In the dynamic realm of eCommerce and product information management, staying competitive hinges on the ability to effectively manage, enrich, and distribute product data. In this digital age, where consumers rely heavily on detailed and accurate product information, businesses need robust solutions to meet these expectations. GFK Etilize emerges as a prominent player in this arena, offering a suite of services designed to enhance product data management. In this comprehensive review, we explore what GFK Etilize is, who its users are, evaluate its ease of use, delve into how it works, and finally weigh its benefits and challenges. Whether you’re a seasoned eCommerce professional or a business owner exploring ways to optimize your product data management, this review aims to provide valuable insights into the world of GFK Etilize.
What is GFK Etilize?
GFK Etilize is a comprehensive product data management solution designed to help businesses organize, enrich, and distribute their product information efficiently. It’s a part of GfK, a globally recognized market research firm, and offers a suite of services that cater to different aspects of product data management. GFK Etilize is primarily known for its data syndication and content services, which enable businesses to deliver consistent, high-quality product data across various sales channels, including eCommerce websites, marketplaces, and catalogs.
GFK Users
GFK Etilize serves a diverse range of users, from small businesses to large enterprises, across various industries. Its clientele includes retailers, manufacturers, distributors, and eCommerce platforms. Small and mid-sized businesses often leverage GFK Etilize to enhance their product data quality and expand their online presence. Larger enterprises appreciate its scalability and ability to manage extensive product catalogs. The platform caters to clients globally, making it a versatile solution for businesses operating in different regions and markets.
Ease of Use for Customers
One of the critical factors for any product data management solution is its ease of use, both for businesses and their customers. GFK Etilize shines in this aspect by offering intuitive interfaces and user-friendly features.
For Businesses:
- User-Friendly Interface: GFK Etilize provides a clean and intuitive interface, making it easy for businesses to navigate and manage their product data efficiently. This user-friendliness can significantly reduce the learning curve for users.
- Customization: The platform offers customization options, allowing businesses to tailor their product data management processes to their specific needs. This flexibility ensures that the solution aligns with the unique requirements of each business.
For Customers:
- Accurate and Consistent Data: GFK Etilize helps businesses maintain accurate and consistent product data. This benefits customers by providing them with reliable information about products, specifications, pricing, and availability.
- Enhanced Product Experience: When businesses use GFK Etilize to enrich their product data with detailed descriptions, images, and videos, customers benefit from a richer and more informative shopping experience. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and increased sales.
How GFK Etilize Works
GFK Etilize operates as a comprehensive product data management solution, streamlining the process of organizing, enriching, and distributing product information for businesses. Here’s a breakdown of how GFK Etilize works:
- Data Collection: The process begins with businesses collecting their product data, which includes a wide range of information like product attributes, specifications, pricing details, images, and more. This data is typically stored across different systems and databases within the organization.
- Data Standardization: GFK Etilize plays a crucial role in standardizing the collected product data. It ensures that the data adheres to industry-specific standards and follows a consistent format. Standardization is essential for ensuring data accuracy and compatibility with various sales channels and platforms.
- Data Enrichment: GFK Etilize provides businesses with tools to enhance their product data. This enrichment involves adding detailed product descriptions, high-quality images, videos, and other relevant content. By enriching product listings, businesses can create more engaging and informative product presentations, ultimately improving the customer experience.
- Data Syndication: A core function of GFK Etilize is data syndication. It enables businesses to efficiently distribute their standardized and enriched product data to multiple sales channels. These channels can include eCommerce websites, online marketplaces, print catalogs, and more. Data syndication ensures that product information remains consistent and up-to-date across all customer touchpoints.
- Monitoring and Updates: GFK Etilize provides businesses with tools for monitoring the performance of their product data. This includes tracking changes in product availability, pricing adjustments, and other critical information. Businesses can make real-time updates to their product data to keep it accurate and relevant.
