Who Sells First? The Importance of Time-to-Market of Products for Retailers

Posted on Apr 18, 2012 in Product Information Management by Mike Gilbert 0 Comments

Time-to-market is often used as a business case by retailers investing in a Product Information Management platform. In working with many clients I have seen two distinct time-to-market scenarios. The first is based on the “Useful Life” of a product and the second is based on “Market Demand”.

The “Useful Life” scenario comes into consideration when a product’s lifecycle is limited. This is often the situation in fashion and technology.  The fashion world merchandises in seasons. Not only do fashion products get swapped out at the change of every season, but from one year to the next there are always differences making the previous year’s fashions just that -last year’s items. Likewise in technology if you consider Apple’s iPhone, nobody wants the 3G after the 4G has been released. Even manufacturers face this concept, for example, a computer manufacturer’s technology today is old technology one year from now. Sales in this scenario may stay relatively stable or decrease slightly over the life of the product. The problem with being late to the market is that the “Useful Life” is typically characterized by less than 12 months. If you consider a product that has a “Useful Life” of 6 months and it takes 30 days to make it available to sell, you have effectively lost 20% of total potential sales.

The “Market Demand” scenario occurs when there is a very short window of “Market Demand” for an item. The most agile retailers can earn high margins in a short period of time if they take advantage of this phenomenon. For example, when Prince William and Kate Middleton got married, the demand for woman’s hats spiked after the wedding but decreased quickly over the next thirty days. Or consider the Super Bowl where demand for the winning team’s branded merchandise experiences an enormous spike, but only for a very short window of time before the demand settles back to normal or slightly above normal for that team’s merchandise. In this scenario, 80% of the revenue can occur within a very limited time, maybe lasting only a few weeks.  This is similar to the Christmas season demand in which retailers (based on their own internal processes) spend months preparing for. The window is short and they want to maximize sales volume. The difference is that “Market Demand” events cannot always be predicted ahead of time and therefore require new, more agile processes to provide the market with these products.

It is also important to note the affect that this has on customer loyalty. The retailer that delivers early becomes the trusted retailer, in other words, the store customers look to first for “time-to-market” of sensitive items.

An analysis of business processes may identify areas that need to be redesigned in order to compete for these sales. A product information management (PIM) solution can help by providing tools to streamline activities and facilitate the processes required to get products to market faster.

CEO Interview: Connect your network of data, people and systems

Posted on Apr 4, 2012 in Product Information Management by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

Heiler Software launches its latest Product Information Management (PIM) Release 6. Therefore, Rolf, J. Heiler, CEO & Founder of Heiler Software was being interviewed, about his thoughts on the background and trends that are influencing product development today. Read his views on how to connect data, people and systems in enterprise environments and how changes in multichannel commerce are being driven by social communication and collaboration.

What are your customers’ main challenges today when investing in PIM initiatives?

Rolf J. Heiler: Ecommerce drives today’s markets. Retailers of all industries are faced with the challenge of turning visitors into customers. The Age of Google and price search has led to an immense decrease in customer loyalty. To address the challenge of customer loyalty, successful retailers are enhancing their assortments. With a long tail strategy, retailers not only improve customer retention, but they can also increase their margins through niche articles.

Time-to-Market is everything. The faster your new product offering appears in search engine results, the faster a customer will come to you to make their purchase. We are convinced that only accurate and up-to-date product information helps companies to sell products in a multichannel commerce environment. Multichannel means offering the right product(s), at the right time, in the right channel.

You mentioned “Network Based PIM” when launching your new Product Information Management release. What does that mean?

Rolf J. Heiler: The world is being overwhelmed by social networks, but this way of communicating has changed the market and people’s behavior immensely. Think of what big product hubs like retailers and distributors can learn from their internal networks and how they can organize them. A crucial factor is staying connected. Our PIM solution enables a multichannel experience to increase customer loyalty.

Who connects with whom? Who is part of that network?

Rolf J. Heiler: Companies need to connect their network of data, people and systems. Of course product data is crucial when presenting the right product in the right channel, but referencing between product and customer data is the key for perfect targeting and personalization in ecommerce and marketing. Therefore, companies, especially retailers need to integrate their master, product, and customer data systems. People are the ones that manage this and so data systems need to match with today’s social behavior of sharing, communicating and collaborating.

Heiler is launching a new supplier portal, how is this a new way to communicate and collaborate?

Rolf J. Heiler: Suppliers provide different kinds of data formats through different media (e-mail, FTP, DVD’s). Conforming and validating this data -as well as the fact that in the most cases there is no standardized communication process with the suppliers- can have negative effects on time-to-market of products.

With our new Heiler Supplier Xchange which is part of the PIM Platform, we are starting a new era of communication and collaboration between suppliers and retailers. A Facebook-like paradigm enables better communication and quicker time-to-market. The supplier data onboarding process is automated through an easy to use web interface.

What do you mean by “new era of communication and collaboration” in terms of quicker time-to-market?

Rolf J. Heiler: Product images and product movies are an important factor for any buying decision. We know, emotions sell and a picture paints a thousand words. You have to engage your agencies and photographers as well. If they have an individual role based view, they only see what really matters when adding media assets. That speeds up time-to-market and helps reduce costs.

Fast moving assortments and short product life cycles mean that big manufacturers and retailers are running large photo shoots and video casts of products every day. This needs to be optimized and solved very quickly.

Imagine if the CEO of a big retailer or manufacturer requests an image which was used in the last spring promotion catalog for his next management presentation. Often a long expensive and time consuming search process is being started and resulting with a new investment in photo shoots or art buying. A PIM with rich media management can speed up this process and save costs.

What about the internal processes? What role does PIM play here?

Rolf J. Heiler: Companies, manufacturing or trading large assortments need to engage all internal colleagues as well. Think of legal – they need to approve certain product content. Are they keen on software applications? No. They need to be provided with an easy to use, front end system where they only see what they need to see. This is even true for marketing, when working on creative product USP’s and sales argumentations. Also, inside sales or call centers need up-to-date cross-selling information to successfully bundle products in call centers.

