What ProductSync does, how it works, and why accurate product information matters to every team in a promotional products business
By John O’Rourke, Technical Director, GetConnect
It is a question we hear from promotional products distributors more than almost any other, and it usually arrives disguised as a different problem. Quotes are taking too long. The website says one thing and the ERP says another. A client has spotted the wrong image against a product they were about to order. Dig a little deeper and the cause is nearly always the same: the product information the business relies on is spread across too many places, and nobody is entirely sure which version is right.
When we talk to distributors about what slows them down, quoting comes up again and again, and the hold-up with quoting is almost always getting hold of good quality product information. Some of it sits internally but may be out of date. Some of it needs a conversation with one of the buyers. Some of it lives with the supplier and has to be requested, chased and reformatted before it can be used. This article looks at why that happens, how Get Connect’s ProductSync brings product data together, and where it is heading next.
Why product information gets so messy
Picture an account manager at a distributor looking after a global corporate client. The client wants a consistent range of branded merchandise across several markets, but it makes sense to source locally, so mugs for the UK come from one supplier, mugs for Europe from another and mugs for the US from a third. Shipping costs stay lower and those savings can be passed on to the client, but the account manager now has three sets of product data describing what the end customer expects to be the same mug.
Multiply that across umbrellas, bags, clothing and everything else in the range, and it is easy to see how the working week fills up with spreadsheets. Ten suppliers, ten sheets, each saved in several versions, and the familiar question of whether “final v2” really is final. Every detail copied from a catalogue into a system by hand is time spent, and a fresh opportunity for a mistake.
The trouble with a patchwork approach
Large retailers with millions of products solved this years ago with a product information management system, or PIM. A PIM holds everything about a product in one place: specifications, weights, materials, certifications, translations, photography and video. We have seen products carrying more than 80 separate data fields. Someone is usually responsible for keeping it all up to date, and at that scale it can be a full-time job.
For a promotional products distributor turning over somewhere between £2 million and £20 million, a full PIM is rarely realistic. It is not only the cost of the software but the people needed to manage it. So what tends to happen instead is a patchwork.
The ERP, whether that is PromoServe, Promotional Office or another industry system, becomes the authority on product information by default. Then its limits start to show. It may not handle the number of fields a product needs, foreign language translations, or more than a handful of images. So a subset of the product data goes into the ERP, gets uploaded to the website, and the team starts adding the missing detail directly on the website. From that point, the two are out of step.
That is when the support tickets begin. Someone updates a description on the website, and the next sync from the ERP overwrites it. Someone adds images in the ERP, only to find the website will not show more than four. The website quietly becomes a stand-in PIM, and when it is time to build a quote, some of the pricing is on the website, some is in the ERP, and someone has to piece it together by hand.
How ProductSync works
ProductSync is the part of GetConnect Hub that moves product information between the systems a business already uses. In plain terms, it connects to wherever your product data lives, works out which piece of information belongs where, and delivers it to the place it needs to be, in the same way every time.
Each connection is set up around the systems involved. If a distributor runs PromoServe alongside a Magento website, for example, we map the fields between the two, deciding which data comes from where and where it lands. Something as unglamorous as a commodity code is a good illustration. It is an international standard used to classify products for tax and shipping, and if it is wrong on a cross-border shipment, customs can reject it. It needs to be right in every system it touches.
Bringing several sources together
ProductSync becomes more valuable when product information comes from more than one place. It can take the basic record from one system and enrich it with data from others. For one outdoor and workwear brand, we take core details, pricing and stock from the ERP, high-resolution photography from their digital asset management (DAM) system, full technical specifications from their PIM, and technical sketches from a folder on a server used by their product design team. All of that is merged into one complete product record before it goes anywhere.
Making sure the right data lands on the right product
Merging data from several sources raises a fair question: how do you know it all belongs to the same product? Normally the answer is the SKU, or stock keeping unit, which should identify one product and one product only. In practice, it is not always that tidy.
Some businesses introduce new versions of a product without creating an entirely new SKU. A branded umbrella might receive an updated logo, and the SKU gains a new suffix, so 003A becomes 003B. From the warehouse’s point of view it is the same item, and the old stock carries on shipping until it runs out. Somewhere in the system, though, it needs to be clear that this is a new version with a new image, so the customer knows exactly what they will receive. Handling exceptions like this is part of how each ProductSync connection is set up.
Checking for changes at the right frequency
ProductSync can respond when a system sends a notification about a new or updated product, and it can also go and look for itself. Some systems simply hold a database of products and never announce changes, so the Hub can be set to check at a fixed time, say 8am each morning, pick up anything that has been updated and send it where it needs to go. Different information also changes at different speeds. Product images might change once a quarter, while stock levels can change every hour, so each can be checked on the schedule that suits it.
More than a route to your website
The most common use of ProductSync today is getting accurate product information onto a website, but it is not limited to that. It can move product data between any two systems, and that matters more as the number of places a business sells through grows.
