It’s one thing for a company to control accurate, up-to-date and consistent information on its products across multiple online sales channels, a capability inRiver Inc. offers in its product information management (PIM) software.

But inRiver also wants to help the users of its PIM application take things to a higher level by ensuring their product content is presented across online channels in a way that is more likely to win over customers and drive sales.

With that in mind, it recently acquired Detail Online for its AI-powered software that compiles and analyzes brands’ product information across multiple online selling channels to determine how companies can display a mix of content “to bring to life compelling product stories for highly customized products, obtain actionable guidance on what influences buying decisions, and adapt quickly” to modify content in a way that results in a sale, inRiver says.

Using product data to boost revenue

Thomas Zanzinger, CEO, inRiver

“The addition of Detail Online is an exciting move for our two organizations and offers exceptional analytics capabilities to the inRiver solution,” says Thomas Zanzinger, CEO of inRiver. “We are building a new generation of product information management solutions to help our customers generate revenue.”

Johan Boström, co-founder and chief product officer of inRiver, says his company’s expanded software technology will help brands with broad exposure on the internet to capitalize on data showing how the right mix of product information is likely to produce sales.

“No one gets value out of data unless data tells you what to do next,” he says, adding, “What drives revenue is the true measure of success.”

Bostrom says the ability to change content on an ongoing basis and throughout the buyer journey is crucial at a time when the flow of product data from upstream suppliers to downstream customer targets “is not linear anymore—it’s anything but linear.” In the ecommerce world—both B2B and B2C—there are always updates to how original sellers or resellers are presenting product content and how online buyers respond to it. “So, now you can take insights from multiple customer engagement points,” he says.

Keeping an eye on out-of-stocks

In addition to helping its clients compose a mix of content including product details and such related content as lifestyle and educational materials, the inRiver system is also designed to help brands become aware of content—or missing content—that may be adversely affecting sales, Bostrom says.

For example, when a manufacturer’s website provides a “Where to Buy” link that directs customers to an online distributor, the inRiver system will be able to alert the manufacturer if that distributor is out of stock of an online customer’s searched-for product. The brand could then take steps to adjust the distributor’s listing in the Where to Buy section until its stock level is replenished.

Bostrom says inRiver paid “about $15 million” for Detail Online and agreed to an additional payout based on performance.

Last fall, inRiver raised $32 million in funding to build out its internet-hosted software that online companies use to manage the fast-growing volume of data on products and commerce to connect with customers across multiple selling channels.

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