If all of these departments inside a company manage product information – does that increase the risk of data chaos and losing control?

Rolf J. Heiler: Definitely, yes! In general if we talk about industries with certain legal regulations such as healthcare and medical, data governance is a crucial factor. We will address this topic with an enhanced audit trail function coming soon. This will allow complete transparency through a product’s lifecycle.

According to market leaders in the retail industry, interaction with customers is crucial.  How does Heiler’s PIM solution help improve this?

Rolf J. Heiler: In the rising world of the “Google Age” retailers have a lack of customer loyalty more than ever before. In that context, product information quality and services are strategic assets in competitive markets. A person shopping for products today is turning into the problem of them shopping with a new retailer for every new purchase. Interacting with customers is not a new trend but requires businesses to have more connected touch points today.

Combining product and customer feedback is one of the key things businesses can profit from. Customer ratings and reviews on social networks or ecommerce sites should be fed back into a Product Information Management System (PIM). This information can then be used in all sales channels for marketing. These customer opinions also play an important role in product or category management for the selection of product lines.

Let’s look at the big picture. What role, does PIM play in an enterprise IT infrastructure of big players?

Rolf J. Heiler: Two years ago, a lot of retailers started PIM initiatives to empower their ecommerce strategy. Recently, manufacturers have paid more attention and are starting to invest in e-business. In the past few years our enterprise customers have stated that a PIM solution is a strategic asset for them. They see product information as having sales value for multichannel commerce; offering the right product, to the right customer, at the right moment.

In the enterprise ecommerce market, leading players like IBM WebSphere Commerce, Oracle ATG WebCommerce, Demandware, and Intershop recommend the Heiler PIM solution. Heiler’s ecommerce adapters focus on integration and we have a large customer installation base that proves this.

If we think about the IT environment of large companies, seamless integration and performance of mass data are the most crucial factors. Data synchronization with ERP systems like SAP, are important standards. Heiler PIM delivers all of that.

Furthermore, due to legal regulations in several branches, our customers need to synchronize their information with data pools like GS1, NPI, GHX, Big Hammer, 1Sync and more need to be integrated as well. Industries like food, fashion, healthcare or industrial supply – they all must synchronize with industry standard classifications as well.

If you have to sum up the idea of “Network Based PIM” in just a few sentences. What would you say?

In essence the crucial factor is to leverage your network(s) around product information by connecting data, people, and systems. Systems adapt and respond to people’s behaviors and individual roles. Data systems do not run companies, people do.

Thank you for the interview Rolf!

Customer Loyalty Challenge – How PIM Empowers Call Center Revenues

Posted on Mar 2, 2012 in Multichannel, Product Information Management by Benjamin Rund 0 Comments

Customer loyalty is rapidly decreasing in the era of Google. Today, “shop everywhere” not only represents the customer’s ability to buy anywhere in the context of a multichannel buying experience, but it also represents the increasing level of temptation that customer’s are being faced with to buy from other vendors. This growing problem affects a majority of retailers today.

The significance of multichannel commerce is more than omnipresent today: targeting the right offer to the right customer at the right time. While this method is possible in every sales channel, the call center represents an excellent opportunity to execute and capitalize on this multichannel strategy.

Providing one central platform for call center agents to quickly access all product related data can drastically shorten both the searching and ordering processes, especially for rapidly growing product lines. With this accurate, up-to-date information readily available, call center agents can also quickly generate unique cross- and up-selling opportunities.

Many retailers are tackling the customer loyalty challenge by greatly expanding their product range. This method often referred to as “long-tail strategy,” can lead to higher margins through the creation of niche products that can be sold alongside traditional bestsellers.

A study conducted by Heiler Software and the Hochschule der Medien in Stuttgart shows, among other things, the affect of Product Information Management (PIM) on higher margins, as well as cost savings after the incorporation of new suppliers.

For the call center agent, the introduction of new products or updates to existing products can be very frustrating. Agents must be aware of all product offerings so that within seconds they can provide the right answers about the right products for each customer inquiry; including those questions that go beyond the core product range. Typical questions might include: “Is the black Fossil belt from the catalog or online store also available in taupe? When can it be shipped and how much does it cost?”

With a Product Information Management (PIM) solution in place, the previous challenge of accessing an overview of all available items had been greatly simplified. The call center agent can now provide this ideal answer: “Yes, it is available from Fossil for $39, but it also looks like a similar belt from the trendy brand Coach is also available at $59 -  and they also offer a popular matching hand-bag in the same color.”

Not only has the agent properly addressed the customer’s initial query, but has now set himself up with the potential to sell a more expensive product with accessories. What initially started off as a mediocre $39 transaction now has the potential to turn into a $120 transaction.

Many time-consuming manual processes are often required to set up an item that goes beyond the core product range. Without a Product Information Management (PIM) system that provides instant up-to-date information on any item, an agent can easily waste 15 minutes finding the information necessary to answer the customer’s question. Only then can the client be called back, and at that point there is no guarantee that the call will even be answered. A new item setup is generally dispensed with an order to quickly record and process the special orders in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. An employee would still need another 10 minutes to fill in all fields and screens required for the materials management solution in the ERP system. And don’t forget to consider some of the associated costs: i.e. companies usually have to budget more than $40 for a single item master record.

What if another customer now wants to order the same item? Once again, proper information on the item is not readily available or is not set up. A Product Information Management (PIM) solution integrated into the ERP can automate the process of retrieving previous orders and setting up new orders.

The aforementioned PIM ROI study shows that the quality of information is an essential factor to increase conversion rates and reduce return costs in e-commerce. The same principle applies to call centers.

Learn more about customer loyalty and how user-friendly navigation of your available channels can help you convert online customers into regular customers. Register for the upcoming webinar by filling out the form on the right side.

