Winning in Retail With Syndigo: Using Operational Data to Solve Top Problems

A broad vendor network means everything to a retailer—but so do smooth operations. Without the latter, data quality suffers, product inefficiencies occur, and the end customers are likely to be disappointed. While seamlessly onboarding a large supplier community is the first piece to winning in retail, best-in-class operational data—the details that ensure a product is stored, shipped, and delivered properly—comes next.

Fortunately, Syndigo, the Active Content Engine, has the tools to manage, validate, and execute operational information just as well as it does for vendor onboarding. If you’ve read the “How to Win in Retail” blueprint, you know a bit about how this data source fits in, but let’s review in more detail.

What operational data entails

There’s a reason this data type is probably the most recognizable one: operations are simply pivotal to a business. When retailers reference this data, they’re of course thinking of packaging, shipping, and completing orders. They’re thinking of all the crucial details that need to come together just right for their suppliers’ product content submissions to become a reality. When any part of this data slips up, shipments can get delayed, as well as warehouse slotting, shelf storing, and of course fulfilling sales.

Retailers that work with Syndigo don’t have to worry about such issues with operational data, as our data quality and validation ensures the information is reliable. From confirming accuracy in Syndigo-created content to completeness in brand-created content, there is sufficient operational data available because of the engagement with our vendor network. Plus, when this data is translated smoothly, costs are cut and time is saved, as it doesn’t require an intensive IT project to manage it all.

How operational data applies to your retail strategy

In our 2021 Forrester Consulting study on product content management, a top area of concern for suppliers was product data being spread across multiple tools. That’s the beauty for retailers working with Syndigo to manage operational data in addition to vendor onboarding—the full integration is available, meaning that they can use the platform for all their data management, and so can their vendors.

Achieving a consolidated solution for both retailers and their vendor partners is key to a winning strategy. And there are two specific areas of improvement that stand out when retailers consider applying Syndigo’s operational data. Each theme represents a core retailer priority: both are confidently addressed with Syndigo’s approach.

The first is improving the speed of order fulfillment. With Syndigo prioritizing the accuracy of item weights and dimensions, these measures are always kept up to date with packaging changes. In addition, this is essential to Syndigo’s content creation capabilities, something that also benefits retailers and suppliers alike.

The other area of importance is increasing speed-to-market for new products. When retailers can rest assured that their operational data is on point, they can also take comfort in the fact that their speed to market will stay intact. This is, unsurprisingly, something that product content decision-makers at vendor organizations care deeply about as well, with 42% of them in our Forrester Consulting report expecting faster time to market with a modern product content solution. Syndigo has carefully performed QA on our Marketplace of product content (more than one million items are consistently maintained to be up-to-date), so new item set-up is effective and doesn’t slow things down.