The Sitation Blog
Welcome to the Sitation Blog, where we share insights on our work, the e-commerce industry, and our platform partners. Enjoy!
Recent Sitation Blogs
Sitation Simplified: Explaining Taxonomy and PIM to Elementary School Students
When presented with the opportunity to explain what Sitation does to a group of school children, Christi Helm and Brian Kelly accepted the challenge. With easily digestible examples and exercises, students as young as six years old were eagerly engaged!
Akeneo: Installing Locally for Development or Testing
When working with Akeneo, having a local install for testing ideas and running code without the concern of affecting others is a valuable asset to getting it right. Our resident Akeneo experts share the ins and outs of installing.
Sitation Establishes New Department of Data Science & Analytics
Sitation has established a new department of Data Science & Analytics to serve the growing needs of manufacturers, retailers, and distributors for artificial intelligence technologies.
CASE STUDY: Sitation and Champion Petfoods Partner for Retail Channel Expansion
Bringing our PIM implementation and consulting expertise in to a collaboration between Champion Petfoods and Salsify results in faster, automated arrival on more digital shelves.
Reflections on Winning Recognition on the 2022 Inc 5000 List
Sitation has been listed for a second year in a row as a Top 500 honoree on the Inc 5000 List.
CASE STUDY: Sitation Led Akeneo Implementation Leads to Measurable Success for Revalize
Each Akeneo implementation is an exciting journey but, it is especially thrilling to witness the measurable impact. Check out this implementation case study in which Sitation helps Revalize realize the value of using the Akeneo platform.
Is this your use case too? We can help.
Managed Services- Partnership to Excel
Are you getting the most out of your PIM? Sitation Managed Services can be an efficiency game changer when it comes to outsourcing day to day management, long term optimization, or creating a road map to achieve your ecommerce growth goals.
Commerce Is Going Global — Is Your Product Information Ready?
Get ready to go global with PIM! Find out how localizing your product information via can ensure your commerce expansion efforts are successful.
Blog Archives
Support Ending for Akeneo 5.0: What’s Next?
Since launching its 1.0 Edition in September of 2014, Akeneo has carefully and consistently updated the Product Information Management (PIM) solutions software it provides. Currently offering everything from a free edition, up to an advanced Saas edition, Akeneo...
Customer Service: Letting Your PIM Solution Drive Experience
Letting Your PIM Solution Drive Experience By Christi Helm, Project Coordinator When most ecommerce professionals think of Product Information Management (PIM) Software, they think of how quality data can help improve the customer’s digital shopping experience. That,...
How to Build Trust in an E-Commerce Website – 5 Critical Investments
More so than ever, online customers have options. At the click of a button, a search on Google or other search engines can reveal countless places to shop for the same product. So how can e-commerce businesses create trust in their channel and stand out from the...
Omnichannel vs Multichannel – 3 Important Differences
There are a lot of terms that are casually tossed around in the ecommerce world without a clear understanding of what they mean. "Omnichannel" and "multichannel" are two such terms. Let's take a few minutes to understand these concepts and their implications within...
GS1 Frustrations: Identified and Resolved
After coming across a recent social media post expressing frustration with GS1, we began an internal conversation full of fact finding questions: What is the source of this frustration? Is that something we can control or adjust? Ultimately, How can Sitation help...
Outsourced PIM: 7 Great Reasons to Hire Sitation to Manage your Product Data
Managing PIM (product information management) is an incredibly important part of building and scaling a successful e-commerce practice. However, it can be expensive and time-consuming to hire, train, and manage a team of your own. Sitation offers managed services for...
Akeneo: A CIO’s Guide
How to Approach Akeneo’s Offering to Leverage the Best Practices of Composable Commerce for your Business Product data is critical to any modern commerce system. Many articles espouse the benefits of a mature product experience, but how you get there is the challenge...
The Pandemic Accelerated E-Commerce Adoption and Innovation. What Will Happen in the Post-Pandemic Era?
