End-to-End Product Data Syndication Strategy

Product data syndication strategy is often regarded as the key to successful eCommerce performance. Marketing is what gets your product out there, but presenting it across multiple sales channels with a consistent description via automation tools is what solidifies consumer trust, which results in brand loyalty.

With just about every aspect of our society being digital nowadays, consumers have a strong expectation of easy access to any information out there. Statistics show that 20% of overall unsuccessful purchases in eCommerce are due to poor product descriptions. A well-thought-out process of information distribution to different marketplaces that follows all content guidelines is one way of lowering that 20% mark—in other words, having a product data syndication strategy.

The Goals Of A Product Data Syndication Strategy

Having your online shop’s product catalogs syndicated across different sales platforms helps to secure a consistent experience for your customers, regardless of where their interaction takes place. Of course, this is easier said than done and requires an in-depth analysis of many deciding factors. In order to reach the goals of your product data syndication strategy, it’s important for a business to define:

• Consumer psychology – understand how buyers make purchasing decisions, and not just any buyers but those who shop for your products.
• Content consumption preferences – for an effective creative process, marketing teams need to pinpoint which content meets consumer needs.
• Communication channels – once there is a clear understanding of the above two factors, define through which channel consumers buy and how to ensure an accurate interaction.
• Continuous review – last but not least, aim to make the process of updating and distributing content an ongoing one.

To achieve all of this, the best way to go is using a powerful PIM syndication solution that ensures accurately syndicated data, optimized and exported to the right place at the right time and in the right format.

The Benefits Of A Product Data Syndication Strategy

A well-structured product syndication strategy provides core business growth benefits. For online retailers, this is especially the case, as successfully dealing with multiple third-party sales platforms requires a lot of time and resources.

• Automating vendor data feeds

Having your online shop communicate with a marketplace is seamless with a strong syndication strategy that automatically dispenses all of the product data feed from your inventory once it is set up.

• Reducing costs

Automating the distribution of your product content results in cutting expenses as the human error factor is eliminated and the entire process becomes much faster when done by a PIM syndication solution.

• Providing superior brand experiences

Having your products visible in a consistent way through different well-known platforms, such as Amazon, Asos, Zalando, etc., strengthens your brand as these platforms and their users add credibility to your business.

• Accelerating time to market

With PIM software and a strong syndication strategy in place, product manufacturers and retailers can accurately supply content to eCommerce platforms in a single automatic manner that meets all of the individual data supply requirements and subsequently speeds up the product launch.

• Driving higher revenue

The faster the product is placed on the market, and in more places, results in strengthening the overall revenue flow as sales are coming from different sources.

The Main 4 Stages Of Product Data Syndication Strategy

1. Data Preparation

Data in itself is unstructured, and for proper syndication and future use in various product feeds, it needs to be structured. The process of preparing a product database consists of three essential steps:

• Centralization

In today’s society where everything is digital, there are multiple points of data. Before any information can be processed and worked on, an online business first needs to collect all of its data in one consolidated storage spot.

• Enrichment

For any eCommerce business, a strong product description is a big driving factor. An online retailer can set up hundreds of ad campaigns with powerful messaging that drives traffic, but if the product description is not right, all of the marketing is worth nothing. This is exactly where the enrichment stage comes in. Once all the data is centralized, it can be analyzed and compared with the competitors’ data, and any missing information can be added. Additionally, putting yourself in the place of a customer is another way of finding those important product attributes that will push that “Add to Cart” action.

• Validation

Once all of the information is enriched, it’s time to validate the data. Before any distribution across different sales channels takes place, it’s important to check the consistency and accuracy of the information being listed, and above all check that it conforms with all of the requirements of the platforms that it is being loaded to.

2. Data Integration And Automation

Automation saves time and resources for online businesses and is often the solution to many tasks that are in fact growth obstacles. One of them is the collection and standardization of product data.

By making the whole process of data integration automatic, which is essentially pulling information from different sources, performance efficiency can be increased, valuable resources are saved, and those resources can be allocated to other prime tasks. Besides having an automatic system in place, it’s important to standardize the data so it can be distributed across other marketplaces in a concise manner for the end user to conveniently browse through.

3. Optimize And Personalize

Before any product catalog can turn into fully syndicated content and appear on the desired third-party platforms, it needs to be optimized so it can maximize the performance on every channel and in every market that it appears on.

Testing the performance of the data on each channel is one of the most important stages. It gives you an opportunity to get real user analytical reports with actual market dynamics of how each page performs, its click-through rate, time-on-page and all other metrics that will suggest where final personalized improvements need to be made.

