There’s never been a better time for retail businesses to prioritise a PIM-DAM integration. As the world reopens for business after the pandemic, there’s increased competition from online retail, consumers’ expectations of retailers has changed, and profit margins are under pressure. Throw in the fact that many businesses are adjusting hybrid working and it’s clear there’s plenty to challenge retail brands and their already-busy creative teams.
Fortunately, there is something creative operations, marketing and IT leaders can do – to ensure these challenges don’t undermine competitive advantage.
Integrating your Product Information Management platform with your Digital Asset Management system will deliver significant operational efficiencies. These – in turn – reduce cost, protect your profits, and improve time-to-market. Furthermore, the cloud-based content system that PIM-DAM integration creates will empower remote workers to collaborate effectively, wherever in the world they are.
Here’s four reasons why NOW is the right time for retail to prioritize PIM-DAM integration.
1. Increased competition
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.
For brands used to a more transactional approach of making sales through PPC, this ‘long-term loyalty’ strategy may be a challenge. Building brand online – across multiple channels – requires consistent and engaging brand storytelling, as well as agility to respond to the latest trends.
Consumers are demanding a perfectly segued shopping experience that picks up where they left off, no matter the device or channel. With the rise in social shopping, consumers expect in-app shopping, livestream product demos and augmented reality experiences such as try-on experiences.
This means investing heavily in your digital content supply chain. But for businesses that get it right, the reward is repeat sales and improved customer lifetime value.
And one way to rise to the challenge is through PIM-DAM integration – for fewer manual processes, more automation, and greater control of complex workflows.
| Discover the applications of PIM and DAM in retail to understand how this retail marketing dream team make the content supply chain more efficient – and read more about the financial and operational benefits of PIM-DAM integration. |
2. 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.
But how do you create more content for more channels without more staff, time and budget? By integrating your Product Information Management and Digital Asset Management platforms.
PIM-DAM integration is the most efficient way to address the requirements of omnichannel retail marketing. By creating a more efficient content supply chain – with fewer manual processes and less wasted time – your creative teams can create content for MORE channels.
And thanks to the fact your PIM and DAM are always in-sync, that content will be up-to-date and consistent across all platforms.
3. Pressure on margins
Global economic factors like inflation, conflict, oil prices, and supply chain problems have hit consumers and retailers hard. Customers are desperate to save money and retailers are trying hard not to raise prices OR undermine their margins. Cost-efficiency is key in challenging financial times like these.
So how can PIM-DAM integration help save money? Because there are likely to be lots of different people involved in your content supply chain. Perhaps different teams for ecommerce, website, app, content marketing, traditional marketing, in-house design… There might also be external contributors, like design and audiovisual agencies, product photographers, freelance writers.
If these teams and individuals are working in silos, there’s a high risk that they’re duplicating data and digital assets without even realising it. For example, your app team might be creating artwork for a promotion that your social media team have already created. Or your ecommerce team could have commissioned photos your marketing team already have. This is not cost-efficient.
Furthermore, these duplicated assets need attaching to different products. And that means duplicating data entry too. Which wastes more time – and introduces the risk of human error and inconsistency. More wasted time and effort.
Worried that investing time and money in software integration might not deliver ROI? Think again. Asana’s Anatomy of Work study discovered work-about-work (such as 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’.
A day a week per staff member is surely worth recouping and redirecting at such a critical and challenging time for retail?
4. Remote working (and outsourcing)
A further challenge for retailers – and all businesses – post-pandemic is adjusting to the ‘new world of work’. As many organizations transition to remote or hybrid working, the digital employee experience is increasingly critical. Workers need the tools to be productive anywhere – and that means integrated, online tools that make their jobs easier.
Integrating cloud-based PIM and DAM systems makes it much easier for those different teams – discussed above – to collaborate remotely.
It also makes it easier to outsource work to more cost-effective teams – whether they’re agencies that are more able to create work at speed and scale, or international providers that are more cost-efficient than local suppliers.
Although retailers face stiff competition and steep challenges in the year ahead, investing in digital transformation can deliver significant commercial advantage and ROI.
If you’d like to talk to someone about integrating your PIM and DAM systems – to one another or as part of a larger software stack – we’d love to help. Our expert team have more than 20 years’ experience helping retailers build more efficient content supply chains through software integration. Get in touch today.
