Case Study – Panasonic: a RAMP with a PIM

When considering what tools and platforms are right for your business, it’s tempting to look for something that can do it all: asset storage and organisation, editing and optimisation, publishing and reporting. But what if you already have long-standing platform integrations? Or robust internal tools that just don’t have the retail focus you need?

A RAMP (Retail Asset Management and Publishing) like Digishare can be a great choice if you’re looking to accelerate your online retail processes. It includes many of the features you’ll find in a PIM (Product Information Management) or DAM (Digital Asset Management) service, but with a specific focus on everything you need to get your products listed and complete on all your retail partner sites.

But one of the greatest strengths of a RAMP is how well it can integrate with and complement your existing systems and processes. By combining a RAMP with an existing DAM or PIM, you can help to bring the strengths of both to your existing process ecosystem and fill in any gaps in functionality.

Panasonic – Integrating RAMP with PIM

Panasonic has robust and capable PIM which holds all their product information, including many features you would expect to find within a DAM. As an organisational tool, it is exceptional and provide the team with clear and easy-to-access information in a multitude of types, including many that have been pre-formatted to meet the requirements of retailers such as Amazon and more.

So why would they need a RAMP?

Surely with a PIM that exceptional, it would be possible to connect directly to retailer websites?

In a word, yes. But it would not be easy. Managing retailer connections can be a tricky task at the best of time, and maintaining these connections over time can be even more hassle. To manage this with their own PIM would require a permanent staff commitment at a considerable level of expertise.

Working with a RAMP can be cheaper

By utilising Digishare, Panasonic can reduce their overall cost whilst maintaining all of the retailer connections they need, and benefit from the specialist knowledge we have obtained.

Would it be cheaper to do it yourself in-house? Almost certainly not. Significant development time would be required to become specialised in each API connection, which would then need an onboard specialist to maintain it.

Retail-only data

Panasonic’s PIM was originally designed to help drive their own website/store, as well as retaining a repository for clean product information that can be used in a wide variety of situations. This data follows their own tone-of-voice and style guidelines.

However, content in that format is not necessarily the best suited to driving the most sales on retailer websites, such as Amazon. These sites often require product content to be optimised for performance both on the product page and through the retailer’s own search functionality. By engaging Digishare, this content can be submitted for REO (Retail Engine Optimisation), either in-house or via an external REO agency. This retailer-specific data can then be held on Digishare and go through a continual process of re-optimisation and amends throughout the product lifespan, all without effecting or confusing the “clean” product information on the Panasonic PIM.

For example, most PIMs will only feature a single Product Title field, or Description. By utilising a RAMP, you can have multiple values for your product title, each one optimised for a specific retail partner.

Workflow and notifications

RAMP platforms have robust, retail-focused workflows built into them. This allows content which is being optimised, edited, amended and published to be tracked at every stage of the process. There is also approval functionality, allowing cross-team and -platform tasks to be performed and authorised with the minimal number of roadblocks, and provides easy status updates on the progress of large projects all the way down to individual product launches.

Each change of status can trigger customisable notifications to users, alerting them of significant progress milestones and actions that need to be taken.

Flexible connections

Sure, connecting your PIM to one of your retailers is possible, but a RAMP like Digishare brings with it the full array of connections available, not just to individual retailers but to syndication partners as well. This comprehensive coverage can make the publishing process far more efficient while also allowing for flexibility. Many retail connections from PIMs only allow for one-time publishing, making later corrections and optimisations more difficult to get actioned. A RAMP like Digishare give you the ability to amend and publish as many times as you want, allowing freedom to make changes for the entire lifespan of the product.

To allow your content to work effectively in all desired retailers, additional content adaptation is required for each. The Digishare RAMP runs smart automated backend systems that perform these tasks for you; not only removing the additional work from your responsibilities but performing it behind-the-scenes to allow for a cleaner, more efficient workflow.

Management tools

Want to chart the growth of your retail product listing? Unlike a PIM, Digishare allows Panasonic to generate regular reports to track publishing actions and more, data that can be broken down by year, month and even by country.

What does a RAMP provide alongside a PIM?

Even with a powerful PIM at your disposal, utilising a RAMP gives you clarity of purpose. With its singular focus on retail, you no longer need to dig and sort through the entirety of your brand assets and product information – only seeing what you need to in the moment.

But for Panasonic, the greatest benefit of having Digishare on their side is the ability to change, adapt and prove. They can update everything, everywhere, with the minimum amount of fuss. They can quickly create connections to third-party platforms and agencies they want to bring into their processes. These third-party connections will also benefit from Digishare’s existing network of relationships, allowing for more efficient integrations and opportunities for cost savings. And at the end of it all, they can generate records of every single action that has been generated via the RAMP platform, for analysis and guidance about what they need to focus on next.