Multi, omni and now metachannel: meeting the content management needs of the future retailer

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Life comes at you fast as a retailer. As we push towards the end of 2022, current challenges range from a dip in consumer confidence, ongoing supply chain issues, a talent shortage, price pressures and heightened expectations of service both online and in person.

These conditions make heavy demands on organisations that have not traditionally been designed to be agile and reactive. Despite our allegedly digitally transformed world, many are still operating across legacy infrastructure, serving siloed teams. When traditional retailers ask how they can compete against digitally native e-commerce (and increasingly omnichannel) retailers, this is their first port of call.

Why is being connected so critical? EY calls the future of retail the “metachannel’’– being integrated everywhere. Consumers have long since stopped thinking in terms of a physical or online retailer – in fact, they tend to be surprised when one definitively excludes the other. But retail brands must be able to respond to consumer needs, wherever an interaction takes place.

In practice, this means serving useful content whether via social, web or messaging – the latter fast-growing as a preferred consumer medium and one that will be vital to building relationships and gathering first-party data. To do this, retailers need to be able to use data effectively across a wide range of channels and departments, and get content to the places that need it, in the formats required and in a current and relevant context.

The quality of that content and data will be critical. Added-value is the watchword for brands battling for supremacy in a crowded market. Inflation and the cost of living squeeze mean that competing on price, however initially attractive that might seem, will not cut the mustard for any length of time. Added-value means delivering extra – more personalisation, better quality content, more interaction between digital and physical and an altogether more joined-up experience.

When even something as fundamental as inventory management goes awry, you know retailers are struggling to keep up, let alone innovate. Forrester research that suggested two-thirds of retailers found inventory management somewhat or very challenging just puts on paper what observers are seeing in store every day. UK supermarket Waitrose – by royal appointment no less – was recently criticised for its inability to keep shelves stocked and understand the needs of its well-to-do foodie audience.

Failing to join up processes at even the simplest of levels means retailers aren’t able to take advantage of many innovations that would allow them to compete and thrive, even in tough trading conditions.

censhare research suggests that barely a third of companies would claim to have an integrated, centralised content management hub. Nearly half might say they’re working towards one (44 per cent), but that still puts them a long way away from being able to fully execute.

Without centralised systems that allow employees to work efficiently and which can build ever-more detailed data sets, retailers can’t take full advantage of automation that would help streamline their businesses. They can’t then use that data to feed into the artificial intelligence that would help them gain new insights and reach different audiences to grow.

It may seem from the figures above that retail must be in a parlous state, but this isn’t doom-mongering. The message is perhaps more that there is an imperative to act for retailers who have so far tended towards a conservative attitude to technology investment. And it’s also important to state that this is not a baby/bathwater situation. Solutions in today’s marketing tech stack are more adaptable and composable than ever, allowing new tools to slot into existing infrastructure at relatively low cost and disruption.

The proof points, too, are out there. One fashion retailer integrated its digital asset management system (DAM) with tools from a range of other vendors (interoperability between different suppliers is critical in a future-facing retailer), meaning 700 users could manage nearly two million assets effortlessly.

Such was the time and effort saved on standard procedures, very shortly after implementation, the company began exploring how it could create third-party brand relationships and open an online marketplace. Automation was also suddenly on its radar, with the process optimisations and cost savings that would bring. Automated translation was a particular highlight as there is no such thing as a non-global business anymore.

Often, the biggest challenge in grasping the nettle of modernisation is knowing what to look for, and when to take the leap. This could be especially tricky in the marketing tech sector, where there are 9,000 vendors and more coming online every day.

A little knowledge is a powerful thing. To gain an understanding of how Omnichannel Content Management builds efficiency, accuracy, and cost savings in omnichannel or metachannel retailing, download the whitepaper "Omnichannel Marketing in Retail", from censhare. It contains all you need to know about terms and systems such as PIM, DAM and CMS as well as setting out how and why you should integrate content management into your processes and stacks.

Originally published on Business Reporter