to making your PXM
strategy a success. If you’re wondering how to approach each
position, take a look in this section for a few ideas.
CMOs and directors of e-commerce

CMOs and directors of e-commerce are interested in enhanced
brand identity and business growth. They want to know how a
PXM solution will impact the bottom line.
What to tell them: A standout product experience will result in

higher conversion rates, reduced returns, and the ability to scale
product offerings more quickly while fueling a superior brand
experience.
C-level decision makers/general

management
C-level decision makers and general management care about the
ability to expand the business and save costs. They want to deliver
more products to more markets across more channels. They want
to know how a PXM solution gives them a 21st century sales expe-
rience that creates a substantial competitive advantage.
What to tell them: They’ll be able to calculate an increased return

on investment (ROI) from more sales and fewer returns and be
able to expand market share by taking advantage of new sales
channels such as voice commerce.
Product marketing and catalog

managers
Product marketing and catalog managers are interested in pro-
ductivity gains and reducing errors. They want to make every
process faster, more efficient, and more accurate.
What to tell them: A PXM solution will simplify their lives by

automating and accelerating their current processes. Eliminating
manual tasks helps reduce typos and other common errors that
occur when cutting and pasting product data. With manual work
out of the way, they’ll be able to focus on more value-added tasks,
like creating compelling product experiences.
IT decision makers
IT decision makers are interested in getting the right tools to
help marketers do their jobs, and then ensuring those tools work
in their technology infrastructure. They want to empower these
data experts, facilitate data governance, and eliminate gaps from
legacy systems.
What to tell them: A PXM solution will provide purpose-built

tools to control who does what with the product data and sync
with other enterprise applications. Selecting the right technology
set allows IT to deploy on-premises or in the cloud. It also offers
an ecosystem of partners that can help implement, support, and
extend the solution.
Putting Together a PXM Solution

To craft compelling product experiences, the most robust and
complete PXM solution combines three categories of capabilities:
»» Managing product information: Product Information

Management (PIM) capabilities are the cornerstone of
PXM. A PIM tool contains the golden record (one source of
truth) of your product data (descriptions, technical attributes,
categorizations, and so on). It is your complete, correct,
clean, and enriched product content. We discuss PIM tools
more in Chapter 4.
The focus of PIM is to collect all kinds of data (often in
different formats and from different locations), standardize
that data, enrich it so it’s complete, and put it into context.
After that, it distributes the catalog to your channels and
locales.
»» Managing digital assets: Managing your digital assets is
another essential component in PXM. Digital assets are the
key supporting images, videos, and documents used in your
e-commerce, marketplace, print, and other online catalogs.
Images and videos can be manipulated as required for each
sales channel. A Digital Asset Management (DAM) system
brings the emotional touch that’s essential to the product
experience. We discuss DAM systems more in Chapter 5.
»» Managing catalog feeds and syndication: Your final
goal is to have your buyers interact with your completed
product information on all your channels. You can create
optimized feeds to help syndicate enriched and contextual-
ized product information to a wider variety of channels such
as marketplaces. The type of software that helps accomplish
this is called Product Content Syndication (PCS) tools.
A PCS tool keeps track of what product information
marketplaces require so your products will be accurately
represented. It can also be used to help collect data from
different external sources to help ensure your product
information is as complete and robust as possible. We
discuss PCS tools more in Chapter 6.
These capabilities together enable your marketing and commerce

teams to create and deliver a contextualized, consistent, compel-
ling product experience by engaging in the subtle science of PXM.
In Figure 2-1, you see what a complete PXM solution looks like.
FIGURE 2-1: A complete PXM solution.
Your raw product data typically resides in a variety of sources.

The following list includes the types of data sources where prod-
uct data currently lies. Data from these sources is imported via the
connectors, extensions, and APIs from the left side of Figure 2-1.
Some data comes from internal systems such as your ERP and
marketing systems. Other data is in the hands of suppliers. Still,
other data could be in external data pools or on other websites.
Common sources of product data can include
»» Marketing databases
»» ERP systems
»» Excel files
»» Media servers
»» Suppliers
»» Analytics systems
»» Price comparison databases
»» Product rating databases
»» Content providers
As shown on the right side of Figure 2-1, the following list includes
the potential channels that your product catalog is published to.
These channels can include
»» Print catalogs
»» Point-of-sale (POS) systems
»» E-Commerce/webshops
»» Mobile applications
»» Search channels
»» Social media
»» Marketplaces
»» Comparison shopping
»» Retargeting and affiliates
»» Marketing automation
»» Retailers and wholesalers
»» Data pools
»» Voice assistants
The middle section of Figure 2-1 is where the PXM magic hap-
pens. Each of the core PIM, DAM, and PCS capabilities helps
enable marketers and commerce teams to fully craft compelling
product experiences. The PXM solution will enable marketers to
go through the PXM journey to manage the product experience.
That journey includes
»» Collecting and accessing data from various sources using

pre-built connectors, extensions, or APIs
»» Standardizing data from different formats to create
common product categories and product attribute names in
a single, common catalog format
»» Enriching product data with additional attributes, images,
and compelling descriptions to help create the emotional
connection and story you want to tell your customers
»» Contextualizing the product information so it fits the
channel, language, and locale
»» Distributing the enriched, contextualized product data to all
your channels — those you manage as well as external
channels like marketplaces
We explain the product journey in more detail in Chapter 3.
How much do your customers care about quality product infor-

mation? Forrester reports that 85 percent of customers rate prod-
uct information as the top feature they want from an e-commerce
website. Make sure you have high-quality data that’s ready to use
across channels.
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Collecting raw product data
»» Standardizing file formats
»» Enriching the quality of your product

information
»» Putting your product data in context
»» Distributing your product information
Chapter 3
Starting the PXM
Journey
D
ocumenting and understanding the Product Experience
Management (PXM) journey is key to creating successful
product experiences. In this chapter, you look at the jour-
ney that product data takes as it’s transformed from raw data to
product experiences to your sales channels. This process is called
the PXM journey.
To fully understand the PXM journey, we need to talk about the

