How to build the product repository that accelerates your sales?

Nowadays, all companies, regardless of their sector, are constantly developing their product catalogue. This race for innovation and diversification increases the number of products in the portfolio and, consequently, the product data linked to them. Product data management becomes key to streamlining the effort and controlling product information efficiently across the different phases of its life cycle but also across the departments involved. The product repository is the basic tool for this work, which aims to facilitate the management of information and its use.

Definition of the product benchmark

The repository is the central database in which all information related to the products sold by the company is integrated, stored and linked. It is fed at each stage of the product's life cycle by the various teams working on it and allows information that has been qualified, unified and standardised. Each participant can thus work on a reliable and complete common base of product information.

Why take care of your product repository?

When a company has a large and/or constantly changing product portfolio, the amount of product-related data is also increasing. It becomes essential to centralise, standardise and manage this data more easily in order to increase efficiency and reliability. The product repository makes it possible to achieve this by concentrating all product data in a flexible and transversal tool. It enables them to be unified in order to ensure their coherence and to link them together to create a relevant product network for the user and the end customer.

By implementing the product repository, the company ensures multiple benefits:

• Reducing errors by having a single source of product information for the entire company,
• Rationalisation of data versions and historisation of changes, which ensures transparency of information,
• Accelerating the distribution of products across sales channels thanks to the easy sharing of product information,
• Homogenisation of internal communication and relations with partners, thanks to reliable, coherent and exhaustive product information that is easily shared.

While the product repository offers many benefits, the key to success lies in its implementation, which must enable the company to gain efficiency at every stage of the product life cycle.

How to build a flawless product repository?

Repository management begins at the birth of the product itself. During the design phase, various teams are involved in getting the product on track for production: R&D, design, planning.... They must collaborate effectively to enrich, historicise and develop the product data up to this production phase. PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) makes it possible to carry out this work, simplifying collaborative work to enable the company to be more agile and responsive.

When the product is ready to be sold, it is the PIM (Product Information Management) takes over to manage the information that will enrich the product sheets. This information can differ according to the sales channel: PIM allows the distribution of information adapted to each channel according to the pre-established parameters. This collaborative tool makes the workflow more fluid by allowing each actor in the sales process to easily access and contribute to the information. It automates and accelerates data processing to improve time to market while improving internal collaboration. The PIM has the advantage of managing both media (photos, videos...) and texts, and of being a unique product repository while being able to adapt to an omnichannel strategy differentiated strategy.

In concrete terms, we have identified 7 steps to help you build and deploy your product repository effectively:

Identify the objectives of your product repository

First of all, you need to determine the actions you want to take and the objectives you want to achieve through the creation of this product repository. These may be of several kinds: ensuring the consistency and efficient management of your product data, improving the quality of your product information, reducing errors and data duplication, etc.

Create a team dedicated to the product repository

As with the implementation of a PIM project, a team is required to ensure that the product repository is properly maintained. It's a good idea to put together a multi-disciplinary team, representative of the people who will contribute to the product data in the future. Whether they be from Marketing, Product Management, R&D, E-commerce or Digital, these people will be responsible for managing the product repository.

Identify the sources of your product data

Clearly and precisely identify the data sources that will provide your product information. These may be internal databases, Excel files, ERP systems, supplier catalogs...

Standardize your product information

Here, you need to identify precise data standards for your product attributes, such as descriptions, names, part numbers, images, etc., so that your data is consistent and standardized.

Equip yourself with PIM to manage your product repository and data

What you need now is operationally robust and efficient software for managing, enriching and distributing your product data. This PIM solution must be adapted to your current needs, but also to your future objectives, which you wish to achieve through the management of your product data.

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Import initial data

Now it's a matter of importing your original data into your new data management system, such as PIM , while ensuring that your data is clean and standardized.

Establish data maintenance processes

Determine processes. for managing and maintaining your new product repository. For PIM Quable, the"workflows" functionality enables all teams contributing product data to collaborate efficiently, by establishing tasks for data collection, centralization, updating and distribution.

Measure the performance of your product repository

Set up key performance indicators (KPIs) to evaluate the success of your product repository and identify areas for improvement. Certain features of PIM platforms are ideally suited to this task, such as the"analytics" function of PIM Quable, which enables you to define KPIs that are 100% customizable, thus increasing productivity and giving you a clear, global view of your product repository.

Conclusion

Some companies manage hundreds or even thousands of products every day. By integrating a product repository into their strategy from the outset, small and large companies alike can achieve significant gains in operational efficiency. A better vision and management of product information from its conception to its sale allows to improve internal processes and processing times. Ultimately, the whole company is moving towards better management of the product and the data linked to it, thanks to more collaborative work, in order to accelerate sales. The repository is an invaluable daily tool, and if it is used correctly, it will quickly achieve a positive ROI!