Spatial Commerce is an innovative approach in ecommerce that fuses the digital and physical world with one another. Making use of technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), as well as 3D modelling, you enable customers to experience products first-hand in a three-dimensional space before purchasing them.
Imagine you want to buy a sofa. With the help of Spatial Commerce, you can place the sofa into your living room in 3D and have a look at it from various angles, instead of staring at it in the form of a two-dimensional catalog image. You may even configure the color and material in order to check the atmosphere the piece of furniture creates.
Application Examples for Spatial Commerce:
Spatial Commerce changes how consumers interact with the online shop and experience products, hereby creating a new level of shopping.
Spatial Commerce is a trend with enormous potential. Shopware, one of the leading platforms in the ecommerce field, integrates Spatial Computing into its products, hereby significantly facilitating the creation and use of 3D visuals for companies with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, while also rendering it more efficient (https://www.shopware.com/en/products/spatial-commerce/).
The further development of AR and VR technologies is what grants Spatial Commerce even more significance for years to come. In our whitepaper, “The most important ecommerce trends 2025,” we have summarized more of the most recent ecommerce trends besides Spatial Commerce.
A PIM System (PIM stands for Product Information Management) is an integral building block for fulfilling the wide range of requirements for Spatial Commerce. It creates a solid foundation for structuring and providing product data so that they can be optimally used for immersive purchase experiences.
This is How a PIM System Supports Spatial Commerce:
Central Data Source:
3D models: PIM systems can store and manage 3D models of products. Such models serve as the basis for the creation of interactive product visualizations.
Metadata: Besides 3D models, you can also centrally store all relevant product information such as measurements, materials, and colors. This data is essential for the configuration and personalization of products in a virtual environment.
Data Quality and Consistency:
Standardized data: A PIM system makes sure that all product information is consistent and error-free. This is especially important whenever 3D models must be synchronized with product information.
Multilinguality:
International markets: PIM systems support the management of product information in various languages which, in turn, is a great contributor to a company’s international orientation.
Daten Exports:
Connectivity to various systems: The data saved in a PIM system can be exported in various data formats for use in AR and VR applications, as well as ecommerce platforms and other systems.
Concrete Use Case Examples:
Advantages for Using PIM Systems for Spatial Commerce:
A PIM system of the likes of ATAMYA Product Cloud is an indispensable tool for companies that want to implement Spatial Commerce. It offers a central platform for managing and distributing the product information required to establish an immersive purchase experience. Through the combination of PIM system and Spatial Commerce application, companies can boost their competitiveness and win new customer groups. To this end, the ATAMYA PIM has a Shopware Connector in order guarantee a smooth data exchange.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
The Most Important eCommerce Trends 2025
In our whitepaper about the most important ecommerce trends, we take a deeper dive into these topics and more: from AI, through personalization, to Composable Commerce, Spatial Commerce, and Social Commerce, as well as the topic of sustainability.
Learn what it takes to be well-equipped for the newest trends.
Companies in the field of ecommerce are subject to ever-increasing pressure to not only keep up with but also stay one step ahead of the competition – while also replying to changes on the market as quickly as possible. Classic business models often times hit a limit when it comes to meeting the market’s dynamic requirements and providing customers individual, personalized purchasing experiences across the entire customer journey. And it is here where the concept of Composable Commerce is coming more and more into focus as the promising solution.
Lars Bankert, Senior Manager and Head of Business Unit PIM & DAM for Vanilla Reply, a company specializing in web apps and ecommerce, comes together with Gerd Laski, Director Partner & Alliances for ATAMYA, to grant you valuable insights into this concept in the form of an interview. They share useful knowhow and demonstrate why Composable Commerce is indispensable for companies.
Lars Bankert: Composable Commerce is the method with which companies can build their ecommerce platform using various software components specifically designed for this very purpose. Such modular software components enable companies to quickly adapt to market changes, while enjoying the option to adjust and recompose their systems in a flexible manner. In today’s digital landscape, where the customers’ requirements change continuously, Composable Commerce offers the much needed agility and adaptability needed in order to optimize product experience and staying competitive.
Gerd Laski: As the provider of the PIM solution ATAMYA Product Cloud, which is based on the principles of the MACH architecture, we support the Composable Commerce method. Overall, the prototypical ecommerce infrastructure encompasses not only the PIM system but also other important software components such as online shops, billing processors, or marketplaces. Companies can choose between and put together technologies that best fit their needs to accomplish their goals. This so-called best-of-breed approach, also commonly referred to as freedom of choice, is decisive for making ecommerce companies scalable, maintainable, and continuously successful without any shutdowns, turnarounds, or outages. The future requirements of an ecommerce ecosystem often times remain indeterminate given the fast-paced market trends – with this method, however, you can implement and operate them in an uncomplicated manner.
Gerd Laski: Headless refers to the independency between frontend and backend. This means that a system can operate without a static and fixed frontend, allowing for the division of labor between frontend and backend software components. On the basis of this, various frontend technologies can be connected to the ecommerce system using APIs – without changes in the frontend affecting the backend. This approach offers companies maximum flexibility when it comes to the design of their ecommerce platform.
Composable Commerce builds upon the concept of Headless Commerce, but takes it even one step further with the implementation of microservices. Microservices are independent, self-sufficient modules that are developed individually and are highly flexible. What is hereby made possible is an all-encompassing modularization and adaptivity for the entire ecommerce ecosystem, not just the frontend.
Lars Bankert: APIs and microservices are the central building blocks of Composable Commerce. While APIs guarantee the smooth communication between the various modular software components, the previously mentioned microservices subdivide the overall functionality into smaller units that can be managed independently. This structure facilitates the integration of new technologies and functions. The API-First Approach assures that each and every component is easily accessible and can communicate with other relevant software components in the system environment without any gaps. Only with the use of these state-of-the-art technologies can the flexible composition of a company’s system landscape be fully realized.
Lars Bankert: Composable Commerce offers countless benefits, including high flexibility and adaptivity thanks to the combination of best-of-breed solutions. Equipped with this modular structure, new technologies and functions can be integrated more quickly and existing software components can be replaced on demand. The shortened time to market enhances customer experience and boosts both, customer satisfaction and retention.