The pandemic has been a major catalyst for the growth of e-commerce. Online shopping was already on the rise before the pandemic hit, but the health crisis accelerated its adoption and resulted in more businesses moving online. According to a report from e-marketer,...
What is Akeneo?: A Valuable Look at the Basics
Introduction As you search the internet for answers about what product information management software can do for you, let the experts here at Sitation cut right to the chase with the answers you need. Today we will spend some time with certified Akeneo expert, Matt...
The Three Pillars of PIM – Strategy, Data Quality, and Technology
In pretty much every sales meeting I'm a part of, I share with our prospect that Sitation delivers expertise in what I have come to call the "Three Pillars of PIM" - strategy, data quality, and technology. While the notion may be self-explanatory to a degree, I...
How to Choose the Right Solution Partner for your PIM Implementation
Introduction When it comes to selecting a PIM/PXM implementation partner, there are many factors to consider. It's important to find a partner that has the experience and expertise to help your organization successfully deploy and manage a PIM/PXM solution. Here are...
What is Composable Commerce?: The Value of Flexibility
The Product Information Management (PIM) industry moves fast. There are ever improving solution platforms and ever evolving ways to approach data management. Phrases like “Composable Commerce '' and “Headless Commerce '' are appearing more frequently but what exactly...
What is GS1? What is GDSN? and Why Does it Matter?
We have been talking a lot about GS1, their standards, and GDSN lately. Those conversations have been full of fascinating information about sourcing, packaging, and best practices but they can get really complex. In an effort to clear it all up, let's get back to the...
Participate With Sitation for GS1 Standards Week
As a GS1 Gold Solution Partner, we will be celebrating GS1 Standards week from Tuesday, April 26 - Thursday, April 28th, 2022, and we would love for you to join us! What is GS1? GS1 facilitates cross industry collaboration to address supply chain and product data...
What is The Value of Product Models and Variants?
By Akeneo Certified, Solution Consultant Joseph Purayidathil What Are Product Models and Variants? Product Models and Variants have nothing to do with alternative universes. They're just one of the best ways to group your product data to improve data...
Enhanced Content: One Way to Drive A Deeper Customer Experience
Why is Enhanced Content Valuable? As digital shelf shoppers increasingly demand a personalized and interactive experience, staying competitive means finding ways to provide a satisfying customer experience. What does that look like for ecommerce retailers? According...
Taxonomy: An Intriguing Look at What We Can Learning From the Library
As a savvy businessperson, perhaps you stop by the public library one day to check out a book on investments that a friend recommended. The librarian looks up the book, writes down a number on a slip of paper, and points you in the right direction. As you browse the...
Sitation Wins Experience Award at the Akeneo Unlock 2022 PXM Champions Awards
Apex, NC– March 29, 2022 – Sitation, a leading systems integrator and strategy partner for the product information management (PIM) industry, announced today that it has won the Experience Award at the Akeneo Unlock 2022 PXM Champions Awards. The first of its kind in...
GS1 is not them, GS1 is us.
In The Future of PIM Beyond 2021, Salsify Co-Founder, Rob Gonzales suggests that the “...goal of a PIM is to help you get your products to market as quickly and optimally as possible and to assist you in keeping your products competitive over time in the face of...
Akeneo Unlock 2022: Highlights
I attended my first Akeneo Unlock Conference in February of 2020 as a brand new employee at Sitation. It was a great experience, as any trip to Paris should be. Akeneo 4.0 was released, a new development track demoed the new upgrade process live, and I met a ton of...
Reboot. Embrace. Grow. Sitation is Excited to Attend Akeneo Unlock Conference
Reboot. Embrace. Grow. This year’s Unlock theme speaks for itself! Sitation is honored to have the privilege of attending the Akeneo Unlock conference March 14-16 in Paris as a Gold Partner. What we’re excited about: A new year & new opportunities. A way to...
