Growth by Expanding Product Ranges – The Ansoff Matrix

Building a business dependent on eCommerce can be a challenge. At the heart of an eCommerce business, you want to balance meeting demand, customer service, and exceptional fulfillment capabilities with a highly responsive eCommerce platform that makes adding new products and ordering easy. However, you also want to experience sustainable growth.

If you rely on online sales and are unable to consistently hit your target growth metrics, there are a few common reasons this occurs. First, inefficient use of highly skilled HR resources keeps your major players from contributing at the level they should. Without time available for your skilled team to focus on strategy, chances are you aren’t creating the right buying experience.

Next, a limited product range, out-of-date products, or simply the wrong products for your target audience keep your brand from separating itself from the competition. Of course, there’s also always the challenge of tight profit margins which can reduce your commercial options. As the little guy, or the new kid on the block, heavy competition in a tightly defined market sector can be crushing.

But, fear not! After reading this whitepaper, you’ll have all the knowledge you need to develop a product range expansion strategy that will put you way ahead of your rivals. This is a long read – around 6,000 words. So, grab a coffee, get comfortable, and learn all about how you can drive sustainable growth through product range expansion.

Download PDF

Introduction

To overcome the obstacles that keep you from growing in the eCommerce sector, you need to understand how to ramp up productivity while avoiding the high costs of expanding your team. While it might seem a natural step to expand your eCommerce team, these skills are in high demand, making it difficult for a smaller business to attract top talent without eating into your profit margins. When looking at product launches in the eCommerce sector you also face collaboration issues with your creative people having to find equal ground with the techie team. Therefore, what makes more sense is to stick with a classic approach to growth which is to work smarter, not harder.

Hiring more people is not usually the right approach to growth, especially when your issue probably lies in inefficiency. Whether this is due to poor management (ouch) or lack of a strong eCommerce tech stack, hiring more people is going to make things worse. Instead, you need a smart strategy that allows you to encompass the following elements of success:

Customer relationships and engagement: Understanding your customers’ needs and meeting them with a flawless, highly personalized, and immersive buying experience ensures you always stand up to exceptional customer service principles
Product range: Developing an innovative product range that people actually want to buy keeps customers coming back while attracting new customers.
Technology: Investing in a solid tech stack allows you to automate and streamline product information management so you empower your teams to do their jobs quickly and accurately.
Profitability and agility: Ensuring your product range has a profit margin that is capable of withstanding the financial strain of fast growth while adopting the latest eCommerce success techniques enables you to adjust your business strategy as required.

In other words, you want to start using the same strategy fast-growing manufacturers, distributors, brands, and retailers have in common. This is the best way to give your company the power to grow and comfortably meet your market demands.

The goal is to create a scalable, sustainable business model that enables you to expand your eCommerce offering. This is achievable using two crucial strategies:

The Ansoff Matrix

To expand your product ranges, you need a strategy leveraging existing customer buyer behavior and products while finding opportunities available through new customers and products. This approach provides a well-rounded four-pronged strategy that:

Continues to sell the same products to your existing customers
Sells new products to your existing customers
Sells existing products to new customers
Sells new products to new customers

This is the Ansoff Matrix, providing a sound business strategy adaptable to your needs.

A Product Information Management System (PIM)

The flipside focuses on effective Product Information Management (PIM) This is critical to product range expansion as it provides all the information you need including:

Key product attributes (descriptions, titles, SKUs)
Technical specifications (measurements, sizing, materials)
Taxonomies (categories, relationships, product tags)
Marketing data (SEO meta descriptions, titles, keywords)
Digital assets (images, videos, animations, and any other format of media files)
Localized data (translated product descriptions and currencies)
Sustainability and traceability data (carbon emissions, net impact, resources saved)

You can’t expand your product ranges using inefficient product data management. Inefficiencies using time-consuming manual or outdated processes, inaccurate product data that fails to keep up with product enhancements or even misaligned teams make it impossible to achieve your growth goals. The only way to prevent these roadblocks is to use a PIM platform that automates the process for you.

A PIM platform streamlines the steps of product expansion workflows while also allowing you to achieve your marketing goals including:

Better product discovery
Improved conversion rate optimization
Increased click-through rates
Lower bounce rates
Amazing customer experience

You can drive growth when you put these elements together to:

Increase sales with existing customers
Build your customer base with improved marketing for existing products
Increase growth by expanding your product ranges and improving your eCommerce marketing strategy

As you can see, this aligns perfectly with the Ansoff Matrix.

