How to transform your Brand Management Platform (DAM) into a Powerful Internal E-Commerce Store

Digital asset management (DAM) systems, or sometimes called brand management platforms, have revolutionized how global companies manage and distribute their digital assets. They’re an indispensable tool for increasing brand control, streamlining workflows, and enhancing overall efficiency. DAMs are undoubtedly doing a fantastic job at keeping your digital files organized and accessible.

However, many organizations face challenges in transforming these digital files into physical products like branded sales materials and promotional items. This gap between digital and physical assets often leads to inefficiencies, inconsistencies, and increased costs. 

What if you could superpower your DAM to do more? What if your global teams could turn those digital files into physical products – without leaving your DAM? 

In this article, we’ll explore how the Ciloo Checkout Module transforms your DAM into a powerful internal e-commerce platform, where your beautifully stored brand assets are turned into impactful promotional products.

The last mile between digital assets and physical products

Global companies face significant hurdles in transforming digital files into physical branded products. Traditional methods often involve complex, fragmented processes that lead to inefficiencies, brand inconsistencies, long shipping distances, excess volumes, and high costs.

Although digital marketing captures the majority of marketing spend, corporate gifting and other branded physical products are still used extensively. The market for promotional products has passed 80 billion dollars (source: beroen.inc), twice the size of the global music industry (offline and online). However, many organizations are still managing these branded products in portals that are separate from the DAM platform, meaning there’s a gap when it comes to facilitating actual production and distribution of these branded materials. This creates a disconnect and as a result, many global companies end up with multiple portals or e-commerce solutions. 

In the March-April 2024 edition of the Harvard Business Review, Darius Adamczyk, chairman and former CEO of Honeywell, notes that when they started their digitization process in 2016, they had “more than 150 enterprise resource planning systems (ERPs), some 2,700 applications, 1,700 websites, and no overarching plan for collecting and using data.” While not all websites were linked to promotional products, many were.

Honeywell’s situation isn’t unique. Many global companies are managing extensive tech and marketing stacks for their promotional products when one, comprehensive solution can provide a more efficient and sustainable solution.

This fragmented approach results in time-consuming workflows, errors, and difficulties in maintaining brand consistency. Brand control across physical products is a pain point that always comes up in our conversations with global companies. How can global companies manage physical products like gifting products (promo/swag/merch), business cards, sales materials and other products in an efficient and quality-controlled manner? 

The Solution: Your DAM + Ciloo

Ciloo bridges the gap between digital assets and physical branded products by seamlessly integrating with your DAM, transforming it into a one-stop shop for sales material and branded merchandise. Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Define Your Product Offering

Define the range of physical products you aim to offer to colleagues. This could include essential items like business cards and stationery or promotional merchandise aligned with your company’s branding. Simultaneously, identify the specific digital files required for each product, ensuring their accessibility within your DAM for seamless integration.

Step 2: Product Specification and Customization

Collaborate with our Customer Success Managers to define product specifications, including branding, fabrics, paper types, dimensions and finishes. 

Step 3: Check out Integration and Workflow Setup

Seamlessly connect the Ciloo Checkout Module to your DAM to facilitate efficient asset transfer and order management. Define user roles and permissions within the system to ensure secure access and control.

Step 4: Payment and Fulfillment

Together with Ciloo, determine the most suitable payment methods for your company, such as credit cards or purchase orders. Establish clear billing and invoicing procedures (including cost centers) to streamline financial management. Collaborate with Ciloo to define approval flows and budgets.

Step 5: The Ciloo Checkout

The Ciloo Checkout Module seamlessly integrates with your DAM interface, providing a user-friendly experience for employees to order products. Once a user has selected their desired assets and customized the product, the Ciloo checkout module pops up directly within the DAM environment. This streamlined process eliminates the need to switch between platforms, improving efficiency. To maintain brand consistency, the checkout module can be customized with your company’s logo and color scheme, ensuring a seamless brand experience throughout the ordering process.

