Product data is the lifeblood of e-commerce, and retailers can live and die by the quality of their product information. You know that neglecting product data management can slow time to market and result in damaging content errors, but are you aware of just how much money it can cost you? Research conducted by Informatica in 2015 revealed that companies could save as much as $6 million each year in supplier spend with improved data quality. If your company is losing money to poor product data management strategies, keep reading for three ways you can improve, save and get the most out of your data.
1. Say no to supplier-entered data.
Relying on suppliers to enter data into your system might seem like a win-win situation: they take responsibility for product information quality, and you eliminate a time-consuming task. However, by letting go of control over the data you use, you’re adding more work and extending your timeline. Unless vendor-supplied data has been reviewed for accuracy and quality, there’s no guarantee that it’s correct, and there's a good chance that rushed data entry could introduce new errors. Rather than looking at a significant time-saver, you’ll have to hurry to correct published records and make last-minute changes before getting your products online.
You’re also much more likely to find yourself waiting to receive assets. You know how difficult it is to coordinate information from multiple vendors. The other side of that equation is that every supplier you work with struggles to manage product information for multiple retailers. Even when you’ve made your priorities clear, it can’t be assumed that suppliers will share them, and you may fall behind. Similarly, having a supplier enter product data requires too much back and forth for both of you. First, they enter the data, then you follow up when inaccuracies and incomplete attributes are found. Next, they review your request and respond, and that may not happen as quickly as you’d like. Finally, you’re back at the start, ready to review again. With so many efforts on each piece of product information, time to market slows to a crawl.
2. Beware of cheap product data feeds.
Saving money is great – who wouldn’t agree with that? But when it comes to product data procurement, not all product feeds are created equal, and you’re likely to find you get what you pay for. Promising to include all of the attributes, marketing assets and images you need to create rich product description pages, product data feeds may seem efficient. Unfortunately, the data you receive won’t always live up to that promise, and you may find yourself pulling double duty to acquire product content by first reviewing your data feed and then scouring the web or reaching out directly to vendors to make up for deficits. This isn’t to say that all product feeds are necessarily bad, especially with Google instituting higher quality standards for this information. Still, it pays to be wary about where your data is coming from.
That’s because many inexpensive product data feeds are fueled by offshore firms who offer low price points rather than high quality as their primary sales feature. What does this mean? You’re likely to receive information processed by people who may lack fluency in English and familiarity with the attributes you require to create a full, detailed product record. It’s also likely that because speed and price are the most essential components of these services that their data processing procedures don’t include any kind of quality control to identify and correct data entry errors that could introduce inaccuracies into your product information. In short, if the price seems too good to be true, it probably is.
3. Streamline the asset collection process.
Why are big box stores so popular? Because they let us pick up everything we need in a single convenient stop. You'll want to approach the procurement of product data the same way, too. Think about it this way – let's say you need to process 100 SKUs each day. If the average product description page requires a description, feature-benefit statements, images and videos and all other applicable attributes, you need to collect assets for four sections of product content. By handling asset collection on a per-SKU basis, you're going to need to make 100 individual efforts to get the data you need, whether that's 100 e-mails, 100 phone calls or 100 web searches. Even at 5 minutes per effort, you're looking at a full eight hours of work to finalize those 100 products. And that assumes a fast-paced process with no additional snags, extra communication or room for other tasks.
You also lose control over your SKUs when you collect product data with a piecemeal process. It’s imperative that you develop a framework that accounts for the creation of a SKU from start to finish and that each step is accomplished within a reasonable timeline. This is especially important in competitive marketplaces where time is everything, such as consumer electronics. If your competitors use a streamlined data collection process that allows them to acquire product data without multiple efforts, they’re going to beat your time to market again and again. The result? They capitalize on the buzz around new products while you’re still putting your attributes together.
By following these tips, you'll be off to a good start toward better data and better data management practices. In our next post, we'll take a look at some long-term strategies for ensuring clean, consistent data and a more workable data management strategy overall. If you’re struggling to find product data management solutions that work for you and your suppliers, Virtucom Group can help. Our managed service simplifies product information management, from the procurement of data to the normalization of information, with content services that help grow conversions.
Data integrity, time to market and increased conversions are vital to all e-commerce retailers. Our product data management and unique content creation program ensures consistent product names, robust product descriptions, complete and accurate product attributes and an array of digital assets are at your disposal, providing time to market and quality improvements that will outpace your fiercest competition. Contact our team and get started with Virtucom Group today.