The Latest Trend in Food Retailing – Product Information Management

Posted on Feb 23, 2012 in Multichannel, Product Information Management by Christian Farra 0 Comments

Product Information Management (PIM) is a new trend that is emerging in the food retailing industry. A PIM provides the perfect foundation for both national and multi-national companies to seamlessly execute their multichannel strategies. It’s a fact that major food organizations have already recognized the values received from a PIM solution.

These companies are optimizing their multichannel initiatives by communicating their product offerings to consumers through various sales channels: traditional print, online (including eStores and Social Media), and mobile. And they go even further. Some of them are already using some of the latest technology to provide their customers Multichannel Customer Touch Points.

I would bet that everyone has probably utilized a Self Check-Out Scanner when making quick or small purchases. These can help you save time by reducing especially long waits at checkout. But this is just the beginning. More retailers are starting to provide digital access points that allow customers to search and locate their products in the store, check stock levels, and gain additional information by using In-Store Information Panels. But customers aren’t just buying their products in the store. Retailers are also reaching out to customers offline by using printed shopping walls to provide a similar experience. Isn’t it great to do your shopping while waiting for the bus? All you need is a smartphone with an app that allows you to scan QR codes. And what about shopping at home? If a retailer’s online shop is visually appealing and user-friendly, I like to order online via iPad or a similar.

Many retailers offer an online ordering experience paired with a door-to-door delivery service. This practice was made popular by the fashion industry, but the food retailing industry is beginning to move in a similar direction. And with large assortments typically offered by food retailers, it is important to make sure that the products are advertised accurately. Maintaining this level of product data and ensuring its quality requires a PIM solution.

Let’s start over again. What role does product information management have in the food retailing arena? What challenges does the industry face? How can successful product information management take the food retailing industry to the next level? The answers to all of these questions can be found in our latest white paper.

Specialist Interview: Amazonization in Catalog Procurement

Posted on Feb 14, 2012 in Catalog Procurement by Benjamin Rund 0 Comments

Heiler Software, one of the leading suppliers of Enterprise Catalog Procurement and Product Information Management (PIM) solutions, has introduced the new version of its catalog solution. Heiler Enterprise Catalog Procurement 7 represents the new generation of shopping in the procurement of indirect materials and services from international companies. Accessibility, simple searching, and transparency, are all priorities in the new version. Matthias Zwick, Product Manager Catalog Procurement, talks about the new features.

E-catalogs are an important tool for today’s procurement process. What are the demands on a modern catalog solution?

Zwick: Time is money. Finding and ordering products and services as quickly as possible is the top priority. Therefore, the ease of use of the application is crucial since the current trend is that simple B2C experiences are also being introduced to B2B. On Sunday evenings we all shop from our couch with our tablets. When we make business purchases on Monday we still have the same expectant attitude. Today there is hardly any difference between private and professional user experiences. Ease of use is expected. Performance and speed, which we expect from big platforms and search engines, is also part of it.

What can a modern catalog procurement system achieve and where is the trend leading us?

Zwick: It has always been the task of catalog solutions to make operative shopping tasks easier. Today, transparency is the main priority for all procurement processes. You can only implement the right steps for prospective negotiations when you know where the actual product- and process costs are being incurred. Without this transparency, optimization of procurement costs is hardly possible. This overview over all processes can further promote the automation of content management. In the future, the purchasing department will manage fewer manual catalogs; instead intelligent, automated systems will provide users with catalogs.

What novelties in the area of catalog management can you report?

Zwick: International companies with many suppliers and constantly growing product ranges expect a sustainable search. Our newest search combines years of shopping experience and proven search technology. On account of this we can offer an optimal service for branch-specific requirements and various search behaviors – and, above all, the whole process is oriented toward mass data.

Only C and standard parts or much more…? For which procurement goods are e-catalogs predestined? What new approaches are there in this field?

Zwick: For a long time service procurement has been part of catalogs. In the past this mostly included standard services that were similar to products such as cleaning services; yet, today we cover an increasing number of complex goods and services with electronic procurement, beginning with service configuration in the catalog all the way actual down to order placement. B materials and bulk goods play a role as well.

Catalog procurement systems with “Amazon feeling” provide a good premise for people to actually order from the catalog in their daily business. What is also important in regard to the system’s ease of use?

Zwick: We have already addressed private shopping habits. B2B applications must increasingly acquire features from the B2C area. E.g., is the shopping cart in the right place? Can I quickly limit results by defining characteristics such as price and other features? Accessibility is also becoming increasingly important for people who use global mass user applications. In the area of public procurement, freedom from barriers is also becoming more and more important.

Catalog systems must be integrated in the IT landscape and in the entire shopping process. What must we be aware of here? What new possibilities are there?

Zwick: Seamless integration means that the user only deals with ONE visible system! This single point of search is the central location for procurement while ERP software, running in the background, responsibly performs transactional processes. International companies have multiple systems that must be considered in the process, which is why flexibility of automated interfaces is crucial for an e-procurement system.

Dear Mr. Zwick, thank you very much for the interview.

The interview was conducted by Annette Mühlberger, Specialised Journalist.

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Success Stories@Heiler: ISTQB Certified Tester

Posted on Jan 20, 2012 in Company, Human Resources by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

In our Success@heiler series, we always look highly upon young individuals who educate themselves professionally. Today we are honored to congratulate three young people on their success.

Gianni Montalto, Aline Sagrabelny and Markus Woschek from the QA department have all passed the certification for ISTQB Certified Tester. This certification requires a lot of preparation: a minimum of one year job experience along with a compact multi-day seminar at the CertInstitute. While Gianni and Aline have achieved the basic Foundation Level, Markus has already reached the Advanced Level which requires at least 18 months job experience and a passing of the Foundation Level.

“In the field of software testing, we need to meet certain standards. This is extremely important for our business. The training received at CertInstitute ensures that our employees are trained according to international standards. We have started with three employees and our plan is to extend that within our entire department. Also, future applicants should have these qualifications”, says Matthias Pätzold, Head of Quality Assurance at Heiler Software.

“The costs for this training are completely paid by Heiler. This represents just one of the various benefits that our employees receive here at Heiler,” says Marion Kugler, Head of HR department at Heiler.