Modern technologies such as APIs and microservices secure future sustainability and facilitate continuous innovations. On top of all this, Composable Commerce improves the operative efficiency and enables fast reaction times to market shifts in the short-lived digital environment.
Lars Bankert: One of the greatest challenges is the integration of the various software components, in particular when they are sourced by different developers. This requires a well-grounded understanding of the API approach and robust middleware as the integration layer. Additionally, companies must make sure that their team is equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills to manage and optimize these complex systems – or they must bring service providers with suitable experts on board. A reliable consulting on this topic will coach companies about precisely these points and will work together with them to define solution strategies.
Gerd Laski: A PIM system is a central building block for the backbone of any “Composable eCommerce” architecture. Depending on the exact architectural approach, it receives product data from the ERP system and functions as the centralizing “single source of truth.” This means that all product data is here managed and maintained centrally.
Depending on the industry, product data such as texts, images, videos, and technical drawings from suppliers can be imported into the PIM system and, consequently, edited or enriched depending on given requirements. Furthermore, modern PIM systems offer functions like the automatic translation into various languages, the creation of target-group-specific product texts, as well as the contextualization of content. The PIM system supports even the internal maintenance of product data, including the distribution of information to the helpdesk. New requirements such as the Supply Chain Law and the Digital Product Pass can also be handled with a PIM in order to guarantee that all legal requirements are fulfilled.
Even a company’s partners and customers rely on encompassing product information to support the business effectively. This is why it is crucial that all this information is always available in all relevant formats. This includes print outlets such as datasheets and print catalogs, electronic catalogs such as BMEcat and ETIM, as well as the distribution of data across diverse sales channels, like the corporate online shop or marketplaces. This versatility is indispensable for data provision so that all the various requirements can be met. The right data must be provided in the right format at the right time and at the right spot – while involving minimal manual steps and delivering everything at highest speed. To be composable means in this context: regardless of what you need – the digital target system receives exactly all the information it needs to support the business in the best possible manner. Good PIM systems can integrate a Composable Commerce architecture effortlessly by utilizing APIs, hereby making the management and maintenance of product information much easier.
Lars Bankert: When it comes to the implementation of Composable Commerce, companies ought first to develop a clear ecommerce strategy which defines their business objectives and requirements. It is important to start with small, modular steps and adding further software components step by step. To this end, companies should rely on the best-of-breed approach and pay great care to the selection of the right partners and technologies. The software trainings of employees and the setup of robust API management frameworks, too, are crucial success indicators. Naturally, this method allows companies to successfully achieve business objectives as early as in the short term thanks to manageable, low-risk steps.
Lars Bankert: The future of Composable Commerce is promising. With ever-advancing digital transformation and growing demand for both flexibility and agility, more and more companies will opt for this method. The continuous development of technologies such as APIs, microservices, and cloud-native architectures will continue to make the implementation and administration of Composable Commerce much easier. In the long-term, companies will be well-capable of individualizing their e-commerce systems even more while also reacting even faster to market changes. The benefit of this method lies in the fact that, despite its high degree of individualization, you can always rely on battle-tested standard modules such as ecommerce, PIM, or personalization for every single phase of the customer journey.
Gerd Laski: Composable Commerce is already a well-established architecture in online retail today. Monolith systems will disappear more and more from the market. Even the classic suites develop into open systems. The trends clearly indicates that cloud-native microservice products gain in significance compared to on-premise solutions.
Our interview with Lars Bankert and Gerd Laski demonstrates that Composable Commerce bares significant influence on the future of ecommerce as a whole. For companies, this method provides the flexibility they need to quickly adjust their ecommerce platforms to ever-evolving market conditions. Through the use of modern software architectures powered by APIs and microservices, Composable Commerce constitutes smooth communication between the various systems involved, paired with an intuitive integration of new technologies.
The seamless integration of MACH PIM systems in Composable Commerce enables the distribution of product data across a diverse range of sales channels such as online shops, marketplaces, and even print catalogs in a flexible and efficient manner. This improves the overall operational effectiveness, shortens the time to market, and, last but not least, makes for a high-quality customer experience.
The Most Important eCommerce Trends 2025
Do you want to stay one step ahead of the competition? Then discover further ecommerce trends for 2025 in our whitepaper now.
The worldwide profits generated in ecommerce increases year by year. According to Statista, the total profit will amount to 2,905.00 billion euro in the year of 2024. Until 2029, it is predicted to rise to 4,582.00 billion euro, which would equal an expected annual growth rate of 9.54 percent. (Source: Statista)
The expert predictions do not only indicate continuous growth on the global scale, but also for countries such as Germany, too. While there were 30.34 million people in Germany who made online purchases, this number is expected to increase to 43.95 million users in the ecommerce market. By 2029, it is predicted to have reached 53.85 million users. This equals an increase by 9.9 million users over the next five years (i.e., by 22.52 percent).
These numbers clearly prove that the growth of ecommerce will continue and that its full potential is far from exhausted. This alone is already reason enough to have a closer look at the up-and-coming ecommerce trends in order to be well prepared against the competition in the market.
An important trend in ecommerce is personalization since it is a pivotal driving force in the evolution of online retail and since it has advanced to become a decisive factor for both customer acquisition and retention. This is emphasized by the new “Marketing Monitor Retail 2023–2026” by the EHI Retail Institute, according to which 76.5 percent of the people surveyed see in personalization and relevance a great driver of digital marketing.
In the face of both the gigantic product variety and the ever-increasing customer expectations, ecommerce platforms are striving to provide each and every customer a shopping experience tailor-made to suit their individual demands. From personalized product recommendations and targeted discount events, all the way up to the individualized design of websites and interactive purchasing assistants, personalization is put to use in order to forge a deeper and more meaningful relationship with the customer. This strategy is based on the analysis of customer data and the users’ behavior patterns, so that the best possible user experience can be guaranteed. As a result, customers nowadays expect a purchasing experience that is both comfortable and individualized to a high degree. With this, personalization is no longer a luxury but an indispensable must-have for success in the digital retail environment.
Examples for Personalization in eCommerce:
The topic of personalization is trending, and so does AI. Artificial intelligence is achieving revolutionizing progress by continuously refining the personalization of the customer experience through data-driven recommendations and automated customer-service options, among many other feats.
