Helping Retailers Expand Online Assortments

CommerceHub launches ProductStream, a cloud-based platform to simplify the exchange of product content and images for retailers and suppliers

Albany, N.Y. and ChicagoOct. 3, 2013CommerceHub, a drop ship merchandising and fulfillment platform, announced the release of ProductStream to automate the exchange and management of item data, images, and product content between retailers and suppliers to quickly make products available for sale online.

Frank Poore, founder and CEO of CommerceHub, said, “Retailers and suppliers have long been waiting for a simple solution to the time-consuming and labor-intensive process of mapping and customizing each unique partner’s product data. Retailers are looking to dramatically increase the number of products they offer online. Since product content management is an enormous bottleneck, we’re seeing extreme demand from both our retailers and suppliers to get on the platform as soon as possible.”

Retailers have different formats and requirements for publishing products on their online storefronts. Suppliers, in turn, spend considerable time customizing spreadsheets with item data and product content for each specific retailer only to find that it takes upwards of three months for most retailers to post large assortments of products for sale.

ProductStream is designed to save retailers and suppliers time and money by automating the exchange of product content in a manner that enables every supplier to easily conform to each retailer’s unique posting requirements. More importantly, by reducing the time it takes to post products for sale online, ProductStream directly increases the amount of revenue retailers and suppliers earn from each product.

For retailers, ProductStream provides a single online view of all of the products their suppliers are selling, as well as the tools and services to take the description, prices, images, and other descriptive attributes and transform them into the format most appropriate for the retailer’s online storefront.

With ProductStream, retailers can:

  • Easily browse capabilities to view an entire product offering from suppliers online.
  • Use business rules and integration with content providers to guarantee rich product content and images for consumers.
  • Publish large volumes of products from ProductStream directly to their online storefronts.

For suppliers, ProductStream provides a single product catalog to which all of their retail partners have easy access online, as well as step-by-step directions on how to get those products for sale on a retailer’s storefront in the most efficient way.

With ProductStream, suppliers can:

  • Manage assortments from retailers and marketplaces through a single product library.
  • Easily notify retailers of new products added to their product line.
  • Utilize simple tools to quickly comply with retail and marketplace content requirements so that products can be available for sale quickly.
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