This guide will drill down on how you can overcome the common barriers and stumbling blocks that keep eCommerce businesses from achieving growth. You can compose a strategy that enables you to ramp up productivity without focusing on team expansion, but instead on product range expansion. You will understand how to apply the Ansoff Matrix to eCommerce, how to leverage a PIM platform to streamline product range expansion AND avoid the need to hire eCommerce experts in a highly competitive market.

How to Apply The Ansoff Matrix to eCommerce

You can make your product range expansion easier when you understand how to use the Ansoff Matrix to reduce risks and improve market penetration. Also known as the Product/Market Expansion Grid, it provides the groundwork for your growth strategy. As mentioned, it is a four-pronged approach. What we didn’t mention yet is that the matrix is also designed to analyze risk for each of the four strategies.

ansoff-matrix

When you look at the four methods of expansion, you see they escalate in risk:

Market Penetration: This approach presents the least risk because you are trying to increase sales with existing products you know have been selling well with your current customers.
Product Development: Here, risk increases as you try to introduce new products, but to existing customers who already trust your brand.
Market Development: The risk really ramps up here, as you venture into a new market, but you have the success of existing products that help keep risks minimized.
Diversification: This is where the real risk lies as you are not only entering a new market but also introducing new products without proven success to lean on.

So how do you approach each strategy to grow your product ranges? Read on for a deep dive into the different approaches and find out which one(s) you can consider!

1. Market Penetration: Selling The Same Products To The Same Customers

There are always opportunities for companies to use existing customers to expand sales. This is the proverbial “low lying fruit” that allows you to develop tactics to incentivize customers to buy more than the usual items at checkout. You have to identify customers, their usual behavior, and then look at the products they never buy.

In this scenario, incentives need to draw attention to existing products your customers seem to miss. What is an incentive that will help customers find these products and feel inclined to change their habits? How can you achieve higher penetration of existing products to existing customers?

Some of the easiest and most effective tactics include:

Cross-selling and Up-selling

Your site might not be designed to optimize cross and up-selling opportunities. Better mapping of associated products allows customers to see what others have bought after adding an item to their carts, products that might work well with the items they are viewing, or existing offers related to the items they traditionally purchase. You can also introduce more customer-specific special offers to encourage cross-selling.

Bundling

Discounts when buying a logical combination of products also helps people discover new items. Lower prices are always enticing while encouraging customers to buy a new category from you for the first time. You can also do bundling based on quantities to up their basket count.

Financing

Customers might want to buy but don’t have the budget to do so. If items are typically more expensive, introduce buy now pay later options that help customers make the purchases they really want without worrying about the cost, at least not at the moment they buy.

Free shipping

This is a good tactic if you find a lot of abandoned carts. Often people get to the checkout and get turned off by what seems like unreasonable charges for shipping. It works as a new customer strategy, but loyal customers deserve a break too. You just need to do the math to find the right breaking point when this becomes profitable.

Targeting

Sometimes a product image or copy might read too young or too old to certain demographics. You can switch up your images and copy to try to appeal to specific targets to see if this makes a difference.

Shop-the-Look

This works for both clothing and home décor/improvement sites where you can show the look of a room or outfit putting together items you sell in a complimentary way. This increases the onsite shopping experience by helping customers visualize the outfit or room with easy links to all the items to reduce shopping time while helping sell items they can put directly into their basket. It can also work for beauty sites showing before and after shots, fabric or knitting shops showing all the items needed to complete a project, or even gourmet grocery boutiques with recipes and all the ingredients ready to click and checkout.

Language

You might have customers whose first language isn’t English. While English is the most commonly used language, 22% of US citizens speak another language like Spanish, Chinese, or Vietnamese. Offering other language options can help people find the items they need, and it’ll improve the overall experience.

In-depth product descriptions

It could be you aren’t offering enough information about products. The more data you can provide, the easier purchase decisions become. Figure out all the important details, including environmental, country of origin, fair trade, vegan-friendly, gluten-free, low carb, sustainability, locally grown or sourced, etc. Whatever makes your products unique and whatever information you can provide will help educate buyers so they can make on-the-spot purchase decisions.