Composable Commerce, a method that emphasizes modular and exchangeable software components, is gaining momentum. This is what enables online retail to react to changes on the market in a quick and flexible manner by composing ecommerce platforms out of selected services and solutions which best suit the respective demand.
Spatial Commerce, the next big step in the evolution of online shopping, integrates Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in order to provide immersive purchasing experiences. This blurs the hitherto rigid separation between physical and digital shopping.
Social Commerce, which enhances conventional ecommerce with social media, transforms networks and platforms such as Instagram and Facebook into dynamic marketplaces. Here, users can make direct purchases in a comfortable fashion.
And, last but not least, the sustainability of ecommerce, too, is growing increasingly more important since customers have come to make increasingly more eco-conscious purchase decisions. This is why retailers must integrate sustainable practices such as environment-friendly packaging and climate-neutral shipping as part of their business model if they want to stay competitive.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
The Most Important eCommerce Trends 2025
In our whitepaper about the most important ecommerce trends, we take a deeper dive into these topics and more: from AI, through personalization, to Composable Commerce, Spatial Commerce, and Social Commerce, as well as the topic of sustainability.
Learn what it takes to be well-equipped for the newest trends.
Developments in ecommerce are increasingly shaped by Artificial Intelligence. Google now places great value in the individual presentation of products and launched Merchant Center Next at the end of July, 2024. It is a tool that spells significant changes for many online shops.
New Google accounts were already directly transferred to the new Merchant Center Next. Now, the migration of existing accounts to this new platform boasting with high-performance machine-learning algorithms to manage shopping feeds efficiently is also complete.
Google Merchant Center is a digital platform on which online retailers can upload their product data in order to sell them on Google Shopping and other services. Merchant Center Next is a simpler version of the platform to facilitate the process of getting started for smaller retailers. All functions on which the big online retailers rely are also still in place.
With Merchant Center Next, Google can directly retrieve product information from your website such as titles, prices, and images. Consequently, changes made on the product website will also be transferred over to the platform. Your reliance on a product data feed is hereby reduced, even though you still have the option of using it. What’s key here is that this increases the relevance of carefully managed product information and complete, well-structured data on product details pages so that you can guarantee that all data is always consistent and up to date.
The management of products is significantly facilitated since you can directly edit them in the Merchant Center. This way, errors in the feed or the structured data can be fixed quickly. Previously, you only had the option of uploading and deleting products.
Google has implemented Product Studio, providing you with a plethora of small AI tools. These tools can be used for improving the quality of existing product images, among other things. Currently, this function is only available in the US, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, Japan, and India. More regions are scheduled to follow.
The analytics functions are still available but received a visual overhaul. The former “Diagnostics tab” has been removed and related diagnostics functions have been integrated in “Products,” now with focus on the current state of the products. As part of this, Google automatically prioritizes products which require the most attention.
The new metric, “click potential,” utilizes historical data to evaluate the probability of users clicking your product ads. This analysis compares your product’s performance with others in your account and supports you in optimizing less successful products so that you can improve your overall advertisement strategy.
Product information is of significant importance concerning most of the new features. This means that the optimal use of Google Merchant Center Next hinges upon good management of your product information. A Product Information Management system (PIM) can play a central role here. Thanks to precise and continuously maintained product data, you can make sure that that everything is always up to date and of highest quality.
A PIM system enables you to manage and adjust all product information across all sales channels in a consistent manner. In particular, it is crucial that the data is personalized and adjusted to fit the needs of your target groups. This assures that Google has access to the best available information to meet the specific interests and requirements of your customers.
Through tailored and up-to-date product information provided by your PIM system, you boost your products’ visibility and relevance substantially. This, in turn, translates into addressing your target group more precisely, a higher click potential, and better conversions. With high-quality and target-group-oriented product information, your communication with your customer is always effective while your findability on Google as well as other search engines is greatly enhanced.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
Want to Know More about the Topic of PIM?
Then contact our PIM experts now. We demonstrate to you how you can efficiently manage your product information in a PIM system.
Social media is indispensable in our everyday lives and even influences our purchasing behavior. Accordingly, it’s no wonder that more and more companies do not only use social marketing as means for communication and brand presence, but also as a sales tool to market their products. Be it product articles, reels, or brand name references by influencers – through social networks, you can reach out to customers around the clock and generate sales directly. In this blog, you can learn about all the things that social commerce makes possible today, what trends on social media platforms may be of relevance to you, and how you can combine all this with Product Information Management in order to provide your customers with a smooth purchasing experience.
Social commerce is a form of e-commerce which focuses on the sales of products or services directly via social media. Contrary to traditional e-commerce, companies here utilize the outreach and interaction possibilities of social media in order to present products and generate sales through social shopping.
In recent years, social commerce has been developing at a rapid pace, especially in the US and Asian regions. By now, it’s also enjoying ever-growing popularity in European countries. Online retail on social media platforms is on a success course and makes up a significant portion of e-commerce sales: The worldwide market volume of social commerce is estimated to grow to 1.23 trillion US dollars. While, in China, platforms such as Douyin (known as TikTok in our regions), Pinduoduo, WeChat are utilized for social commerce, the meta-platforms Facebook and Instagram are most popular among social media users in both Germany and the US. (Source: Statista)
Depending on the individual social media channel, there are different functions and approaches to social commerce. Factors include the respective target group, demographic attributes, and the demands of all those who frequent the channel. Companies are to adjust their social commerce strategy accordingly in order to get the most out of the specific functions and possibilities of each platform.
The following are some differences in methodology concerning social commerce in various social media channels, together with trends that slowly seem to manifest themselves:
Facebook offers various tools for e-commerce, including Facebook Shops. It enables companies to offer their products directly on the platform. With Facebook Shops, companies can create online storefronts, i.e. virtual representations of their shops, and highlight their products through personalized collections without the need to build their own online shop from scratch.
While the so-called Live Shopping is no longer available on Facebook, the new Meta-Amazon Shopping is already in the making. This will allow you to sell Amazon products via Facebook to provide a smooth purchasing experience.
Other than that, you can still, now as then, sell products within the Facebook Community of Facebook Marketplace or market your products with ads featuring call-to-action buttons like “Buy Now” or “Shopping.”
