We find ourselves in unprecedented times for both personal and business health. Companies are navigating in uncharted territory, needing to react quickly to the changing landscape of business operations and consumer spending.
Keeping employees and customers healthy and confident requires altered approaches to keep commerce flowing. To endure these uncertain times, our recent experience shows companies who traditionally use a B2B business model are pivoting towards B2C-oriented strategies. With a focused, data-driven approach to this pivot, companies can adjust to changing circumstances and provide value to consumers without missing a beat.
As COVID-19 related restrictions slowly begin to lift in the coming months, it should be expected that all businesses will have to adapt to a “new normal.”
With the rapidly-changing economy, there is now higher emphasis than ever on creating, acquiring, enriching and syndicating product information.
Data Creation
If manual creation of product information is at the center of a company’s efforts, new processes or automation strategies may need to be developed in order to optimize the usage of company time and resources. Process automation ensures proper data governance and high standards for product data, while following necessary approval processes prior to data syndication. Ultimately, this will drive a better experience to consumers, who will have access to high-quality data to inform their purchasing behaviors.
Data Acquisition
Whether from manufacturers, suppliers, third-parties, or even competitors, the ability to act quickly to acquire resources (including product information) is key to informing potential or current customers of their purchasing options. Driving a more automated, low-touch acquisition process for product data will fuel businesses’ abilities to recover from these circumstances and promote swift and accurate go-to market strategies.
Data Enrichment
To support the evolution of the “future-state” of commerce, the ability to further enhance product information will set businesses apart from the competition. Whether utilizing third-party data or web scraping to retrieve information from suppliers or competitors, having the highest-quality data run through a well-designed, automated copy-editing and enrichment process will ensure a superior customer experience across digital channels.
Syndication
Getting the right information to the right consumer at the right time has never been more important. Syndication is critical in these times, as the preferred shopping method has rapidly shifted further to an online experience, making BOPIS and direct-to-consumer shipment a must. Driven by a Customer Experience (CX) focused on the end consumer, businesses will need to provide accurate, timely logistical data centered on frequently updated inventory, pricing, and lead-time information. New complementary information must also be available in the form of media and other critical assets.
More than ever, distributors now must provide accurate and complete data in the form of their own product data feeds to their consumers, fueling an effective online shopping CX. Major distributors like Home Depot, Amazon, etc. have their own particular data standards, requiring data in a uniquely-preferred format conforming to their own product structure and values. Attempting to keep up with the standards manually or with a disperse set of product data will mean faster consumption of critical (and perhaps scarce) human resources.
Our Solution
At Infoverity, we believe a Product Information Management (PIM) solution is at the very epicenter of creating, acquiring, enriching and syndicating the product data that is necessary to build new consumer strategies.
Ready to dive in? You can contact us with questions at info@infoverity.com.
If you’re interested in learning about MDM best practices and how MDM supports customer experiences, watch our webinar “Building Your MDM Journey”
About Infoverity
Founded in 2011, Infoverity is a leading systems integrator and global professional services firm that provides MDM and PIM Strategy and Implementation, Data Governance and Analytics, Content Management, Data Integration, Enterprise Hosting, Managed Services and Customer Experience Solutions that help large enterprises in the retail, consumer goods, manufacturing, distribution, financial and healthcare sectors to simplify and maximize the value of their information. Infoverity’s global headquarters is in Dublin, Ohio, the EMEA headquarters and Global Development Center is in Valencia, Spain and additional offices are in Germany and India. For more information, visit Infoverity.com , follow @Infoverity on Twitter, or contact us today.