Marion Kugler, Tanja Hauser and Matthias Pätzold (bottom picture: right of center, very left, very right) and the entire company wish to congratulate Gianni, Aline, and Markus on their success. Great job everyone!

Get more information about your career possibilities at Heiler Software.

What drives Multichannel Commerce? – Reducing Return Rates

Posted on Jan 10, 2012 in Multichannel, Product Information Management, Research by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

Excessively high return rates are always a big cost factor for manufacturers and retailers and directly influence their operating results. For this reason, it is important to minimize this to the greatest extent possible. Especially in the clothing segment, the rate of returns is almost 30%, according to an investigation by the seal of quality company Trusted Shops. The bvh (German abbreviation of German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association) even reports a rate of 40% for this. In comparison, entertainment electronics is in second place with a rate of only 15.4%. We have already discussed trends and the factor of pictures above. Given these figures, the need to enrich this visual aid seems indispensable. In addition, properties of an article such as:

• Article indexing (tags)
• Pictures/3D zoom, etc.
• USP of the article
• SEO-optimized product description
• Characteristic values
• Text describing the brand
• Cross-selling and upselling
• Delivery information and
• Size charts

These are indispensable to minimize the return rate and prevent dissatisfaction in advance. The fashion chain H&M is already going a step in the right direction with its “Pick&Collect” model. The customer can either pick up the article ordered online in the store or return it there. The fact remains that enriching a product description with as much information as possible by the retailer, if possible with product information from the manufacturer, is extremely significant. Optimum performance can be obtained for this from a centrally controlled data pool. According to the Heiler “ROI of PIM” study there are significant improvements in the quota of returns by using a PIM solution.

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What drives Multichannel Commerce? – M-Commerce and Social Commerce

Posted on Dec 16, 2011 in Multichannel, Product Information Management, Research by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

A trend that is certainly just as important this year is the role played by social networks, which are largely included under the heading Social Commerce. In this, functions such as blogs, Facebook apps and actions via Twitter are most important. The reason is a change in purchasing mentality, and not just of young people. “This development is being pushed forward due to the increased penetration of broadband and the increasing Internet affinity of all age groups,”bvh (German abbreviation of German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association) President Thomas Lipke says.” In addition, thanks to a rapidly growing smartphone market and the associated mobile access options to the internet and mobile-commerce offers, buying online from everywhere and at any time is now possible.” Retailers have above all to offer the chance of consumer participation, i.e. evaluations. The possibility of negative evaluations is not to be considered solely as a risk factor in this respect. For example, user comments can genuinely point out defects in the shop which the operator had not noticed himself. In this case, it is a question of reacting quickly. According to the Heiler “ROI of PIM” study, you are substantially faster in changing incorrect data in all channels when you use a PIM system. The time from discovery of the error until its correction and consequently adaptation of the article, including with respect to search engine optimization, can be reduced from four hours to one (i.e. 75%).

Shops create additional trust in their community by the right reaction to negative user comments. Last but not least, there are viral effects in this context, because the new purchases are often talked about via social networks. Shop operators should make corresponding tools available in good time here.

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What drives Multichannel Commerce? – Presentation is Everything

Posted on Dec 2, 2011 in Multichannel, Product Information Management, Research by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

In addition to the most important arguments of: the lower price compared to retail stores and free shipping, the key trends in e-commerce in 2011 concern additional features, such as zoom 3D views, scroll catalogs and video shopping. However, good old pictures are still important. Targeted multiple use of product pictures on all channels can especially save time and consequently cut costs here. According to the Heiler “ROI of PIM” study, companies with a Product Information Management (PIM) System use their product pictures 96% of the time simultaneously in the print and online areas. The bvh (German abbreviation of German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association) also determined that 65% of customers now obtain information from a catalog and buy online. This supports the idea of using the same product pictures, simply not to confuse customers and to increase the possibility of comparison. This reduction of work also saves enormous costs and has another effect: thanks to optimized pictures and perfect visual product descriptions as well as their simple integration into the system, the rate of returns can be reduced.

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What drives Multichannel Commerce? – Long-Tail as Business Strategy

Posted on Nov 7, 2011 in Multichannel, Product Information Management, Research by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

A great challenge for retailers and at the same time a cost risk for shop operators is the integration or transfer of product and supplier data into their own systems and the problem-free scaling and expanding of their own product range as part of a long-tail strategy. This is the case when retailers add a large number of niche products to their core product range. Substantially higher margins can be realized here.

The following is generally true of e-commerce: the manufacturer has the best information simply for reasons of prestige. He invests in his product data and his brands. Retailers profit from this brand power.

An important aspect in making these articles available in your own webshop is the cost of the creation process; the bigger the product range, the greater the cost. In preparing these data for several channels, the time required can increase exponentially and no longer be worth the effort. The Heiler “ROI of PIM” study provides insights into this. One quarter (25%) of retailers without a Product Information Management (PIM) system for data maintenance require more than 60 minutes to put an article in their webshops. However, the percentage of those requiring such a long time decreases to 4% for retailers with a PIM system, as is clearly shown by the faster processing. At a retailer such as Bertelsmann Direct Group, with 800,000 articles in its core product range, the work and associated costs can be estimated. A mid-sized shop nowadays often has more than 1,000 suppliers. The number of required data integration processes and the number of suppliers can quickly exceed 100 annually. The same problem arises here. Given this number, it is above all a question of the quickness of data integration. The faster the products and suppliers are in the system, the sooner the products are ready for sale, regardless of which channel is used. The Heiler study concluded in this context that the integration of a supplier can be reduced to fewer than two weeks at more than 50% of the retailers with a Product Information Management (PIM) system. In addition, the product range can be expanded easily as much as desired. In the case of Bertelsmann, the core product range was increased from 800,000 to more than 10 million articles from different suppliers and managed in the PIM system.

It can be seen that retailers with an expansion strategy are well-advised to use a system for data maintenance and processing, i.e. Product Data Management, starting from a certain magnitude of product range and number of suppliers.