Instagram’s social shopping options have undergone drastic changes throughout recent years. The so-called Shopping tab which allowed users to buy products directly through the integrated online shop has recently been put on hold. Instead, you now have the option to mark products in reels, posts (shoppable posts), and live videos, as well as to open relevant product information in a preview. From there, buyers can be redirected to the external website of the online shop.
In Instagram Stories, the swipe-up links have long been replaced by link stickers that redirect to external sites. This, too, is a great option for online sales.
The integration of checkout features on Instagram, which enables users to buy products directly in and through the Instagram app without leaving the platform, is currently only available in the US.
Pinterest has introduced Shoppable Pins that provide users the option to buy products directly through the pin, without leaving the platform. The integration of Product Pins into organic content facilitates your sales and creates a seamless customer journey. Additionally, the collaboration with influencers and market partners motivates users to discover and share products.
TikTok is at the forefront when it comes to successful social selling among younger generations and is setting its own social commerce trends: Thanks to TikTok hashtag challenges such as #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, users are animated to present their platform-inspired product purchases. Brands use the momentum of such trends to further their user-generated content (UGC) and product placement.
On top of that, shoppable ads make it so that products can be presented in ads and purchased directly by users. The integration of links in the bio, just like on Instagram, enables influencers and brands to market their products.
On X, companies can create shoppable tweets with embedded product links. This allows customers, through integration of e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, to shop directly by browsing X. Also, users can make use of the so-called product discovery to explore products and purchase them without ever leaving the platform.
In social commerce, trends can be observed that are of great importance for a smooth and immersive purchasing experience: User-generated content, influencer marketing, and augmented reality. Companies who are quick to catch on can boost their competitive prowess with these trends.
When it comes to UGC, i.e. content which is created by users, brands bank on authentic evaluations and recommendations provided by the users themselves in order to strengthen the customers’ trust.
In influencer marketing, the focus is on micro-influencers for building a stronger relationship to target groups. Using affiliate links and special discount codes, these influencers are not only brand ambassadors but also direct sales channels.
Augmented Reality (AR) for social media is already heavily employed in Asian regions in order to design virtual purchasing experiences. Through AR, customers can test products from the comfort of their own home before committing to the purchase. You can, for example, try on a piece of clothing or project furniture into your living room. These interactive experiences increase the level of involvement of customers while also reducing the risk of product returns.
PIM systems play a decisive role in social commerce because they enable companies to manage product information centrally, optimize it, and distributed it to various channels. Through this consolidation of product information, companies can increase their efficiency and make sure that customers always receive exact and uniform information for a smooth shopping experience.
Since the various social media channels require data in different formats, for different target groups, in different communication styles, contextualization is crucial. A PIM system enables your company to adjust product information to the context of the respective channel, be it adjusting product descriptions, images, or videos to achieve maximum effect in social media environments.
Thanks to the integration of PIM into their social commerce strategy, companies can maintain a consistent brand presence across various platforms while, at the same time, increasing both efficiency and effectiveness of marketing and sales activities.
Author:
Dinara Quarz-Pleuger
Social Media Manager
ATAMYA
Make Your Product Data Model the Next Top Model
You want to guarantee that your product data is free of error and complete across all your social media channels? With our checklist, you’re equipped with a practice-centered guideline for bringing your product data into top form in virtually no time.
A professional and transparent returns management is of utmost significance for sales in e-commerce when it comes to fulfilling the customer’s expectations and reducing costs. A well-organized returns management enables customers to send back their products without any problems which, in turn, translates into positive feedback and an overall higher customer satisfaction. Additionally, an efficient returns management allows for the refurbishment and reuse of products, which hereby reduces waste output and is easy on the environment. Good returns management can even be proactive and guarantees that the number of returns is lowered. Bad returns management, to the contrary, can lead to considerable financial losses since unclear processes and high return costs limit your company’s profitability. In order to secure your long-term success, then, it’s indispensable to invest into an effective returns management.
In returns management, there are two kinds of approaches. Both are to be optimized: On the one hand, the proactive or preventative returns management which is about taking measure to minimize returns before they have a chance to come up in the first place. With it, you can reduce return rates. On the other hand, there’s reactive returns management. This is about completing returns in the best possible manner to minimize the costs of processing them. On top of that, you’ll need to make a decision on what you want to do with products returned in such a manner.
Simple and transparent return conditions are decisive when it comes to making it easy for your customers to understand when and when not products can be returned and how this return is processed. Clear communication and a simple reverse transaction process contributes to smooth returns and a positive customer experience.
The good packaging of the goods is crucial for keeping the return rate at the minimum. Appropriate and secure packaging protects the product from damages which may occur during the return shipping and, consequently, minimizes the risk of transport damages. Additionally, an appealing packaging for the goods can also contribute positively to customer experience and the overall quality of the product. A meticulous and high-value packaging can increase customer satisfaction, minimize the number of returns, and also boost your company’s image.
The use of software for preventing returns in advance allows you to automate related processes and identify risks revolving around returns. Spotting potential returns ahead of time enables e-commerce companies to react immediately and take appropriate measures for avoiding it. This, then contributes to an effective return procedure and cost savings.
Good product quality is highly relevant for achieving a low return quota. Here, one possibility is to improve the product description or product images in order to provide more detailed information and a more realistic representation of your products.
On top of that, a size chart or a perfect fit guide, for example, can support your customers in finding just the right size that fits their individual body proportions and figure. This assures that customers make an informed purchasing decision and minimizes the probability of a product return because of issues related to size. In this context, an efficient variant management can also be of great help to your customers.
The general rule of thumb is: When a product boasts with high quality and matches the customer’s requirements, there is a lower probability that it will be returned. Good product quality helps avoiding any mispurchase and dissatisfied customers since customers will feel that the acquired product perfectly fits their expectations. By focusing on high product quality, companies can regulate the number of returns, enhance customer retention, and, ultimately, also improve the overall profitability.
Quick and efficient returns processing is the deciding factor for minimizing the length of the overall procedure and for avoiding frustration on the customer’s side. Thanks to fast transactions, you can inform them about the current state of the return on the spot and, consequently, increase the satisfaction with the company’s service.
The optimization of the return logistics is important in order to reduce the costs for transport and storage. By designing their logistics processes in a more efficient manner, companies can minimize the return costs while also reducing the environmental pollution.
Return order tracking enables you to analyze the reasons for returns and find suitable counter measures for improvement. Through the identification of recurring problems, your online sales team can develop solutions that will avoid returns of goods in the future.
