For more than 15 years, Commerce has been talking about digitization, but not much has been done. The trade congress of ANWR-GARANT SWISS AG set out to change this with clear fields of action and orientation for a future-oriented digitization strategy. As an expert in automated article creation and preparation, our CEO Bernhard Bicher was one of the invited speakers.
Essentially, four problem areas were identified that are responsible for the fact that many digital retail processes are not working properly. On the one hand, investments in digitization are only made half-heartedly because no one in the company knows exactly what needs to be done, and on the other hand, owner-managed retail structures should work together, but unfortunately they usually do not. This in turn means that no best practices or synergies are used, which could then have a positive effect on the company's own market position. Furthermore, "quick fixes", i.e. platform solutions, are implemented without closely examining the fit. Instead, these implementations should be viewed more holistically, especially with a strong focus on whether these solutions are scalable and promising for the future.
Without suppliers, Commerce does not work. Today, retailers must clearly focus on brands and product groups that ensure profitability and market relevance. This includes processes and service providers who see efficiency, future viability and visibility as relevant and important. This is because the new retail reality requires suppliers who are just as digitally positioned as the retailers. Product data and the quality of product data play a central role here.
The importance of enriched product data is undisputed in the e-commerce sector and is also attracting more and more attention in the stationary Commerce sector. Only those who are able to constantly and quickly provide the right data in the correct quality from their own systems to the various sales channels will continue to be relevant on the market in the future. But what does optimal article creation and preparation look like? How can suppliers ensure that they provide the right product data?
Today, the Onedot product data platform ensures optimal preparation of product data for many retailers. This automates the data preparation and maintenance process and ensures that the product data quality is continuously available adequately and correctly in the selected systems. This also includes ensuring that different data sources can be tapped correctly. This is another reason why suppliers do not have to fill out templates, but can provide the data in their own format. Onedot's product data platform then creates the items automatically and spreads them out along a clearly defined process. This ensures that the product data quality always corresponds to the models specified by the retailer. It is these processes that form the basis for procurement and thus also significantly influence marketability.
Products that do not have the appropriate quality of description are not useful in today's world. But what is the best way to present product data? How can it be ensured that retailers and suppliers speak the same language? Standards are an important approach to this. In the sporting goods trade, this is the FEDAS commodity group code.
This is intended to harmonize the international sports market in the area of data and its structure, which has a positive effect on digital data exchange. With the FEDAS, retailers have the possibility to access a uniform database and to carry out analyses across different manufacturers (independent of the EAN). The FEDAS commodity code thus represents a common language that applies to the entire sports industry and thus brings many advantages and opportunities, regardless of the systems used.
Standards bring many advantages, which is why the Onedot product data platform also supports them. Nevertheless, it is still the case that not all desired descriptions are always included or correctly mapped in standards. The reality for many retailers is that sufficient product data is available, but in a wide variety of formats, quality and forms. Automated article creation offers the opportunity to harmonize product data that does not yet follow a standard.
Are you unsure whether your data has the right level of digitization? We will be happy to advise you and check your product data.
