In Case You Missed It: 5 insights (and a few gifts)

What a year it’s been!

As 2022 opened, we saw consumers slowly returning to the behaviors that were the pre-pandemic norm. Shoppers increased their in-person shopping, and in-store sales increased more than in prior years. Online shopping also grew as shoppers continued to embrace the convenience and immediacy it provided.

On a global scale, international conflicts, scarcity, and increasing fuel prices helped to accelerate inflation, which along with supply chain challenges carried over from prior years, impacted shopper choices. Shoppers, in return, became more open to trying new products or buying from different outlets. The early supply chain scarcity also caused some retailers to over-buy supply, leading to earlier holiday sales promotions. All in all, it was an unpredictable and somewhat bumpy return to a “new-normal” world.

From Syndigo’s side, we were also evolving. We launched an updated Syndigo brand. We brought on many new suppliers, retailers and distributors, added numerous solutions integrator partners, and connected more than 100 new recipients to our network—including Amazon Core 2.0, Amazon A+, Family Dollar/Dollar Tree, Do It Best, Golf Galaxy, Ace Hardware and more. We have added features and functionality to our platform (with more to come) and were again recognized by industry analysts for PIM and Master Data Management.

With all the news swirling about, we thought it would be helpful to highlight some of our most popular insights and information from Syndigo, in one summary. Here are our top posts, ICYMI (In Case You Missed It), and how they can help you:

1. Understanding where to sell. For brands, it is often an internal battle to determine the best places to sell online. This piece covers whether brands should sell directly or through retail channels to build and maintain shopper loyalty.
2. Returning to (new) normal. As we said, it’s been a year, and we have been tracking shopper behavior online through our Enhanced Content analytics capabilities. In this post, we cover last month’s Black Friday/Cyber Monday trends as an indicator of what is likely to happen as we move into the new year.
3. How data management drives eCommerce. We often think of PIM and MDM as the formal, structured data sets that drive business functions. However, these systems are also essential for eCommerce, since data quality has a direct impact on sales online. To be effective, these internal systems must also be flexible and connected in order to stay in sync with the needs of eCommerce.
4. Win big with better PDPs. Amazon Prime Day was more than one day in 2022. And whether or not you sell through this important platform (and others like it), you need to understand how to leverage content on sites like Amazon to help drive better overall sales.
5. How to lead in today’s real-time economy. One of the biggest outcomes from the challenges of the last few years is that shoppers have grown more comfortable with online shopping, and businesses have moved quickly to accommodate that through more delivery, hybrid, or virtual showrooming. It’s critical to understand how the industry is evolving and how to manage the product information to stay ahead.

Since there has been so much good content shared this year, we couldn’t resist: Here are a few additional “gifts” to share with your colleagues: An overview of the basics of PIM and MDM; our webinar series that touch on specific retailer guidelines and our product roadmaps; plus a blueprint on transforming your product content lifecycle.

And, finally: Don’t forget the importance of keeping your content active. As part of our brand evolution, we refer to Syndigo platform. This includes the people, processes, and technology that come together to provide a comprehensive approach to managing information—from internal master data governance and product information management to content syndication and analytics.

We believe that to enable commerce most efficiently, companies need to control the flow of data through their organization and across today’s two-sided network of retailers and suppliers, in order to win on every shelf. We hope that these resources are helpful as you make your plans for 2023. And we hope that it includes Syndigo!