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"Product Content Syndication in E-Commerce"

Excerpt: Learn how e-commerce companies are using product content syndication to optimize their product data to maximize engagement and growth across all relevant marketplaces and sales platforms.

For manufacturers, suppliers and retailers, digital, quality-assured product information is the basis for marketing and sales in e-commerce. Product Content Syndication (PCS) helps companies aggregate and enrich all product information from different systems and then distribute it to retailers, marketplaces and other data pools in the right format. PCS is an essential function of data management systems such as PIM systems and DAM systems. It automatically integrates and unifies product data from different sources into a central product data feed, regardless of format. Thus, unorganized data is standardized and adapted into a predefined structure.

Product Content Syndication ensures that all relevant product data meets the specific requirements of each output channel. Through the use of user-defined templates, product data is mapped to the appropriate channels in the best possible way, thus achieving maximum performance on each channel.   

Product content syndication is especially useful for companies

  • that manage a huge range of products,
  • who present their products in many different channels and marketplaces,
  • that operate their e-commerce activities internationally,
  • who strive for consistent omnichannel product communication and contemporary customer experience.

Generating more attention from potential buyers with product content syndication

Due to the almost absolute market transparency, customers (both in the B2C and B2B sectors) are becoming more demanding when it comes to the purchase of a product. Their searches for products are becoming more and more specific. They expect relevant and convincing information in the shortest possible time. If important information is not directly available to them, they quickly switch channels without compromise and jump to the competitor’s offering, which can better serve their demand for a positive buying experience. So manufacturers and retailers who want to keep up with consumers’ increasing demands in the future must ensure that they provide relevant and ubiquitous information that adds real value to consumers in their information and purchase decision phases. Typical and most important product attributes include, for example:

  • General Product Information: Product name, title, product category, GTIN, colors, sizes, country of origin, brands, prices, dimensions, material, descriptions, features, condition, availability, item group, shipping cost, etc.
  • Multimedia product information: High-quality images from different angles, images with 360-degree rotation, close-ups, infographics, videos, instructions on how to use a product, labels and certificates, etc.
 “Digital retailers, on average, attach 200 attributes to every single product they sell.”

Source: The Forrester Wave: Product Information Management Solutions, 2019

If a customer does not find an important product attribute or defines it as inapplicable, he will quickly switch to the next offer in times of omnichannel commerce. If, for example, product images or 3D visualizations are not displayed correctly on the smartphone, companies miss out on potential buyers. In addition, if the product attributes do not match the manufacturer’s or retailer’s product category, in the worst case scenario the products are not listed correctly in search engines or marketplaces and are penalized with poor visibility. To avoid such scenarios, Product Content Syndication automatically optimizes and distributes product attributes – regardless of whether a company markets its products on 10 or 100 channels. At the same time, PCS gives customers the ability to filter and categorize their product search to tailor their shopping experience to their own needs.

Advantages of automatic product content syndication

  • Adapting product data to the specific requirements and formats of the countless sales channels is a major challenge for manufacturers and retailers. The automatic adaptation of a product catalog to the different specifications saves an enormous amount of time and at the same time reduces the susceptibility to errors – even more if the constant changes and updates of the requirements per channel are taken into consideration.
  • Effective syndication of product content enables companies to move more quickly into new sales channels and ensure that products are more discoverable and visible to consumers and buyers.
  • By ensuring that product attributes always meet the standards assumed by marketplaces, products are not rejected. On the contrary, products are listed correctly, benefit from better visibility, and click-through and conversion rates are improved.
  • Product content syndication ensures consistent product communication by providing all customer touchpoints with consistent product descriptions. At the same time, optimal media formats and sizes ensure a seamless multi-channel experience.
  • Monitoring tools track and verify data quality and ensure that commerce platforms are using the most up-to-date product information. Companies gain valuable insights into the presentation and performance of their products, enabling them to continuously improve their product content.

Tip: How to identify important product attributes for your product communication

Since customers cannot naturally touch and experience products in online retail, it is the task of retailers to convey this information in the form of product content. Rich product content, together with a successful multichannel strategy and accurate syndication of product information, has a major impact on consumers’ purchase decisions.

The importance of specific product attributes to the purchase decision process varies by industry, business model, and target market. To find out which information provides important added value in the decision-making phase, it is advisable to regularly read through customer reviews (including those of competitors). If a product does not meet customer expectations, a customer will in many cases give reasons for his dissatisfaction. Similarly, if customer expectations are balanced or even exceeded by the buying experience. Customer reviews therefore often provide a quick overview of the most frequently mentioned product attributes and their importance for the purchase decision. An additional source for evaluating the quality of product attributes is the analysis of returns. Returns provide valuable information on the manner in which products are presented incorrectly or described inaccurately.

Conclusion:

Product Content Syndication helps manufacturers and retailers optimize their product information to maximize engagement and growth across all marketplaces and other sales channels.

Product Content Syndication is already seamlessly integrated into prodexa Cloud’s PIM solution, enabling consistent and high-quality delivery of product data that meets the specific requirements of each output channel. Find out for yourself about the holistic approach for convincing product communication on all channels and arrange your individual and non-binding online demo now.

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