Professional, on-brand images

A picture is worth a thousand words and in eCommerce can also be worth a thousand sales. Make sure you have high-quality, on-brand images that allow customers to get a feel for the product. Clothes should be worn for example to show how something hands and fits. Items should be shown in use or taken in a manner that shows the scale. Important elements should be easy to increase in size for close-ups and colors should be as true to life as possible. You want customers to feel confident it is what they want or need. You can also include more visual digital imagery such as a 3D rotational view or video where it would work, especially for higher value items such as jewelry, clothing, sculptures, machinery, home furnishings, etc.

These tactics make it easier for customers to understand the scope of what you offer, how items work together, and the value of your full offering.

2. Product Development: Selling New Products To Your Existing Customers

This doesn’t have to be quite as scary as it sounds. You don’t have to go deep into research and development to find ways to expand your offering.

Some common approaches to product development include:

Variations on a theme

It could be your products could use a refresh with updated colors or variations that help expand the selection. For example, clothing or home décor items might sell better with some new colors or patterns. You might introduce new finishes on a line of tables or allow customers to choose from a selection of legs for chairs. You might switch things up with short-sleeved versions of your best long sleeve sellers for the summer or vice versa. By targeting your best sellers and making them better, your existing customers find new ways to use existing products. You will extend the customer base you have to the “longtail” customers who usually find it hard to locate items that fit them and are more price insensitive.

Add similar products

Building on your proven bestsellers, you can create product price ranges that allow loyal customers to invest in higher-value items. Creating a “luxe” version of your top sellers offers a sense of exclusivity to existing customers who love your brand but need something new to entice them to spend more or buy more often.

Create a new category

This is a classic approach to product range extensions. It’s very common for clothing labels for example to break out into home décor to appeal to their ideal customers’ sense of style. Some examples of success busting into this category include retailers such as H&M, Zara, and Anthropologie, as well as haute fashion designers Gucci and Louis Vuitton. Another example is auto and motorcycle manufacturers breaking out into fashion, such as Harley Davidson, Indian Motorcycle, or Porsche. Another good example of cross overs for product development is Burt’s Bees, a natural skincare company that developed a line of natural makeup. Consider your customers and what types of categories might make a natural transition that would appeal to their needs.

Create a niche

Niche markets are really in, with many companies allowing other suppliers to attach their little red wagons to website traffic. A “niche marketplace” attracts a wider range of customers and allows you to sell a broader range of items using a “drop shipping” business model. You create an eCommerce marketplace where you don’t worry about holding stock or buying inventory unless the items are ordered from your website.

As long as you have a good understanding of your current market and customers, you can leverage their loyalty by introducing innovative new products and categories.

3. Market Development: Selling Existing Products To New Customers

Using a market development strategy allows you to build new customers with your existing products. You can choose to enter new regions, target new customer segments, or use existing platforms to do the work for you.

Some classic strategies to help you find new customers include:

Tap into marketplaces

It’s easier than ever to find new customers thanks to market giants like Amazon, Etsy, eBay, and even Walmart which have delved into their own form of a niche marketplace. If this seems you might lose profits, consider that U.S. online sales have 60% of those sales thanks to marketplaces. The work is done for you, so this is a no-brainer when it comes to market development. Instead of unrealistically trying to compete with these giants for SEO rankings, you leverage their rankings, existing customers, and ads to help customers who need what you sell to find you.

The key to success here is to make sure you research the over 100 marketplaces available. Your goal is to find one that makes the most sense to your products where you’ll find the largest audience shopping for what you sell. Be diligent in your research as new marketplaces emerge every day. The beauty of these established marketplaces is that you can:

Launch quickly
Take advantage of existing customers who rely on these sources to do their online shopping and
Do not have to worry so much about the gory details that can derail small businesses like developing a platform or fulfillment issues.

Expand to new regions

This might seem a little overwhelming, especially when trying to figure out the logistics. Most tier 1 carriers can deliver your products to most major cities around the world the next day. As well enterprise resource planning (ERP) suppliers can provide automatic customs/duty fees at checkout and multicurrency options that make going global far less intimidating than you might think. If your products are small or fashion-related, you can really expand your reach.

Of course, you can also make life easier and go the route of the marketplace that also allows you to go global, or if you are feeling up to it, have a multi-country webstore. The major concern with the latter is that you have to consider things like excellent translation of your product descriptions, weights, and dimensions. You also need images and digital assets that reflect the demographics of each country so you can compete with local products.

