Product data becomes the main part of every business operation in our time. The overall quality of data gathered, consumed, and stored during the business process determines the success rate of the business. Data are of high quality when the data are fit for the specific purpose of use and correctly represent the real-world construct that the data specified.
Product data quality and product information management are significant things to consider at any time you like to develop your business professionally. You can consult with specialists in product information management. You will decide on how to enhance your business further.
The following details explain to you the product data quality and features of the PIM tool. You can fulfill your expectations about product information management easily with the help of this tool.
What is Product Data Quality?
Product data quality is a measure of how well the product manages the digital language. A good product data quality is very important for the product to navigate through the grocery flow. It is all about the fact that the product’s story is comprehensible. A common language is required for everybody engaged to understand.
Product data quality is the extent to which the overall information of the product is complete, clean, and truthful. It refers to the standard of data about its accuracy, consistency, and timeliness. The main purpose of the data is to inform as well as help with the overall planning and decision-making.
The product data must be easy to understand and use both customers and internal departments. Ecommerce businesses have a specific set of specifications, attributes, and other schemes to define each other. Product data points specify the product fully from the dimension to color, size to material, and packaging attributes and metadata.
Almost every company nowadays is being evaluated based on the quality of their business data. High-quality business data are very important both in the value chain and while meeting the consumer. The overall quality of content and crystal clear details about the ingredient list create consumer trust.
Why Product Data Quality is Important for Ecommerce?
Product data represents the vitality of the business online. Business people understand the significance of maintaining excellent product data quality for running digital commerce platform.
Every business needs a good method to handle their data especially when it comes to internal management. The product information must be top-notch so that business people can showcase their product compellingly on popular online channels.
Here are a few things which illustrate why Product Data Quality is important for the eCommerce business.
- Product data quality raises the consumer experience through accurate product information and correct ingredient lists, nutrition information, and price details.
- The quality of the product data increases the flow of goods, makes transport and logistics efficient, and reduces the risk of waste.
- It strengthens the cooperation and trust between the trading partners and industry players.
- It reduces the costs due to the common digital language and maximizes the efficiency in the value chain.
- It increases the efficiency, reliability, and safety in transportation as well as delivers to warehouses and stores.
- It leads to good compliance with the complete industry regulations and standards.
Top Challenges to Data Quality
High-quality product information must be accurate, relevant, and consistently up-to-date. These data have to be enough to assist the everyday inner workings of the business. Business shareholders, as well as departments, have to successfully use the business data. In a successful business, data becomes actionable.
All businesses can enrich their product data into content and use such data across marketing channels. They conduct a data inventory for assessing the state of their data. There are so many challenges to data quality.
The following details explain to you about different issues that happen in the mismanaged data environment.
1. Errors and Inaccuracies
Different data errors are due to the inefficient process of filling out all the data fields in a manual way. This tiresome task leads to entering data incorrectly and adding erroneous changes during updates. Errors can be a broad category.
However, these errors are hard to pinpoint. These errors are anything from incorrect numbers, vague specifications, wrong units, and misspellings. Failing to follow a certain character limit for the title of the product is a notable error.
2. Inconsistencies
If data do not conform to a constant standard, then such data lead to inconsistencies. Some products might use “oz” while others might use “ounces”. This product specification presents an unprofessional thing and leads to poor customer satisfaction.
3. Missing Data
Missing information or data is because of neglecting to fill in fields. A marketplace nowadays does not let your product listing when any information is missing. Missing data on eCommerce stores might reduce the search ranking. Prospective buyers cannot find the suitable information they require for shopping. This leaves the product pages empty and scarce dissimilar to elaborate and robust product pages.
4. Duplications
Duplication is a piece of product information or data that appears over once. This type of error is a result of various working with their product data versions. There are multiple iterations of data and there are bound to overlap with so many files and copies. If you have duplicate content or data, then it can cause some prospects to turn away and undermine SEO efforts.
5. Out-of-date information
Data quality degrades over time due to the data which goes out of date. Attributes can remain stable for some time with products. On the other hand, new updates to the design, parts, or materials and slow updates can eliminate sales and customer trust. You can look at products with out-of-date ingredients at Amazon and numerous reviews of unhappy customers. There are several reasons behind the slow updates. However, the main reason is failing to integrate systems.
There are so many effects of bad product data quality. On the other hand, the main effects of bad product data quality are
1. Operational Costs
2. Misdirected Productivity
3. Bad Reputation
4. Bad Reviews
5. Increases Product Returns
6. Reduces Revenue
7. Insufficient Omni-channel Experience
8. Lower Conversions
9. Worse Customer Satisfaction
10. Negative Brand Image
11. Poor Search Engine Ranking
What is a PIM Tool?