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What drives Multichannel Commerce? – Agility in eCommerce for SEO

Posted on Oct 5, 2011 in Multichannel, Product Information Management, Research by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

Every second large retailers and manufacturers with multichannel focus stated in the Heiler “ROI of PIM” study that they use up to 10 systems containing product and master data. It has been shown that cost savings of up to 20% can be generated, thanks to the reduction and consolidation of these systems. The reduction in the number of systems means that the performance of data management and updating can be increased while reducing cost. This is reflected in shorter processing time for an item or faster updating in e-commerce. At the same time, the saved time is usually directly proportional to sales. The product that is on the market faster can theoretically be sold sooner.

Now imagine a music video by the singer Justin Timberlake on MTV. He is wearing a shirt with the brand name Jack&Jones. Of course, a fan searches precisely for this brand in Google, e.g., with the search term “shirt justin timberlake”. Thanks to fast integration of product information and the high degree of flexibility in a webshop, the processing time and adaptation of the article can be reduced from 12.5 minutes without PIM to 8 minutes with PIM, according to the Heiler study. This corresponds to a time saving of 30%. As a result, the article would be available with the relevant identification code and in different languages in the online shop after a very short time. This process, which describes the time from product development up to integration into your own webshop, is called “time-to-market”. During this time, the product only produces costs and does not generate any sales. Consequently, retailers need to shorten this time to reduce costs. Another advantage of this very short time to market is for products with short life cycles. A retailer can obtain a competitive advantage here by being the first to get the product on the market. This in turn influences calculation of prices, because “early adopters” are willing in the initial phase to pay the price demanded, since no competitor can offer a lower one. Consequently, this shortening of the time to market combined with simplification of the complexity and consolidation of systems as well as the improvement of IT processes is not only a cost-cutting measure, but also a factor in increasing sales.

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Careers@Heiler: Create your career

Posted on Sep 28, 2011 in Company, Human Resources by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

Our employees are our greatest asset. Therefore it is important to us that they feel comfortable and develop freely. We support our employees in terms of career with numerous training opportunities, responsible tasks and give them time to pursue their hobbies. We believe that our employees can develop their full potential only in this combination. With targeted and individual development programs, we give our new and existing employees the chance to grow with us. Become part of our team and work with the best. You can expect challenging work and excellent working conditions. Take your chance and apply even today for jobs at Heiler Software Germany and Heiler Software Corporation.

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What drives Multichannel Commerce? – Perfect Product Information

Posted on Sep 3, 2011 in Multichannel, Product Information Management, Research by Christian Hütel 0 Comments

Many companies invest a great deal of money in optimizing their ecommerce shops. With increasingly globalized business models, the demands on multichannel sales in particulare increasing. It’s worthwhile taking a look behind the scenes here. What can a Product Information Management (PIM) system contribute to company’s success? A study conducted by Heiler Software AG and Stuttgart Media College examined this question in detail. This is the introduction of a series concerning some results of this study. It will be covered by some examples for retailers in the environment of multichannel commerce.

Part 1 – Increased Agility in E-Commerce for Search Engine Optimization

Part 2 – Long-Tail as Business Strategy

Part 3 – Presentation is everything

Part 4 – Success Factor – M-Commerce and Social Commerce

Part 5 – Reducing Return Rates

E-commerce has been a profitable business for the distance-selling companies and manufacturers of this world for quite some time. According to the German E-Commerce and Distance Selling Trade Association (German abbreviation bvh), German distance-selling companies alone had sales of 18.3 billion euros in the Internet last year with an upward trend. Even though the share of e-commerce has increased to 60% of total sales (€ 30.3 billion), many companies are no longer focusing on electronic sales alone, but are positioning themselves more widely. The traditional distribution channels of catalogs and stores remain on the agenda, but the magic word is multichannel. Customers want to be able to shop everywhere, at all times, whenever they feel like it. They practice “channel-hopping”, so retailers have to be accessible on all channels. This diversification in sales presents a challenge. The channels are not just very different with respect to logistics and process workflows, but also in the different requirements for product presentation.

Following the motto “think local, act global”, companies have to expand and adapt their business models. Increasing cost pressure and the necessity of operating internationally are currently the overriding factors for companies. In addition to well-developed supplier relations, this requires a certain degree of openness to new technologies and above all to an adapted IT infrastructure. This means standard software, which enables retailers and manufacturers to adapt their product data optimally to different channels. The software solutions called Product Information Management (PIM) or Master Data Management (MDM) projects have come into use increasingly over the past years. Market research company, Gartner, forecasts annual growth in this market of approx. 20%. An increasing number of retailers, especially large companies, have come to see the necessity of using this solution, because these systems have interfaces to already existing e-commerce systems such as IBM WebSphere, ATG, Intershop and Demandware. However, the question of the Return on Investment (ROI) of this type of solution remains. According to an international study conducted by Heiler Software AG and Stuttgart Media College, this can be proven. It contains assessments that demonstrate the directly positive influence on the conversion rates, margins, and new customer acquisition.

Consequently, the introduction of Product Information Management is an essential as well as profitable process in a company, regardless of whether you’re a retailer or manufacturer. It is indisputable that such a system can support both a product range and an expansion strategy. It also remains especially important for today’s e-commerce companies to be able to control processes quickly and efficiently throughout the complete company. This applies to the complete supply chain. It starts with supplier integration, continues to processing data, and all the way to final output in a channel. According to the Heiler study Product Information Management solutions can contribute to both establishing your own business model as well as to increase sales and operating results, and to reduce costs.

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CEO Rolf Heiler guests at customer Kramp

Posted on Aug 11, 2011 in Product Information Management by Rolf J. Heiler 0 Comments

Tines, hand tools and hydraulic motors are the order of the day at Kramp. Spare parts for agricultural machines – that doesn’t sound very innovative… But Kramp, based in Holland, is Europe’s largest wholesaler of accessories and spare parts for motorized equipment, agricultural and construction machines.