Transparent customer communication is necessary to keep everybody informed about the state of the return and corresponding compensations. An open manner of communication can strengthen the customers’ trust as well as their satisfaction.
The quality assurance of returned products serves the purpose of making clear decisions about reselling, repair, or further processing the product. Thorough testing guarantees that the returned product is safe for sale again or that it can be utilized for other use cases. If the goods are ready for resale, the question is how this is to be carried out – you may, for example, tap into secondary markets.
A returns-based secondary market comes with some benefits which support you in managing returns. Through the sales of returned products on a secondary market, the costs for disposal or reprocessing can be reduced. At the same time, it even offers you opportunities to generate additional income and, consequently, increase profitability. Furthermore, rebuys from customers contribute to environmental sustainability since the amount of waste involved is lowered and resources are preserved. Last but not least, customers are always happy to purchase these products at a cheaper price.
Despite these advantages, however, you’ll also have to keep some potential disadvantages in mind. Setting up and managing a secondary market can be time consuming and complex, therefore requiring additional personnel and effort. An additional source of danger is the so-called cannibalization effect, where the sales of returned products limits the sales of new products from the same assortment. Companies must be mindful that the secondary market doesn’t negatively affect the brand image or threatens customer trust. All in all, this requires a careful consideration of both pros and cons in order to get the optimum out of a return-based secondary market.
The question whether or not a secondary market is indeed meaningful for a company is to be decided on an individual basis.
A PIM System (Product Information Management) can lend important support to your effective returns management. By using a PIM system, companies can create and manage a central database for all product information. The system enables easy organization and updates of product attributes, specifications, images, and other relevant information. Through user-defined quality assurance mechanisms and automated workflows in PIM, you can guarantee that the product descriptions and images presented in your online shop are always up to date and provided in the right quality. This also contributes to the fact that customers won’t come to form wrong expectations and it also reduces your return quota.
Through the central management of product information, the PIM system also enables you to update return guidelines and conditions in a quick and easy manner so that the return process is fully transparent at all times. On top of that, a PIM system provides you with the option to analyze customer-related feedback and return messages so that you can implement product improvements and quality assurance. And it also offers the possibility to use the PIM as the data basis for your return-based secondary market.
An efficient PIM system can support companies in their profitable returns management, strengthen the customer retention, and positively impact business success in a sustainable manner.
Author:
Sebastian Faber
Senior Digital Performance & Marketing Operations Manager
ATAMYA
Make Your Product Data Model the Next Top Model
With our checklist, you’re equipped with a practice-centered guideline for bringing your product data into top form in virtually no time.
Product Information Management (PIM) systems are essential in all those fields where extensive information records and structured units of data are to be organized and published for commercial purposes. They boost efficiency, reduce errors, and accelerate processes. But how can you further maximize these benefits? The answer lies in the clever combination of a PIM system with generative artificial intelligence (AI) and data-based content creation.
The connection between PIM systems and technologies such as ChatGPT, GPT models, or comparable language models enables the automated and dynamic generation of product descriptions – technologies that have proven to be useful for establishing an essential competitive advantage. This is because generic, undifferentiated, or perhaps even incomplete product information does not only lead to dissatisfaction and cancelled purchases on the customer’s end but also play a crucial factor in product returns.
In this blog entry, you learn how PIM systems, generative AI, and data-based text automation can contribute to the success of digital commerce and how the scaling and effective application of such well-combined technologies can save you both time and resources.
Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT and Google Gemini revolutionized automated text generation. On the other hand, however, they have also posed new challenges to companies: Meeting complex requirements concerning quality, legal compliance, and text diversity while also maintaining a high production speed. One solution to all this is the combination of generative artificial intelligence, data-based context automation, and an efficient Product Information Management system.
The PIM system functions as a central platform for administrating, organizing, and editing all product information. This well-structured and high-quality product data serves as the basis for the automated creation of standardized and use-case-specific descriptions. Thanks to innovative automation tools, these descriptions and product texts cannot only be scaled on demand but also provided in different languages which, in turn, allows you to optimize business processes across your entire information chain. Accordingly, the precision of product data is decisive for the quality of such automatically produced content.
There also already are, however, novel approaches in the field of data-based text automation that support companies on their path towards processing even unstructured data with the help of generative AI such as ChatGPT and co. Through the combination of generative AI and data-based text automation, you can generate text models and recommendations for text variants, while you can use the possibilities of a scalable content automation to mobilize these texts for your use cases. In the process of doing so, knowledge accessible from the internet and gathered data is combined in order to create thousands upon thousands of texts for web, products, and SEO. With this combination, you can guarantee for quality, legal compliance, and text diversity in your automatic text generation.
In today’s era of digital commerce, the combination of generative artificial intelligence, data-based content automation, and PIM system allows for efficient and high-quality product descriptions. The centralized management of product information enables the automated text generation in a variety of formats, for all sorts of channels, and for different target languages. A strategic use of automation tools can not only boost your efficiency and save resources, but also contribute to a stronger online presence, higher conversion rates, and, consequently, an increase in your sales.
The implementation of a well-combined solution made up of PIM system and text automation provides companies with the possibility to describe extensive product assortments, to always keep SEO-relevant and high-quality content up to date, and make adjustments in a quick and easy manner. Content automation tools offer you the chance to design and standardize diverse, target-group-specific, and search-engine-optimized content for online shops.
Author:
Matthias Fertig
Senior Account Executive at Retresco
The collaboration between ATAMYA and Retresco brings data management and distribution in digital commerce to a new level. Through the combined expertise of ATAMYA in product data processing and the innovative solution approaches of Retresco in the field of automated creation of content, companies can automatically generate target-group-oriented and high-quality product texts in an easy and intuitive manner.
That private customers primarily shop online is most certainty not news for you. Did you know, however, that more and more companies do also shop online – and that they do, in fact, have similar expectations and demands as private customers? B2B marketplaces such as Amazon Business or Alibaba provide you with a complete, practical, and secure infrastructure for the online sales of your products. Do you also want to profit from this development and utilize these user-friendly setups of online marketplaces for your company? If so, then this article is for you.