Sitation Wins Salsify Partner Growth Award, Named Gold Partner
Sitation, a leading systems integrator and strategy provider for the product information management (PIM) industry, has today been awarded the Partner Growth Award by Salsify in recognition of contributions to the growth and expansion of the platform and a commitment...
Sitation Becomes a GS1 US Gold Solution Partner: Joins Network of Companies Certified to Help Businesses Implement GS1 Standards
Apex, NC, February 4, 2022 – Sitation has become a gold member of the GS1 US Solution Partner Program, a designation signifying a commitment to delivering services and solutions that enable quick, efficient and accurate GS1 Standards implementation. GS1 US® is an...
The New Amazon API has Arrived: Here is What Salsify Users Need to Know
As industry leaders in digital retail, Amazon continues to improve the process for vendors to introduce their product lines to the digital shelf in the most direct, practical, and up to date fashion. This consistent drive towards efficient to market protocols has led...
How to Prepare Digital Assets for a Salsify PIM Implementation
Digital Assets are a common source of Salsify implementation project delays that necessitate more project hours and resources than originally anticipated. I’ll walk you through common asset pitfalls and how you can properly prepare your digital assets to streamline...
2021 at Sitation – A Year in Review
Unbelievably, another year has come and gone. It was another weird one, but we've continued to grow aggressively, to mature and evolve, and to help our clients grow and succeed in e-commerce. We've brainstormed on a few words that capture aspects of 2021. Enjoy!...
All I Want for Christmas is PIM
As Sitation celebrates another record year of growth, I was struck by a thought this morning: this year, more so than ever, millions of customers, and billions of dollars of their holiday spending, were touched directly or indirectly by the work we do at Sitation. To...
Akeneo – A Heuristic and Statistical Approach to Product Attribution using Legacy Data
There's this romantic notion that, data modeling, used as an Akeneo term, is something that needs to be done manually. Quite the contrary, I argue it should be done in an automated fashion using a set of rules and a small set of statistics based on the data that will...
The Challenges of Connecting Multiple Data Sources in Akeneo PIM
With all PIM Implementation there is an ideal scenario. It's simple and it follows the plan, but let's be realistic: the complexity changes based on the details and our world is less than perfect. These challenges often add steps and options but they aren't anything...
Road Ready Wheels Partners with Sitation as Salsify Product Experience Management Implementation Partner
Apex, North CarolinaNovember 10, 2021 Road Ready Wheels, the industry leader in OEM replacement wheels, based in Chicago, IL, has selected Sitation to complete the implementation, onboarding, and training for their Salsify Product Experience Management (ProductXM)...
Sitation Unlocks Year 3 of Partnership with Akeneo
Quotes and excerpts taken from Sitation’s Director of Solution Architecture, George Dzuricsko, certified both as a Functional and Technical Consultant with Akeneo, during an interview with Francois Chaix, Akeneo’s Worldwide Partners Evangelist. Additional details from...
John-Richard Chooses Sitation as Salsify PIM Implementation Partner
Apex, North CarolinaOctober 27, 2021 John-Richard, a leading luxury manufacturer in home furnishing and lighting based in Greenwood, MS, has selected Salsify as its new Product Information Management (PIM) system, and has hired Sitation to complete the implementation,...
Trademark Global Selects Salsify and Sitation for PIM Implementation
Apex, North CarolinaOctober 25, 2021 Trademark Global, a leading ecommerce wholesaler and distributor, has selected Sitation as its implementation partner for its upcoming Salsify Product Information Management (PIM) implementation. Trademark Global plans to leverage...
Creating a System Architecture Diagram for Salsify PIM Implementation
If you’re falling behind in e-commerce due to lack of product data coordination, Salsify’s Product Information Management (PIM) tool will streamline your data creation and may decrease costs and increase revenue by establishing a central source of truth company-wide....
Sitation Celebrates 20 Years in Business
Today marks 20 years in business for Sitation. Sitation was founded October 21, 2001 by CEO Steve Engelbrecht. In a winding path over 20 years, Sitation has grown into the e-commerce service provider it is today. Read more about our story here. Please read Steve's...
