Syntes, Washington D.C., DC (2026)

Name: Syntes
Address: Washington D.C., DC, US
Telephone: +12022219119

03/12/2023

The development of e-commerce is happening at such a pace that we could not have imagined a few years ago. Modern brands use various digital technologies and tools to increase the efficiency of e-commerce and reach a wide audience. Today, we have prepared a glossary of e-commerce terms that will help you speak the same language as e-commerce specialists and understand the current agenda.

D2C (direct-to-consumer) is a sales method where a brand or manufacturer sells products or services directly to the consumer without intermediaries. Usually, intermediaries between the manufacturer and the buyer are multi-brand retail or online stores or distributors. But the manufacturer or brand can contact the consumer directly – through online platforms (marketplaces), websites, or mobile apps. This sales method allows the brand to have more control over its e-commerce marketing and financial metrics, to achieve a better user experience for consumers, and to receive more immediate and detailed feedback.

Omnichannel commerce is an approach to commerce that involves the simultaneous and integrated use of multiple online and offline channels, various ways of interaction between the customer and the company. For example, this may be an online store or website, a mobile app, and a storefront on a marketplace in combination with physical sales points, a service center, and business accounts on social networks. Unlike simple multichannel, omnichannel is customer-oriented and assumes a seamless transition from one channel to another. No matter what channel a potential or existing customer turns to, communication will continue from the place where it stopped last time. In addition to greater customer satisfaction, this strategy allows for mapping interactions with each of them.

Customer Experience (CX) is the overall impression a customer gets during their interactions with a brand before, during, and after purchase. From marketing to sales, product selection to customer service, the customer experience is influenced by many factors, including the appearance of a store, product selection ease, the behavior of sales associates and chatbots, payment and delivery speed, product quality and usability, clear and simple instructions, and more. A good CX helps to not only improve marketing metrics in the moment (such as conversion rates and website revenue for an e-commerce store), but also to build and maintain customer loyalty and brand reputation, and ultimately increase market share.

The MDM (master data management) platform is a comprehensive software solution for managing the most important business data, such as information about customers, products, services, sales channels, business processes, partners, etc. It provides accuracy, completeness, and timeliness of information at any time and for any user. Without using such a tool, it is almost impossible to implement an omnichannel strategy in e-commerce. An example of an MDM platform is Syntes MDM, developed using innovative big data technologies. It stores all business data, synchronizes information from all sales channels, and integrates all external and internal sources of information creation and receipt.

A PIM system (product information management system) is software that specializes in managing all product content within an organization across all stages of the product lifecycle and all sales, marketing, and support channels. This tool provides uniformity and brand compliance for product information, reduces the company's operational costs, and improves the user experience.

DAM (Digital Asset Management) is a tool designed to manage, store, and widely distribute digital assets, including categories of materials such as photos, documents, music, videos, graphics, and other materials. It allows you to maintain brand standards and high efficiency. During marketing and advertising campaigns, multimedia and rich content are quickly and easily transferred between employees and external users while preserving access restrictions.

WEBSITES AND SEO

SEO (search engine optimization) – there are many different factors that can impact a website's ranking and its place in search engine results – such as Google or Yandex. Among these factors are the presence of keywords, the quality and relevance of content, URL structure, and the number of links to our site from other sites. By changing these and other elements of the site, you can improve its ranking and increase the amount of traffic it receives from search engines. This process is called SEO.

UI design is the design of the user interface. The user interface is the part of your website and application that visitors interact with directly: visual elements, buttons, forms, etc. The goal of UI design is an aesthetically pleasing, attractive appearance. However, the user also expects the site to be user-friendly. That's where UX design comes in – the design of the user experience. UX design is focused on guiding the user through the path intended by developers and marketers in the most user-friendly way possible and anticipating different ways of interacting with the application. This task is also solved with visual means, so it's difficult to separate UI and UX design. Most often it's referred to as UI/UX design.

