Retailers can launch 100s to 1000s of new products each year. This means new images, catalogues, marketing campaigns – the lot. For retailers, keeping track of all this content can prove to be a challenging and time-consuming task.  

In an extremely competitive market, retailers risk falling behind without the help of a specialised platform to store, manage and share content.  

This is where digital asset management (or DAM) comes in.

What Is Digital Asset Management?

Digital asset management is a system that helps store, organise and manage digital content such as images, videos, marketing collateral, design files and more. For businesses, a DAM system means digital files of all formats are securely stored and organised in one convenient location.  

So, now you know what DAM is, you might be wondering why is it so important in the retail industry? Find out below. 

Why Is A DAM Solution Essential For Retailers?

DAM helps retailers better manage and distribute their brand material across all customer touchpoints, streamlining workflows and reducing time to market. How? Let’s take a look. 

Caters For An Ever Growing Product Library

For retailers, high quality visuals are essential to advertise and sell products. However, effectively storing these assets can present a costly challenge.  

With a library of assets that grows with every new product and collection, the need for scalable storage is imperative for retailers. That’s why the best DAM solutions offer scalable storage options that grow as you do.  

With Collaboro’s DAM platform, you’ll never have to worry about running out of space. Our multi-tiered approach to storage not only boasts an online cloud platform but an additional offline archive as well. The offline archive is a highly secure, media focused library, capable of hosting assets of all sizes and formats.  

What does this mean for retailers? It means that retailers have the ability to manage product and asset lifecycles easily and at the lowest possible cost of long term ownership. 

Helps Better Manage Brand Material

Having endless storage is one thing. But being able to find an asset quickly in this storage facility – well that’s another. Asset libraries can become large and complex as your product lines grow, with locating up to date and on brand content in this plethora of files becoming a time consuming task.  

With intuitive metadata and tagging, you can say goodbye to hours spent searching for digital assets. Collaboro’s AI driven custom search functionality means teams can locate the asset they’re after using keywords, SKUs and other unique identifiers. This saves retailers time by allowing users to quickly identify and source assets with ease. Afterall, the real value in a DAM solution comes from the ability to find your content and be agile with it, not just store it.  

Quick tip: “When assets are easily found and repurposed, their lifecycle extends considerably.”

Pushes Products To Market Faster

In today’s digital age, consumers are more demanding than ever. That’s why getting products to market quickly and efficiently is essential for retailers. To do so, teams need access to view, edit and share assets instantly from any device, anywhere. 

Cloud based DAM gives teams the freedom to collaborate from any device across multiple channels, teams and departments. How? Cloud based systems combine metadata, searchability, transcoding and download functionality within a single online platform. This enables offices, partners and stores worldwide with self-serve access to content in a way on-premises systems cannot. 

The cohesive sharing platform means users can instantly edit, repurpose and download assets when they need it. This not only empowers remote working and an agile global footprint, but streamlines workflows, allowing you to get products to market faster with less back and forth. 

Quick Tip: “There is no need for on-site installation or integration with any existing infrastructure for cloud-hosted environments.”

Maintain Consistency Across Stores And Suppliers

Retailers are often dealing with multiple teams, stores and third party suppliers. However, maintaining up to date and on-brand content throughout these channels can prove to be a headache.  

An effective DAM solution makes it easy for retailers to maintain brand consistency, no matter how many stores or suppliers you’re juggling. A DAM solution provides users with a single source of truth for content ready files. This means brand messaging, image sizes, logos, licensing and more are always consistent. And with additional features like expiration dates and passwords, retailers can ensure only the right assets are accessible across all channels and stores.  

Quick tip: “Collaboro can directly integrate your DAM solution into your ecommerce platform. This enables ecommerce managers to be agile and consistent with visual assets in today’s core retail environment – the web.”

Protects Your Intellectual Property

Retailers can spend months, sometimes years working on a product or collection. If these assets were to get into the wrong hands or leak before launch date, it could mean all this hard work is put to waste. That’s why a secure system is essential for retailers to protect their intellectual property.   

A DAM system with top level security features gives retailers a highly secure environment to view, edit and share valuable digital assets. Collaboro partners with cloud hosting network Microsoft Azure to ensure top-level security and data compliance measures for our users. On top of a secure hosting network, additional features such as permission level access ensure assets are only accessible by authorised parties. This prevents sensitive or confidential information from getting into the wrong hands. 

Quick Tip: “Collaboro is an Australian based DAM provider. This means if something goes wrong, you always have access to fast, local and reliable support.”

How To Make A Case For DAM In Retail

Now you know the benefits a DAM solution can bring to the retail industry, you might be wondering how to get the ball rolling in your company. To make the process easy, we’ve outlined the key steps on how to build a compelling case for a DAM. These include: 

1. Build A Team 

To begin, you’ll first need to assign a team and a leader to champion the DAM project. This team will be responsible for convincing and educating other employees on the benefits a DAM solution can offer your company. Try to create a team with members from different departments to ensure the scope of the project is understood and well received throughout your organisation.  

2. Do Your Research 

To find a compatible DAM vendor, you’ll first need to be able to identify key challenges and areas of opportunity for your business. To do this, you’ll need to observe workflows, interview employees on how they use digital assets and investigate shared drives.  

3. Find The Right DAM Solution  

Your research will help you understand what key features to look for in a DAM solution and how it can help solve common challenges. For retailers, the right DAM solution should grow as you do, reduce bottlenecks and eliminate the occurrence of lost or duplicated assets.  

Find out what mistakes to avoid when choosing a DAM solution. 

4. Executive Buy In  

The next, and most important step, is to secure the executive buy-in. To do this, you’ll need to show how a DAM solution can benefit your business long term. Think of the executives goals, values and vision and contemplate how you can make your case for DAM as impactful as possible.  

Find out more on how to secure the executive buy-in.  

5. Book A Demo  

Once you’ve got the go ahead from your executive, you’ll want to start meeting with DAM vendors and book a demo to try out what their software has to offer. The provider will walk you through their DAM solution and how it can help solve your businesses challenges.  

Why Choose Collaboro for your DAM System?

Collaboro is an Australian Cloud-based DAM solution that empowers retailers to do more. Our DAM platform will centralise all your digital assets, making it easier for your teams to organise, find and share all your digital media files, in one place, from anywhere.  

But a successful DAM solution requires more. This is where Collaboro brings local Australian expertise and support services to provide a customised end-to-end solution.