You want to reach out to new customer groups, you want to expand your offer, or you want to tap into new markets? In this case, B2B markets can function as a mediator between company and customer with a strong outreach: Once your products are listed on a B2B marketplace, you profit from reaching out to broader target audiences and from the technological infrastructure – while also saving costs and effort on your end.
Thanks to this, the B2B marketplace may be a formidable alternative to your own online shop: You save the costs of all those experts you would otherwise require in order to guarantee a comfortable and intuitive purchasing experience, a secure purchase transaction, and a growth of your outreach. Your customers, in turn, can get to learn about your products on the familiar grounds of a well-known B2B marketplace, compare your prices – and find your products at a place which they do already visit on a frequent basis. The result: Satisfied customers – with minimal effort.
Before you commit to one of the 7 exciting B2B marketplaces which we’ll present to you in this article, think about which aspects of your individual products are of particular importance:
The e-commerce marketplace functions as the connecting link between business customers and supplier, particularly close to what a B2C marketplace like Amazon is providing. An e-commerce marketplace is a trustworthy third party creating a wide range of standard offers for business customers of all industries and fields. They can easily gather products from all sorts of retailers in their shopping cart and purchase them with a single transaction. You want to be listed on an e-commerce marketplace? Once you’re listed, you can address a wide target audience on a big platform – while also profiting from the technological infrastructure, the security related to transactions, as well as the implementation of a variety of payment options.
So-called e-procurement platforms (or many-to-many systems) bring together purchaser and supplier. To this end, an independent marketplace operator provides an e-procurement platform for making orders, which may involve features such as a uniform user interface, multi-supplier or multi-vendor catalogs, and standardized interfaces for connecting third-party applications. With this, target companies can access an extensive product catalog in a quick and uncomplicated manner – making purchases here is just like shopping in an online supermarket. This also means: Offers and products can be directly compared by price and properties, hereby saving the purchasing companies time and organizational costs.
On a circular economy marketplace, you can re-sell or rent used products, and you can also recycle or upcycle them. Given its functionality, a circular economy marketplace is best compared to platforms for secondhand items such as Vinted or Craigslist – with the difference that it is exclusively for business customers. The benefit: You can optimize your stock keeping processes and generate additional sales – while your customers can be happy about the low-priced offers.
The network marketplace provides you with the possibility to bundle together all your products on a central platform for your network partners. Are you operating in a company network with many expert retailers, procurement offices, or franchisees? In this case, you can collect and manage your offer for all partners – and enable easy transactions for your purchasers.
A Digital Transformation marketplace is the go-to guide for the journey of a company which previously only operated on the basis of physical branch offices and is now going digital. Upon entering online sales, such companies can modernize their sales cycles, convert new customers – and also win new customers frequenting their physical stores.
The development of B2B marketplaces is dynamic: While it’s true that the first signs of who may emerge as market leaders are currently manifesting, the matter is far from being set in stone. We present to you the most important B2B marketplaces in terms of growth potential.
The name “Amazon” is a name everybody is familiar with – and “Amazon Business” is well on the way to establishing the same feat in the B2B field. Those who make purchases in the B2B field expect a broad scope of available products, market-based prices, and a user-friendly purchase experience – and Amazon Business delivers (in every sense of the word). Here, buyers can, for example, request an internal approval for their shopping cart, get an overview of all expenses and purchases, while also allowing you to add more users to the account, create lists of preferred retailers, and profit from bulk discounts.
Accordingly, Amazon Business is aimed at all those companies which want to profit from the already well-established Amazon infrastructure as well as both the corresponding popularity of this marketplace and its already existing customer base.
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Alibaba is headquartered in China and used to be a pure “Yellow Pages” directory – by now, however, it has established itself as one of the world’s largest and most important B2B marketplaces. The platform addresses millions of suppliers and buyers – across all industries and sectors. On what one might refer to as “China’s Amazon,” you can build international trade and customer relationships and make secure business transactions. Your products are listed for free. Alternatively, you can benefit from better findability and visibility on the page in exchange for a fee.
A particular benefit of this platform: Alibaba mediates between retailers and customers. Accordingly, the platform does not compete with the companies themselves (in contrast to Amazon).
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eBay Business & Industrial offers an enormous product variety for competitive prices – and that on a global scale. With the option to launch special sales and sales promotions for any industry or sector, eBay Business & Industrial occupies the golden mean between e-commerce marketplace and circular economy marketplace – and combines the benefits of both marketplaces. With some strategic and well-executed Search Engine Optimization, you can also boost your findability and visibility on the platform.
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Did you not find your perfect fit among our top 3? Here are some further exciting possibilities for your online sales in the B2B field.
Mercateo is a B2B marketplace which provides its users with a particularly diverse product range on top of performant search functions. Here, customers filter by manufacturers, products, or suppliers – and, maybe, very soon by your company, too! To this end, you have the privilege of choosing between marketing your products via BusinessShop or Spotmarket. With a BusinessShop on this platform, you can strengthen your customer relationships and agree on the individualized product pricing. On Spotmarket, on the contrary, you address a broad buyer network as a pre-supplier.
AnkorStore wants to establish an innovative B2B shop system that concentrates on niche markets. Retailers ought to have the possibility to buy from independent manufacturers in an easy and direct manner – for example, by placing a collective order from different manufacturers. The process is kept particularly simple with AnkorStore – retailers can make purchase with a comparatively low minimum order value and fully digitize their order process. This does also mean: AnkorStore analyzes carefully which manufacturers they list in the first place.
After already discussing what we referred to as “China’s Amazon,” we now naturally transition to “India’s Amazon.” IndiaMART is India’s largest B2B marketplace and provides its B2B sales services in particular to SMEs (small and medium enterprises). Besides its role as a central hub for international purchasers and sellers, IndiaMART does also provide accounting software services which support you in managing your business and make processes more efficient. All payments are made without any fee via the IndiaMART payment protection.
The B2B multi-channel media company Global Sources mediates trade between Asia and the rest of the world – both online and offline. Global Sources supplies conventions, online marketplaces, magazines, and apps. This comes with benefits: Global Sources’ relations to trade conventions, for example, guarantees that no counterfeit products are brought into circulation. Suppliers can get their data analyzed and validated independently, whereas the buyers, in turn, can evaluate the suppliers based on their needs. This establishes both security and trust – building on the strict selection procedure by which suppliers are approved in the first place. Equipped with the flexible search feature, products can be compared in a clean overview.