CPC (cost per click) – it's a metric that shows how much an advertiser pays for each user's transition to an advertisement (announcement, banner, etc.). It's also a relatively common payment model for advertising campaigns. If CPC serves as a payment model, it depends on the popularity of the advertising platform and the theme of the advertisement (that is, how many competitors want to place their advertisement there). If the advertisement is paid according to a different principle (for example, per thousand impressions, CPM), then the cost per click becomes an indicator. It depends on how relevant the advertisement is to the audience, how noticeable and attractive the design is. In this case, marketers strive to reduce CPC, to make each user's click cost the company less.

CPA (cost per action) – this is one of the main metrics of the advertising campaign, showing how much the target user action costs. For example, filling out a form, ordering a product, installing an application, etc. It depends on the cost of advertising, the conversion of the advertisement and the website. CPA can also be used as a payment model in advertising networks, but significantly less often than CPC.

Lifetime value (LTV) of a customer is the profit that a company will receive from a customer for the entire time of interaction with them. It is determined based on data on how long the average customer remains a customer, on what amounts of purchases and profits can be expected. The company can influence this indicator by improving the user experience, reducing customer churn or reactivating former customers, increasing the average check or frequency of purchases through advertising campaigns, promotions, and loyalty programs. LTV provides an understanding of what CPA is still profitable for the company and what is no longer.

CURRENT TECHNOLOGIES

In this part of the glossary, we will touch on modern technologies that are currently defining the trends in e-commerce development.

AI (artificial Intelligence) is a type of computer program that can learn from experience and draw conclusions from data it receives. Predefined algorithms change and adapt during the learning process to simulate the unique flexible thinking of the human brain. Artificial intelligence can be used to support users, optimize sales, targeted marketing, improve lead generation, and more. Read a detailed article on the uses of AI in e-commerce here.

ML (machine learning) is an extension of artificial intelligence technology that uses mathematical data models to allow the program to learn from experience without direct instructions from its creators. Machine learning algorithms identify patterns in data, which allows them to make predictions about future results. This principle is used in dynamic pricing for airline ticket sales, news feeds on VKontakte, and offering additional products to marketplace customers.

Big data refers to large volumes of data generated on the internet by businesses, social networks, and users. The unique feature of big data is that it can be used for advanced analytics, forecasting, and identifying patterns and correlations that would otherwise remain hidden. For example, big data can help understand and predict customer behavior, optimize pricing and logistics, and more. Big data requires specific methods for storage, processing, and analysis, as well as the application of artificial intelligence technologies.

Headless commerce is an approach to e-commerce that involves separating data and internal processes from the user interface. Information about products, prices, inventory, orders, etc., is stored on the server and can be transmitted to various interfaces, such as a mobile app or an online store on a website. This approach enables the launch of new sales channels and the implementation of technological and marketing innovations without having to overhaul the entire system. The advantages of headless commerce were discussed in one of our articles.

API (application programming interface) is a standardized protocol for data transfer that enables the integration of different software programs. The use of APIs allows large developers to attract and integrate their software with existing ones on the market. Users can create their own applications based on data obtained through this protocol. For example, through APIs, sellers can retrieve data from marketplaces in a convenient format or upload new products.

SaaS (software as a service) is a cloud-based software model where users access tools and data through a developer-provided interface, rather than purchasing individual software versions. They pay for this access through a subscription model, without capital costs for licensing. Benefits of this model include reduced costs, accessibility from multiple devices and interfaces, centralized data storage, flexible and up-to-date functions, predictable and consistent costs, quick implementation, and the ability to integrate with business systems.

MARKETPLACES

In recent years, we have all witnessed the explosive growth of marketplaces, and now they occupy dominant positions in the consumer market. This part of the glossary is about terms from this area.