Sub-Branding

Creating online sub-brands allows you to generate a new category of products with your own brand. Building on the idea of creating a new category, in this case, you create a sub-brand instead. For example

Fashion: If you have a clothing line, or sell fashions, you could create a plus size or petite size brand.
B2B: Sub-branding is an obvious strategy if you are a B2B online store as you can create a sub-brand for each core sector you sell to.
Niche Markets: Sub-brands allow you to speak directly to a niche in their language, have specific images that they can relate to, and have specific bundles/associated items for them. To be able to do this effectively you will ideally need to have marketing text, images, and associated products for each sub-brand
Discounting: You can also have a “discounting” sub-brand where you can sell your end-of-the-line, out-of-season, less popular sellers, etc. for a discount along the lines of something like Saks Off Fifth.

It has never been easier to create a sub-brand as most top eCommerce store providers such as Shopify, Magento, and BigCommerce allow you the ability to set up a new web store with a completely new brand and logo.

4. Diversification: Selling New Products To New Customers

Although this is the riskiest approach, eCommerce technology makes this easier as well as less expensive. As long as you have your e-tech stack right, there are few incremental costs to doing this, so it really is worth giving it a try. Your eCommerce tech stack is basically the technology you use such as applications, tools, and frameworks for your eCommerce digital ecosystem.

Here’s a diagram of what a typical eCommerce tech stack might look like:

Remember, the tools and technologies you opt for will largely be determined by your specific business goals and requirements. But, when you’re dealing with larger volumes of product data and high-resolution digital assets, you’re going to need a sturdy infrastructure to help you keep your eCommerce offering second to none.

Today, the tech stack is what allows you to adopt growth strategies easily. For example, a PIM system simplifies and automates the import, management, enrichment, and publication of detailed product information. With an effective PIM, you can sell new products to new customers to quickly generate a new revenue stream.

How PIM Enables Growth Ambitions For Online Multichannel

A PIM empowers you to expand your product ranges with less effort. You can simplify and automate product management tasks for your online sales departments, even in bulk if you desire. This allows you to increase online sales across all metrics. With the right PIM, you can speed up product-market readiness and product launches, making it far easier and less time-consuming to introduce new products. As a result, you quickly establish new products across all sales channels, improving customer experience with consistent brand representation and product information accuracy. Your PIM:

Increases sales
Improves customer buying experience
Reduces product returns thanks to product information accuracy
Saves time, money, and resources with improved workflows through automation
Increases online conversion rates using high-quality copy, images, videos, PDFs, and more
Increases your average order value using targeted product cross-selling, upselling, and recommendations

You also differentiate your products from your competitors using optimized product listings.

How a PIM system works

PIM systems simplify product information processes allowing you to:

Manage: Your product management team can consolidate digital product assets, product information, and detailed specifications for seamless collaboration during product launches. The PIM holds all your product information, actions, reporting, and communication in one central place for exceptional ease of use and improved efficiency. This includes the following information:
- Detailed technical information such as technical specifications and legal copy
- Logistics information including delivery charges, areas covered, exclusions, postage costs, etc.
- Product usage information whether it is installation directions, user manuals, servicing, ingredients, materials, washing instructions, etc.
- Emotional information such as user stories, testimonials, and reviews
- Competitor products to compare at-a-glance shopping with your competitor listings to optimize your products, gain inspiration and provide a competitive edge
- Digital media such as product data, high-quality images, videos, word-based documents, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations
Enrich: The right PIM system is all about automation, so your team easily prepares product information with optimized content designed to improve your customer buying experience. Mistakes become a thing of the past as you can automate quality control and signoff procedures.
Publish: Improved accuracy through the seamless process allows you to publish the final, correct, and search engine optimized (more about this below) final version with the touch of a button, exporting it across all distribution channels.

Here’s a diagram to show what these processes look like:

Because the PIM is designed with omnichannel marketing in mind, diversification in not just products, but marketplaces and regions are all managed with every product launch.

Improving Collaboration with a PIM

As your business grows you face ongoing challenges with departments working in silos. A PIM breaks down these silos, so you improve collaboration, which in turn reduces errors and streamlines workflows. PIMs work across key eCommerce departments including:

Research/Development & Product Managers

Product range expansion begins with R&D and product managers who need to get new products to market as quickly as possible. Technical staff, Engineers, and Product Managers can work easily together for product launches and produce product data sheets, instructions, and technical specification sheets so products are more quickly customer ready.