Digitization simplifies the interaction and relations between companies while also facilitating sales and purchases – that is, if you have the right strategic setup. Do you want to market your products in a quick and uncomplicated manner? Do you want to transform your sales practices? Do you want to make your product catalog accessible online to a wide target group? What constitutes the foundation for all these cases and more is a well-prepared PIM – that is, a Product Information Management system.
It functions as the heart and central database for your digital sales strategy: In the PIM system, all relevant information about your products is gathered centrally, maintained, unified, and optimized. Before you go about establishing your presence on a B2B marketplace, first pool together and standardize all your product data in PIM – in order to distribute it in a consistent and complete manner to all sales channels anytime and anywhere. Be it product descriptions, images and videos, prices and availability, or technical data and digital assets: On which channels this or that unit of data is to be published or not is defined by you. This may include B2B marketplaces, online shops, apps, and catalogs – that is to say, the entire world of e-commerce.
No matter which sales channels you have in mind: With a PIM, you avoid inconsistencies or errors in your information; instead, you adjust your product data to the individual requirements of the respective channel and target group, while also guaranteeing optimal data quality. This is what an all-round successful Customer Experience looks like – have fun with it!
Author:
Tiffany Wiener
Senior Manager Demand Generation & Partner Marketing
ATAMYA
Digital Product Data Management Explained in Simple Terms
With a PIM system, you can prepare your company for the digital transformation and set the foundation for tapping into the full potential of digital Product Data Management. Are you ready to get off to a flying start? In our free whitepaper, we tell you how this can be achieved.
Owing the circumstances of the corona pandemic, online shopping is currently booming as never before. Accordingly, the product return rates have also skyrocketed. With a return rate of 64.3 percent, Germany is European Champion in returns of delivery orders (source: www.retourenforschung.de). About two thirds of the orders placed in the fashion industry are being returned. Not only time but also the financial aspect is enormous. On average, the return of a product costs the retailer 15.18 euro. This amount is the sum of the process costs and the loss in value. This, in turn, is reflected in the product costs. By now, many e-commerce companies are affected by this negative trend.
Did you also notice a trend in the increase of time and resources allocated to your company’s product return management? Or you may have even faced the need to create a new position in order to handle the high product returns? Maybe you’re already searching for a solution for reducing the product return rate of your online shop. With a PIM system, you have an effective and sustainable measure ready to hand with which you can lower the return rate of your company. Equipped with it, you can save not only time but also costs. Before we address this point any further, however, we want to have a closer look at the most frequent causes for high return rates in the e-commerce industry.
The causes for product returns in online retail are diverse. According to a study by KPMG (Statista 2023: Causes for Returns), 71 percent of the customers who return goods do so because the product doesn’t match their use case, followed by insufficient product quality or personal dissatisfaction with the product as major reasons. However, causes such as “product doesn’t correspond to description” are decisive for high product return rates. Another survey of this study (Statista 2023: Reduce Returns) does also show that 57 percent of the customers whish for better product information and commonly share the self-assessment that this is a measure for preventing returns.
What makes for a good product description? The more precise and detailed an article is described the more realistic is the image the customers can create in their mind’s eye. You can achieve this the following way:
Little helper monkeys such as, for example, the so-called “nudging” are also currently high in trend. Nudging revolves around planting subtle notes which inform the customer that participating in the prevention of product returns is a contribution to the reduction of CO2 emission in its own right. To the end of preventing returns, there are also helpful AI tools (Artificial Intelligence). A prominent example for this would be “Fit Finder,” an AI-based tool that helps customers finding the matching size.
If you operate in the fashion sector, you can grant customers the possibility to compare themselves with the fashion model by providing their body size and physical dimensions. Wherever this isn’t possible, a detailed product description is all the more important to lower return rates.
Always keep in mind: after the purchase is before the purchase. Assist your customer throughout the entire shopping process in order to generate authentic customer reviews and product evaluations. Customers trust fellow customers. This way, you optimize your product descriptions and reduce returns.
In general, the following can be observed: if the product data quality is high then the product return rate stays low while the satisfaction rate of both customers and employees alike increases.
And this is where the PIM system comes into play. PIM stands for Product Information Management and supports you in maintaining your company’s product data. Whenever it’s about improving the quality of your data, PIM is a good measure for creating the processes required to do so. PIM systems help you when defining, applying, and monitoring data quality rules.
The dashboard of the system facilitates the presentation of product data for you and your fellow coworkers, e.g. in the form of diagrams. This way, you will be quick to gather all the numbers you need and you always know where to begin when it comes to improving your data quality. You can classify your data objects, and you can do so as you see fit. In which units are your goods measured? Or do you want to give your product or other data objects a specific internal or external name so that it sticks better in your coworkers’ or customers’ minds? Other possibilities include terminology and translations. Subsequently, you can publish your product information on several output channels, such as your various online shops. Everything you need is your product and a PIM system which is configurable to fit your company’s exact requirements.
The benefits of a PIM system at a glance:
The equation is simple: better information prevents product returns in the double digits while also enhancing the customer satisfaction rate. Therefore, the quality of your product data is decisive for your business success. Let a PIM system handle the heavy lifting. Equipped with our checklist for optimal data quality, you have a best-practices guideline ready to hand with which can transform your data model, quite literally, into a top model in virtually no time.
Author:
Elena Golowatschev
Project Manager
The purchasing patterns of consumers are undergoing a paradigm shift. Keywords such as “user experience” and “customer experience” are occupying center stage. The name of the game is to increase the customer conversion rate. 76 percent of companies surveyed have stated that they’re working on projects in the field of user experience in order to optimize their conversion. (Source: Statista DE)
A battle-tested tool for maximizing your customers’ purchasing and product experience are so-called product configurators. In the B2C sector, individualized product configurators have long become indispensable. However, in B2B they’re starting to enjoy rapidly-increasing popularity, too. What may be the reasons for this? When would it make sense to integrate a product configurator yourself? And how can this plan be put into practice? Learn about this and more in our most recent blogpost.
💡 What is a product configurator?
A product configurator is a software tool which enables users to set up individualized products simply by selecting some relevant product attributes. The result of such configuration is referred to as a product variant. In context to this, you may also occasionally stumble across related terms such as “variant configurator,” “offer configurator,” or “sales configurator,” and other synonyms.