How to Prepare for an Akeneo Certification
Akeneo offers two certifications. These are the Business Implementation Specialist (BI) and the Technical Integration Specialist (TI) certifications. The BI certification focuses on how to properly model the data and set up business processes in Akeneo. The TI...
What Determines the Complexity of an Akeneo Implementation?
The choice to use a PIM can be daunting. Even after choosing your PIM solution it can be difficult to understand how much time it will take to get your new PIM up and running. As a certified Akeneo implementation Specialist I am frequently asked to estimate work for...
Summer 2021 Updates from Sitation
What a summer at Sitation! We've continued to grow and expand this year, with new service offerings for PIM implementation, digital strategy, and of course our platform-specific offerings for Salsify, Akeneo, and Riversand. We celebrated a huge milestone this year as...
A First Look at the Akeneo Events API
With the introduction of Akeneo 5.0 came the new Akeneo Events API aka “Webhooks” from Akeneo. After spending some time playing with the feature I’d like to take you on a deep dive into the pros and cons of using webhooks. The Akeneo Events API Brings Powerful New...
Sitation Featured in WRAL Techwire
Sitation was featured this morning on the WRAL Techwire website as their "Startup Spotlight". Read the article here!
How to Log Akeneo PHP-API Errors the Right Way
Engineer's Log, Stardate 98821.1: Our ship has made contact with an alien species known as the Error. So far, we've only been able to decipher vague sentiments from our communications with these beings. Tensions are high, and the crew is at Red Alert until we can...
How to Import CSV Files to Salsify the Right Way
Most users import data into the Salsify PIM via Excel (XLSX) and Comma Separated Values (CSV) files. While these two file formats are compatible, they are not equal. Too often I help clients resolve poor quality data in Salsify caused by a CSV file opened in Excel....
Sitation Wins the 2021 Akeneo Hackathon
We're delighted to share that Akeneo has awarded Sitation with first place honors in its Unlock 2021 Hackathon! For our official entry, we created a near real-time integratin between Akeneo 5.0 and ElasticSearch, a leading cloud-based search solution. "Why is...
Setting up the Akeneo Connector in Magento 2: Part 4 – Custom Product Data Mapping
If you've made it this far through the Magento 2 connector series you should already know how powerful the Akeneo Connector in Magento 2 can be when configured correctly. For this final installment I'll be covering the Products menu found in the Magento...
Sitation’s Platform Partners Dominate the Q2 2021 Forrester PIM Report
Yesterday Forrester released its Q2 2021 report on Product Information Management and we're thrilled to share that our platform partners dominate the leaderboard. Source: Forrester.com Sitation partners Salsify and Riversand were honored...
Salsify Buys Alkemics – Why It’s a Big Deal (and Why Sitation is Excited About It!)
Salsify took a bold step into the future this week in announcing its acquisition of Alkemics, a product data onboarding platform headquartered in Paris. Alkemics dubs itself "the supplier collaboration platform for omnichannel retailers" - in other words,...
Unlock 2021 – Integrating Akeneo with ElasticSearch
Sitation participated in the 2021 Akeneo Unlock Hackathon, where our Akeneo team was challenged to build something new and exciting using Akeneo's newest API features. Sitation chose to create a real-time integration from Akeneo to ElasticSearch, a powerful...
Setting up the Akeneo Connector in Magento 2: Part 3 – Filtering the Import Data
The Magento 2 connector for Akeneo is a powerful tool to easily integrate your Akeneo implementation with your Magento 2 ecommerce store. This article outlines some of the more advanced filtering you can do with this connector. If you are looking for information about...
Using Azure Blob Storage for Remote Asset Storage in your PIM
The goal of a PIM is to easily enrich and store product data for downstream destinations. How the data should flow to downstream destinations is a critical piece of any implementation. For Akeneo Serenity customers, the choice is an easy one: API. Extending the PIM...