Marketplace – an online platform that connects buyers and sellers. Sellers have the opportunity to reach a multi-million audience, and buyers have a huge database of products, comfortable conditions for searching, ordering, and delivery. Among marketplaces, there are platforms with the widest range of goods, such as Ozon, Wildberries, and Amazon, as well as specialized B2B platforms (Alibaba), industry-specific solutions (Etsy for handmade goods, iHerb for dietary supplements), etc.

Fulfillment – the ex*****on of an order. This includes picking, packing, storage, delivery, and order tracking. There are two main formats of fulfillment: FBS and FBO.

FBS (fulfillment by seller) – delivery from the seller's warehouse. The seller stores the goods in their own warehouse and, when a new order is received, picks, packs, and labels it before delivering it to the marketplace warehouse for further shipment to the buyer. Amazon calls this model FBM (fulfillment by merchant). There is also a format called Real FBS, where the marketplace is not involved in the delivery process at all and the seller delivers the goods directly to the customer.

FBO (fulfillment by operator) – delivery from the marketplace warehouse. The seller sends the goods in batches to the marketplace warehouse before they are put up for sale. Picking, packing, and shipping of orders are done on the marketplace side. Trading platforms have different names for this model, which can be confusing – for example, FBA (fulfillment by Amazon), FBY (fulfillment by Yandex), etc.

PUP (pick-up point) – a marketplace order pickup point. Here, buyers can pick up or return goods, and many PUPs also allow for fitting before purchase. Some PUPs can be automated, in the form of postamats. Pickup points are opened either by the marketplace itself or by small franchisees, with certain requirements for their operation. Large marketplaces open pickup points based on partnership networks (for example, Amazon opens its points in large department store chains).

SKU (stock keeping unit) – a product identification code that enables it to be recognized using scanners and software tools. However, this term is often used in conversation to refer to a separate nomenclature position (with its own code) in the seller or marketplace assortment. Products of different colors, sizes, and even storage periods are different SKUs.

Brand storefront – a personalized brand page on a marketplace. Such storefronts may contain not only information about products, ratings, and reviews but also a narrative about the brand's concept and history, rich content such as widgets, banners, slides, and more.

02/07/2023

Defender – a new Syntes partner

We want to introduce you to another of our partners, the international computer equipment and lifestyle product brand, Defender.

The Defender brand produces around 1000 items in more than 40 product categories – gamepads, gaming, office computer accessories, audio systems, network filters, and much more. The company's factories are located in Western Europe and East Asia, and the products are sold in 20 countries of the European Union and the CIS. Hundreds of service centers work for tens of millions of customers.

Alexander Samosudov, Director of Sales Development in the EU Countries at Defender: "Defender guarantees a high level of quality and safety for the broadest possible range of consumers: those who appreciate innovation and classics, gamers and office workers, children and their parents, homeowners, athletes, travelers, and motorists... For everyone!"

The company is successfully developing and is interested in expanding its sales markets in Western Europe. In this region, Amazon is very popular among buyers and provides broad opportunities for brands, but it requires specific skills and competencies to organize successful trade.

European buyers appreciate the functionality, wide range, and accessibility of Defender products. At the same time, the brand focuses on constantly improving and developing its products, wisely handing over retail trade to specialists.

Syntes is an independent D2C operator with vast experience in e-commerce in general and on the German Amazon. Defender chose our team for the start of its European D2C direction.

Vitaly Genov, Development Director at Syntes: "Together with the Defender team, we studied competitors, selected the product range, and determined prices. Sales began just three months after the start of work on the project. We hope German buyers will appreciate the accessibility and wide range of brand products. The most interesting is yet to come."

The Syntes team will fully take on the promotion and realization of Defender products on the German Amazon, interaction with buyers, management of promotions, and development of this direction as a whole. In the future, Defender will also be available to Amazon customers from other European countries.

Sales have already started. Gamer products such as the Defender Warfame GM-880L mouse with RGB backlight and the luxurious Defender Pilot gaming chair with ergonomic design are popular with customers. Wireless speakers such as the portable Defender Q1 speaker with many functions have also been appreciated by customers.

