Blog

Here at Digishare, we’re continually looking to refine our tools and add new functionality, all with the aim of allowing you to do more, easier. Each month we’ll be sharing a short blog post talking about the changes we’ve made to Digishare in the past month, and what new features you can look forward to in the future.

Digishare 3.0 Update

The development of Digishare 3.0 continues apace, which means we can now reveal the first functionality that we’re excited to present to you on launch.

The ability to process large volumes of pages at once is a high priority for many of our clients. That’s why Digishare 3.0 will allow you to bulk-publish approved pages from the StoryBuilder Overview, rather than product by product within the editor. As these pages will have already been approved as part of the creation process, we hope this will go a long way towards streamlining our users’ workflow.

Navigating to multiple different pages to complete a single task can be frustrating and time-consuming. That’s why allowing our clients to access various tools and information within StoryBuilder is one of our core aims for Digishare 3.0. With the latest version, you will see a brief overview of where your product content has been published without having to navigate away from StoryBuilder or launch the Publishing Tracker.

Work is continuing to accelerate on the new version of our platform, so please check back next month to hear the latest news about Digishare 3.0.

Premium Content Feeds for Amazon

We’re proud to announce that we have completed the first successful test of a Premium A+ Content feed for Amazon. 

In collaboration with one of our most valuable clients, we have created a successful integration that allows a standard content feed to provide Premium Content in the correct format for Amazon platforms.

This feed integration allows partners to:

• Flag which module to use
• Match content to the module fields
• Provide both desktop and mobile imagery
• Utilise feeds designed for basic content

Having experienced this process first hand, we believe other customer feeds may also be easily adapted to include premium content. We hope to highlight our journey in a future case study, so that everyone can see how painless and efficient it can be to automatically load Premium Content onto Amazon.

 

Here at Digishare, we’re continually looking to refine our tools and add new functionality, all with the aim of allowing you to do more, easier. Each month we’ll be sharing a short blog post talking about the changes we’ve made to Digishare in the past month, and what new features you can look forward to in the future.

Coming Soon: Digishare 3.0

New year, new… us? While we’re always working hard to refine the Digishare platform, sometimes you just need to start the year with a whole new look.

That’s why we’re excited to announce that development of the next version of Digishare is now well underway. With this update to the platform, we’ll aim to bring you a more intuitive, user-friendly experience. We will be streamlining existing processes and reducing the need for duplication wherever possible. We’ll also be adding in extra functionality, and giving newer technologies (such as Augmented Reality) more focus.

Our goal is (as ever) to save you time. With fewer hours and resources needed on page-building tasks, we hope Digishare will give you the space you need to analyse the results of your actions and see the global impact of your product content strategy.

We’re looking forward to showing you all the first features of Digishare 3.0 at the end of Q1.

Reporting Dashboard

Speaking of analysis, we are pleased to announce the roll-out of our new reporting dashboard is complete and is available for activation for all clients who request it.

The dashboard is designed to provide easy-to-visualise data on page approval and publication metrics. Users can compare numbers from different categories and countries, and compare figures with YoY.

We’re also in the process of loading syndicator metrics from partners such as loadbee and Syndigo, allowing users to view up to 6 different metrics (where available): visits, unique visitor numbers, viewable impressions, interactions, interaction rate, and average time on the page.

We hope that, when used in combination, these metrics will allow our users to not only see what actions are being done globally, but what impact these actions are having.

Image Rights

Finally, we have been working hard to build new functionality into our system regarding images and regional usage rights. Following a request from one of our clients, we’ve made it easier for them to add and access usage right information for images uploaded to the Digishare platform. We’re able to give users clear information about which images are suitable for use in their chosen region. We’re also working towards passing this information along to syndicators and other partners, ensuring correct and consistent images globally.

If this type of functionality interests you, please talk to your Digishare account manager to find out more.

Here at Digishare, we’re continually looking to refine our tools and add new functionality, all with the aim of allowing you to do more, easier. Each month we’ll be sharing a short blog post talking about the changes we’ve made to Digishare in the past month, and what new features you can look forward to in the future.

Support Chat

Digishare has grown rapidly over the past few years, adding multiple features and flexibility to allow you to manage your product content in the most efficient way possible. With this growth in the tool, it’s vitally important that we increase the level of support to our clients at the same time.

Over the next few months, you will see several improvements to our support system. We’ll be incorporating a live text chat that you can access from any page in Digishare, allowing you to receive assistance while working on projects. During European work hours, our team will be available to answer any queries or fix any problems you may encounter. Outside of these hours, the chat will connect to our new ticketing system, allowing us to respond as quickly and efficiently to your query as possible.

Alongside this work, we will also be updating the Knowledge Bases and FAQs for your workspace to a new, easier-to-use system that includes a convenient search function.

Reporting Dashboard

This year will also see the rollout of our new Reporting Dashboard. This tool provides a new graphical interface to our reporting functionality, allowing you to easily visualise and provide feedback on system performance. Our clients will be able to view YoY page approval and publication statistics, including breakdowns by region and category.

Our aim is for this tool to continue developing and become more powerful over time, with future functionality including the ability to view Syndication Partner data, such as glance views.

Digital vs Physical. As a company called “Digishare”, we expect you’d be able to make a good guess about which side we belong to, right?

The truth is, there are always going to be physical aspects to the act of selling products, no matter how much we’re able to shift online or recreate virtually. Some things are inescapable, and others are more short-term. Practical fixes that are still waiting for a viable digital solution.

That’s why Digishare will always strive to understand your needs, and design systems and solutions to help solve your problems.

The example we’d like to share is that of a client who, despite fully embracing the digital organisation and delivery of their product information, was faced with a problem. They had scores of key partners providing their products to guests alongside a physical menu. With a constant refining and evolution of their product range, how could they easily ensure that these product menus were up to date and easily distributable?

That’s why Digishare has created a module in the platform that quickly and easily converts the desired product information into a custom menu and generates a print-quality PDF ready for distribution to partners or production.

A very focused addition to our services, certainly, but we feel it’s indicative of what we’re able to provide: considerate and effective solutions to get your information where it needs to be in the format you need it in.

Square peg. Round hole. What are you going to do?

It’s rare to find systems that interact with each other perfectly if they’re not explicitly designed to do so. XML feeds are an excellent example of this, especially if you are trying to get an internally-organised set of product features and attributes out to multiple partners, each of which has differing requirements. There are workarounds, brute force methods. Some nose holding, and some manual editing. It can be done, but it’s not always smooth or easy.

But what if you decide to sand the sharp edges of the peg? Or, even better, remake it anew? Sure, it will cost in time and resource in the short term, but could it be worthwhile for the ease of use in the long run? Is it an acceptable trade-off for the flexibility of not having to oversee each connection?

Congratulations! If you’ve made it through this slightly tortured analogy, it’s now time for a real-life example: one of our clients found themselves in this exact position when it came to managing their XML product data feeds. Their XMLs were workable but included a host of problems, some familiar and some impressively novel. Each feed needed work to be usable, but it was still a more efficient process than manual completion. Good enough, right?

Not necessarily. Our client realised that, for them, the most effective solution was to align their product feed with the requirements of their major partners. And, with our help, that’s what they’ve done.

This prioritisation is designed to bring a host of benefits. Product setup is improved in both time and accuracy, leading to a better customer experience. Enhanced content is optimised to convert more shoppers. All of this while freeing up the resource and oversight that was once needed to babysit unreliable XML feeds to the retailers.

Only you can know if such an investment is worthwhile for your brand. But perhaps it’s helpful to keep in mind that there’s always an alternative to the continual frustrations of making a square peg fit a round hole.