An Insider’s Guide to Akeneo’s Offerings
In today's economy, presenting customers with rich product content and a superior buying experience can set you apart from your competition. Managing that rich content can quickly become a herculean effort for any growing commerce business. Product Information...
Sitation Adds Akeneo Extension to Marketplace: Version History Export Command
NOW YOU CAN EXPORT AKENEO'S VERSION HISTORY FOR ADDITIONAL FUNCTIONALITY Sitation's first submission to the Akeneo Marketplace is here, bringing with it improved functionality to the build's version history. For a technical dive into version history, take a...
Sitation is a 2021 “Triangle Tweener”
Sitation is honored to once again be featured on Scot Wingo's "Triangle Tweeners" list of emerging companies in the Raleigh Durham area. Honorees must be headquarered in the Triangle, be technology-focused, and have 10+ employees (but fewer than 500) or $1M+ in...
Akeneo PIM for Projects of Any Size: A Guide to Data Structures
A teacher once imprinted on me that organization is the key to success. When applied to e-commerce, I appreciate the organization inherent in product information management (PIM) systems which help companies small and large become more successful (or at least more...
Akeneo: Requiring an SSL Connection with Elasticsearch using Apache
Using XPack? Visit the companion article here! OVERVIEW Akeneo PIM is a PHP/Symfony web application that uses MySQL for persistence, and Elasticsearch for search capability. From an abstract perspective it consists of three major components: · MySQL, a...
Akeneo: Requiring an SSL Connection with Elasticsearch using XPack
Using Apache? Visit the companion article here! OVERVIEW Akeneo PIM is a PHP/Symfony web application that uses MySQL for persistence, and Elasticsearch for search capability. From an abstract perspective it consists of three major components: · MySQL, a...
Setting up the Akeneo Connector in Magento 2: Part 2 – Running the Jobs
NOTES: This article assumes that you have already done the initial setup of your Akeneo Connector. If you have not yet configured the connector please follow the steps in Part 1 before returning here.This article refers to v101.0.0 and beyond of the Akeneo...
How Focusing on Copy Elevates eCommerce Strategy
LIMITATIONS INHERENT TO ECOMMERCE PLATFORMS Despite its many progressions, eCommerce today still falls short of providing an experience that encapsulates the five senses. You cannot smell, touch, or taste an online product listing, and even a product's images can be...
How to Choose Axis Attributes When Building Product Models in Akeneo
Akeneo Product Information Management (PIM) offers a simple and fast method for working with your product data. One of the software's strong suits, you can enrich the common properties of several product variations in one place by creating a product model. First, what...
How to Channel Your Inner PIM: Helpful Hints for Achieving Syndication Zen
When contemplating the Akeneo platform, there are a few considerations before deciding how many channels your product information management (PIM) system requires. What comes to mind when you think of a PIM channel? Where are you selling? Who are you selling to? How...
Setting up the Akeneo Connector in Magento 2: Part 1 – Initial Configuration
The Akeneo company has built and currently supports 2 Akeneo Connectors for Magento 2. One connector is for Akeneo Community Edition and the other is for Akeneo Enterprise Edition. Both connectors are maintained by the Akeneo company to make sure they...
Keeping It Real While Working Remotely
Strong relationships are fundamental to success in businesses of any size or market. The trust we build with our clients and colleagues allows for the open communication and collaboration necessary for fruitful engagements. We now find ourselves in a new business...
Salsify’s Powerful Channel Syndication Features – How to Deliver the Right Data to Downstream Channels
Salsify's powerful Channels feature allows you to publish some or all of your product catalog to a downstream source. This could be a website, like Shopify or Magento, a catalog, a trading partner, a reporting system, or whatever you want! The magic of this...
Sitation Earns Gold Akeneo Partnership, Expands PIM Delivery Capability
Sitation, a leading strategy and technology partner for retailers, distributors, brands, and manufacturers, is proud to announce that it has achieved Gold Partner status with Akeneo, a global leader in on-premises and SaaS product information management (PIM)...