They can focus on developing an innovative product range to meet market demands, then streamline the process with automated product data sourcing, promotions, pricing, and product lifecycles. As a result, they speed up product introductions across all channels and Product Managers can then track information throughout the entire procurement and supply chain.

Sales & Advertising/Marketing

These teams traditionally suffer from major conflicts and disconnects. However, with a PIM both teams have a better understanding of the product range so marketers can create compelling digital content. Your sales team is also better prepared to back-up marketing efforts with a streamlined automated sales process. Sales reps have instant access to an up-to-date product library so they can access accurate sales assets that speed up the sales cycle.

SEO, Content & Marketing

Misalignment with these three groups of creative teams makes everyone underperform. PIMS enables everyone to access the same product information and assign tasks based on department. This ensures workflows, alerts, gate, and access control are managed properly and everyone sees the same work and versions throughout each product launch. Notes allow teams to collaborate without emails and other messaging methods so everyone is on the same page. Each person contributes their own talent for successful marketing and SEO strategy.

Senior Business Leaders & Advertising

There are often struggles between marketers and your senior managers who look at the numbers and want results. With a PIM, marketing teams can accurately measure your ROI and cost per lead (CPL) to justify ad dollar spends for new product launches. They can also individually track product engagement, campaign results, and click-through rates (CTR) and continue to improve results using A/B testing. A PIM allows marketers to leverage A/B testing to see which product description or bundle works best. Senior management sees their growth targets met faster with improved marketing through optimized product descriptions.

Customer Service & Sales

Enabling your suppliers and customers to access detailed and accurate product information on their own avoids the sales and customer service teams passing customers back and forth. Instead, customers can access the information they need quickly to reduce frustration, improve customer experience, and in turn reduce demand on sales and customer service teams. This boosts performance for both departments which no longer creates a ping pong effect passing customers back and forth trying to get action or answers. You also reduce customer returns and complaints with accurate information that sales teams access during the sales process. Pricing mistakes are also greatly reduced and often eliminated removing even more burden from both departments.

IT & All Departments

Improve your business performance across all departments with a “built for purpose” software. Your IT department is forced to try to resolve issues across all departments struggling with an ERP and MDM system that doesn’t offer flexible architecture. Instead, a PIM allows them to deliver highly configurable, personalized, emotional product information so all departments are satisfied. PIM software is easy to use so all departments can use the platform without frustration, so it benefits the entire business. Your PIM system integrates with your other business systems such as your eCommerce platforms and ERP systems, so you minimize disruptions due to integration. You also reduce setup, training, and technical support requirements thanks to the intuitive, user-friendly interface. Even the finance department is happy as PIM systems minimize your integration costs.

Finance & Customer Service

Pricing inaccuracies, especially amongst sale items cost retailers millions each year. Your PIM improves product accuracy and pricing control so you can avoid costly errors. You also reduce costly refund processing by 30%. As a result, both your finance department and customer service teams don’t need to worry about tracking issues, confirming refunds align with company return policies and that refunds are always on the up and up.

Finance & HR

Automation of bulk product management processes reduces basic manual admin time. As a result, you can achieve much more, with less headcount which in turn radically lowers costs. The HR department can show the finance department their savings, while also becoming much better at sticking to the budget.

HR & Staff

HR teams are always looking for ways to improve employee engagement. Automation of low-level, bulk admin ensures that your high-value staff becomes more efficient. As a result, they can use their skills, so their jobs feel more creative and innovative avoiding boredom and frustration. HR in turn can focus on applying their skills to career development for staff, so they aren’t burdened by costly employee churn.

A PIM unites teams by providing them with a central hub for communication and action. Better communication and leadership enable teams to work collaboratively towards the same purpose.

What Tasks Become Easier with a PIM?

This is a very important question because you want to manage your product range expansion with limited effort across the board. A PIM makes product expansion easier as it streamlines workflows for the common time-consuming steps involved in product management such as:

Catalog development

Adding products to your catalog is easy thanks to detailed AI criteria and filters such as color palettes. Product information can be enriched and updated automatically including product launches and special offers. You can edit images across thousands of SKUs and collaboration becomes much easier so designers, product managers, writers, photographers, and those who need to make approvals all work in an easy workflow. If you also decide to have a printed catalog, even your printer can receive information from your graphic designer instantly.

