Digital Asset Management for Retail: 8 Benefits of DAM for Retail

Katie Walsh
July 11, 2023

Retail businesses should consider digital asset management (DAM) software when:

You have so many assets it's hard to remember what content you have and where it lives
You have digital files scattered across several storage drives and can never find what you need
You routinely battle with old, outdated, or unapproved content cluttering up your library
You're constantly being hit with asset requests and wasting hours each week just sending content around to the people who need it
You have multiple locations or different retailers who sell your products and you need to oversee how everybody uses your brand content
You are constantly caught up in administrative tasks in repetitive work.
You can't scale your retail business because the current DAM system is limited.
You can’t make meta tags, so searching and finding exactly what you are looking for is not easy.

DAM systems are more than just advanced cloud storage drives: Digital asset management software eliminates organizational silos and facilitates unification so everybody — from the social media marketing teams who post your products online to the developers who build and design your eCommerce website — is working off of the same digital content and documentation. Not to mention, they also help teams avoid blunders like publishing expired promotional materials, old product imagery, or incorrect product information.

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In our post, we review seven benefits of digital asset management software for retail and eCommerce businesses.

1. Centralize Brand Collateral

First, Brandfolder lets you store all of your retail brand’s digital assets in one central location. If you manage assets for multiple retail brands, you can create multiple Brandfolders within your DAM software and keep track of each brand’s assets separately, in one system. This prevents the need for multiple storage drives and guarantees that all of the different teams that access and use your brand assets are using the right versions of files.

Within each Brandfolder, you can organize assets in Collections and Brand Portals.

Collections are groups of related assets. So for example, some retailers create separate Collections for each of the different product types they carry. Or, you can use Collections to store product packaging, sales materials, promotional videos, or other brand elements — we’ll even help you map out your asset library before moving over to Brandfolder to ensure it’s set up in the most logical, organized way.

Brand Portals organize groups of relevant assets for specific end users. These are helpful for large retail brands who have multiple locations or brands that sell their products through other retailers. Portals allow teams to consolidate all of the assets these end-users would need in one place; this improves the user experience because those users can easily find what they need, but it also restricts them from having access to your entire asset library.

2. Keep an Organized, Up-to-Date Asset Library

Brandfolder also takes the hard work out of maintaining your asset library — with duplicate asset detection, expirations, and asset reviews, you don’t have to worry about periodic clean-ups or multiple versions of files piling up.

Duplicate asset detection detects duplicate assets during upload. If a dupe is detected, it’ll prompt the uploader to cancel the upload or merge the duplicate with the original file in an asset container. This prevents users from accidentally uploading the same asset twice, and allows teams to stack different variations of a single asset together.

Asset expirations give you better control over the entire asset lifecycle by letting you set assets to expire, blocking others from downloading or using them. These are helpful for retailers and eCommerce brands that run seasonal campaigns, holiday sales, or other limited-time promotions.

What’s even more convenient, though, is that Brandfolder lets you control:

Who can upload new assets to your library
Who can review and approve those new assets for other team members to access and use

3. Store All of Your Product Images & Information Together

Although a digital asset management platform is not a full-on replacement for a product information management (PIM) system, Brandfolder does give you ways to store product images and information together so all relevant documentation is available in your DAM for easy reference.

Using asset containers, you can stack similar assets together — including product images, packaging, brochures, and inventory spreadsheets. You can also use custom fields to track:

Product attributes — SKU numbers & pricing information
Specifications — Dimensions & weight
Supplier information
And other product metrics

4. Make Sure Brand Assets Are in the Right Hands

You can share digital assets with internal teams and other Brandfolder users with permissions, or you can send assets to people outside of Brandfolder (i.e., creative or marketing agencies, wholesalers) with custom share links.

User permissions prevent the need to regularly respond to asset requests; once you add a user to a group of assets, they can access all existing files and any new content added.
Custom share links streamline the process of responding to asset requests when they arise: You can select the assets you want to share and generate a quick link.

5. Give Teams the Tools to Use & Re-Use Brand Collateral

Brandfolder’s search feature uses artificial intelligence to scan the content of your assets, pulling all files relevant to your search query.

After you find what you need, you can use our convert & resize or custom & preset cropping features to optimize collateral for your specific use case.

6. Connect Brandfolder With Other Tools to Bolster Your Teams’ Workflows

We designed Brandfolder to be highly customizable, supporting your existing workflows. You can connect Brandfolder with various tools in your tech stack and use it as a hub to power all of your digital projects.

Some helpful integrations for retail brands include:

CRM systems & sales enablement software like Salesforce
Project management software like SmartSheet

Brandfolder also has a built-in content delivery network (CDN) system so you can use your DAM as a single source of truth and publish assets directly from Brandfolder.

7. Better Understand Your Customers & Refine Your Digital Strategy

Brandfolder is equipped with an internal reporting tool to help you analyze your asset library and how your teams are using your content.

For example, you can use these tools to look at:

How many times an asset has been viewed, downloaded, or shared
Top Performers (most frequently-used assets)
Where assets are embedded online

8. Leverage Content Automation

Brandfolder Content Automation tackles common challenges such as:

Speed to market
Access to resources
Brand consistency

With Content Automation, you can centralize all content, set expiration dates on time-sensitive materials, and ensure users only access approved imagery through templates.

When creating templates, you can also control what users can edit regarding text and images, ensuring your brand guidelines are followed effectively.

Brandfolder Retail Asset Management: Case Studies

Bakers Delight

A successful bakery franchise in Australia faced challenges in growing its marketing needs across 540+ franchises. By using Brandfolder Content Automation, they produced content without branding concerns and improved local marketing strategies.

Vermont Cider Co.

Vermont Cider Co. managed several dynamic brands, facing challenges in centralized marketing material management. After implementing Brandfolder, they organized all branded assets in one place, ensuring brand consistency across multiple locations.

A DAM system serves as a unified hub for storing various product assets, including images, and promotional materials. It enhances overall performance in asset management processes.