Is a combined DAM + e-commerce solution right for you?

The Ciloo Checkout module is ideal for global or national organizations with multiple locations facing challenges in managing print and promotional materials. If you fall into either group below, the DAM + Ciloo integration can be a game-changer for your organization:

Group 1: Your centralized marketing team strives for brand consistency and cost control. You produce and store everything in one location and ship products across the globe. Very often, you have to deal with excess stock, warehousing costs, shipping delays, customs fees, and sustainability issues.  

Group 2: Marketing teams or franchises in different locations manage their own sales materials and branded products. Your teams often face supplier management issues, brand inconsistencies and excess costs and waste from duplicated efforts.

Together with your trusted DAM system, the Ciloo integration allows you to streamline ordering, track spending, ensure brand control and quality, and reduce your brand’s environmental impact. Let’s delve deeper into the benefits.

Benefits of a combined DAM + e-commerce solution

Simplified workflow: Manage assets and production within a single, convenient platform, eliminating the need for multiple systems and vendors. Your DAM remains the single source of truth for your assets. Your users can easily select assets, customize within set templates, and order the amount they need when they need it, directly from the DAM interface.

Faster turnarounds: Local production in 30 countries (and counting) leads to quicker product delivery, allowing your teams to move faster with all marketing campaigns.

Enhanced brand consistency: Maintain brand control through asset management in the DAM and ensure consistent quality with our network of trusted vendors.

Increased efficiency: Streamlined workflows, automated ordering, and reduced manual processes lead to significant time and cost savings.

Reduced environmental impact: On-demand production and reduced shipping distances can minimize waste and carbon footprint. Existing clients reduced their shipping distances by up to 90% and their production volumes by 50%.

Accelerated time-to-market: Quickly turn designs into physical products, enabling faster implementation of marketing campaigns.

Lower costs: Optimize production based on demand, minimizing inventory expenses and waste. As all orders are produced locally, there are significant transportation savings too. 

Global reach: Empower global teams to customize and order the products they need, when they need them.

Futureproof Your Branded Products

The marketing landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements and changing consumer expectations. To stay ahead, it’s essential to consider emerging trends that will shape the future of your asset and physical product management.

AI-Powered Asset Management

Artificial intelligence is revolutionizing how businesses manage their digital assets. AI-powered tools in your DAM can automate tasks like image tagging, categorization, and search, saving time and improving efficiency. Additionally, AI can analyze asset performance data to identify trends and optimize asset usage.

Personalized Product Creation

Potential clients and consumers increasingly expect personalized experiences. On demand production facilitates customized product options based on individual preferences, demographics, or behavior. This level of personalization can close a sale, and drive satisfaction and loyalty.

Sustainability and Eco-Friendly Practices

Consumers are becoming increasingly conscious of environmental impact and demanding more supply chain transparency. Integrating sustainable solutions into your day-to-day showcases your company’s commitment to eco-friendly practices and enhances your brand reputation. This is particularly important in light of the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), which will require companies to disclose detailed information about their environmental and social impact. By demonstrating product transparency and aligning with CSRD reporting requirements, you can build trust with consumers and gain a competitive advantage.

By staying informed about these trends and exploring opportunities to incorporate them into your DAM and internal e-commerce strategy, you can position your business for long-term success.

Key Takeaway

By transforming your DAM into an e-commerce platform, you unlock a world of possibilities for your organization. The integration of digital asset management and on-demand production offers a powerful solution to the challenges of managing physical branded products while maintaining brand consistency.

With Ciloo, you can streamline workflows, reduce costs, accelerate marketing campaign execution, and minimize your environmental impact. By empowering your teams with a centralized platform for asset management and product ordering, you’ll drive efficiency, enhance brand control, and ultimately achieve greater success.

Ready to revolutionize your operations? Contact Ciloo today to learn how we can help you transform your DAM into a robust, internal e-commerce store.