How PXN is helping global brands manage their retail partnerships digitally - Our second blog post by Sean Hannam, Freelance Journalist with over 20 years experience in the tech industry

In the ‘new normal’, online has been a lifeline for many brand and retailers – secure digital assets expert PXN has launched its Campaign Approvals Tool (PXN-CAT for short), a digital B2B platform that makes it easy for suppliers to enable their retail partners to access information, assets and resources all in one place, helping them to build effective campaigns for both in-store and online activity.

I have worked as a journalist in the tech retail sector for more than 20 years and can remember a time when relationships between retailers and suppliers were often strained.

It was sometimes a case of  ‘us and them’ – many retailers, particularly independents, thought some manufacturers weren’t interested in supporting them, which was perfectly understandable, as certain brands felt indies were too difficult to deal with and often neglected them, preferring to do business with the big boys instead.

Thankfully, that situation has now changed – largely due to the challenging nature of the tech retail sector over the last decade or so. There are now fewer retailers and brands playing in the tech retail space – in 1985, there were 22 electrical chains in the UK – in 2017, there were five left.

Sadly, independent electrical retailers are a dying breed – in 2010, according to figures from analyst GfK, there were just short of 3,000 indies in the UK – in 2017, there were just over 2,100.

In recent years, we’ve seen partnerships between retailers and suppliers become much more important – both parties are under pressure and need to work closer together for the common good. In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, which has put an already beleaguered high street under even more strain, those relationships are arguably more important now than ever.

If you’re a supplier, having a dedicated and reliable retail network across the UK to sell your products and convey your brand’s message to the consumer is a must, but how can you communicate effectively with all of your retailers on a regular basis and easily update them on new products, marketing campaigns, in-store and online promotions, merchandising and training? 

Many brands are cutting back on the number of people in their field sales teams and, unfortunately, this trend is likely to continue, with a global recession on the horizon, due to the shock waves caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

The short-term future for trade shows, physical product launch events and dealer conferences is also uncertain – Covid-19 has wiped these from the calendar. It’s getting harder for brands to get their messages across to their different retail partners.

Some suppliers have a fragmented approach to their campaigns. They need more structure and cohesion when communicating to their retailers and, in some case, their own teams and departments – sales and marketing teams and agency partners can often be in different locations, both in the UK and abroad. In some cases, pan-European activity could require approval from different departments or organisations in several countries.

It’s often the case that different retailers will have different requirements, so will need information and assets that are tailored to their specific needs, such as exclusive promotions, offers and products. 

PXN-CAT can provide retailers with access to an intuitive, easy-to-navigate hub from where they can download all the content and materials they require, such as logos, brand guidelines, point-of-sale and legal documents. It’s also better for everyone involved to have everything they need in one secure location, rather than having to pull together different assets from people’s ever-expanding email in-boxes.

Suppliers’ teams can all have access to the PXN-CAT platform and once the campaigns have been approved – content can easily be accessed, checked and signed off by the relevant staff – retailers are free to use the assets for their marketing activity. 

When it comes to innovative online retailing, Amazon is one of the leading players – PXN was approached by Amazon Fuse, which is a B2B marketing-partnership division of the company, to build a campaign-management and workflow-approvals tool.

PXN created a system that enabled Amazon’s marketing partners to carry out a number of useful functions, such as downloading material including campaign assets and brand guidelines, uploading campaigns for approval – including video files of up to 15GB – and the ability to make amendments and keep track of approvals as the campaign passed through various Amazon departments and was seen by staff in its brand and legal teams.

In these uncertain times, the tech industry needs to be super-efficient to help boost the ailing economy and a troubled retail sector. 

The PXN-CAT platform helps brands and retailers to forge strong partnerships that will benefit both parties and make their campaigns easier to create and implement, which can only be a good thing for everyone, including the end consumer. Unlike the old days, it’s no longer us and them – we’re all in this together.