Meeting Eddie Perdok, CEO at Kramp (right of picture) was inspiring on a personal level. But also the company’s business model and e-commerce strategy is exemplary. 340 million Euro in sales and 10,000 orders per day will raise strongly, this is for sure. Kramp is truly one of the hidden champions in my eyes.

„We believe in the future and the power of e-commerce”, said CEO Eddie Perdok. Kramp stocks over 400,000 items from 2,000 suppliers. The company wants to extend the deliverable virtual stock to 1 million items and is using the long tail strategy to implement this.

“We want to bring customer opinion and supplier knowledge together”, so Perdock. Online customer evaluation combined with the knowledge of the manufacturer puts us in the position of being able to optimally control stock. In e-commerce, manufacturers, retailers and customers are getting closer in the product information supply chain. Kramp follows the idea of efficient consumer response driven by the search for perfect product data as the prerequisite.

The principle of cooperation and collaboration will also determine future business in the aftermarket. Potential exists wherever complementary products are sold online. Kramp uses the IBM WebSphere Commerce as its e-commerce system.

Summary: Perfect product information, based on supplier knowledge and customer feedback, has deep impact on their business model and the multichannel sales strategy.

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PIM 360° – How PIM pimps Social Commerce

Posted on Jul 30, 2011 in Product Information Management by Michael Fieg 0 Comments

Twitter, Facebook & Co are on everybody’s lips.  Opinions are wide-ranging, from nonsense to mega-hype, on the significance of the micro-blogging services on e-commerce and multi-channel trading.

In Germany, 36% of online shops already have Twitter embedded, while 20% are planning to introduce it. This was the result reached by an investigation carried out by ibi research at the University of Regensburg.

Many companies are already reporting that their turnovers could increase significantly through the implementation of social media channels. Interactive media increase dialog with the customer. Putting aside a purely sales-figure oriented mindset, they enable authentic and direct communication with the customer. New customers can also be made aware of product offers.

So is the phrase “the trend is your friend” particularly apt in this instance? Online social networks are growing and increasingly influencing communication, be that in the business world or the world of the consumer. E-commerce prescribers must analyse precisely and decide which of their target groups can be reached through this medium. At present the media is particularly applicable to a target group of technology enthusiasts who love to experiment.

The decision whether or not social media should play a role in your communication and business strategy, and indeed what that role should be, cannot be made by this report. This report does, however, outline the important factors. This white paper takes a look at First Movers, who believe in social commerce and hope to discover what significance Product Information Management (PIM) has in this context.

Two thirds (67%) of customers who research a brand on Twitter are subsequently more prepared to buy that product. On Facebook this applies to 51% of users. There is hardly any distinction between the expectations of men and women. Females prove to be more prolific bargain hunters. The following figures from a study by Chadwick Martin Bailey support this notion:

Female target group: Why are you a fan of brands/companies on Facebook?

1. In order to receive offers and discounts: 30%
2. Because I am already a customer: 20%
3. To show others that I like this brand: 15%
4. For fun: 10%

Male target group: Why are you a fan of brands/companies on Facebook?

1. In order to receive offers and discounts: 23%
2. Because I am already a customer: 23%
3. To show others that I like this brand: 18%
4. For fun: 11%

With regard to B2B communication there has, to date, been a lack of clear evidence that a relationship between social networks and a decision to purchase really exists.

What is most clear is that customer feedback takes on an increasing significance in the world of web 2.0. A review posted online can be extremely exciting and effective, but only if I, as a retailer, am permitted to re-use this information. Staples, the office supplies discount store, and a Heiler customer has around 60,000 Facebook followers. On its fansite Staples publicises its current promotions, as well as discount codes and discount deals. Customers comment on and review these deals. Here Product Information Management (PIM) supplies the appropriate product data.

Shoes allows customers to review their products on Facebook. Shoes’ customers can subsequently arrange the product list as desired. The Facebook user is sent to the linked store via a “Buy online”link.

Facebook is especially well suited for image galleries. Fashion store Mary & Paul demonstrate, albeit somewhat tentatively, what is possible. However, the fact is that, for fashion in particular, a Facebook shop window can be a way to reach potential customers. The appropriate images are provided by Product Information Management (PIM) using integrated Media Asset Management (MAM).

The Otto subsidiary Jungstil allows customers to select potential store products and displays them using (amateur) video content. This is more authentic in every way.

But Jungstil goes even further: Customers have the opportunity to import “their” outfits onto Facebook. The photos are then commented on and reviewed by fashion journalists and bloggers. The winners receive prizes. Jungstil has thus created a direct channel to an unbelievably large community of fashion-loving customers. As far as some industry experts are concerned we could be looking at the “product managers of the future”. There is a growing understanding that the female customer base in particular know which clothes they are going to be wearing in the coming summer.

Product data in social networks will thus be loaded with customer opinions and should be fed back into a Product Management System (PIM). This information then displays these allurements as soon as they can be used in other cross-medial sales and advertising materials. We are thinking along the lines of product flyers, mail outs or catalogs. These customer opinions also play an important role for product or category management in the selection of product lines.

Direct customer opinions from the interactive web can be gathered and evaluated immediately. Which reviews and comments have been made by the target cluster-group, “German, 13-16 years old, female” can thus be precisely analysed. In this way, Product Information Management (PIM) facilitates the segmentation of target groups in social commerce.

Today’s customer is a hybrid. Evidence shows that he is using more channels to get information on products before a sale occurs. Multichannel is therefore not just a fleeting trend but a compelling necessity. Experts also talk of so-called cross-channel marketing, which is used within a particular marketing channel to draw attention to further sales channels. For example, a mail order company will advertise its catalog via its website, and vice-versa. Or its store on Facebook.

With Youtube, Facebook and Twitter, a further sales channel has arrived in the e-commerce world. With it the danger of data sharing, inefficient processing and inconsistent product communication is increasing. The call for a solution to put in place central product data management and central communication is being reinforced more strongly than ever. The Enterprise Product Information Management (PIM) system solves just this problem.