flow of product information. This flow is illustrated in Figure 3-1.
Each section in this chapter explains this figure in more depth.
FIGURE 3-1: The PXM journey.
CHAPTER 3 Starting the PXM Journey 21
Collect
Your raw product data exists in a wide variety of systems. Some
of these are internal to your organization such as your Enterprise
Resource Planning (ERP) system, marketing database, procure-
ment system, certain spreadsheet files, and more. Other sources
are external, such as supplier systems. The first step in your
PXM journey is to collect raw product data from these disparate
systems. This step can be difficult because, more often than not,
the file formats will differ across each source.
Standardize
The formatting of the files isn’t the only challenge you have when
collecting data. The format of the data itself is going to be dif-
ferent as well. Each source will have its own attribute naming
scheme (for example, the column with the product names in them
could be labeled Product_Name, prod-nm, name_prod, and so
on). These column names will need to be standardized in order
to accurately map and consolidate your raw data from these dif-
ferent sources. Additionally, you need to standardize the attribute
values, such as brand name and color, within each column.
The objective of this step is to make sure the product data can be
consolidated so it makes sense to the marketer and can be easily
configured for use in your catalog.
Enrich
After you collect and standardize the raw data, the next step is
to enrich and control the quality of your product information. In
order to complete this task, you need to
»» Bring together all relevant attributes.

»» Ensure all attribute fields are populated.
»» Classify your products into categories.
»» Add digital assets like images.
To ensure high-quality data, control the process by using valida-
tion steps with your product data experts. This process ensures
nothing is published without prior approval.
Contextualize
After your product data is complete and accurate, you need to put
it into context for the different markets where your products will
be seen. Contextualization is about localizing data for specific
markets, translating it for different locales, and assigning images
that are relevant and appropriate for the combination of destina-
tions. Context is also about ensuring that the appropriate product
data is used for each channel — for example, handling different
product listing requirements for each marketplace, and custom-
izing product descriptions for voice, e-commerce, print, and so
on. You may even create different product assortments for cross-
border commerce as well.
Distribute
After you have a complete catalog that’s tailored for different
markets and channels, it’s time to distribute your product infor-
mation. Your enriched, contextualized product catalog will be
spread across your webshop, print material, mobile app, online
sales channels, and more.
To accomplish this final step, you need connectors to your various

channels and a knowledge of their unique product information
requirements.
CHAPTER 3 Starting the PXM Journey 23
SUPPORTING THE CUSTOMER’S
BUYING JOURNEY
The key to creating a great customer experience is creating a buyer’s
journey that supports and enhances interactions in each channel. For
example, your webshop allows you to organize products by category,
the mobile experience will focus more on visual assets, while the in-
store experience will have advisors who will be able to answer specific
questions to address the smallest details sought by the customer.
In each step along the journey, your product information needs to be

available to match the context that each platform (e-commerce, print,
mobile, voice assistant, and so on) provides.
The best practice for PXM is to ensure that it includes product infor-
mation delivered to support the following:
1. Research: Customers find products easily, mainly online where

most buyers start their search. There are high-quality descriptions
that are well-referenced that include marketplaces where half of
online sales take place today.
2. Consideration: As they narrow their decisions, customers should
find clear branding and good storytelling. They need to see com-
pelling and emotional information in context. At this step, they
experience the power of peer-to-peer recommendations and
rising social selling influence.
Don’t forget to put information on social networks. The correct
context and meaning with emotional information need to be
placed everywhere your customers search.
3. Decision/purchase: When customers are ready to make the final
purchase decision, they need to see a description that’s appropri-
ate for each channel, images that render appropriately for each
channel, and translations for each locale.
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Understanding the need for PIM
»» Looking at the must-have capabilities

of PIM
»» Seeing the benefits of PIM
Chapter 4
Understanding a
Product Information
Management Solution
P
roduct Information Management (PIM) solutions were born
from a need to efficiently create and distribute product cata-
logs to many different sales channels. Marketers didn’t
want to separately create a catalog for print, another for an
e-commerce platform, and yet another for each individual mar-
ketplace. A PIM solution allows commerce teams to manage prod-
uct information in one place and distribute it in the right context
to each channel. By doing so, they eliminate redundant work,
reduce errors across channels, and streamline their catalog man-
agement processes. This results in a more productive team and a
faster time to market.
In this chapter, you look at the critical capabilities PIM must have
to support the Product Experience Management (PXM) journey
(we describe this in Chapter 3) and review how the workflow is
managed.
CHAPTER 4 Understanding a Product Information Management Solution 25
Why Retailers and Brands
Need PIM Now
If you wonder why retailers and brands need PIM now more
than ever, the answer is straightforward. The variety of differ-
ent channels, platforms, and locales make it necessary to have a
scalable way to provide customers with complete, accurate, and
compelling product information without having to do everything
manually. A PIM solution efficiently supports all omnichannel
and cross-border commerce initiatives.
Many organizations have tried to tackle managing product infor-

mation with a spreadsheet. Why shouldn’t you take this approach?
We have all used spreadsheets for a wide variety of tasks in our
personal and professional lives. It is the go-to tool when you
want to manipulate data, and it’s used for almost everything. But
technology has evolved and given us a multitude of new tools to
accomplish complex tasks. You need specialized tools to create
high-quality data solutions.
Consider customer relationship management (CRM). Customer

data isn’t managed in spreadsheets anymore, so why use them
to manage increasingly complex and diverse product data? When
you had a small number of products, you could probably get away
with using a spreadsheet. But that won’t work for long consid-
ering that you need to export different versions of your product
information to accommodate different formats, descriptions,
measurements, languages, and much more for every new channel
that comes along.
PXM is a new discipline that requires purpose-built tools. The

leaders in today’s market have moved away from spreadsheets
and adopted PIM to collect, standardize, enrich, contextualize,
and distribute all product data to sales channels. See more about
the PXM journey in Chapter 3.
For example, a PIM tool offers you the ability to use business rules
to automatically populate your product fields in bulk. This saves
manual effort and reduces the chance of introducing typos and
errors. PIM tools also offer workflows, so product catalogs are
reviewed and approved before they’re published. PIM tools can
also track completeness of your catalog to ensure the following:
»» Required fields are filled in.
»» Locales are fully translated.
»» Attributes and images are ready for the right channels.
Spreadsheets can’t offer several capabilities, including
»» Automation
»» Tracked workflow
»» Data governance
»» Data validation
Spreadsheets don’t seamlessly connect to e-commerce platforms,
marketplaces, mobile apps, voice assistants, and print catalogs.
Automation helps your team focus on its real job — not on cutting
and pasting or figuring out which version of a product is current.
Seeing How PIM Works

