How would you describe your brand’s process of pushing product pages live: Poor, Fair, or Excellent? If you didn’t answer “Excellent,” it’s time to review your product data feed. Increased sales are out there for the taking.
Many brands are still plagued by outdated Excel sheets, approval bottlenecks, and manual uploads. Having hundreds or thousands of products, lines, and sub-brands only adds layers of complication.
Highly efficient, automated data feeds, or the process through which product content is assembled internally, published externally, and maintained over time, will “deliver the experience consumers demand across the channels you need, as fast as possible.”
In other words, regardless of where your products live digitally, smart data feeds drive traffic, aid product discoverability, increase the speed of concept to market, and simplify in-market updates. As a result, consumers have a better experience and sales rise.
DRIVE TRAFFIC AND PRODUCT DISCOVERABILITY
The keyword here is syndication. Having your products on a strategic selection of sales platforms – including Google Shopping and social media – increases exposure, leads to better brand awareness, and opens doors to new sales. After all, how can a consumer buy your product if they don’t know about it or can’t find it?
We recognize the challenge of maintaining the most current upload requirements, templates, and formatting of so many partners. Errors are bound to happen if this process is completed manually. Not to mention, manual uploads and edits are a lot more time consuming.
Using a smart data feed streamlines the process of publishing to a diverse set of retailers and digital channels—both international and domestic. Product details are seamlessly organized according to the channel’s specifications and updated in a timely fashion. Consumers amid their researching journey then find and access only the most current product information.
PUSH PRODUCT CATALOGS TO MARKET FASTER
For many brands, product catalogs number in the tens of thousands, and when those products are distributed across various platforms, initial and maintenance uploads can take a long time. A smart data feed will automate high volumes of product uploads – tens and hundreds of thousands – in seconds. As a result, your products reach the market faster.
As a prime example, Forrester cites Coca-Cola, who, with the help of Salsify, can “synchronize data for thousands of product variants across the world, with international online channels.”
Additionally, a smart data feed makes internal processes more efficient. Teams can import content wherever and whenever, merge details immediately, and make edits on the fly. There’s less file management, overlap of work, bottleneck of file access and approvals, and less of a chance the wheel gets reinvented every time.
Two added bonuses? Your products are more quickly cleared from bound-to-happen glaring errors that make shoppers question the quality and authenticity of your products, and your staff will appreciate stronger processes.
MAKE SHOPPERS HAPPY
Multiple choice: A smart data feed will help consumers…
A) find a brand’s products
B) have a good experience with the brand
C) return to the brand again and again
D) all of the above
What brand wouldn’t hope the answer was D?
Consumers expect a consistent experience every time they interact with your brand, regardless of where the products are sold. Part of a positive experience is clear product data. There are less questions at checkout, more consumer confidence, and more leads via web search.
Shoppers also want to feel as though the experience is personally relevant and has been tailored to their needs, queries, and shopping habits. As Forrester reports in Use Product Data Feeds to Increase Online Sales, “the right product data feeds help prospective customers discover and explore compelling content about your products, enabling you to deliver a streamlined and engaging online experience.”
Happy consumers = repeat consumers.
Tag(s):
Omnichannel Commerce Strategy
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