What is Product Syndication: Data, Content, & Other Information

The lines between distribution channels, between devices and platforms, between customer experience and retailer success—they’re blurred at best. And as consumer expectations continue to skyrocket and marketing strategies race to adapt, using every available resource to ensure the success of omnichannel marketing is essential.

Product data syndication is the key.

What is product data syndication, exactly?

Beyond the realm of your owned sales channels (like websites, printed catalogs, or brick-and-mortar stores) lies a virtually infinite landscape of unowned ones—channels operated by third parties like Target, Alibaba, Facebook, or Google Shopping.

Product data syndication allows you to tap into the extraordinary marketing power of those unowned channels by carefully synchronizing product data across a wide range of unique sales portals, each of which has its own specific set of data and product listing requirements.

That’s where product data syndication platforms come in.

With the right tool, you can automate the distribution of compliant, consistent product descriptions across all those portals—and create a seamless, high-quality customer experience at every touchpoint that helps solidify consumer trust and effectively build brand loyalty.

Why automate product content distribution?

Automating product content distribution is a critical part of omnichannel marketing—and allows you to translate your data into whatever taxonomy is required by an unowned sales channel without requiring any coding on the client side.

That means your product data stays accurate and up-to-date, your branding stays consistent, and your marketing teams stay busy with work that actually requires ingenuity and creativity. And because human error is removed from the equation, the costs associated with those errors are removed as well.

What’s more, because the data is accurate and compliant before it’s distributed to eCommerce syndication platforms, you can accelerate your product launch and increase the flow of revenue coming in from multiple sources.

First step: Optimize your product data

Before you consider product syndication, it’s critical to consider the quality of the data being syndicated. 

Incomplete or erroneous data can be costly—and widely distributing incorrect data across high-profile sales channels can be devastating. Which is why many eCommerce leaders recommend using a quality product information management (PIM) solution in tandem with a product syndication platform.

The right PIM solution will automatically map product information to a flexible catalog structure that can support your current and future needs—and comfortably scale to accommodate new channels, new products, and new marketing avenues.

Once your data is centralized, standardized, and validated, it can then be optimized for search engines to ensure that your products are highly visible and easily accessible.

Additionally, data performance can be tested across product syndication channels—and user metrics like click-through rates and time-on-page can help you identify areas where messaging may need to be refined or altered prior to syndication.

Next step: Choose a product syndication solution

With every one and zero optimized for omnichannel success, it’s time to choose the right eCommerce syndication solution—one that’ll enhance your brand’s worth and elevate product visibility to relevant audiences and generate qualified leads.

But don’t rush it. The right eCommerce syndication solution doesn’t just export content to unowned sales distribution channels. It should:

• Work seamlessly with your legacy business systems and streamline workflows for your marketing teams
• Identify missing information and errors that may cause data to be rejected
• Enrich and configure all product content from a single location
• Translate product data for the GDSN (Global Data Synchronization Network), an internet-based tool that enables manufacturers to securely share regulatory and supply chain data with their retail partners
• Open the door to a large syndication network, an extensive template library and the maximum number of distribution channels

Working in conjunction with the right PIM solution, the ideal eCommerce syndication platform actually improves product content—and creates an impactful, well-branded experience for every customer across every retail touchpoint.

It also eliminates the need for your IT department to support basic eCommerce processes, like adding digital touchpoints, integrating new channels, or keeping product content up-to-date.

Final step: Measure your success

Measuring the effectiveness of a marketing campaign isn’t easy—let alone one that spans a wide sea of both owned and unowned distribution channels. But no matter how tricky it may be, it’s essential to determine whether or not product data syndication yields enough quality leads in the pipeline to deliver a positive ROI.

Some metrics to consider:

Lead volume

Because you’re not hosting content on your own site, tracking conversion rates across 

third-party sites and channels is critical to assessing your campaign’s success.

Lead quality

You know who you’re targeting—and your product syndication platform should connect you directly with your audiences. If you’re not connecting with people eager to learn more about your product, you should probably reassess your syndication tactics.

Dollars and cents

A high volume of quality leads should quickly and directly translate into revenue. Be sure that it does.

Brand awareness and website traffic are necessary for business growth. But if you’re doing product content syndication correctly, you should be seeing more tangible, more measurable results. The kind that move the needle and boost the bottom line.

The benefits of product data syndication

More eyeballs. More leads. More revenue. Product data syndication delivers it all, enabling you to run campaigns on a cost-per-lead basis, maximize ROI, and effectively strengthen brand awareness. 

And in a world where 73% of consumers rely on product data to make informed purchasing decisions (Forrester), product data syndication is foundational for omnichannel success.

Doing it right requires a holistic approach. One that enables retailers to carefully monitor the quality, consistency, and organizational integrity of product data before it’s syndicated—and enriches data as it’s distributed.

Getting that accurate, optimized, high-quality data to the right unowned place at the right time in the right format is a game-changer. It opens new sales channels, effectively accelerates speed-to-market, and ensures that products are visible, accessible, and appealing to targeted buyers. Partner retailers and channels benefit too, as they can count on accurate, personalized, distribution-ready product content.

Product data syndication is an effective way to create superior experiences for your customers, grow their trust in your brand, and get your products to market faster. 

It’s a must for today’s retailers. And the most effective way to connect with today’s consumers.