Warehousing and product fulfillment

Many companies hesitate to add new products due to the logistics nightmare it creates. However, a PIM ensures accurate SKUs and detailed product listings making order picking and packing accuracy easy. You can even use product images to help order pickers and inventory managers identify products to reduce miscounts or packing errors even if you have multiple products that are quite similar.

Marketplace distribution

A PIM automates product distribution across hundreds of different marketplaces. The system can create specific product listing criteria suited to each platform reducing the complexity of reaching broader audiences. As a result, you can extend your product line as well as your customer base. If you are worried about things like removing products that don’t do well or price changes, PIM systems keep data, products, and pricing up to date for you.

Sales team education

Because your product information is centrally stored, your sales team automatically has access to the information they need when you launch new products. Your education process is easier as they have the tools, they need to close a sale before the sales cycle loses momentum. Sales don’t go cold, because all the product specs are instantly added to the PIM ready to share and access.

Customer Service training

As with your sales team, your customer support team can access up-to-date, complete product information at any time. They always know exactly what customers are seeing, so they are better prepared to answer questions with limited training when new products launch. As a result, escalated calls to management or salespeople are reduced and customers aren’t left waiting for answers. The entire customer experience is greatly improved.

Product Data Sheet production

Your product development team can feed technical parameters, settings, and capabilities into the system which automatically produces a branded PDF of your tech specs. There is limited need for planning and design work, shortening the product development cycle, and getting your product to market more efficiently. The entire process is streamlined including time-consuming steps such as signing off on tech specs. As well, edits are done directly from the PIM in seconds.

Customer education

Customers are empowered with self-help information such as product guides, installation instructions, and user manuals accessible directly at the product information screen. Even information like washing instructions for clothing can be added. Customers don’t have to rely on hotlines or online chats as they can troubleshoot their own issues and use customer service as a last resort. You can reduce inbound help calls yet not interfere with the level of customer service and satisfaction.

Basically, a PIM automates your product management processes, for speedier product development, easier publishing of products, and faster product to market even in multiple marketplaces and geographies. You achieve channel readiness in far fewer steps and with less fussing over approvals.

Avoiding New Hires with Improved Efficiencies & Finding Unexpected Opportunities

As the saying goes trouble trickles down from above. A PIM helps your managers improve efficiencies, so they avoid new hires. These time savings can be found across multiple managers, as well as endless tasks.

An eCommerce manager’s job is complex, and in smaller companies, they often have to wear many different hats. When you avoid hiring a larger team to support your eComm Manager it can lead to manager churn. This costs you dearly. The best way to make their life easier is to provide tools that deal with their multi-faceted role. In other words, a PIM. A PIM allows them to juggle the needs of your internal team, without having a nervous breakdown.

PIMs put more power into the hands of those who need it, so suddenly your top manager has the bandwidth to improve productivity. But it’s not just your eComm Manager who benefits from a PIM. We’ve already shown how it improves collaboration, and where some of the efficiencies are seen. More specifically, you can avoid new hires because you improve efficiencies by eliminating time-consuming admin tasks across the board including:

Sales management

PIMs allow your sales team to stop wasting time on the tedious tasks that take them away from following up on leads and closing sales. Manual tasks and outdated spreadsheets have sales teams working on tasks like setting up and editing product data, aligning online and offline catalogs, getting sign-off, and liaising with the marketing team every time a new product is launched. They can probably add several other items to this list, but with a PIM system, your sales team becomes more efficient and can focus on sales instead of these manual, low-value tasks.

Data processing

Making online sales is heavily dependent on the processing of product data. The sheer volume of product data streams overwhelms admin staff with the ongoing process of manually checking, importing, mapping data fields, and entering data. Where you really feel the pinch is in the inaccuracies of data manipulation. A keen eye for detail can still make mistakes when their entire day is filled with data input. Human errors cost money especially when admin or even management are working with outdated spreadsheets that make it hard to spot errors.

As a result, the errors move from department to department before ending up in front of your sales team or worse your customers. When launching new products, you need to ensure you have a streamlined process that reduces errors that heighten your product return rate and puts your company at risk of litigation. A PIM does all of this for you using a Graphic User Interface (GUI) based data import with bulk information processing features for speedy data import and improved accuracy.