In the PIM workflow, your product data source information will
come from an array of systems and will be imported into the PIM tool
for enrichment and translation (if necessary). A good PIM solution
provides a level of governance and control over your product infor-
mation by using automation, and user rights management and per-
missions. After fully prepared and complete, you can then distribute
your catalogs to your various sales channels — your e-commerce
site, print catalog, mobile app, marketplace, and others.
You get a high-level view of the PIM workflow in Figure 4-1.
FIGURE 4-1: The PIM workflow.
On the left side of Figure 4-1, you see that product information
flows from a variety of internal and external sources into the PIM
tool. Included in the list of sources is digital assets — photos,
videos, documents — that complement the text-based attributes
managed in the PIM tool. Next, that data is enriched and con-
trolled by your marketing team inside the PIM tool. Enrichment
and control include standardization of the data from your many
sources, classification into families and categories, as well as
localization and translation if you’re selling to buyers in other
languages. PIM also offers capabilities to control the data, man-
age users, and govern the process. Putting the product data in
context for different locales and channels also happens here.
After that, the enriched data can be exported in the appropriate

format to e-commerce platforms, marketplaces, print catalogs,
point-of-sale (POS) systems, mobile applications, and more.
Looking at Must-Have PIM Features

PIM should enable your marketing teams to easily move through
the PXM journey from disparate product data to compelling prod-
uct experiences in all your sales channels. In this section, we give
you the key PIM features.
Data collection
With PIM, you should be able to import raw product content (data
collection) in common file formats and/or connect directly to the
source where this content resides. The sources can be both inter-
nal and external to your organization.
Connectors to source systems should be available as packaged

connectors and application programming interfaces (APIs) to give
you maximum flexibility and support for all possible sources.
Product standardization, organization,

and categorization
Your raw product data is going to be in different formats and use
different labels. Your PIM solution should help you
»» Standardize: Harmonizes the data, which is likely in

different formats in each of the different source systems
(see Chapter 3 for more information)
»» Categorize: Allows you to flexibly create categories and
families of products
»» Organize: Configures the catalog for different channels,
languages, and so on
Catalog flexibility is critically important to handle the many
different ways your products can be categorized for use in
different channels and locales. Additionally, the catalog should
natively support handling product models and variants.
Take a look at Figure 4-2. Here you see a t-shirt that is available
in different color and size combinations. The t-shirt varies on two
levels but still retains (inherits) common attributes (descriptors
like red or blue and cotton or polyester) from the product model at
the top. The common attributes in the product models flow down
to the size variants, meaning the red t-shirts are all 100 percent
cotton, whereas the blue t-shirts are a cotton polyester blend.
FIGURE 4-2: PIM support for product models and variants.
PIM should have the flexibility to inherit attributes from product

models so your marketing team doesn’t have to discretely manage
every attribute at every level, which consumes vast amounts of
resources and time. Additionally, your PIM solution should make
it easy to create associations between products in your catalog. For
example, you may want to create an association between t-shirts
and jeans, and jeans with belts and other accessories. This makes
it easy to define relationships like an alternative product or a sub-
stitution between products.
Rules engine and enrichment
A PIM tool should make life easier for the marketing team, but if
the team is simply doing manual effort in a different place, the
productivity gains are reduced. You need to look for a PIM tool that
offers automation to help set product attribute values and leaves
the more creative work to your marketers. This feature gives you
the time to write the emotional descriptions and select the correct
imagery to deliver the best product experience possible.
When standardizing attribute values across many products, PIM

should include a business rules engine that can assign values
based on a rule specified by a marketer. This removes the need
to manually edit individual fields for every product, making the
process much more efficient and productive.
A good PIM solution also allows you to run operations in bulk, so

a change to an attribute common across many products, a family
of products, or a category can be accomplished in one touch of a
button. Support for bulk actions and a rules engine can eliminate
a lot of manual work and contribute to marketer efficiency and
productivity.
Another enrichment capability that helps create a better experi-

ence is support for reference entities — that is, managing data
that isn’t product data, but is related to it. Examples of reference
data include designers, looks, rooms, brands, ingredients, care
instructions, manufacturers, colors, and more.
Look for a PIM solution that can manage reference entities

alongside products so you can ensure a more complete experience
across your channels.
Manage digital assets with products

Your catalog includes more than just text attributes. A compelling
product experience will include attractive images as well. Your
PIM solution should include the ability to manage and transform
the images that are associated with your products.
Validation workflow
One big benefit of PIM is that it makes sure your product infor-
mation is as accurate as possible. You want a PIM solution that
helps you manage the process and drives validation so product
data is reviewed and ready for publication. This feature is par-
ticularly important if you have several teams working in the PIM
tool on a given product. Validation workflow allows you to boost
collaboration while maintaining control over the process and the
quality of your product data.
Manage catalog completeness

You never want to publish any catalog that’s missing required
product information. Look for a PIM solution that measures the
completeness of your catalog and presents it in a dashboard. This
process helps focus your team on only reviewing and addressing
products that are incomplete or need to be translated into other
languages to support local markets and cross-border commerce.
By focusing the team’s efforts, it reduces time hunting for issues
and allows you to easily monitor and predict when your catalog
will be ready to be published.
Manage translations and localizations

