EXECUTIVE BRIEFING
At a glance
| In an increasingly competitive market – characterized by omnichannel demand and declining customer loyalty – a high-performing content supply chain confers a significant competitive advantage to retailers. Brands that leverage PIM-DAM integration to streamline marketing workflows achieve operational efficiencies that translate into financial – and commercial – gains. What is PIM? PIM is your Product Information Management system. It is the single source of truth for all of your product information – such as prices, descriptions, and promotional copy. It may receive data directly from suppliers or from other internal software solutions such as your ERP. What is DAM? DAM is your Digital Asset Management system. It is the single centralized repository for all of your product assets – such as photos, video, 360-degree spinners, artwork for digital and print marketing assets, supplier logos, and more. It makes it easier to surface and securely share digital assets, as well as distribute them to digital platforms. PIM-DAM integration PIM-DAM integration is very common in retail, e-commerce, and CPG businesses. It allows product data and digital assets to be synced. This means that if information is updated in one system, it will update in the other. Anyone accessing products – via either system – will see the same up-to-date, consistent information. Within the marketing and digital content supply chain, this delivers several operational and financial benefits. Benefits Omnichannel opportunity – Process efficiencies create the capacity to make more content for more channels, seizing the post-pandemic omnichannel opportunity.Workflow automation – Integrating PIM with DAM drives automated processes that deliver significant time savings, creating opportunities for more strategic activities. Reduced risk – PIM-DAM integration reduces manual processes and the associated risk of human error, minimizing legal exposure for your brand. Process scalability – Automated processes can scale, equipping your business to grow without increasing headcount and overheads. Faster time to market – PIM-DAM integration is the foundation for a more efficient content supply chain, delivering faster time to market and competitive advantage. Improved cost efficiency – Automation and digitization allow retailers to reduce headcount without reducing service levels – or to maintain headcount and deliver more. |
The market opportunity
Brand experience is key to competitive advantage – According to Shopify’s Future of Ecommerce in 2022 report, increased competition and high customer acquisition costs are primary challenges for e-commerce brands. It’s harder than ever for brands to cut through the noise online. Retailers that focus on building an exceptional brand experience will win – and retain – customers in a demanding and fickle market.
First-party data collection and personalization – As Google works to retire third-party cookies, marketers will increasingly rely on first-party data collection – creating content that customers are happy to exchange their contact details for. Personalization and curated content represent an opportunity. But will require a streamlined content supply chain to meet these additional demands.
The omnichannel opportunity – Research shows consumers rely on 20 or more channels in their interactions with brands, and such shoppers spend up to three times more than those who rely on one channel. Retailers with a strong omnichannel presence experience an uptick in sales and a strong competitive advantage by enhancing the customer’s shopping experience. This means creating consistent content across more channels.
Challenges in the content supply chain
The ‘content supply chain’ describes all of the people, processes, and technology involved in creating marketing content for digital and traditional platforms. It is a complex ecosystem that includes all creative ideation, editorial, design, approval, and publication processes. It may span multiple departments, internal colleagues, and external collaborators – from product suppliers to photographers, videographers, and copywriters.
Unless managed appropriately, this complexity can become a significant operational challenge. Poorly managed processes, siloed teams and systems, and failure to centralize digital assets and product information can result in lower productivity and slower time-to-market. For example, through:
- Missed opportunities to automate – using unfit-for-purpose systems risks missing the opportunity to automate significant content processes, such as automatic catalog creation and e-commerce site population
- Lost or unknown digital assets – siloed systems can result in teams replicating or recreating digital assets – like photography or artwork – creating a significant time and cost penalty
- Duplicated data entry – entering data into multiple disparate systems costs time and increases the risk of inconsistency and human error
- Work-about-work – Asana’s Anatomy of Work study discovered searching for information, switching between apps, communicating about work and chasing status updates) takes up a massive 58% of the day and is a ‘persistent threat’
Implementing – and integrating PIM with DAM – can eradicate these risks and deliver significant competitive advantage.
Benefits of PIM-DAM integration
Workflow automation – Integrated software powers automated processes that slash the inefficiencies associated with manual task completion. For example, PIM-DAM integration powers InDesign automation, allowing retailers to slash the amount of time it takes to create printed in-store materials. This can significantly cut your design costs if using an external design agency. Or – if you use an in-house designer – they can be reassigned to create content for the burgeoning number of digital channels they need to service.
Reduced staffing costs – By increasing staff productivity – through automation and more streamlined workflows – staff can get more done during work hours. This means you can complete the same work with fewer resources, or use existing resources to produce more work. Standardized workflows also support resource optimization by allowing staff to move easily between teams and tasks if they have the capacity, reducing idle resource costs.
Higher cost-efficiency – PIM-DAM integration is more cost-efficient because it creates more efficient and productive workflows. You eliminate low-value processes that can be easily automated, which means you save on staff costs formerly associated with that work. You also eradicate the waste associated with duplicated effort caused by siloed teams that don’t pool their resources effectively.
More time for value-added tasks – Eradicating unnecessary manual processes and increasing productivity creates more time for value-added tasks that deliver a competitive advantage to your business. In the retail content supply chain, this can mean more time for creativity and strategy that moves the needle for your business. For example, thinking up original creative concepts for campaigns that will build brand awareness, engagement, and loyalty.
More scalable processes – Efficient cloud-based content workflows mean you can build your content team from talent based anywhere in the world. Consistent workflows – supported by anywhere-access technology – make your content supply chain more scalable and responsive to opportunity. As well as allowing you to leverage more cost-efficient suppliers from around the globe.
Faster time to market – E-commerce marketers know the first to market often gets the biggest market share for new products. An efficient PIM-DAM integration can shrink content creation, approval, and publication from days to hours – meaning faster time-to-market and you win the competitive advantage.
Shopper experience – PIM-DAM integration creates a better shopper experience by meeting their expectation of a seamless omnichannel experience, where they can hop between website, app, and social media and see exactly the same thing. PIM-DAM integration equips your creatives with near-instant access to in-sync product information, digital assets, and the latest campaign artwork to create consistency across every channel.
Reduced risk – Re-keying information into multiple systems is a huge risk for retailers managing thousands of products, where information can change rapidly. With multiple data storage systems – like a disconnected PIM and DAM – this can lead to mismatched information in marketing materials, on packaging, etc. This can lead to customer confusion and cart abandonment when pictures or prices don’t match up. Or, in the case of allergen information, it could have much more serious consequences.
What does PIM-DAM integration involve?
Integrating your existing PIM and DAM solutions will require you to:
- Scope the requirements of the integration
- Determine viability and integration methods
- Map and cleanse data ready for integration
- Establish and embed new processes
For a simple integration, this process could be managed in-house with a project manager, business analyst, and DevOps engineer. For more complex integrations, it is advisable to engage an experienced software partner to manage the process for you.
Next steps
Qonqord has over 20 years of experience helping retails automate processes and achieve efficiencies through PIM-DAM integration.
To discuss your unique use case with one of our experienced technical advisers, contact us for a inspiring sparring session.
About Qonqord
Orchestrating processes surrounding content creation and publishing is becoming an increasing challenge for (corporate) publishers and brands. This is caused by the enormously growing need for visual content, its ultimately daily use on all relevant media channels and the increasing complexity of these processes.
luniqueness and speed of creation are an ultimate precondition for the speed of sometimes daily campaigns. Qonqord employees are enthusiastic and are happy to take on the challenge of helping customers speed up the creation and publication processes.
We do this by analyzing all facets of content – from asset management, product data management to automated layout – and ultimately orchestrating it into one coherent and balanced process.