Promotional products suppliers and distributors increasingly publish to third-party marketplaces and industry product databases, such as Sourcing City in the UK or ASI in the US. Each has its own requirements, and accuracy matters even more when the listing sits on a platform you do not control. Errors are harder to spot there, and slower to put right.
B2B trade adds another layer. The same product can carry different information for different customers: account-specific pricing, a branded version for one client, different pallet quantities or box counts for shipping into the EU. Being able to filter and choose which information goes where is part of what ProductSync does.
This is also where the next stage of development begins. We are building the Hub to act less like a pipe between two systems and more like a publisher, pulling product information in once from a single source and publishing it out to several websites, portals and marketplaces.
Who ProductSync is for
Product data touches almost every team in a business, which is why conversations about ProductSync rarely involve just one department.
IT
For IT teams, the value is peace of mind. ProductSync gives visibility over what is moving between systems and when, supported at a fixed, known cost, so the team is not pulled into investigating sync problems alongside everything else on their list. That holds for larger businesses with their own PIM and development resource too. Even well-established PIM systems do not always connect to a new website platform or marketplace, and turning an open-ended internal project into a defined piece of work gives everyone more certainty.
Marketing
Marketing teams want product information that is accurate and consistent with the brand. Sometimes consistency is as simple as imagery. If supplier images arrive with mixed backgrounds, some white, some grey, some purple, the website looks disjointed. For one high street retailer, we set up automatic image processing so every product image arrived with a consistent background.
Supplier data is a related challenge. Suppliers have historically had little incentive to provide rich product information, because distributors already understand the products and tend to buy by SKU. We are exploring how AI can help here, generating product descriptions that follow a business’s own tone of voice and rules, such as a set word count, so listings read consistently whatever the quality of the original supplier data.
Sales
For sales teams, it comes back to quoting. When the website holds the richest and most reliable product information, it can become the quoting tool itself. A quoting feature on the website lets an account manager gather products, apply the client’s agreed pricing and send the quote by email. The client can then order directly from a basket already set up with their products at their price. The order arrives as a normal order, with no re-keying for the sales team, and the warehouse knows exactly what to pick. Reporting on which products are selling, and which are not, is also on the ProductSync roadmap, giving teams the information to plan campaigns around real demand.
Finance
Finance is often the forgotten department in supply chain automation, even though it is where the numbers finally have to add up. If product information carries the correct buy prices, margins can be calculated accurately. If it carries the right ledger codes and shipping information, invoices are correct first time, and the finance team is not left manually editing them or matching invoices to purchase orders line by line. Good product data at the start of the process is what makes the end of it work.
Where ProductSync is heading
Promotional products distributors are being asked for richer product information than ever. Digital product passports, a forthcoming European requirement, will expect more detailed information to travel with products, and many of the ERP systems built for this industry were never designed to hold that level of detail.
Today, product information passes through the Hub on its way from one system to another. The plan is to let it stop in the middle. Rather than a pipeline between each pair of systems, the ERP, the website and each marketplace would each connect once to the Hub, and the Hub would hold the product information itself, where it can be inspected, edited and approved. In effect, a product information management capability scaled and priced for promotional products distributors, rather than for retailers with millions of lines.
The benefit of that single source is resilience. Change website provider, add a new marketplace or move to a different ERP, and the product information stays exactly where it is, ready to connect to whatever comes next.
It comes down to trust
If we had to sum up ProductSync in one word, it would be trust. When people cannot rely on the information in front of them, they either override it with what they think it should be, or they stop and check it. Either way, they end up doing the work the software was supposed to take off their hands.
Imagine putting a quote together knowing the sell price is right, the buy price is right and the images show the correct product, because the data has been checked, validated and approved by the people responsible for it. That confidence is what ProductSync is designed to give.
Frequently asked questions
Does ProductSync only work with websites?
No. Uploading to a website is the most common use, but ProductSync can move product information between any two systems, including ERPs, warehouse systems, customer portals and third-party marketplaces.
Do we need to replace our ERP or website to use it?
No. ProductSync works with the systems you already have. Each connection is set up around those systems and the fields that matter to your business.
What happens if our SKUs are not completely consistent?
It is more common than you might think. Product versions, suffixes and regional variations are identified and handled when the connection is set up, so the right information lands against the right product.
We already have a PIM. Is ProductSync still relevant?
Often, yes. A PIM may not connect to a new website platform or marketplace, and ProductSync can provide that connection at a fixed, known cost rather than as an open-ended internal project.
Which systems can ProductSync connect to?
Connections are built around the systems each business uses, from industry ERPs and e-commerce platforms to PIM and DAM systems. If you are unsure whether yours is covered, we are happy to talk it through.
How GetConnect helps
Product information that lives in several places will always take more effort to trust than information that lives in one. ProductSync connects the systems you already use, brings product data together from wherever it sits, and delivers it accurately to your website, your portals and the marketplaces you sell through. If your team spends more time checking product information than using it, we would be glad to talk it through.