Repetitive tasks

Repetitive product tasks that waste time can be automated using a PIM. PIM systems automate day-to-day workflows so repetitive actions are avoided and more time is available. You can either reduce your admin team and in turn your payroll or have admin focus on higher-value tasks. A PIM creates a central user-friendly repository that helps eliminate repetition thanks to its collaborative design. All actions are tracked, and communication is encouraged so that one hand knows what the other is doing at all times.

Project management

Product management allows your teams to work together so workflows are improved. Status and action reports keep everyone on task and multiple product launches can be managed at one time. The software is scalable, growing with you as your product lines become more layered and expansive.

Product development

Your product range becomes more market-responsive because Product Managers remain focused on high-value work. They can invent, curate, or procure innovative products instead of being caught up in managing the minutia of product launches. They can constantly move on to bigger and better things with automated product management processes opening up time to study the market and consumer behavioral trends. As a result, they are more likely to hit the mark with a better understanding of what customers need now. They can also become more proactive and spot buyer trends to respond to fluctuating market forces.

Reaching more markets

Going global no longer takes up time dealing with things such as currency and language adaptation. Instead, the PIM offers extensive localization capabilities so you can enter new markets quickly and effectively. You are also able to connect to translation services so the process of translating data is simplified. As a result, you can use more channels to market your products in different locations, so you extend your reach with less time and money invested.

Technology integration

Instead of having a massive IT department to ensure you can deploy new technologies across your business, a good PIM system integrates easily with existing systems. You also have the support of the PIM team which continue to monitor emerging technologies designed for eCommerce. As a result, you maintain a strong, state-of-the-art eComm tech stack with features like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, so your PIM remains extremely functional for all your product launch tasks and processes. Your PIM impacts every department, so even your marketing team can access advanced product matching with hyper-personalization, features that enable webrooming, and improve product experience management. Personalized product listings backed up by an easy user experience can boost sales by creating a more polished customer journey.

Finding Unexpected Opportunities

You don’t want all the firepower coming from your own team when expanding your product range. Instead, you can use your PIM to harness partnerships to boost sales. While it might seem that a PIM can’t help with this, it actually allows you to publish up-to-date product information to your entire distribution network quickly. You won’t have to worry about contacting each partner individually, freeing up time to explore new partnerships. By automating the management of your distribution partners and online marketplaces, you gain full control of your brand so you can enter new partnerships. You don’t have to worry about keeping product and brand information accurate and uniform across so many platforms.

You also have self-serve information to share with partners, so you don’t need to hire more customer support or salespeople. When you go into new countries you also have an easy way to adapt your products and descriptions, so they appeal to different resellers. Adaptability is key, especially if you decide to pursue white-labeled partnerships with companies that use their own branding when distributing your products. This brings us back to improved efficiencies that reduce costs freeing up more time to pursue the types of affiliate ad partners that suit your brand and goals. All of this without new hires.

How PIMS Help You Win at SEO

Your success lies in how well your team markets your product launches. This once again brings us back to a PIM. Your PIM measures, monitors, and implements your eCommerce SEO strategy while applying SEO best practices into your eCommerce strategy. It is very symbiotic. As a result, you see improved rankings to sell your products. Here’s how PIM helps you win at SEO.

Keywords

A good PIM keeps your keywords relevant to each new and existing product. Your team can choose to populate keywords at the category, product, or SKU level using familiar keyword generators such as Ahrefs, so marketers aren’t struggling to try to use an unfamiliar app. They still keep keywords fresh and relevant and can even search product copy to make sure the writers have included keywords. If keywords aren’t used, automated notifications go out to the creative team or production managers so the keywords can be added.

Product descriptions

PIMs seamlessly integrate with sales and marketing channels to optimize your product headings and descriptions based on the unique SEO algorithms of each channel. This includes not just all your campaigns, but also languages and locations. You receive alerts when action is required to improve optimization.

Reader-friendly copy

Creating reader-friendly copy also becomes easier for your team to impress search engines. PIMs work with apps like Grammarly to make sure the copy meets standards while also checking for possible issues with plagiarism.

Digital assets

Images and videos are also optimized generating alt-tags from auto-associated assets so you can stay on top of trends. You can also store transcripts against your videos and even send them to a translation capture engine if you’ve gone global. All workflows work in hand with alerts, so you always know when action is required. To add to that, different platforms and channels have different image requirements. A PIM will automatically resize and rename images to improve UX and meet the specific requirements of your various sales channels.

