The subject of product image and representation is fundamental for e-commerce sites. Increasingly sophisticated, elegant and even interactive, they are a decisive element in the sales process, and a product without an image, or with a poor image, simply won't sell.
Indeed, it has been recognized that the quality of a product photo increases the conversion rate of a site by 34% (source cbnews.com), with a large majority of consumers declaring that the quality and diversity of product photos were decisive in the decision to buy. It's clear, then, that images establish a relationship of trust between retailer and consumer, and can no longer be ignored.
Retailers therefore need to have these media at their disposal, and the acquisition, management and distribution workflows can be complex. Several issues can arise from these needs:
- Theprocess: how can we be sure that the right photo(s) have been selected (quality, clipping, shot, etc.)?
- Volume : The market is very dynamic, and recovery, validation and distribution need to keep pace with it, so that the speed of market launches is consistent with its sector.
- Targets: how to make sure you're presenting the right image to the right person?
- Formats : images now encompass much more than just photos. We need to think about videos, 3D, 360°, rich media that mix several formats, etc.
- Measurement: how to obtain relevant statistics to assess the performance and impact of an image?
The subject of images is vast and complex. To be effective, and to be able to manage these validation and distribution processes without getting lost in the multitude of issues, you need to be equipped. Digital Asset Management (DAM) is becoming an indispensable ally in the management of your media products.
How to speed up the acquisition process?
One of the main challenges facing e-commerce is the chain involved in retrieving and validating media in the DAM. The first difficulty facing retailers is the multiplicity of media sources to be received.
They can be of various kinds:
- Studio shooting
- Channels such as email, wetransfer, etc.
- Online platforms such as Agena, Alkemics, etc.
- Suppliers' own DAM
The aim is to streamline this collection chain by automating recovery.
DAM automates the collection of media from various content producers. This is made possible by modules for automatic retrieval of visuals via APIs, repository hotfolders, or directly via the interface. Media retrieved in this way is centralized in a single location.
The second step is to validate the media. To do this, it's essential to adapt the acquisition process to the retrieval channel. For example, a trusted supplier with whom you've worked for years may go through a simple validation workflow, while an occasional photographer will require a more thorough check. Another may be used to supplying a large volume of media, and another a few selections.
Depending on your production process, you'll need to set up automations that will save you precious time. This automation is the key to saving on media management costs:
- With collaborative modules: allow product teams to control incoming flows, validate them or submit them to graphics teams for retouching.
- With Adobe plug-ins: connect the DAM to Photoshop to quickly retouch and update your visuals.
- With artificial intelligence: create automations for clipping or retouching.
- With dedicated scripts: automate content verification and classification.
By centralizing the entire process of acquiring and validating your product photos in Keepeek, you can reduce lead times, facilitate validation, avoid errors and do away with the need to go back and forth by e-mail or third-party applications, while keeping a history of your actions.
How do you manage product visuals in the DAM?
Keepeek's simple, ergonomic interface has been designed to integrate media, organize them and easily attach all the data required for their use.
The DAM integrates with all the tools in a company's retail ecosystem: PIM, PLM, MDM, ERP, E-Commerce platforms, product databases, websites, etc. This automates the indexing of new content, synchronizing new media with existing product repositories. It automates the indexing of new content, synchronizing new media with existing product repositories to guarantee constant updating.
Once the media have been indexed, managing the lifecycle of the media produced is a priority. You need to be able to add new content at any time, replace it when necessary, and archive it when the product becomes obsolete. To achieve this, the DAM uses automatic processes, linked directly to the product databases, to take the action required by the situation. For example, if a product becomes obsolete, the PIM will send the information to the DAM so that the media can be archived. Or conversely, when an image needs replacing, the DAM will send the information to the PIM, which will update the image.
To take indexing a step further, and gain greater efficiency in the governance of all these media, it is also possible to index media on "non-product" information:
- angle of view,
- rights and copyright
- uses and destination
This information, linked to the photo itself, enables very precise indexing, guaranteeing perfect media management.
Media governance allows you to automate processes to guarantee the validity of your content and media, and avoid errors. Keepeek saves a considerable amount of time in indexing and hierarchizing media, and brings together in a single place all the content essential for product distribution.
How do you distribute your product visuals?
The aim is to automate the feed between the DAM and other media-consuming applications.
Most projects require integration with a PIM and an e-commerce site. The aim is to associate the right media with the right product throughout its life cycle. The aim is to shorten product publication times by integrating media as quickly as possible.
There are other ways of integrating with third-party applications: ERP, mobile applications and so on. They also need to be quickly supplied with media, sometimes with different rules and formats than e-commerce sites.
To feed all this, we need to industrialize. There are several ways of doing this, depending on the type of channel:
- Regular exports
- APIs
- Physical files
- URLs
- Metadata
Automating these processes via the DAM is essential, as they save the most time during the product distribution stage.
In order to determine the most relevant industrializations according to the channel, four main questions arise:
- What: of all the media present in the DAM, which are eligible for these feeds? There may be several eligibility criteria such as product code, validation status, target, is the media published, archived, etc.
- When: which flow is used how often? Weekly, daily, hourly?
- How: do we need to go through flat files, APIs, a repository system, etc.?
- Who: who initiates the synchronization? This could be the DAM, which exports media on a regular basis, or the PIM, which imports media into the DAM at specific times, etc.
Once this strategy has been determined and implemented, the DAM takes charge of format transformation. It automatically trims, retouches and adapts to the distribution channel and medium. This distribution system saves measurable time when distributing and promoting on sites, applications, catalogs, etc.
How do you manage other media?
In addition to managing product media, we also need to think about the other types of media involved in sales.
They are of two types:
- Indirectly linked to the product: visuals to set the scene for one or more products, marketing campaigns linked to a range or collection, advertisements, etc.
- Away from the product: graphic charters, corporate content, media from image banks, etc.
These media don't necessarily require automation to link them to a specific product code, or to regular use, but it's strongly recommended that they be indexed in the DAM, so that everything can be gathered in the same place. In this way, the DAM acts as a place of truth, capable of managing everything in the same place, product media or not.