We would love to know your opinions on this. On which social media platforms could product presentations increase turnover?

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PIM 360° for Multichannel Commerce

Posted on Jun 13, 2011 in Multichannel, Product Information Management by Benjamin Rund 0 Comments

From the point of view of businesses that specialize in the acquisition, preparation, and distribution of product information, the motivational factors for the initiation of customer projects have changed massively over the past several years. Enterprise Product Information Management (PIM), which has become an uncontroversial, important business process, provides a variety of solutions to problems that occur as marketing and sales-related product information makes it way through the business landscape.

Looking back, the drivers of Enterprise PIM have been on the selling side. Specialist solutions for output processes — print, in particular — had been available for many years. But it was not until people started to realize that PIM was particularly useful whenever data were generated by a PIM process based on a standardized, enterprise-wide repository that the solutions that exist in the Enterprise PIM segment today were arrived at.

The subjects on which projects focused, along with Enterprise PIM, were the consolidation of supplier data, the creation of the “golden record” as an enterprise “place of truth”, internationalization linked with a process-secured (“global-local”) creation process, and of course in depth integration with the backend. Responsibilities also changed within corporations. The head of marketing’s partially-automated print solution became the CIO’s Enterprise PIM.

Just as Enterprise PIM emancipated itself between 2002 and 2004 by staking a new claim for the all-encompassing significance of product information as a business process, it is now on the cusp of a new stage in its development. The marketplace is increasingly focusing on enterprise PIM as the “long-lost brother of e-commerce”.

But let’s start at the beginning: what issues drive PIM projects today? Andrew White, a Gartner analyst, first introduced the “MDM era” as the successor to the “ERP era” in fall of 2009. Gartner positions MDM as an enterprise-wide repository. In the scope of this repositioning. Gartner took the opportunity to coin a new term: “MDM for product data” instead of PIM.

Multiple channel distribution is becoming increasingly important, irrespective of whether the businesses in question are B2C or B2B-focused. Target-oriented distribution over different channels such as online stores, print catalogs, and point of sale opens up new target markets and increases awareness in the marketplace. It is precisely these developments in the area of multi-channel commerce which make the idea of a centralized PIM solution attractive. The key drivers are the long tail, multi-site, and changes in category management.

Long tail 

Particularly in the area of distance selling, product selection policy has seen major changes. Previously, category management meant always having to deal with limited space. In a print catalog, only a certain number of pages were available. The logistics were also limited: storage limited the possibilities so clearly that most dealers attempted to find the perfect “catalog selection” with the highest number of top-selling items.

In our projects, we see these product selections in companies. It quickly becomes evident that compromises have been made in the selection of products. In most cases, only certain brands are carried, for instance. Or a segmentation of the product and target groups is performed. This is certainly useful for print catalogs, but online stores don’t have these limitations!

In stationary retailing, the product range must be closely geared to reflect customer demand, due to the limited selling space. In doing so, particular account is taken of the demands of the majority, while anything that is not sufficiently profitable is often ignored. Many products remain unsold for this reason – it is precisely these which are the “long tail”. The term derives from a graphical representation of a frequency distribution.

When one considers the margins, this distribution also has a highly interesting meaning: in most industries, the fast-moving items intended for the masses have a particularly low margin. Consider the market for music. What do you think has a higher margin: a top ten CD single, or a rare collectable album? The rare album, of course! This means that in the past, retailers had to forgo high-margin products due only to limited floor space, limited pages in catalogs, or perhaps due to limitations in their IT systems!

The long tail consists of a wide variety of products: a rare bottle of wine, special interest music, exotically spiced roasted peanuts, films that have been deleted from back catalogs, highly specific spare parts for which there is little demand. The list is endless. There is no shortage of products for which there is little demand. They are seldom available, however.

Compared to all other distribution channels, the Internet offers us considerable cost advantages. The digital mall consists of servers which can be readily expanded when necessary. Adding a new product takes little more than a few additional database entries. And perhaps a little space in a logistics center with efficient operations, or possibly run by the service provider – and in the case of purely digital products not even that: sending a digital music track over the Internet costs the retailer more or less nothing.

The only question is why retailers haven’t been massively expanding their product ranges for years. Why are we seeing product selections numbering 300,000 items with typical B2C dealers, instead of 3 million items? The leading store systems and search engines are designed for these large product ranges. It would not pose any major problems.

There is a problem, of course: before products can be presented in a store, the product data must be obtained from suppliers and processed. In many cases, product ranges are also limited by the fact that the product data cannot be efficiently maintained.

It is here that the new PIM strategies are brought to bear: with an enterprise PIM solution, retailers can build and maintain extremely large product portfolios. For the first time, retailers can now use an integrated process: suppliers provide their product portfolios in electronic form. These data are checked and stored in a central repository. They are then structured and prepared for presentation in the stores.

Multi-site 

In the past, a strong tendency towards vertical integration on the part of manufacturers has been evident in the retail sector. Manufacturers have not only set up flagship stores to attract more demanding customers and position their brands, they have also attempted to boost their turnover by setting up their own product presentations in retail outlets. This integrated product presentation is referred to as shop-in-shop. Retailers are showing an increasing tendency to set up brand and manufacturer-specific web stores.

Beside shops-in-shops, manufacturers are increasingly setting up target-market specific presences. If one investigates the online strategies of the large mail-order retailers, one finds both an increasing diversification of brands, and an increasing tendency to cross-sell. SportScheck sells a pair of Adidas sport pants in the Adidas-branded store on “www.sportscheck.de” while also cross-selling them on “www.otto.de” and on other platforms such as Amazon, for example.

The complexity of handling product data arises from the multiplication of language, sales area, target group, brand specifics, and platform. With every additional website that requires product data, enterprise PIM gains greater importance as a central clearing house. Enterprise Product Information Management (PIM) is a precondition for the successful management of a large number of stores!

Changes in category management 

Changes in the area of product selection strategies represent a further factor for the re-orientation of Enterprise PIM. The massive growth of product portfolios in the marketplace has led to fundamental changes in the area of data management.