Steps to a Successful Akeneo Implementation: Part 1 – What are your goals for PIM?
Choosing the goals and a scope for PIM is critical to the success of your PIM. Click here for Akeneo's definition of a PIM Any project's success is dependent on the expectations and definitions of success going in. Defining clear goals and setting...
A Deep Dive into Akeneo’s Product Version History
When you work on product data in the PIM, you probably have some concerns like…What happens if I make a mistake?What happens if the manufacturer changes its mind?How can I find out who changed this piece of product data? Rest easy, my reader. Akeneo has both a history...
An Akeneo Primer: Workflows 101 – How To Work the Workflows
When considering Akeneo you will hear the term workflow mentioned a good deal and for good reason. Having a solid product data enrichment workflow is essential for any undertaking involving a Product Information Management software (PIM). When most...
Help! My Products Are Suddenly Missing in Akeneo
Akeneo is designed to manage your product data, so it may cause you some panic if you log into Akeneo and suddenly see some, or all, of your products missing. Chances are your product data has not been lost. The products probably are not displaying correctly. Here are...
Why You Should Adopt Akeneo’s Built-in Tools Rather Than Forcing Functionality Into Akeneo
I see this all the time when speaking to clients who are thinking of implementing Akeneo. The question is always Can Akeneo do X? Our old system could. As someone that has built some highly custom Akeneo implementations, the answer to this question...
Akene-Oh No: Common Pitfalls to Avoid When Using the Akeneo PIM
Product Information Management (PIM) tools are making their way increasingly into the ecommerce market because of their utility in a company’s product data efforts. Whether maintaining, consolidating, or augmenting product data, a PIM is essential for doing such tasks...
Why Better Taxonomy Is a Delight to Merchants and Consumers Alike
When I started at Sitation, the world of taxonomy and attribution was just as foreign to me as was my first day in French class. As someone with a literature and languages background, the inner workings of the world of eCommerce and digital merchandising were a...
5 Fundamentals to Master Product Experience Management
Key Takeaways: Winning ecommerce requires practicing Product Experience Management (PXM) which is customizing product information and their online presentation per target audience and/or channel.To effectively practice PXM, one needs to employ a product information...
Akeneo: Requiring an SSL Connection with MySQL
Akeneo PIM is a PHP/Symfony web application that uses MySQL for persistence, and Elasticsearch for search capability. From an abstract perspective it consists of three major components: · MySQL, a relational database for storing data· Elasticsearch, a search...
Akeneo: The Missing MTA Documentation
Sincerely, Akeneo has some of the best documentation available for installing their software. Here's the main link: https://docs.akeneo.com/4.0/install_pim/index.html. Follow the instructions for Installing Akeneo Manually. And, it is well worth your time...
Keys to a Great Akeneo Discovery
Key Takeaways 1. Great discoveries make great projects. Without them, you are flying blind (in most cases). 2. Validating a project's statement of work (SOW) in a discovery is step #1--must catch misaligned assumptions, undefined requirements, and project risk. 3....
E-Commerce Trends for 2020
With your holiday ecommerce strategy in full swing, it's time to look ahead to 2020 trends. Ecommerce in 2020 is unfolding with a few common themes, centered around the customer's experience of your brand. Find top ways to get customers talking about you this year by...
Ecommerce Veteran Sitation Finds New Opportunities Despite Pandemic
Steve Engelbrecht was interviewed by Triangle-area GrepBeat about the history of Sitation, and our plans for growth in 2020 and beyond. View the article here.
Akeneo 4.0 Features We Are Most Excited About
Akeneo 4.0 brings several welcome changes to its PIM software. Upgrades to Symfony, Mysql, and PHP offer incremental updates to the technical stack, while performance improvements abound. I was lucky enough to be at the Akeneo PIM Summit 2020 to witness the unveiling,...
