As the need to work remotely expands, retail marketers are searching for more powerful, integrated systems to manage their product pricing, inventory, and other complex asset management systems.<\/strong><\/p>\n Retailers have always relied on a lot of data to manage their complex relationships with suppliers and customers. Marketers and planners must constantly juggle and connect enormous amounts of complex information with pinpoint accuracy. The data reside in multiple, often separate sources, from retail PIM and DAM systems<\/a> to databases that handle pricing and inventory. Navigating all that data is difficult \u2013 even in the best of times.<\/p>\n Those times are over. As the \u201cnew normal\u201d for business becomes clearer, it is likely that more and more information workers will be operating remotely. And without the benefits of working in the same office as their peers and support staff, product marketing managers need a new set of \u201cpower tools.\u201d From any location, they must be able to easily manage all that data, and use it effectively in focused, time-sensitive campaigns.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> The rapid shift to remote data operations follows a decades-old transition to online business in general. The rise of e-commerce<\/a>, and of consumers\u2019 detailed, mobile-driven awareness of competitive options, has made product pricing<\/em> of paramount importance. Having the right price for a single product \u2013 among hundreds of thousands of SKUs \u2013 can make all the difference in a highly-competitive promotion. When you add regional store variations, current margins, and last-minute sales or discounts, the pricing question can be challenging indeed.<\/p>\n Databases<\/a> for current pricing can be connected to the retailer\u2019s PIM system<\/a> \u2013 or not. They can be hosted in the cloud \u2013 or not. Nearly always, they are custom-built by IT specialists who may still work for the company \u2013 or not. Pricing systems often have plenty of legacy system issues to make life difficult for the product marketing person charged with creating accurate campaigns.<\/p>\n A lot depends on accurate pricing. With razor-thin margins and high customer expectations, errors are a potential for serious financial chaos. Fortunately, advanced systems such as LAGO<\/a> can create live connections between pricing data, product information, and multiple, versioned promotions, whether intended for print or online campaigns.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div> Another challenge to remote retail marketing is the state of the company\u2019s inventory. The supply chain disruptions of the past few months have taught us that shortages can take us by surprise and lead to customer dissatisfaction. Like pricing, current inventory levels of every product are critical to data-driven marketing campaigns. Knowing how to describe and price a specific product is hard enough. Knowing how many (or how few) are available in a given branch location is even harder.<\/p>\n<\/div>Having the right price data in your PIM system can make all the difference in a highly-competitive promotion<\/h3><\/div>
The \u201clast mile\u201d connection to a marketing automation or print production system is crucial for success<\/h3><\/div>