Translating your catalog is important and PIM should connect to
translation systems. However, it’s only part of the process to pro-
duce a catalog that’s localized by market or region. Your assort-
ment might differ in different locales, and the images you use
might also be different. A PIM tool that can localize your catalog
by region and handle the specific requirements for each channel
is critical to ensuring your products are contextualized for each
market.
Localization is more than translations. It’s about adapting your

product information to local norms and regulations.
Manage users, roles, and permissions

As your catalog grows and as you manage multiple channels,
you’re going to have a larger team of people using PIM — perhaps
separated by product line, or by the e-commerce team and the
print team. To make it simple to control access, make sure your
PIM solution can group users by their roles, and assign permis-
sions to those roles and groups.
Make sure you can control privileges at the attribute level and
even support a single sign-on login scheme to make it easy to
grant access to the PIM tool from a central directory.
Manage catalog versions
and publishing
Sometimes it’s helpful to be able to restore prior versions of your
catalog and to get an audit trail of changes over time made by
different PIM users. Look for this feature in your PIM solution to
help ensure good governance and recovery if ever needed.
Control over publication is useful when you want to have one ver-
sion of the catalog that’s live and another that’s used for work in
progress to create a specialty catalog or to simply begin working
on a new, updated version of a product.
Distribute your catalog

After you enrich, complete, and localize your catalog, it’s ready
to be distributed to your e-commerce platform, marketplaces,
and all the other channels where you’re present. Look for a PIM
tool that’s highly connected and that offers a robust ecosystem
of extensions and connectors so publishing your finished catalog
and images is as fast and seamless as possible.
Benefitting from a PIM

In this section, you see some of the direct benefits you get when
you use a PIM solution. These include
»» Enhancing the customer experience: You can’t deliver a

great customer experience without a compelling product
experience. Customers expect a great experience no matter
what touchpoint they use to interact with a retailer or a
brand, whether it is business-to-customer (B2C) or business-
to-business (B2B). Furthermore, millennials, the generation
that grew up doing everything online, are gaining purchasing
power. Because they’re used to quick access to information,
they expect a seamless experience across channels. Your
product information needs to keep pace with those
expectations.
»» Delivering high-quality product data: If your product
information is incorrect, you risk the likelihood of someone
buying it and then being dissatisfied. No one wants to buy a
product that doesn’t match the information in the catalog.
Ensuring high-quality product information increases
conversions and reduces returns, which is always good for
your business.
»» Establishing one source of truth: Because PIM centralizes
your product information, you have a much easier way to
manage all your product data and make sure it’s complete
and accurate. From this central hub, it’s much easier to
control and distribute high-quality information to your
channels.
Gone are the days of having to manually optimize product
catalogs across multiple platforms. Use the PIM tool as a
source of truth that can be put in context for each channel. It
shouldn’t be uniform, but it needs to be consistent and
correct.
»» Simplifying the onboarding process for suppliers and
data providers: For retailers, distributors, and wholesalers,
suppliers are frequently a key source of product information.
But collecting information from suppliers typically consists of
a series of emails, phone calls, and exchanging spreadsheets
that must be manually imported into your PIM tool.
Look for a PIM solution that offers product data onboarding
capabilities to ease the process of collecting and standard-
izing product information from your suppliers, who should
be the authoritative source of technical information. With a
supplier interface, you can greatly simplify, speed up, and
more easily control incorporating supplier product data
without the pain associated with collating spreadsheets or
manually rekeying data into your PIM tool.
»» Increasing team productivity: PIM can bring automation to
your catalog management processes, as well as a level of
control and governance. With PIM, your team can do more in
less time, which leads to greater efficiency and productivity.
»» Accelerating time-to-market: If your business relies on a
frequently changing product assortment to remain competi-
tive, you’re going to need a solution that allows you to get
your products to market quickly. This point is particularly
important to meet the latest trends and to be well-prepared
for the seasonal buying season. PIM’s automation and
control over catalog management processes means your
catalogs can be ready to market much faster compared to
manual alternatives.
»» Delivering consistent product information in context:
Putting product data in context means ensuring it’s fit for
use in the channel where your product catalog will be used
and how your buyers will interact with it. As your business
grows and you recognize opportunities for growth in new
markets, you may get to a point where you want to engage
in cross-border commerce — that is, selling your product to
buyers in different countries.
If you already operate in multiple locales, you know the need
to translate and localize your product catalog. A good PIM
tool enables you to manage your catalog in your native
language, as well as other languages, and makes it easier to
accommodate different standards, measurements, regula-
tions, and even images that are appropriate for other
locales.
Consistency is another key benefit. Regardless of where
customers interact with your product, it’s critical that you
provide consistent information at each touchpoint. PIM can
help ensure you create and distribute a consistent experi-
ence wherever your buyers see your products.
No one product experience rules them all, and your catalog
needs to reflect the right product experience in the appropri-
ate place. Use your PIM solution to make sure your products
are using the right standards, right language, and appropri-
ate cultural norms.
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Seeing how DAM works
»» Looking at the benefits of DAM
»» Realizing the desired features of DAM
»» Enhancing customer interactions

with DAM
»» Reviewing DAM system types
»» Choosing a DAM solution
Chapter 5
Discovering a Digital
Asset Management
Solution
Y
ou know that as your product database grows, you collect a
voluminous amount of digital assets, including images, video,
audio, photos, and so on. If you tried to manage them manu-
ally, you would quickly become overwhelmed. That’s where a Digital
Asset Management (DAM) solution comes in. It creates a database
that becomes your single source of truth for all these assets.
In this chapter, you look at how DAM works, see how it makes
your team more productive, and discover how it ensures your
assets are up-to-date and correct across channels.
Learning How DAM Works

