"Cross-border e-commerce: why PIM provides the foundation"

Relevant product content is the key to converting visitors into customers. That’s why one of the first steps in expanding into new international markets is to present product information in local languages. This is the only way to involve customers interactively in the purchase decision process. The number of cross-border trading platforms determines how extensive the translation processes are for companies. The greater the number of markets and touchpoints, the greater the effort required for translation work.

With the cloud PIM software from prodexa, companies can easily manage their product content in multiple languages, create comprehensive translation features specifically tailored to the needs of manufacturers and distributors with their own terminology. They can also work with an integrated dashboard that provides a quick overview of all ongoing translation processes. In addition, prodexa Cloud detects articles and descriptions that are missing translations and ensures that no incomplete or insufficiently translated content is published through the channels.

After managing the translation process, the next step is to localize the product content. In addition to creating product descriptions in the appropriate language, there are various dynamics for different regions and markets that need to be considered. These include different currencies, dates and times, size specifications, seals and certificates. Different countries also have different demands on their customer journey. For some buyer groups, it is primarily brands and technical data that are required in the information procurement process, while other buyer groups place more value on information in the area of material properties and sustainability. Depending on the target market, a PIM system can be used to target different product data in different channels. 

If sales take place exclusively via the online store, a transformation of the listed characteristics can often take place directly via the shop system. However, the topic of product data goes beyond the use case of e-commerce by also optimizing the product data for other channels in the sense of an omnichannel commerce approach. This means that the translated and localized product information can also be made available in print catalogs, marketplaces, apps, or at the point of sale in a contextually appropriate manner. Regardless of how many new channels are added to the marketing mix in the long run, the effort to provide optimized product data is only done once in a dedicated system. Furthermore, some PIM systems such as prodexa Cloud also have an integrated digital asset management system (DAM), which means that country-specific and cultural preferences can also be taken into account visually.