Homeware and gift retailer Sass & Belle deploys Akeneo product information management solution
Sass & Belle is partnering with Akeneo, a specialist in product information management (PIM) and product experience management (PXM) solutions.
The brand operates a wholesale first strategy across Europe, selling through a network of retail stockists as well as a Direct To Consumer (DTC) offer via its e-commerce website in the UK.
It is currently undergoing a re-platforming implementation, migrating to BigCommerce via its systems integration partner Soace48.
The move, it says, to a SaaS led, microservice and app-based ecosphere will allow the e-commerce team more freedom to build in custom functionality, as well as setting the platform up for scale as the company eyes international growth.
A key part of the migration will be to update the existing PIM capabilities, which currently run from the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution and don’t offer the robustness, scale or flexibility needed to meet Sass & Belle’s growth ambitions.
Central to Akeneo’s selection was the capability to offer translations through its PIM solution, which will streamline the wholesale business unit’s growth in new European markets.
Akeneo Content Translator will be used to translate localised product attributes from one locale to multiple markets to ensure product data accuracy and consistency across international trading.
And, because all product data will be held centrally on one platform, each team feeding into the product journey – from product development to e-commerce and marketing – will contribute towards product data enrichment.
Clare Kelly, Head of E-commerce at Sass & Belle, comments: “Because we lovingly design our range of giftware products as well as retailing them, it means we’re launching product types and new collections all the time.”
“With everyone working off disparate systems - or even Excel sheets - this was just adding levels of complexity to the business process of getting products to market and available to buy.”
“Being able to manage everything through the PIM, from product attributes to product ownership at each stage of the product lifecycle, means we’ll be set up to be much more efficient and future-proofed to scale at speed.”
James Barlow, Director UK&I at Akeneo, says: “Sass & Belle’s offer celebrates the joy of uniqueness, but while its creative collections embrace quirkiness, its product data needed to have structure and process put in place to help it deliver consistent but still brand-rich product experiences across its sales channels. “
“By unifying product data on one platform, there is now a central, single source of truth for product information, which can be leveraged across its international growth markets.”
Continue reading…