- Integration: To streamline data management further, GFK Etilize offers integration capabilities. This allows businesses to integrate the platform with their existing software systems, such as eCommerce platforms, content management systems (CMS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Integration ensures seamless data exchange and synchronization, reducing manual data entry and errors.
GFK Etilize Benefits and Challenges
Benefits
- Data Quality: GFK Etilize helps businesses maintain high-quality product data, reducing errors and inaccuracies. This enhances customer trust and satisfaction.
- Efficiency: The platform streamlines product data management processes, saving businesses time and resources. It enables quick updates and ensures data consistency.
- Multi-Channel Distribution: GFK Etilize supports the distribution of product data across various sales channels, helping businesses reach a broader audience and improve their online presence.
- Global Reach: The platform’s global presence and support make it suitable for businesses operating in multiple regions and markets.
Challenges:
- Cost: The cost of using GFK Etilize’s services can be a factor for some businesses, particularly small startups or companies with limited budgets. It’s essential to evaluate the pricing structure to determine if it aligns with your business’s needs.
- Integration Complexity: While GFK Etilize offers integration options, the process can sometimes be complex, especially for businesses with existing systems that require seamless integration.
- Learning Curve: Although the platform is user-friendly, there might still be a learning curve for businesses new to product data management systems.
How to Start Use GFK
Below are instructions on how to use GFK Brands and Retailers:
Brands
Producing Rich Content/A+ Content and getting it to your retail partners is easy. There are two simple options GFK provide:
- Use GFK’s Excel-based template. GFK provides a simple template that does not require any additional tools or extensive content design expertise.
a. The template provides guidance on which fields are relevant to the selected type of rich content (video, marketing description, etc.)
b. You can create the enhanced information in different attractive layouts
- GFK can create it for you.
a. Have existing A+ content? Send them a link(s) to what is already created, such as on Amazon, and GFK can grab and create it, or… Supply them with the HTML (can be via feed, such as XML)
b. Need to build your rich content from scratch? No problem Gather your rich media including videos, multiple high resolution images, videos and brochures
▪ GFK will supply you with an A+ content template to input the data
▪ Send them the completed template
▪ GFK create the layout for you and syndicate it to your retail partners
Retailers
Obtaining Enhanced A+ content for your website is seamless. No matter your system requirements, GFK got you covered.
- Widget delivery
a. No need to manage the data directly from the download or the API. Just include a small piece of javaScript on your website that identifies the product you are showing, and GFK will push the content directly to your website’s page.
- Download delivery
a. The provision of the enhanced content is already provided through your existing download process.
b. Once you’ve identified the products GFK has enhanced content for, decide where you want to display the content and deploy it.
- Hosted delivery
a. For customers who are currently using SOAP and REST API, this new enhanced content is already included in the responses.
b. Identify where you want to display the content on your product page and then deploy the content.
What is A+ Content?: A+ Content is unstructured ‘free form’ content.
It can include all of the Rich Content elements. Here’s why A+ content is becoming an industry necessity to enable eCommerce:
What is Rich Content?: Rich content includes multiple forms of engaging media such as product icons and logos, charts, videos, 360° product views, expanded marketing text, and much more. A+ content is “unstructured” content that can include all of these rich product elements.
Here you can learn more about the types of content and how to start using them.
Summary
GFK Etilize is a powerful product data management solution offered by GfK, a renowned market research firm. This comprehensive platform enables businesses to efficiently manage, standardize, enrich, and distribute their product data across various sales channels. It caters to a diverse range of users, from small enterprises to large corporations, in various industries. GFK Etilize’s user-friendly interface and customization options make it accessible and adaptable for businesses. It streamlines data management processes, enhances data quality, and facilitates multi-channel distribution. The unique advantage with GfK Etilize is that you don’t need to manage set-up sheets with each retailer. GFK does that for you, and once you enter new products or update information on a product in their Spex Access tool, GFK automatically transfers that information to all of your retail partners!