We believe in the success of Defender not only in Germany but also in other countries of Europe!

01/24/2023

Navigating the Complexities of Omnichannel Management

Business executives must stay ahead of the curve in this ever-changing digital landscape to ensure their success. Brands that don’t leverage the power of omnichannel commerce are missing out on up to 30% in potential sales. To keep their customers happy and gain a competitive edge, sellers need an effective strategy for integrating e-commerce into all channels – from websites and apps through physical stores - allowing buyers total control over when, where, and how they shop.

Unlike multichannel, the previous stage in the development of D2C trade, omnichannel implies the integration of scattered communication channels into a single system. This integration allows the brand and the buyer to continuously interact through various channels – online and offline stores, websites, mobile apps, business accounts in messengers and social networks, customer support departments, and company services.
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Managing omnichannel trade is quite difficult. Let’s look at the difficulties this business approach hides and how they can be solved.

* The growing volume of data

Every year, internet user activity grows. Media content improves, information about products becomes more detailed, and connections between objects multiply. As a result, e-commerce generates an increasingly large amount of data daily.

Firstly, this process constantly increases the requirements for storing information. It needs to be physically placed somewhere, and its confidentiality and integrity must be monitored.

Secondly, information not used at the right time and in the right place is dead weight. We must know where specific information and relationships are stored at any given moment, promptly change them, and transfer them to business users who need them now. For this purpose, MDM systems are used in e-commerce.

Quality data collection, analysis, and management are vital for the long-term success of e-commerce, and brands must follow technological progress to keep up.

* Synchronization of channels

In an omnichannel system, each channel performs its function at a specific moment, following the omnichannel thinking of the consumer. That is why all sales and communication channels must be synchronized throughout the customer’s journey: during product familiarization, order placement, customer support, delivery, and further feedback. Customers are annoyed by the need to duplicate their requests in several communication channels. Omnichannel trade prevents this by creating seamless communication and shaping a unique user experience.

Matching, or correctly matching customer profiles in different online and offline channels, is of primary importance. Correct matching helps to avoid situations such as a customer picking up an order in a store but receiving trigger marketing emails for a month or a service center being unable to find an online store order in its database that the customer has a problem with.

It is not easy to implement the synchronization described. A company may not always be able to directly connect messengers, social networks, its online store, and internal communication systems. The business’s IT infrastructure becomes cluttered with its own third-party integrations, auxiliary solutions, and applications. Eventually, the brand concludes that managing omnichannel trade requires using a single information center where all information is collected and then distributed where it is needed.

* Logistics and inventory visibility

As customer requirements increase each year, 35% of users for a product need to be available in an online store and ready for immediate shipping. Constant product availability in warehouses requires well-established logistics chains, knowledge of the turnover of certain SKUs, timely planning, and the creation of reserve stocks. This is achieved through logistics planning systems and SCM (supply chain management).

When using various sales channels, it is vital to ensure timely updates of inventory levels in each of them. Few things can compare to the disappointment of a customer who is already waiting for their ordered product but instead receives apologies.

Returns also require attention. On the one hand, it is necessary to leave a good impression of the brand and not lose the customer or even a loyalist. On the other hand, it is essential to prevent the illegal use of goods or even attempts at fraud.

Ensuring all the processes listed requires the coordinated efforts of many people, departments, external partners, and complex software. At the same time, omnichannel commerce leaves no other option but to integrate all data received in one place in real-time; otherwise, this whole system will start to fail.

* Omnichannel business analytics

Information is valuable not in and of itself but when used to analyze and make business decisions. Omnichannel commerce allows for the analysis of conversion and financial indicators and the assessment of the effectiveness of each sales channel.