These changes are most clearly evident in the area of mail-order sales. In the context of a multichannel strategy, Product Information Management (PIM) is typically positioned with the following process requirements: centralized data administration, increased automation, reduction of manual processes, reduction in media discontinuities, strengthening of clear responsibilities, early data capture, accelerated data availability, reduction of errors. In a real business, the following points would trigger an Enterprise PIM project:

• Several employees are continuously occupied with copying and pasting image and text data from an existing database, in order to make them available to third-party users.
• Catalog page briefings (for print catalogs) typically involve the use of pen, paper, and scissors.
• Raw image data cannot be used for the design of web pages.
• 60% of all items in the web store were “re-digitized” from the print catalog.
• A call center employee has to check up to four systems simultaneously in order to supply the customer with all the required product data.
• In some cases, the same piece of text is translated multiple times per target language; and separately for online and print.

Growth of product portfolios has thus had an enormous impact on the data maintenance scenario. Until recently, back office staff may have manually maintained product group information article by article, but now this is no longer possible, or at least not as a sequential task. New processes are required here! In order to promote the “relevance” factor in data maintenance, we now import customer ratings from the various online stores into the PIM system. The employee simply navigates to the poorly-rated products. These are usually the products that have to be described more accurately… online stores thus provide an excellent source of real-time data quality ratings.

Organizationally, these changes in category management will lead to a restructuring of departments that have traditionally been responsible for data acquisition, maintenance and output planning. In many businesses, the publication specialists responsible for the print channel are organizationally separate from those responsible for the internet channels. This often leads to redundant product data maintenance, and a failure to exploit synergies. The tangible indirect effects of this are different product presentations in print and on the Internet, different product portfolios, a huge manual overhead when transferring content between media, and redundant storage of product facts within the enterprise.

In the case of leading mail-order retailers, there has been a realization in the past few years that the convergence of presentation channels leads to a restructuring of departments. Reorganization serves two objectives:

• Simplifying and standardizing data creation. The purchasing department now has a new role as a supplier of highest possible product information quality.
• Publication planning is becoming increasingly flexible and will typically span multiple output channels. Any differentation between online and offline channels should be consciously avoided.

Conclusion 

Following the emancipation of Enterprise PIM as an independent business process, it now stands on the verge of a new stage in its development. Enterprise PIM (or Gartner’s “MDM for product data”) is once again gaining importance in marketing and sales: Enterprise PIM is a prerequisite for successful e-commerce!

PIM 360° – What exactly does PIM 360° mean?

Posted on May 6, 2011 in Product Information Management by Benjamin Rund 0 Comments

Companies need a 360-degree view of their product data

Not all companies today establish a consistent and transparent process in the Product Information Supply Chain. This starts at the data acquisition stage. In particular, the benefits of internal use in different areas are often underestimated. In sales, such companies and their product managers today often think and work in a more channel-specific manner, both within the corporate organization and in their daily activities.

The catalog department in marketing asks: “How do I best place my items in the print catalog?” The e-commerce team worries about making the best presentation possible in the webshop conversion. This, however, obstructs successful multichannel commerce. Print catalog data are maintained for online searches, for example, but because of the lack of synonymous keywords they are never found. Revenue potential goes wasted.

Successful multichannel commerce and e-commerce need perfect product data. Between data integration and the increasing number of different marketing and distribution channels, however, there still lies a great deal more. This is right where PIM 360° comes in.

Following the motto “Integrate – Manage – Sell”, PIM 360 begins with the integration of product information, takes in corporate data management and ends with multichannel commerce.

What exactly does PIM 360° mean?

Data integration: Dealers must be able to assimilate into their product range even large amounts of supplier data through automated professional workflow and verification mechanisms. Many suppliers provide product information in different formats, whether this be CSV, Excel, Data Standards or BMEcat. Modern solutions can merge these formats in one step during importation. PIM 360°, however, also ensures deep ERP data integration. Making PIM the leading system for product-related master data is recommended.

Data management: The issue of product data governance within companies is still often neglected, and yet precisely here lies a great business value. Getting access to and working with consistent, centralized product and master data is of immense importance not just for marketing and distribution channels. PIM 360° ensures complete transparency and rapid work processes in purchasing, research and development, product management, logistics and finance. With each new product or company acquisition, decentralized data storage multiplies the information chaos. Poor data quality leads to inefficient internal processes and also to inaccurate analysis on the basis of which decisions – possibly the wrong ones – are made. PIM 360° ensures the right information ends up with the right employees and departments. Especially for large, international companies, there slumbers here an enormous potential in terms of efficiency. Knowing which resources are linked to all departments, branches or regional companies through the continuous harmonization of different data silos or through complex searches, one can increase productivity across all areas with PIM 360°.

Multichannel business: In e-commerce, PIM 360° means that Enterprise Product Information Management (PIM) systems can seamlessly operate the world’s leading e-commerce solutions via standard interfaces: ATG, IBM, Demandware and Intershop rank among the global players here. However, customized punchout catalogs or direct integration with e-procurement systems of large customers can also be served in this way.

Through the integration with a Media Asset Management solution (MAM), the PIM checks which product images are placed in advertising media. Deletion of an image and video that is still being used in other places is thus avoided. Various derivatives such as pictures in high or low resolutions can also be automatically created and stored for print and online media, and linked with the Product Information Management (PIM) system.

In sales, PIM 360° helps sell more. In inside sales, field service or call center. As an internal information portal on all available products, it helps all sales staff make optimal use of up- and cross-selling potential. No more leafing manually through catalogs and price lists. The sales department always has the right offer at hand at the right time. This increases customer loyalty, making retailers and manufacturers No. 1 with their customers.

Consulting and Implementation: The panoramic view is also needed in the introduction of Product Information Management (PIM) solutions. A successful project methodology encompasses all facets of product data management: Not just sales, but data acquisition and data management too.

This is Enterprise Product Information Mangement

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