A typical DAM system works to organize your media in a certain
way. Take a look at the digital asset life cycle:
1. Create: The cycle begins by creating a plan to develop your

asset in a digital format.
CHAPTER 5 Discovering a Digital Asset Management Solution 35
2. Manage: Establish guidelines for approvals, and versioning
transfers and access. To manage your files, you can put them
into a category structure and then assign relevant keywords.
3. Distribute: Share relevant data between internal depart-
ments, third-party online shops, apps, print media, or product
databases.
An effective DAM system automatically calculates the
appropriate file format for output.
4. Retrieve: After all the files reside in one central location,
search and find anything you need. No matter what kind of
data you’re looking for, you can find it in seconds.
5. Archive: Due to the sheer number of media, it is important
to periodically separate important from unimportant data.
Archiving data allows you to access assets and related
documentation at any time.
This process is shown in Figure 5-1.
FIGURE 5-1: The digital asset life cycle.
A DAM solution provides the ability to generate and preview the
managed assets like the ones seen in Figure 5-2. This eliminates
the time-consuming processes of downloading and opening.
Therefore, in addition to the metadata of an asset, you also have a
quick visual decision criterion.
FIGURE 5-2: An assets preview.
Benefitting from DAM

A DAM solution is a centralized tool that manages all kinds of
files in the product life cycle. It guarantees that you have consis-
tent product content across all channels. DAM also provides many
benefits to your organization. In this section, we detail some of
the benefits that have a huge impact on your business.
Improving operational efficiency

DAM ensures that your assets are accessible to all your team
members. Therefore, team members can work independently at
any location and don’t have to worry about errors due to outdated
data. DAM ensures that the most up-to-date content is always
available.
Increasing marketing productivity
DAM requires less research effort because it enables users to cre-
ate efficient search queries to save time. Laborious searches on
various sources are no longer necessary. Coordination between
different compartments is reduced.
Reducing costs
All staff can access digital assets regardless of device, time, or
location. This saves you money and eliminates the need to use less
secure cloud storage for data exchange. You also won’t have to rely
on slow and unstable virtual private network (VPN) connections.
Creating a shorter marketing cycle

Changes to your digital assets are made from a central data-
base so they don’t need to be executed multiple times. The
change in each different channel is automatic and doesn’t need
to be communicated and distributed to all involved, significantly
reducing time to market.
Increasing security and compliance

Protecting your database is critical. You want to ensure that
users who shouldn’t have access to certain files are prevented
from modifying them. DAM provides granular rights and role
management that protect your data. It also provides for multi-
level approval processes that increase data quality.
Optimization of media content

Your DAM solution ensures that your content is optimized and
helps you find out which media best addresses your customers’
needs. You can determine whether an existing asset is still valuable
and can continue to generate profits.
Providing more effective
brand experiences
A DAM tool ensures that you deploy only correct brand assets.
This creates a customer experience consistent across all channels.
Looking at Must-Have Features

DAM has some excellent benefits and features. This section gives
you the must-haves that make a DAM system fast and easy to use.
Find instead of search

When you use a DAM solution, you don’t need to rely on your
memory to “find” something in a folder. A good DAM tool offers
a variety of search capabilities that allow you to type in any detail
and easily retrieve digital assets, images, and videos.
Make sure your DAM tool can search the file contents of PDFs and
Office documents because these are common formats.
All formats in every size

With DAM, you can automatically save and convert your output
data. For example, by using a Photoshop file, you can automati-
cally generate a JPEG for your multimedia presentation, a PNG
for the online store, and a TIFF for the print catalog to support
modern omnichannel marketing.
Publishing to web portals

When you want to publish to a brand’s web portal, you should
be able to distribute in just a few clicks. You can offer files for
download or create a secure link from which photographers can
send you new photos. The files don’t need to be uploaded to cloud
services — they stay on your servers.
Version management
Keeping track of versions is important. A DAM system should
help you to verify every file change. Look for a rollback option
that allows you to access and restore previous versions to prevent
mistakes.
Workflow management
An effective DAM system supports workflow management. For
example, with TESSA DAM, you can start the workflow without a
file. You simply create placeholder assets, link and place them in
campaigns, and get notified when the status changes. You can also
ask colleagues or service providers to create the files. Then these
placeholders will automatically be updated in your campaign.
For more information about TESSA DAM, visit www.tessa-dam.

com/en/product.
Roles and permissions

Like any system that manages data, managing roles and permis-
sions is critical for security. You should be able to easily decide
who can see and edit files and control the specific permissions by
individual user role. That way, you protect your system and data
from being accessed by inappropriate third parties.
Related data structures

A good DAM system allows you to manage complex metadata
in stand-alone database tables and relate them to your assets.
This feature enables you to easily manage relationships between
products, variations, and suppliers so that they can be effec-
tively linked and searched. This is important because it helps you
manage a complex search query as well as rename and export
items to customer and/or merchant numbers.
Improving Customer Interactions by

Using DAM
You need rich media content to deliver a compelling product
experience that will give you a competitive advantage. The fol-
lowing sections suggest some rich media types your business
should deploy.
Social media posts

You need a social media strategy to support the increasing num-
ber of social media channels that pop up each day. This helps
you reach your customers wherever they are.
It has been proven that rich media increases the reach of a post
and increases viral spread.
Promotional posts
Video is one of the most compelling formats a brand can deploy
because it has an emotional component. This medium is becom-
ing increasingly relevant as the number of devices and connectiv-
ity continues to increase.
Interactive manuals
Interactive manuals show your customer what your products look
like and give them ideas about how they can use them.
References
Testimonials from real people using your products give potential
customers the social proof that they need to consider buying your
product.
Webinars
Webinars give your customers a chance to see how the product
works and to ask questions in real time. They can assess whether
you seem trustworthy enough to buy from.
Looking at DAM System Types

DAM systems can be divided into cloud, local, and hybrid solu-
tions. We detail each type in this section.
Cloud DAM
Many organizations choose cloud systems for a multitude of rea-
sons. Cloud DAM solutions have the following characteristics:
»» The systems are hosted over the web and can be used from
everywhere in the world.
»» Vendors supply upgrades, maintenance, and backups
remotely.
»» They’re fast and easy to deploy.
»» They’re easier to scale.
»» Licensing is typically a monthly or annual subscription fee.
»» The access is easy for partners and vendors.
»» An in-house server infrastructure isn’t required.
On-premises DAM
An on-premises DAM solution can be a local version which main-
tains the following features:
»» In-house IT management and maintenance are required.