But the problem is that your customers think and act non-linearly. They can interact with the brand everywhere – for example, they may encounter advertising several times on social media, research information on the company’s website, and then make a purchase through a marketplace. That is why we are discussing the future with an omnichannel strategy.

The data needs to be combined and used together. This will create an accurate map of the customer’s actions and develop a content strategy based on it, use artificial intelligence technologies to form personalized offers, and maintain continuous communication with the customer. Omnichannel analytics allows for identifying new relationships and patterns in your D2C business and turning them to your advantage.
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Therefore, the key to managing omnichannel e-commerce is integrated, accurate, and timely information. It is to obtain, store, and use such information that international brands and manufacturers use MDM (Master Data Management) platforms.

Syntes MDM is part of this class of platforms, developed using innovative big data technologies. It stores all data of your business, synchronizes information from all sales channels, and combines all external and internal sources of creating and receiving information.

The Syntes MDM platform is a single data center that will make your business genuinely omnichannel and enrich it with all the advantages of modern big data technologies. Please DM us and get the opportunity to learn about all the benefits of our MDM platform.

11/11/2022

Should I choose a stand-alone PIM or a PIM application as part of MDM?

Managing information about goods is essential to any manufacturing, trading, or e-commerce business. At the initial level, companies solve it by creating product descriptions in Word or Excel tables or editing product descriptions in the CMS of an online store. But inevitably, there comes a time when managing product information cannot do without implementing a specialized solution PIM (Product Information Management).

PIM-system is a single center of information about the company's products at all stages of its life cycle for different sales, marketing, and support channels. The basic requirements for such a product content management system are as follows.

1. Convenience of working with information. Different employees work with the data. Their list is not limited to content managers. Employees and managers of marketing, sales, product departments, and external users (for example, your distributors) need access to product information. According to their roles and permissions, they can receive, transmit, and update information. The more organized, convenient, and straightforward these processes are, the less time will be spent. Automatic loading of supplier and partner data further speeds up the procedure.

2. Control of integrity, sufficiency, and consistency of data. At this stage, most of the errors caused by the human factor should be prevented. It can be organized programmatically, automatically, and with the help of a manager or supervisor. The more complete your PIM system is, the more successfully the data is checked at the input stage, so there are fewer errors. Information transmitted from PIM to marketplaces and online stores is visible to the consumers, and mistakes in the data can significantly impact the brand.

3. Safe and secure data storage. Companies take care to prevent unauthorized access and data safety in case of network errors or physical damage to disks and servers. It is also necessary to avoid damage and corruption of data due to accidental or malicious actions of employees. For this purpose, a change log is kept. Product information is one of the most open and secret types of data. It is transmitted to sales channels, where everyone sees it, but data on new and future products must be kept secret before the sales launch.

4. Import, export, and integration of data. This factor is becoming increasingly important with the development of omnichannel. Product content must be uploaded not only to the website of the branded online store but also to various marketplaces (often in different countries) and social networks. It would be good to give data to layout designers of branded catalogs and offline points of sale (not all PIM systems have such opportunities).

In addition, it is necessary to integrate the PIM solution with various processes and systems of the company: ERP, CRM, SCM, accounting programs, business intelligence systems, and business decision-making.

Various options for using information dictate the requirements for data formats of uploaded and downloaded data. The minimum requirement that allows a brand to use a PIM solution without any problems is the availability of uploading via API and in xls, csv and xml formats.

5. The product information structure should quickly adapt to different categories of goods and online and offline marketing and sales channels (website, store, mobile application, marketplaces, distributors, retail stores). Product management becomes more complicated if the brand assortment is extensive, contains many items, or changes frequently. The use of several product lines or the release of goods under several brands, complex products with complex descriptions, and the presence of different colors, sizes, and varieties of one product also increase the requirements for PIM.

When multimedia content is used (for example, in the fashion industry), creating a digital asset library (DAL) is necessary to improve the entire system's performance.

