In modern retail, success is about more than just selling a product to a customer. Without accurate and consistent product data across every channel, you’re unlikely to have many customers return to your site or store on a regular basis. However, for many retailers, critical product data is scattered across spreadsheets, duplicated between systems and managed with a lot of guesswork. This results in frustrated teams, costly errors and a customer experience that suffers.
At R247, we’ve seen firsthand how poor product data impacts a retailer’s success, and how investing in a robust Product Information Management system (or PIM solution) can ensure efficiency, scalability and customer satisfaction.
The Ways Bad Product Data Costs Your Business
1. Missed Sales
If your products aren’t enriched with the right titles, descriptions, images and specifications, they won’t surface in search, whether that’s on your own site or a channel partner’s website. That means customers can’t find what they’re looking for, even when you have it in stock.
No data = no visibility, which in turn = no sale.
2. High Return Rates
Inaccurate or incomplete product information leads to customer confusion and unmet expectations. The blazer that looked green online but appeared brown in person? The pair of trousers that wasn’t true to size? These are more than one off irritations – they result in returns.
Returns are expensive, and poor product data is often to blame.
3. Operational Inefficiency
Disorganised data costs teams time. Without a centralised system, product data management becomes manual, repetitive and error prone. Teams across an organisation duplicate effort, fix mistakes (that could be prevented) and struggle to meet tight deadlines for new product launches.
Wasted time on manual tasks often results in a smaller product catalogue.
4. Damaged Trust
Your product data is an extension of your brand. If customers encounter missing details, conflicting specifications or incorrect information, it undermines your reputation. In a highly competitive industry, with alternative brands around every corner, trust is paramount.
54% of customers say they stopped purchasing from a brand after a breach of trust.
5. Channel Partner Conflict
Third party channel partners often have different product data requirements. Poorly structured or inconsistent data can lead to rejected listings and delayed launches, which in turn impacts your ability to sell at scale.
A PIM solution is an essential piece of technology when it comes to collaborating with partners.
The Real Cost You’re Already Paying
The cost of bad product data might not always show up as an equation, but it’s absolutely felt across the business:
- Lost revenue from products that aren’t listed or searchable
- Wasted time and resource across teams doing manual rework
- Lower margins from increased returns and refunds
- Customer dissatisfaction due to disappointing or misleading information
In short, you’re already paying for poor product data, just not in a way you can easily track.
The Solution: One Source of Truth with Origin
At R247, we built Origin, our PIM + PLM platform to solve these challenges. Origin gives our clients a centralised, structured and scalable way to manage product data across every channel and touchpoint.
With Origin you can:
- Create a single source of truth for every product
- Standardise and enrich content at scale
- Automate the syndication of product data to your website, stores and channel partners
- Reduce manual processes and improve launch speed
- Maintain control and compliance with channel partner requirements
Crucially, Origin is built by retail experts. Many of us have worked in the very teams struggling with these issues. As a result, we’ve designed our product data platform to be highly practical, highly configurable and highly intuitive.
It’s Time to Treat Product Data like a Business Asset
Why do you tolerate messy, inconsistent or incomplete product data? Clean, connected and truthful information doesn’t just make your business more efficient; it makes you more profitable.
Want to stop paying the price for poor product data? Let’s talk about how Origin can bring structure and scalability to your product information. Just email origin@retail247.com.