»» System backups are necessary, and the customers are
responsible for them.
»» Local systems support customization.
»» For features in local systems, you often have to pay.
»» DAM users can work independently even without an Internet
connection.
Hybrid DAM
The hybrid DAM system is a combination of a cloud and a local
version that has the following features:
»» In-house IT management and maintenance are required.

»» Vendors are responsible for upgrades and maintenance, and
backups are performed remotely.
»» Local systems support customization.
»» Initial budget requirements are often lower.
»» Users can work without being fully dependent on the
Internet.
»» They’re easier to access for partners and vendors from the
Internet.
Choosing Your DAM Solution
Choosing a DAM solution can be a challenging process. To
help make your decision easier, keep in mind the following
considerations:
»» Understand your content. It’s important to review all your

content. Concentrate on valuable content.
»» Look at system requirements. Think about the users, the
infrastructure, and the business you’re working with. These
factors are key when finding a solution.
»» Consider business requirements. Identify the challenges
you want to resolve with DAM.
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Understanding your end customers
»» Looking at today’s PCS challenges
»» Benefitting from a modern PCS solution
Chapter 6
Understanding a Product
Content Syndication
Solution
W
ould you like to sell your products through online retail
channels? Product Content Syndication (PCS) software
can get you there. Product data is now playing a revolu-
tionary role in the customer journey. A ton of new retail opportuni-
ties and ways to sell and advertise products exist online. Each one
has different data requirements. According to Forrester Research,
an average customer visits at least 14 different channels before
making a purchase. You need to be where your customers are.
In this chapter, you discover the value that PCS can bring to your
organization and how it can help you provide the right content in
the right context across every customer touchpoint.
Learning about PCS Solutions

Pairing your Product Information Management (PIM) solution with
both a Digital Asset Management (DAM) solution and a PCS solu-
tion provides a more complete Product Experience Management
(PXM) solution. We discuss PIM in Chapter 4 and DAM in Chapter 5.
CHAPTER 6 Understanding a Product Content Syndication Solution 45
Adding a PCS solution to your technology stack helps you break
through the digital walls that surround today’s businesses.
A capable PCS solution equips you with the tools necessary to
overcome the typical barriers faced in getting your products to
market. This allows you to get all your product data on all of your
channels in the right format and the right context.
Effective PCS helps you streamline three main processes:
»» Preparing your product data feed for any channel

»» Collecting missing or value-adding product information
»» Integrating with your retail and shopping channels
Your data, after it’s optimized, has the following characteristics:
»» High quality: It’s clean, complete, enriched, and accurate.

»» Customized: It’s validated, structured, and tailored to the
unique format of each channel.
»» Contextualized: It’s unified but not uniform, making sure
your key product facts like price and size are consistent but
your message has been adapted to the channel.
Reviewing today’s trends and

challenges with PCS
Today, four key trends shape the e-commerce landscape. All of
them provide you with new opportunities to sell your products,
improve the shopping experience, expand your reach, and sell
more. They are
»» A growing number of channels

»» An increasing complexity of channels
»» Constantly changing data feed requirements
»» New technologies
One key requirement that will affect your success is a fast response
to market changes.
As the e-commerce landscape becomes more complex, you may
run into some challenges if you don’t equip yourself with the
right tools to prepare for them. These challenges include
»» Lost revenue from disapproved products: Channels

constantly update their product data feed requirements.
If you don’t change your feed accordingly, your products
may not be accepted, and your products won’t be listed or
advertised on the given channel, which directly impacts your
revenue. Be in the know and adapt quickly. The longer it
takes to fix errors, the more revenue you lose. Using a PCS
solution prevents this from being an issue.
»» Loss of new revenue from missed opportunities: If your
processes are inefficient and you’re not agile enough to
quickly adapt to new opportunities, your competition will
beat you to it. By the time you catch up, the market may be
oversaturated, or the next opportunity will already be
available and you won’t be able to keep up.
»» High running costs: Companies who don’t use content
automation or who rely on technical support spend too
much time and money waiting for data edits to be imple-
mented and consequently waste resources.
Discovering who needs PCS

If you’re wondering if a PCS solution is right for you, see if you
answer yes to any of the following questions:
»» Do you deal with large product data sets containing thou-

sands or even millions of items?
»» Do you have highly complex feed setups or business
requirements?
»» Do you seek advanced data optimization to unlock your
products’ hidden potential and help them stand out?
»» Do you want to publish products in multiple regions, retail
outlets, or shopping channels?
If you answered yes to any of the above, you should consider

getting a PCS solution that meets your needs.
Looking at Must-Have PCS Features
When you consider a PCS solution, you may be wondering what
you need (and what you don’t). In this section, we detail some
must-have features you should be aware of.
Global connectivity
With so many channels now available and more being launched
all the time, a capable PCS solution, such as Productsup, should
easily integrate with the global matrix of sales and marketing
channels, such as the ones in Figure 6-1:
»» All major classical retailers (online or offline), such as

Walmart, Target, and Home Depot
»» Search and social channels, such as Google, Bing, Facebook,
or Pinterest
»» Marketplaces and comparison shopping engines, such as
Amazon, NexTag, and Shopping.com
»» Retargeting and affiliate ad networks, such as Criteo, AWIN,
and Tradedoubler
»» Marketing automation technologies, such as Salesforce,
Marin Software, and Kenshoo
»» On-site search technologies, such as Celebros
Review the channels you’re going to need and make sure your
solution provider is set up to specifically connect to them.
FIGURE 6-1: PCS export channel integrations.
For more information, visit www.productsup.com.
Channel-readiness assessment
and data quality analysis
Look for a PCS solution that provides a smart feature that scans your
entire data feed in seconds to identify critical errors and improve-
ment potential. Such a feature helps you optimize and transform
your product content to meet the requirements of any channel.
One example of this smart feature is shown in Figure 6-2 where

you can see a retailer’s product data feed. The image depicts the
following:
»» The rows display all the different products in inventory.