4. Seamless Distribution

Once all these lengthy stages of data handling are performed, it’s time to start delivery. By utilizing a reliable PIM syndication solution, you perform the mass distribution and publication of the refined high-quality content to the marketing, shopping, retail and business channels that generate sales.

Using PIM software will make this process seamless as you are able to set a comprehensive publishing schedule for each channel.

Additionally, you don’t have to worry about any formatting issues as any sophisticated software will adjust the datasets to the required format of the destination.

Checklist For Your PIM Syndication Solution

For all this to take place error-free and efficiently, you have to select the right PIM syndication solution. You need one that does more than simply export content but also works with existing business systems and simplifies workflows for the team. When choosing a PIM software, ask yourself the following questions:

How easy are data capture and validation?

An advanced PIM syndication solution should be able to collect information and convert it for readability by any other platform that it is being loaded to. If there is no automatic transformation functionality, then you will be required to use an additional SaaS that does it. This will make the whole process insufficient and highly prone to error.

Can this solution be integrated into the existing IT ecosystem?

Every business has a specific tool stack that it works with and it’s crucial that the solution you are choosing has integration capabilities with those tools. Besides being more convenient and saving time, this will also help you in avoiding employee onboarding training.

Is it easy to optimize and enrich product content?

No content is static and is always changing in relevance with time and the same goes for product descriptions. Having the ability to optimize and enrich your data with the right solution will save you time and set you free from deleting a particular listing and uploading it with new attributes.

Do workflows take advantage of industry standards like GDSN?

Having a software solution that follows different industry standards will guarantee the ease and security of exchanging data with counterparts and is a powerful benefit for product data handling. When it comes to taking advantage of industry standards, these are among the most important out there:

• GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network) is one of the core standards that companies use when standardizing product information with their trade partners. It is considered as the world’s largest product data network and is administered by GS1.
• EPREL (European Product Database for Energy Labelling) is a relatively new regulatory body within the EU that provides its consumers with relevant and safe energy efficiency information on consumer electronic products. Any global retailer that wishes to sell electric products on the EU market has to follow EPREL’s guidelines.
• ETIM (European Technical Information Model) is a leading international standard for product classification for industrial businesses in installation, building and construction machinery. Following the ETIM standard allows businesses in the above fields to improve data management and simplifies its exchange with minimum errors.
• Applia PI-Standard lays out a flow of electronically transferring product data information for home appliances. With its reliable structure, the standard allows European manufacturers to universally share information between each other and the consumer market.

How large is the syndication network?

No matter the size of your business, selecting a platform that has a large syndication network is vital. A business might be working only with one or two sales channels at the moment, but as it grows, naturally it will need to have its product on additional marketplaces. Switching between different syndication software can be a costly project—thus, it’s best to go with the one that has a large network from the get-go.

Does the syndication platform help me improve my product content?

The bottom line of using any software in your business is that it improves processes and strengthens your overall company performance. The same goes for syndication solutions—you should have the ability to refine your product content.

Product Data Syndication Strategy FAQ

When Does eCommerce Need A PIM Syndication Solution?

If you are operating an online shop that sells an extensive amount of products across a number of platforms and need to scale further by improving your process, a PIM solution is a necessity for this to happen.

How Does The PIM Software Work?

The way a PIM tool functions is by collecting data from multiple locations and generating one joint record for each product with all of its possible attributes. A designated user has access to the records and the ability to update them and of course can upload the description to various platforms in an automatic manner.

Where Do I Start If I Want To Create A Product Data Syndication Strategy For My Company?

The first stage would be performing an analysis of your inventory and where it is being sold. Another stage is understanding the issues you are facing from the analytical information available. Consulting a company that deals with data syndication as a service will help you determine the right direction as well.

How Gepard Helps Online Retailers Devise A Product Data Syndication Strategy

Building a successful syndication strategy that delivers results takes time and effort. The outcome that you want is a consistent shopping experience for your customers, no matter where their interaction with your products takes place.

Using Gepard PIM syndication solution in your data management tasks will help in getting rid of incomplete information patterns, performing product content analysis and incorporating channel-specific enhancements. Moreover, you will be able to automatically publish refined content and in return eliminate the risk of inaccurate product information across the distribution chain in an economical and efficient way.

Furthermore, Gepard can help your business build an effective and scalable product data syndication strategy and provide professional support at all implementation stages.

Want to learn how to build a winning product data syndication strategy? Request a free consultation with one of our professionals today.