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DAM PIM Marketing

7 most common content challenges in e-commerce

Acquia DAM (Widen)

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August 9, 2021 | 6 min read

According to the Office for National Statistics, 36

According to the Office for National Statistics, 36.1% of retail sales in Great Britain occurred online in February 2021. With demand still shifting from high street to online stores, every brand now faces the common challenges of creating high-quality content for e-commerce.

However, digital content production and publishing often present obstacles for an e-commerce business at every stage of growth. You might be starting your first online store with 100 boutique products or expanding your online offerings to 30,000+ products. No matter what scale, you’ll face versions of these seven common content challenges — from producing multiple content types to managing everything you create.

1. Creating multiple kinds of content

Every e-commerce store needs high quality product images. But are you going to produce product videos? 360º spin photography? It can be hard to decide what content to produce for which product and how much detail is needed.

Once you solidify your essential content production, diversifying your content types can help grow revenue. For example, brands are increasing conversion by as much as 47% with 360º photography. If you’re interested in producing a new kind of content make sure the investments in equipment, process, technology, and people line up before you commit.

2. Managing product information at scale

Your product information and product content go hand-in-hand. You need to be able to publish all your relevant content and information with the right products and make sure it’s accurate. If you have the wrong content or product information you’re sure to cause costly product returns.

Each product needs descriptive content and information like technical specifications and size charts. These can vary from complicated specs for electronic products or B2B manufacturing parts to simple descriptions for a cotton sweatshirt.

Even selling the simplest products across multiple channels (including social media) makes it worth looking into how digital asset management (DAM) and product information management (PIM) tools can streamline your content operations.

3. Sharing product information and content across teams

In order to get your products on sale and optimise conversion, you need to give teams of people access to your product information and content. This is more vital now than ever, after most companies have transitioned to remote workforces and many are staying that way.

Internal and external teams need to be able to access and edit your product information and content. That includes everyone from marketing, SEO, creative, merchandising, photographers, copywriters, and other roles. But the level of access to content and information will likely vary from team to team. This is one of the biggest operational e-commerce challenges that many retailers face. So investing in a tool that can offer detailed permissioning options will help ensure your content is easily shareable but securely accessed.

4. Optimising your product lifecycle

You want your product for sale on your website as soon as possible. That might mean publishing a preorder product detail page before inventory hits your warehouse. But how do you create high-quality content and descriptions that quickly? Can you even do it? Sometimes the product needs to be in the warehouse before you can get the content you need to sell it.

Balancing speed and quality in content production is vital. Too fast and you lose money on unnecessary returns. Too slow and you lose out on revenue. Do your best to optimise for both and measure against KPIs like return rates, time-to-site speeds, and in-stock-inactive inventory levels.

Top 50 Internet Retailer Fanatics, gained operational speed and reduced costs by using a DAM system to help them manage over 3 million digital assets across multiple storefronts.

5. Importing and exporting data from one source

Your product data needs to be editable and synced across multiple platforms. That’s no small task with a multitude of teams and tools creating and marketing a catalog of products for sale online.

Create one source for data to be imported and exported, otherwise your daily routine will be slowed by a nightmare of Excel spreadsheets. The challenge of importing and exporting product data is one of the main reasons your e-commerce business might want to invest in a PIM platform.

6. Centralise storage of digital assets

Where are you going to store all your product photos, videos, and 360º spin photography? How are you going to find the images later when you need them for marketing campaigns?

Digital assets can’t be stored across different computers, external hard drives, and various systems if you want to effectively promote your products through email, social, and other channels. You’re going to need a centralised location where everything is accessible and easily organised.

Brooks Running creates over 30,000 digital assets a year to sell their products online. They use a DAM system to store all their content in one place, control their brand, and provide secure global access to their content.

7. Choosing the right e-commerce tech stack

Technology can be your best friend or worst enemy when you’re solving content challenges. Your technology choices dictate your ability to deliver and personalise content effectively. Here are eight of the best e-commerce tools to include in your tech stack.

One e-commerce tool that helps get your content to market faster is a combined DAM and PIM solution. Get in touch for a free demo to see how the Widen Collective®’s combined DAM and PIM solution can streamline your content production and support your e-commerce efforts.

By Nate Holmes, product marketing manager, Widen

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