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PIM systems on the market exist both in the form of separate independent programs and in the form of applications as part of MDM (Master Data Management) platforms. The MDM platform is a comprehensive software for managing the most critical data for the business: customers, products, services, sales channels, business processes, partners, etc. It ensures information accuracy, completeness, and relevance at any time and for any user. As a rule, a PIM application is also part of such platforms.

Individual PIM systems are widely used in e-commerce, especially if the brand has many D2C channels. They allow you to market new products and product lines faster and launch new sales channels. We talked more about such systems in the blog at our website syntes.io. However, they have a significant drawback. Initially, stand-alone solutions do not typically interact with the company's global business processes. Let's see what can relate to such business processes.

1. Price management. Price is an essential part of product information that has the maximum impact on sales and conversions. In PIM, not only is there no mechanism for managing prices, but often also information about them. And without such data, it is impossible to draw reasonable conclusions about the factors affecting the brand's revenue.

2. Customer Relationship Management. The client is at the center of the product and marketing strategy. Product content in stand-alone PIM is not related to customer information, orders, returns, service center calls, and reviews. We can say that in this form, it is somewhat detached from reality.

3. Construction of cause-and-effect relationships. In modern e-commerce, it is not only the data itself valuable but also the relationships between them. Without building them, it is impossible to analyze and understand how the product strategy affects the financial results – for example, how a new product is sold or how a change in product content affects the conversion rate and the percentage of returns. Such analysis is far beyond the stand-alone capabilities of PIM. But it is necessary to notice and fix problems in one or more sales channels in time.

To use the listed data in product marketing, the IT department of the brand must independently configure heterogeneous integrations. The lack of automation leaves room for mistakes caused by the human factor, and different data formats and structures also cause technical errors.

In addition, existing package solutions are often adapted to one or more of the most popular marketplaces and impose strict requirements on the imported and exported data format. Integrating existing accounting systems, online sales channels, and partner data makes it challenging. There are also very flexible solutions, but they require extended work for the IT department to connect and integrate, which can be expensive. A PIM solution based on an MDM platform solves all these issues.

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PIM solutions based on MDM platforms immediately integrate product content into the overall e-commerce management system. MDM platforms with PIM systems make it possible to manage information about products and orders, and balances in different warehouses, improve and partially automate customer interaction, and make marketing activities transparent. The connection of new sources or consumers of data occurs without the long-term involvement of a team of programmers.

When data changes by one department of the organization according to pre-allowed scenarios, these changes are reflected in all other areas. For example, you can associate a vendor price change with price changes on marketplaces, or you can adjust the intensity of advertising campaigns that receive data from a product catalog based on the availability of products in warehouses.

Thus, the MDM platform acts as a single data center for the entire e-commerce infrastructure of the brand. It is much larger than a PIM system. Its implementation is more complex and requires more details. Deploying and integrating stand-alone PIM requires less time, effort, and resources.

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Many companies choose stand-alone PIM as an easier and faster option to save time and resources for setting up and integrating software. However, there is a trap in this choice. Business is growing, the number of sales channels is increasing, and so is the complexity of managing e-commerce. After a short time, we must return to the issue of implementing an MDM platform. Only now, it needs to be integrated with the existing PIM system, which you spent significant effort on.

Using a PIM application as part of an MDM platform is the optimal strategic approach to solving the problem of integrating product marketing into the overall business management system. The modular architecture of the solution allows you to reduce the cost of implementation when only those components of the MDM system that are currently needed are connected.

Such a structure exists in the Syntes MDM platform. The Syntes app store only allows you to use selected apps. If a brand is just starting to digitally transform its sales, you can use the Products (PIM) app and connectors to link to your chosen marketplaces, then connect the Orders, Prices, Inventories, and more apps.

You can get acquainted with the capabilities of the Syntes MDM platform and get advice on implementation by signing up for a consultation in DM.

Address

Washington D.C., DC

Telephone

+12022219119

Website

https://syntes.io/

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