Product Experience: How to Create an Authentic Product Feeling across All Touchpoints

Why Product Experience is the Key to E-Commerce Success – and How You can Set it Up Strategically

In a world full of exchangeable products, experience determines success. Customers are no longer simply buying a product – they purchase the use, emotion, and effect it unfolds. A shirt is more than a piece of clothing: it changes the appearance, the feeling, and the impression you leave on others. This transformation must be consistently experienceable across all channels – from the first touchpoint to the actual usage. And it is precisely here where product experience management (PXM) comes into play: It guarantees that products are not only available – but that they inspire.

How then can one go about designing a consistent product experience – in a world where expectations for content and services are ever-growing? And why is a PIM system indispensable to this end?

 

What does Product Experience Actually Mean?

Imagine, for a moment, a potential customer stumbling upon your product – be it in an online shop, marketplace, or via a social media post. What keeps sticking? A technical datasheet? Or rather a feeling?

Product experience is just this: the sum of all impressions that a product has on the customer – in a visual, emotional, or informational manner. It’s about how a product appeals, not only what it is.

When it comes to a pair of running shoes, customers do not only want to know the material it is made out of. They want to see how it feels as they walk, how it makes them go faster – perhaps even how it motivates them to stand up in the morning and go for a run.

For a shirt, it is not only the material and the fit that counts, but also the impression it conveys. Confident, stylish, attractive. This is the actual sales argument.

It is this effect that must be experienceable throughout all touchpoints – from the first image to the last product evaluation. This is what product experience is about.

 

How does one Create Convincing Product Experience?

Strong product experience is not a matter of happenstance – it is the result of a well-thought-out strategy and precise execution. The most important steps:

1. Understand Target Groups: What information is relevant for your customer? What emotions should be evoked?
2. Design Consistent Content: Uniform product information across all channels is essential.
3. Assure Visual Quality: High-quality images, videos, and interactive content boost attractivity.
4. Utilize Emotional Story Telling: Tell a story revolving around your products – this creates proximity and trust.
5. Capitalize On Personalization: Relevant content at the right time and the right place increases the conversion rate.

 

What to Look Out For during Implementation?

The greatest challenge lies in assuring that product information is consistent and up-to-date. Various systems, manual processes, and decentralized data management are quick to lead to inconsistencies – and, consequently, to a glaring hole in the product experience.

Important Success Factors:

• Central Data Management: All product data is managed and enriched in and through a single space.
• Automated Processes: Minimize manual error sources and shorten the time-to-market.
• Channel-Overarching Distribution: Content must be optimized for and exported to all touchpoints.

 

Transformation as the Aim of Product Experience

Convincing product experience does not only communicate properties but demonstrates how the product fulfills wishes for changes. Customers do not only want to know what a product can do – they want to feel how it improves life. This emotional dimension is decisive for purchase decisions – and it is precisely what comes to life when product data, visual elements, and stories harmonize together.

 

What Tools do You Need for Product Experience?

A central element for the implementation is a product information management system (PIM). It enables the following:

• Central administration of all product data
• Enrichment of media, texts, and translations
• Distribution to various channels (web shops, marketplaces, print, POS, etc.)
• Integration with other systems like DAM, CMS, or e-commerce platforms

A PIM system is, therefore, the central basis for an impactful product experience strategy.

 

Conclusion

Product experience is more than a short-term trend – it is decisive for securing the competitive advantage in digital retail. Those who manage to keep their products consistent, emotional, and well-staged across all touchpoints win both the customers’ attention and trust. With a high-performance PIM system, you lay the foundation for top-notch product experience – and, consequently, for your long-term success.