Karl Lagerfeld boosts content creation, SEO and translation with Akeneo AI powered PIM solution

Karl Lagerfeld, the namesake brand of the German fashion designer., has seen a +5% increase in organic SEO traffic on its product pages and a +16% increase in add-to-cart rates, using artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities in partnership with Akeneo.

Karl Lagerfeld’s retail offering includes more than 200 mono-brand stores worldwide, with key locations in Paris, London, Munich, Moscow, New York, Dubai and Shanghai. 

The brand further connects with consumers through a premium wholesale distribution network in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. 

Its online platform serves 33 countries in nine languages featuring an assortment of approximately 1,800 products, which are refreshed with new collections seasonally every six months.

Karl Lagerfeld had already been leveraging Akeneo’s PIM solution to ensure it had accurate and consistent product catalogues across its shopper-facing touchpoints. 

In 2024, it began using Akeneo’s native generative AI (GenAI) functions to support content creation, enhance its SEO performance and transcribe languages for product description pages across its international markets.

It previously used two external freelance copywriters, but after embedding AI into its product experience workstream, it transitioned to a single content editor with a role which now also includes work fine-tuning product content edits and providing feedback to continuously improve AI prompts.

Yoko Fujimoto-Sital, Senior Manager E-Commerce Trading at Karl Lagerfeld, says: “We represent the designer, so our tone of voice is very important to our branding.”

“AI can struggle to fully interpret the brand’s tone of voice and it is crucial not to lose that, so we still need our human brand custodians to fine tune our product copy.”

Fujimoto-Sital adds that the transition to a hybrid human/GenAI model has given the brand a deeper understanding of its product content creation strategies and has resulted in a product content guide that covers its entire product experience strategy. 

Justin Thomas, VP Sales EMEA North at Akeneo, comments: “Karl Lagerfeld embracing of the power of GenAI showcases the transformative nature of this technology to automate time consuming processes to free up a business’s vital human resources to focus on creating compelling brand and customer experiences.”