💡 How does a product configurator function?
Equipped with a product configurator, your customers can create specific product variants themselves. To do so, they navigate a graphical web interface and select properties or components which hereby come together to form a product variant. Product configurators are particularly popular for complex products with many options, such as in the furniture and housing industries.
Let’s adopt the first-person perspective of Paul (purely fictitious entity). He needs a new kitchen. Yet after a long and tedious workday, he’s simply much too exhausted to stop by a kitchen studio to receive a configuration for his desired kitchen in person. Instead, Paul does his research and stumbles across a provider where he can configure his kitchen fully by himself. He selects a kitchen front, chooses his favorite drawers, and picks a work surface. At a glance, Paul notices that the desired kitchen work surface comes with a delivery delay. Easy peasy, he simply selects another work surface with shorter delivery times among the alternatives presented by the configurator.
Now, what electronics fits the configured cupboard best? Paul is worried about purchasing the wrong kind of oven. But no reason to get too warmed up about it, since the configurator only provides matching components which are fully compatible with one another. This way, the dynamic configurator allows even laypersons to set up complex products without any room for error whatsoever.
Once Paul is done configuring, he checks out the final result once more in the form of a 3D model for the intended room. He then proceeds by booking the kitchen assembly service and signs the purchasing contract at the click of a button. Immediately after, Paul receives an e-mail containing his kitchen as a 3D model together with a list of all ordered kitchen components. On the other end, the kitchen manufacturer and the warehouse do also receive a components list, allowing them to prepare his kitchen free from error. Paul is extremely happy about how the digital age makes his everyday life much simpler and eagerly awaits the arrival of his new kitchen.
The basis for a well-oiled product configurator is data, data, and, not to forget, data – for example on properties, components, building parts, services, variants, or configuration rules. All such data is gathered and managed in a Product Information Management system (PIM). With PIM, there’s no need to file data for every single variant and combination. You only manage the individual properties, components, and rules of how things can be put together. The actual putting-together, in turn, is processed with dynamics and automatisms. This comes with huge benefits, which is why more and more companies are putting their trust into the duo of PIM and configurator.
Manage Combinations More Efficiently
Product configurators are a must-have if your product offer consists of various combination options with multiple components. Some simple math best illustrates this point: If you have seven components and five different properties to offer, there’re already 78,125 possible variants to cover. Now, imagine creating all of these variants manually by hand, let alone maintaining and translating them – you don’t want to commit yourself to such menial labor. It’s much simpler to just register the seven components together with properties and combination rules in your PIM system and manage them centrally. On top of that, you also take care of any possible data redundancy.
24/7 Product Experience for Customers
Product configurators are crucial for the digitization of companies, especially since they provide customers with inspiring online experience and product visualizations. The concept is simple: A customer-oriented product approach translates into higher customer satisfaction rates, more sales, as well as lower return rates and, with all that, a substantial increase in revenue. On the other end, users benefit from simpler configurations, since the product finder is easy to operate – even for laypersons. After all, users can only combine compatible components with one another in their product config. This way, for example, Paul will never accidentally purchase the wrong oven. And the best thing is: Customers can configure your products around the clock 24h and make orders from anywhere they want. Neither do you have to invest personnel resources, nor do you need a physical store.
More Success in Product Sales and Lower Product Return Rates
Your sales team, too, will soon learn to cherish the merits of your new configurator. The offer creation can be fully automated. Your success rate increases. You save time, resources, and costs throughout all processes – from sales, through manufacturing, to logistics. With smooth process chains and exact components list, reliable price estimations will be generated together with the purchase offer. The overall error rate in production is minimized. As a result, the follow-up processes will bring in results with much less complaints and returns.
In particular, a configurator will pay dividends in product portfolios with a lot of product variants. If you’re distributing high-quality products and want to provide your customers with an extravagant purchasing experience, the configurator is also the perfect go-to choice for your online shop in this use case. Even without physically holding the product in their own two hands, consumers will gain a perfect impression of what it is like to use your product thanks to the configurator.
Product configurators are most prominently represented in the B2C sector, with an ever-increasing tendency. Regardless of whether we’re looking for a replacement part for our car, buying a new bike, or booking vacations – in many of today’s online shops, we wish we would be able to simply configure our own dream product by ourselves instead of being presented with a fixed and static assortment. When purchasing a new computer, we select the memory size ourselves. When it comes to tours and travels, we select our preferred hotel room and catering service. Even the clothing industry is investing more and more into configurators. In the furniture and housing sector, they have long become indispensable. And this is how you and your business, too, can make things easy for your customers, significantly enhancing customer experience.
Especially when it comes to complex products, a configurator can support your customer in making the right purchase. For this reason, we also find more and more configurators in some fields of the B2B sector. Be it for driving shafts, connector sockets, warehouses, automation systems, hydraulics, or pneumatics. In fact, as consumers, we sometimes don’t even come to realize that the offer has been put together by a configurator. When it comes to complex products or companies that value customer retention, sales teams may even operate the configurator themselves. With this approach, too, the benefits clearly outweigh the investment.
In a first step, choose a suitable provider and specify your requirements. The software solution will be adjusted to your individual needs. To this end, you will receive support and counseling throughout the integration project to make sure that all technological requirements are realized as smoothly as possible. After checking the product configurator on the basis of usability tests, you can import actual product data into the system. For this project stage, you’ll need a PIM system. After all, PIM is what constitutes your company’s data basis. In this system, you define variants, rules, combination options, CAD data, videos, and images. In short, all data and information which your configurator requires.
With a PIM system, you can also benefit from optimized interfaces for centralizing and bulk-editing data. This, in turn, avoids data redundancy and additional effort when working on content and data quality. Last but not least, you can not only supply your configurator but all relevant e-commerce channels in real-time with the newest product data which you have approved and released as part of your built-in product information workflow. Our software, ATAMYA Product Cloud, provides you with vital support as the central datahub for your company’s entire IT landscape.
Author:
Myriam Nonnemann
Project Manager & Consultant
ATAMYA
Our experts are always happy and go out of their way to demonstrate to you how our software can support you in tackling your challenges head-on – for free and without any commitments on your end. Send us a request for a demo tour as early as today.