»» The columns contain the products’ values for the various
product attributes, such as image, title, description, color,
and so on.
»» The pie charts are analysis results of the data according
to specific requirements of the e-commerce channel in
question. Below each chart the identified error is listed. This
error may be anything from HTML tags being included or
double whitespaces to incorrect pricing formats or missing
values.
FIGURE 6-2: Product data analysis and health check.
Bulk data edits and
a real-time preview
Your PCS solution should allow you to not only edit your data
in bulk but also cross-check your edits with an instant preview.
Editing in bulk is the only way you can efficiently enhance large
feeds containing millions of different products.
But, if you can’t see what the data looks like after you’ve assigned
a rule to edit it, you have no chance of knowing if you’ve achieved
the desired result. In turn, you might send incorrect or wrongly
formatted content to your channel and get an error message say-
ing your products have been disapproved. This wastes valuable
time and energy and is easily avoided with a visual preview of
your data.
To help you understand your product data even better, some PCS
solutions have also integrated a preview of what your product ad
will look like on the specific channel in question.
Integrated best practice

recommendations
To save time and resources, your PCS solution should automati-
cally provide a set of recommended data edits based on a data feed
audit. With a feature like this, you should be able to click once in
order to apply the edit across all your affected products.
Multiple data sources for

data enrichment and insight
A capable PCS platform, such as the one in Figure 6-3, should
also have integrations to a large variety of data sources, from the
most popular shop systems such as Magento to PIM software like
Akeneo and third-party data suppliers. You should be able to com-
bine these multiple data sources into a single, easily manageable
“master” data feed. This process helps you gain valuable insights,
enrich your feed with missing attributes like product images or
GTINs (unique product identity numbers), and optimize your feed
for each specific channel.
FIGURE 6-3: PCS import channel integrations.
Code-free data management

Find a solution that doesn’t require you to know how to code. You
should be able to edit and map your data at the click of a button,
using drag-and-drop logic. You shouldn’t have to rely on your IT
department to edit your data. This will save you time and stream-
line your processes. In addition, by self-managing your product
feeds, you will know exactly what’s going on with your product
data. The better you understand your data, the more control you
have. In the end, this will give you the power to unlock the rev-
enue generating potential of your product data feeds.
In Figure 6-4, you see an example of data mapping done via

drag-and-drop. The left column is your raw, imported product
data. The middle column is a master template to structure your
data. The right column is the specific channel template to which
you need to map your data.
FIGURE 6-4: Code-free data mapping using drag-and-drop.
Leverage AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) features can be useful to streamline the
PCS process. Two key areas for AI include
»» Natural language detection: With natural language

detection functionality, you can automatically populate
empty fields by extracting product attributes from product
descriptions as shown in Figure 6-5.
FIGURE 6-5: Auto text extraction from product description and title.
»» Product image recognition: This capability enables you to
understand the visual content of feeds and detect and auto-
matically extract colors or objects in product images, as shown
in Figure 6-6, to populate the information in empty data fields.
FIGURE 6-6: Auto color detection from product image.
Rich media capabilities

A PCS that lets you optimize and adapt your product images to
suit the individual export channels will take your product expe-
rience management to the next level. On one search engine, for
example, you need to supply images on a white background, with
no additional information on the image so that shoppers can get a
clear image of the product. However, on certain social media sites,
you need to capture the attention of a user who didn’t go on that
site with the intention to shop.
In that situation, you need to deliver engaging, eye-catching graph-

ics. This may include promotional messages like “Free shipping” or
“50 percent sale” plus a brand logo and a description like “organic”
or “100 percent cotton.” If you take this further by showing a video
of your product in use, you can engage your audience even more
and be able to run campaigns through online video channels.
A good PCS solution helps you create fun and beautiful image
templates that enhance all your product images in one go. A great
PCS solution takes this a step further and lets you dynamically
create personalized and engaging product videos. Figure 6-7 is
an example of a product image being enhanced with the product
price and a call-to-action.
FIGURE 6-7: An example of a customized image template.
Benefitting from a PCS Solution

When you use a high-quality, modern PCS solution, you derive
the following benefits:
»» Get your products to market faster: You save time and

effort with integrated channel templates, automated
distribution, and bulk edits.
»» Adapt fast and stay relevant: With an agile approach to
product data, you’re geared to capture new market opportu-
nities as they happen.
»» Minimize complexity: A PCS tool makes it easy for you to
edit your data. It has replaced the need for coding skills with
a visual interface. This means you can edit your data using
intuitive drag-and-drop logic.
»» Drive product visibility and sales: With beautiful product
images and product content that’s uniform — but not
unified — across all digital touchpoints, you’ll attract buyers,
build consumer trust, and boost performance.
»» Scale your business: Reach new markets and sell internationally.
»» Tell a consistent story: Reach customers with unified
messages that are contextualized across all channels.
DISCOVERING WHAT YOUR
CUSTOMERS WANT
Everything you do for your end customer relates to providing the
most relevant product information. Customers have specific needs,
so Productsup surveyed retailers to find out more about the end cus-
tomer. The results are as follows:
• Customers are well-informed and time poor. Potential custom-

ers research products they’re interested in but don’t have endless
time to devote to finding things; they expect immediate answers.
• Customers are used to easy usability. They want links sent
about relevant products that make the shopping experience more
convenient and enjoyable. One example may be a link to a pair of
sneakers they would enjoy.
• Customers are increasingly passive. They want information
available to them on any device they happen to be using.
• Customers are socially dependent. They chat with people from
all over the world and look at reviews and recommendations
before they make a purchase choice.
• Customers are driven by user experience and personalization.
People want their experiences to be unique and relevant to them.
Are you ready for the future of shopping? Does this list sound like
your customers? Probably. But remember that this is only the current
mindset of your prospective customers. Things are continually chang-
ing. You can be sure that in five years, shopping will have completely
changed again. Such developments as the Internet of Things, virtual
reality, artificial intelligence, and self-driving cars will change how,
when, and where we shop.
And then there is the future of screenless shopping — shopping you

do at home (or elsewhere) by telling your personal voice assistant to
order your products for you. Are you preparing to accommodate
those channels, too? Are you agile enough to adapt easily and struc-
ture your product data for these channels?
IN THIS CHAPTER
»» Using reliable data sources
»» Displaying products in use
»» Creating strategies for each channel or

marketplace
»» Increasing productivity with automation
Chapter 7
Ten Keys to Successful
PXM Practices
N
o one Product Experience Management (PXM) tool can
deliver the complete set of functionalities you need to cre-
ate great product experiences out of the box. The tools can
help, but you also need guidelines and best practices. Putting the
pieces together to execute a successful PXM strategy requires that
you look at the big picture.
In this chapter, we give you ten keys to successful PXM practices.
Collect Product Data from

