Summit Spotlight: Tech Stack Consolidation Potential Through Retail Network Expansion Acceleration

Can you consolidate your tech stack, reach new and current retailers more effectively, and provide better customer experiences simultaneously?

Explore highlights on tech stack consolidation potential through retail network expansion from the recent Digital Shelf Summit (DSS), with insights from ecommerce experts from Salsify, Joe Woods, commerce strategy director; Julie Marobella, chief product officer; Kelly Rianda, senior director of retail success; and moderator, Ben Szekely, vice president of go-to-market strategy.

What Does Tech Stack Consolidation Mean for Brands?

Brands must understand what tech stack consolidation means to advance on the digital shelf and provide retailers (and consumers) with the best product detail pages (PDPs) possible.

Brands should consider tech stack consolidation across:

• Their content development pipeline;
• Redundant systems within the same internal phase;
• Their go-to-market (GTM) teams; and
• Redundant systems servicing external needs.

Consider not just your teams, but the workload of individual members when it comes to your product-information management (PIM)-related and internal consolidation efforts.

“What people don’t think about a lot is focusing on the optimization related to the roles of the people who work in those systems,” Woods says. “Ask, ‘How do I make the day-to-day lives of my individuals a little bit simpler and try to focus them into a limited number of systems rather than a diverse set of systems?’”

And, when it comes to your syndication-related and external consolidation efforts as you push to retailers, consider how to reuse content and maximize the value of your content investments.

“The retail environment is changing,” Rianda says. “[Retailers are] still focused on product completeness, but the big difference now is it’s about product quality and a lot of these retailers are starting to infuse more product quality checks into their processes so that you understand exactly what’s expected of you to have a great PDP page.”

Supporting Tech Stack Consolidation and Retail Network Expansion

According to Marobella, proper tech stack consolidation, expanding your retailer network, and meeting digital shelf demands can be answered with a next-generation PXM platform, a solution equipped for the intricacies of modern commerce.

“We think about, ‘How do we make sure you have all of the capabilities you need to centralize, manage, and govern your technology, connect it everywhere you need to go — across supply chain/logistics, master data, marketing, and below-the-fold — and then also connect it to all your internal systems, upstream and downstream?’” Marobella says.

These product experience management (PXM) solutions offer multi-pronged support for tech stack consolidation:

• Product information management (PIM): Evolving from a "marketing” PIM to a centralized, global PIM.
• Above-the-fold content: Syndicating product content to all retailers across business units and geographies.
• Below-the-fold content: Publishing rich media to top retail destinations.
• Supply chain and logistics: Managing master data, ecommerce, and supply chain and logistics data in the same platform.
• Workflows: Facilitating and automating digital shelf processes across cross-functional stakeholders.

Streamline Your Tech Stack, Reach More Customers

Though the digital shelf — and the retailers on it — are constantly changing, it can mean exciting things for brands trying to do more with less.

“By adding these technology advancements, retailers are moving away from single-point provider experiences, and opening it up to an open network so that multiple partners can work with them to get them data, giving [brands] more choice in picking their provider,” Rianda says.

What other opportunities await brands? Retail media, for one, is “the fastest-growing digital marketing avenue” for a lot of retailers and brands to better show up for consumers.

“[Retailers] know that’s going to save you money because you’re consolidating your tech stacks and going with one provider that’s best for you, and ultimately turn that back into investing more in your product, investing more in price, and retail media,” Rianda says.