Aetrex Steps Up Efficiency with Centric PXM

It took us forever to bring any product or order data across the different platforms, such as Amazon, eBay …”

Rui Kojima, Senior Director of e-Commerce recalls the state of getting products placed onto various sites prior to Centric PXM (formerly Contentserv). There were many manual procedures which took up a lot of time and were prone to errors. Today, meeting the different requirements for each sales channel is greatly simplified and takes significantly less time. What was the path Aetrex took to achieve this?

Better fitting footwear

Founded in 1946 and headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, Aetrex also has offices in Israel, Dubai and China. A global leader in foot scanning technology, orthotics and comfort footwear, Aetrex is committed to enable consumers to stay active and healthy. Foot health begins with a comprehensive foot scan and over the past two decades the company has deployed more than 12,000 foot scanners worldwide, completing over 50 million scans. Aetrex’s premium footwear and orthotics are uniquely designed using insights and scientific data gathered from these scans. “We’re fundamentally a technology company that happens to solve foot pain through footwear,” Kojima enthuses. The scans capture 16 precise measurement points, creating a 3D map of feet that goes far beyond traditional sizing methods. “Not all size nines are created equal,” Kojima explains. “Our technology recognizes that feet are three-dimensional—they have length, width and height. We’re redefining how people think about fit.”

Go where the customers are

“We want to be where consumers are shopping,” Kojima explains. “It’s not realistic to expect all customers to visit aetrex.com. We needed to expand across multiple sales platforms quickly and efficiently.” However, Aetrex’s e-commerce infrastructure was a collection of incompatible systems, the company was mired in manual processes and the legacy ERP wasn’t equipped for the integrations. The Aetrex team spent huge chunks of time integrating to each new sales platform, from Amazon to Walmart to eBay, with each integration requiring custom builds and IT involvement. “We were being held back by our own technology,” Kojima reflects. “Our team was spending more time managing data than growing the business.”

The selection: an unexpected recommendation

Finding the right Product Information Management (PIM) solution took a year and some unforeseen turns on the path to entering a rather complex e-commerce ecosystem. “We almost closed with a different PIM solution but things didn’t pan out,” Kojima says. In a twist of technological fate, it was ChatGPT that directed Aetrex to Centric PXM. “I joke that ChatGPT deserves a kickback,” Kojima laughs.

Regarding upper management, Kojima says, “It can be hard to pitch software that doesn’t directly translate to revenue. But I emphasized how much more operationally efficient it would make us, which is going to reduce labor costs and time. The platform is going to pay itself and more. You can’t argue with 78% time savings and 400% revenue growth.”

Implementation and transformation

Implementation went well. Centric PXM became the catalyst for Aetrex’s digital transformation. “We’ve been able to centralize all our product data, optimize content, automate previously manual operations and eliminate silos,” Kojima explains. “This has done wonders for our team and led to significant operational efficiency.”

The combination of Centric PIM™ and Centric’s syndication system, Centric FMS (formerly Shoppingfeed), was a winning formula for success. “It allowed us to not just push data through to sell products, but to really optimize the content depending on which channel we’re feeding through, because each platform has its own requirements and they process data and keywords differently.”

He goes on to say, “It would have taken four or five months to set up products in Amazon, for example, but because we were already integrated with Centric FMS, it took only a few hours of our IT team’s time to integrate with Walmart.”

More concrete cases in point are as follows. “Promotion setup time dropped from 45 minutes to just 10 minutes. Because Centric FMS was able to link to Salesforce Commerce Cloud, the distribution of our products went from 100 SKUs on one platform to 15,000 SKUs across 7 platforms over the course of two years,” Kojima says. “Since then, we’ve opened up our catalog to all 24,000 SKUs on Amazon and those sales went from a couple thousand a day, to tens of thousands of dollars daily,” Kojima notes, “It happened almost overnight, but Centric PXM and Centric FMS were able to handle the increased volume without a hitch.”

Beyond the numbers

The transformation wasn’t just about efficiency; it was about reimagining what the company could be. The team that once spent hours on manual data entry could now focus on innovation, customer experience and growth. Kojima says, “Suddenly our team could think strategically instead of getting lost in data management.” Aetrex now seamlessly sells across 13 channels—from its direct-to-consumer website to Amazon and eBay—and are looking into emerging platforms like TikTok Shop.

Summarizing the benefits:

• Seamless integration – Centric PXM integrates effortlessly with the Salesforce Commerce Cloud meeting Aetrex’s demand for automated and streamlined data synchronization.
• Data accuracy and consistency – Robust data validation rules ensure accurate and consistent product information across all channels, drastically reducing errors and minimizing the need for manual corrections.
• Efficient campaign management – Centric PXM empowers Aetrex to manage and schedule complex marketing campaigns with ease, offering the flexibility to adapt pricing and promotional strategies efficiently.
• Scalable growth support – As Aetrex expands into new sales hannels like Facebook and TikTok, Centric PXM’s scalable PIM system provides reliable data management, enabling smooth and efficient entry into new markets.
• Dedicated implementation support – Centric PXM’s responsive and knowledgeable implementation team has ensured that Aetrex’s unique needs are met promptly, instilling confidence and reliability in the system.

Aetrex’s story is a reminder that innovation often begins with a simple desire to solve a problem. What started with a mission to understand feet has become a blueprint for digital transformation. By embracing new solutions and maintaining a customer-centric approach the company has not just improved its workflows but fundamentally reimagined product content management and sales.