City Furniture Unveils Phase 2 of Akeneo PIM Project, Streamlines Omni-channel Commerce

July 24, 2020  by Laurie Northington in Business Strategy, Industry   

The company has been using Akeneo since 2018 to deliver enriched, consistent, compelling and contextualized product experiences across all distribution channels. The system, architected and deployed by digital services firm StrikeTru, is helping the furniture company improve omni-channel processes, deliver better customer experiences, and accelerate execution of digital initiatives to grow revenue.

One of Akeneo PIM’s powerful new features is Asset Manager, which provides a central hub for enterprise users to organize and enrich all types of product-related information through advanced API connections with DAM (Digital Asset Management) systems.

A key goal for City Furniture’s phase 2 project included replacing its legacy DAM system with Widen DAM, automating product asset transfers from Widen DAM to Akeneo PIM, and disseminating product assets from Akeneo PIM to enterprise systems and distribution channels. City Furniture also established advanced integrations between Akeneo PIM and ProductsUp to achieve fast and efficient product feed syndication to distribution channels such as eCommerce websites or marketplaces, physical retail shops or social media like Google and Facebook for example. 

StrikeTru, with its deep expertise in eCommerce data solutions, played an instrumental role in ensuring Akeneo PIM’s smooth implementation and user-friendly adoption by City Furniture in both the phase 1 and the current phase 2 project. Bringing best-of-breed features, easily customizable backend, and frictionless integrations within the commerce tech stack, Akeneo PIM provides a central system for all aspects of product information management activities, from digital assets enrichment to approval workflows and content syndication. 

City Furniture doubled its SKU counts within 12 months of launching PIM, significantly increased ecommerce’s share of its retail business, and saw a 150% increase in web sync frequency, ensuring that product data is consistently up-to-date and reflective of each online channel’s specific promotional goals so customers can always count on reliable and relevant product experiences. Akeneo’s AI-powered data quality insights tool also helps City Furniture identify issues with its product information and fix those problems rapidly for omnichannel listings.

“StrikeTru helped us derive more value out of our PIM and DAM investments by migrating product asset processes to Widen DAM, setting up a bi-direction integration between DAM and PIM, and automating asset transfers from DAM to PIM and onto other enterprise systems and shopping channels,” said Gurtegh Singh, program manager strategic projects at City Furniture. “StrikeTru also recommended and helped select a feed management tool (ProductsUp) to better optimize our product feeds to search engines and shopping channels, and also reduce the cost and complexity involved in those processes.” 

“Legacy systems and insufficient automation are major roadblocks to a high-performing ecommerce channel, and to a successful digital transformation,” said Vik Gundoju, partner at StrikeTru. “Retailers can create a competitive advantage by implementing agile content management practices to centrally collect, store, and disseminate product data and assets. As COVID-19 forced City Furniture to temporarily shut retail stores, it was able to continue operating and scaling its digital channels.”

“We’re delighted to be deepening our collaboration with City Furniture, a forward-thinking retail innovator who is ahead of the curve in adopting cutting-edge solutions to drive omnichannel success,” Mike Bender, North America vice president of sales at Akeneo. “Product experience is the lifeblood of commerce across all customer touchpoints and throughout the purchase journey. Our phase 1 project delivered game changing results and we can’t wait for the City Furniture team to realize even more benefits from enhanced asset management and syndication capabilities.”