Reliable Sources
Your raw product data exists in many different systems and for-
mats across your organization. Some raw data may even come
from external sources such as suppliers.
To ensure you start with the best possible data, evaluate where
your current product data resides and decide which are the most
reliable and highest quality sources. Use these sources to populate
your catalog in your Product Information Management (PIM)
solution where it will be standardized and enriched. See Chapter 4
for more details.
CHAPTER 7 Ten Keys to Successful PXM Practices 57
Supplement Technical Product
Data with Usage Data
Enhance product pages with relevant content that helps buyers
understand the product and make informed decisions. To create a
great product experience you should include more than just tech-
nical facts. Create a vision of how to use your product so buy-
ers can envision themselves benefitting from it. See Chapter 4 for
more information.
Use High-Quality Images, Video,

and Other Digital Assets
To create emotion and a vision for customers, include photos,
video, and other images that show products in context. For exam-
ple, in addition to a picture of a folded bedspread, include a picture
of it on the bed — perhaps with matching pillows. See Chapter 5
for more details.
Research Differences by Market

When marketing your products in different locales, be sure to
research cultural norms, sensitivities, and local regulations. You
need to ensure that you’re using the right descriptions, images,
metrics, and so on.
For example, do buyers look for metric or imperial units? What

regulatory compliance information do you need to include for
different locales? Plan your catalog structure accordingly to meet
requirements and deliver a relevant product experience in each
region. Chapter 4 contains more information on this subject.
Create a Holistic, Full-Fledged
Channel Strategy
Different channels require different product information. For
example, you need a shorter, more readable description for a
voice assistant. Consider input from a Product Content Syndica-
tion (PCS) tool to ensure robust coverage in marketplaces, social
channels, and more. See Chapter 6 for more details on PCS.
Leverage PXM Process Automation

Automate low value, repetitive tasks to free up your market-
ing and e-commerce teams to work on high-value tasks such as
crafting emotive product descriptions. See Chapters 4, 5, and 6 for
information on where automation can help streamline processes
and make your teams more productive.
Foster Cross-Functional Collaboration

To succeed in your omnichannel strategy, don’t work in silos.
Share your data, be transparent across teams, and coordinate your
commerce strategy across all your merchandising and commerce
teams.
Track Performance
Measure your conversions and return rates. Adjust your PXM
strategy and content as required to maximize results from your
commerce and business objectives. Also, remember to track your
team’s productivity improvements, too.
CHAPTER 7 Ten Keys to Successful PXM Practices 59
Remember That Context is King!
There is no one product experience to rule them all. You should
contextualize your product information to deliver a relevant
and compelling experience at every customer touchpoint. See
Chapters 4, 5, and 6 for more information on capabilities neces-
sary to make sure you put your product information in context.
Think of PXM as a Journey

PXM doesn’t stop when a purchase is made. It continues through
the entire customer journey, through more personalization,
engagement, upsells, and so on. Keep refining your PXM pro-
cesses and product content to keep pace with the rapidly changing
ways buyers interact with you.
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ISBN: 978-1-119-59716-2 (pbk); ISBN: 978-1-119-59717-9 (ebk)

Manufactured in the United States of America

CHAPTER 1: Navigating the Experience Economy............................ 5

CHAPTER 2: Crafting Compelling Product Experiences............. 13

CHAPTER 3: Starting the PXM Journey.................................................... 21

CHAPTER 4: Understanding a Product Information

CHAPTER 5: Discovering a Digital Asset

Table of Contents iii

CHAPTER 7: Ten Keys to Successful PXM Practices....................... 57

iv Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition

For this reason, Product Experience Management (PXM) tools are

About This Book

»» Navigating the experience economy: In the 21st century,

Icons Used in This Book

We use this icon when we want to include some information for

2 Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition

»» Recognizing trends that create the need

»» Seeing the need for agile product data

In this chapter, you look at what Product Experience Manage-

Understanding the Experience Economy

CHAPTER 1 Navigating the Experience Economy 5

FIGURE 1-1: The progression of economic value.

1. The value chain started with commodities.

6 Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition

One of the key distinctions in economic value between a service

Give careful attention to the idea of time well spent. If you’re a

Recognizing the Need for Innovation

Increasing retail disruption

CHAPTER 1 Navigating the Experience Economy 7

Changing behaviors and

Millennials look for Amazon–like customer experiences every-

Proliferating e-commerce channels

Some online retailers are using in-store techniques such as

Each of the trends we discuss in this section has ­significant

8 Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition

These new channels require product information to be made avail-

Globalized and cross-border commerce

This development requires that brands and online retailers cre-

»» Be available in the local language.

Handling cross-border and global commerce not only increases

CHAPTER 1 Navigating the Experience Economy 9

Complex and fast-growing

Other emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and

Fulfilling the Need for Agile Product Data

»» Always available: Instead of being locked in proprietary

10 Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition

»» Strong, compelling brands and product experiences

This means that the right product needs to be displayed in

CHAPTER 1 Navigating the Experience Economy 11

Unfortunately, many organizations use spreadsheets and other

Product information consists of more than technical data. It’s

PXM is an emerging practice and category of business application,

PXM requires different tools and practices to enable retailers and

12 Product Experience Management For Dummies, Special Edition

»» Pursuing buy-in from all executives

»» Building a PXM solution

Each of the trends we discuss in this section has significant