5 signs that you need a more advanced tool for managing your product feeds

Optimizing product feeds and adapting them to different ecommerce channels is an absolute necessity for online retailers today. But it can also be a headache.

An ever-increasing number of retailers are employing feed management software to manage and edit their product data. But, there isn’t necessarily a one size fits all solution. So, while a basic solution may fit the needs of some retailers, larger retailers with highly complex product data sets are often in need of a more advanced tool, which could be the key to gaining a competitive edge in an often overpopulated market.
Here are five signs that you need a more powerful and complete solution to manage your ecommerce product catalog:

Your current solution is too complicated

Time is money and it’s possible you could be spending too much on your solution for creating and updating your product feeds. What’s more, there may be tasks you can’t do yourself. This means you may need to call on your technical team or a third party to get them done.
But to be the best in your market, precious time should really be spent improving performance, rather than on research, coordination or chasing up these basic fixes.
An advanced feed manager (like Productsup) allows you to streamline these processes and accelerate your business. Everything is managed by simple drag and drop processes from a single platform, along with suggestions for automatic optimization that you can set up with a single click.

The support is not what you were expecting

Fed up with robotic responses and a long wait to receive answers to your questions? However intuitive your software is, if you really want to make the most of all the functions it has to offer, it’s important that you can count on real human beings to deal with your questions. Support should be competent, quick, free of charge and, even better, with a personalized follow-up.

The size of your product feeds is a challenge

Whether you are an e-commerce merchant managing thousands of products on your site or an agency taking care of multiple e-commerce accounts, it’s easy to get lost in a maze of product data. While many tasks are feasible for a small catalogue, they can become completely unmanageable as the quantity of data increases.
Not all product feed management tools are suitable for extensive, complex catalogues. If you manage a large number of products, your product feed management solution must enable you to:

• make changes to all data quickly
• preview modified data in real time
• update your static feeds with dynamic feeds – for example, to ensure accurate availability of products
• analyze all your feeds individually for each export channel
• have a clear overview of ongoing processes through an advanced dashboard
• conveniently manage feeds for different clients from a single location (for agencies)

Your costs go up with each additional channel

Most management tools allow you to sell your products on several merchant sites and marketing channels. However, sometimes you can end up paying extra for these channels on top of your monthly invoice. So, if you want to sell across as many channels as possible, a solution that provides access to all channels for a flat fee may prove to be more cost-effective at the end of the month.

You want to take things to the next level

Let’s say you have a high-quality product feed that connects well with your different partner sites. Obviously, it’s your job to make sure things continue to run smoothly. But, perhaps you have a nagging feeling that it’s time for your team to evolve and take things to the next level, to really exploit the full potential of your shopping campaigns.
What if you could not only fix errors in your feeds with just a few clicks but also enrich them with terms that enable you to improve your listings? Imagine if you could test different versions of your feeds, automate exports of your products according to their performance, and even create dynamic product images and videos for all your feeds.

Do these signs seem familiar?

Then you should know that there are more powerful feed management tools around that can provide significant added value for the growth of your business, all while being just as suitable for experts as for novice users.