Google Snippets

Snippets are search engine gold when they appear on the first page of Google. This little box of text includes definitions, tables, steps, or lists that should answer a searcher’s query quickly. When done, rich snippets attract Google search engines. If your link appears at the top of Google’s first results page, you’ll get more clicks. SEO tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs help you identify keywords used in a Featured Snippet for a particular search term. PIMs can increase your chances of being a Featured Snippet on Google by storing multiple lists, words, images, and videos against your products in a snippet-friendly format. The system uses this information to tell you when optimization opportunities arise, so your team never misses out on top ranking.

Mobile optimization

A mobile-friendly site adjusts to the device a visitor uses. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile use, search engines push you further down the ranking because your site isn’t user-friendly. A good PIM automatically optimizes your assets for mobile, so every visitor sees your site in the best possible light. Their experience won’t be ruined due to awkward picture placement, misaligned product descriptions, or images that don’t fit within the frame of their view.

Remain relevant based on trends

PIMs allow your team to react to the latest trends, so you maintain relevance to your target audience. You can change product descriptions, add new product attributes or features, or even change a product name to suit trends or meet the changing needs of different regions. You can even alter page colors to keep up with the latest design trends. The point is relevance. This is impossible to achieve manually, especially across multiple markets, channels, and platforms when you have endless SKUs to manage. With a PIM you can easily surface all your product information to gain full visibility so changes big or small are always manageable. You don’t become stale because it takes so little effort to follow trends with quick reactions based on real-time customer behavior.

Site structure

A PIM also enables you to create structured data and multiple product categories for better site navigation. Search engines prefer sites that improve customer experience with logical site structure, pages that are quick to load and images and content that provide everything a customer needs to make informed purchases.

Reviews & User Generated Content (UGC)

PIMs offer storage capabilities that allow you to build a library of product reviews and user-generated content (UGC) in one place. Your content team can access this information when they need it and leverage it to help sell products. Launching new products without testimonials and reviews is difficult. If the capability to create and organize this information exists from the time the first customer tries a new product, it is easier to publish reviews and UGC on your product pages for the most effective marketing copy. Search engines like Google recognize the value of customer testimonials because they come directly from customers sharing their experiences. As a result, search engines give preference to product pages with more, higher-quality reviews.

A good PIM with SEO capabilities avoids issues that lead to penalties that either push you further down the rankings or even suppress your ranking. PIMs might cause such SEO faux pas as inadvertent image mislabeling, duplicate content, unoriginal copy, and images, or even keyword stuffing. Your team might have no idea these things are occurring and wonder why their SEO efforts are failing. Because Google looks at all these issues in a negative light, you need to know when these mistakes occur.

Conclusion

Expanding your product range is the best way to drive growth for your eCommerce business. Using the Ansoff Matrix allows you to slowly develop new product options building first on your existing customers and products, and slowly expanding to reach more and more customers, with more and more products in more and more regions. To make product expansion manageable without the need to hire a larger team that will eat into your profits, a PIM system provides the efficiencies you need to take a product-focused approach that streamlines the process from conception to launch and beyond.

A PIM showcases your products using higher quality imagery and videos in hand with all the information a customer needs to make an informed decision. Intuitive navigation, smart site structure, consistent information, and logical product categorization allow customers to enjoy their shopping experience. Your PIM system actively reduces your bounce rate using the right navigational tags and settings whether it is your own website or across a range of channels and marketplaces.

You can ensure each product launch starts with collaboration across all involved departments and ends with information-rich product data across your entire inventory. Your sales team has access to the information they need, but so do your customers thanks to self-serve data that reduces unnecessary inquiries. You can also improve marketing from hyper-personalization techniques to SEO so your marketing team, SEO experts, and creatives all find equal ground for improved targeting, product positioning, and increased visibility for new product launches. However, this can only be achieved with the right PIM.

Pimberly is an invaluable software tool that empowers your eCommerce company to drive growth through product range expansion. Its powerful benefits are companywide, facilitating action-driven product collaboration that eliminates risky, unreliable methods of managing product information.

It is easily integrated with your other software platforms, across all departments, so no one department is left out of the mix. When your company wants to experience growth that is scalable and sustainable, Pimberly enables product expansion so you can reduce your product development cycle and speed up your time to launch.

If you are struggling to scale and grow your business, speak to the team at Pimberly to learn how we can take your online sales to the next level.