A Product Information Management (PIM) tool is designed to provide a single place for collecting, managing, and enriching the product information, creating the product catalog, and distributing the product to sales and also eCommerce channels. A good PIM solution makes it easy and fast to make and deliver compelling product experiences.
A PIM is very important to streamline the onboarding process for suppliers as well as data providers, find one source of truth for the complete product information, improve the quality and reliability of the product data across every channel, and deliver a convincing product experience to make the best customer experience.
It is the appropriate time to know who needs a PIM and make a good decision to use this tool as efficiently as possible to get its full benefits.
- Marketers who have decided to deliver the consistent Omni-channel product experience, brands.
- Retailers who want to enhance the relationship with suppliers.
- Ecommerce Managers who know the importance of having product data quality for better sales.
- Data Governance Teams who want to track and meet compliance requirements.
How PIM Tool Solves Challenges faced in Product Data Quality?
PIM tools nowadays solve so many problems and encourage every user to enhance the overall quality of products. These tools make certain the overall quality of a huge number of items as well as their attributes in the database.
Handling a large database in the business is one of the most common problems faced by business people. PIM solutions are very helpful especially when the number of relations and structured attributes grow exponentially. Some hundred products with a complex data model can take up several rows in the database.
Businesses nowadays use spreadsheets for organizing, managing, and analyzing content. The majority of the companies continue to slog away by using clunky spreadsheets. Data handlers spend the maximum workweek on specific data activities. They are dedicated to preparing and managing the product databases in an efficient way.
Well-experienced business people understand and make certain that poor data quality costs companies an average of $15 million every year. They understand that the overall success of their business and the backbone of digital success are based on accurate product data. They prefer and use a product information management tool to achieve precision.
Here is the modern-day frustration on product data and how the PIM tool helps you to resolve it.
1. Teams handling loads of internal data
There are so many product data frustrations associated with the businesses in our time. Teams handling loads of data internally is one of the product data frustrations. Business to consumer and business to business operations these days deal with the same content management challenges at this time.
Details about the business-to-business products are very important to make an informed decision. These details need serious attention. Incorrect details of the products especially technical requirements jeopardize the business’s reputation in the competitive sector and steel your business prospects to competitors. This problem affects your association with the suppliers and distributors when they cannot successfully operate with or access the important information available to them
You can prefer and use the professional guidelines for standardizing your approach with a product information management system. You will simplify your business management activities and concentrate further on the business development activities. Your in-house employees will not spend hours sifting via pages of jumbled content and your consumers will not get the poor and outdated content.
2. Try to manage cluttered digital assets
Managing the written data is one of the most complex things. Digital assets assist business people to enhance different aspects of their business regularly. Some of the digital elements associated with the business are marketing brochures, presentations, videos, image galleries, and product manuals into the mix.
Many brands these days shy away from innovating as the effort of creating and storing important information.
You can centralize this information by using a good PIM system and decluttering it as per your wish. You will be happy to update your content with fresh assets regularly.
3. Communication gaps between the internal teams
Communication is the key to success in any business. The overall chances to deal with the miscommunication frustrations are increasing when the business grows. Data management requires a scalable solution. This data management cannot be restricted to any department.
The product information management tool makes cross-departmental as well as collaboration possible.
4. Suppliers distribute the wrong information
You have to communicate with suppliers while launching a new product, changing the terms and conditions, and updating an existing one on time as per requirements. Suppliers are usually left with messy data sheets due to man-made errors that may cause a lot of confusion.
To resolve it, business owners need to distribute the important information by manually tweaking things that ignored previous data transmission. And this will slow down your production and supply chain.
Having a good PIM system will ensure you send the ‘right’ set of product data/information to all suppliers. In fact, in the PIM system product data are stored in a centralized location which can be accessed by all from anywhere.
5. Messy product catalogs as well as sheets because of time constraints
You can operate in a highly competitive market and enhance the routine efforts to be on the A-game. You must be able to share insights when you deal with promos to loyalty discounts, pricing changes, product launches, and other things.
You can prefer and use the product information management system to automate the production of assets because the information is available to several users in the same place.
Conclusion
The product information management system is very helpful to everyone who deals with product data frustrations. The overall data quality features of this tool provide an array of benefits for all users. Some of these benefits are customer satisfaction, productivity, operational efficiency, and high return on investment.
You can prefer and use the appropriate product information management tool based on your requirements to be successful in the competitive business sector.
