6 Signs You Should Be Concerned About Your Product Data
Most brands selling online have a massive amount of product data to manage. From product descriptions to enhanced content like 3D images and video. This data also has to be optimized for every channel each brand decides to be on.
This isn’t always done as well as we’d like it.
Product data management in today’s world requires a streamlined process to improve and update product data across multiple digital channels. Strategic adjustments to that data play just as big a role as the ever-changing requirements of the platforms where the data is loaded.
If a recurring headache just started to tickle your temple, then you know the pains of managing product data. If you’re curious just how “bad off” your product data really is, the six telltale signs of a serious data problem are spelled out below.
Selling on e-commerce isn’t easy. Consumers now have so many options that your competitive edge has to be sharpened every day.
Remarkably, product data is one of the driving forces to a more competitive strategy. It’s the last thing a consumer will see before deciding whether to hit that “buy” button—but in today’s multichannel world, there’s more opportunity than ever to mess that data up along the way.
How did we get here?
The number six has a double significance in this article. It’s not only the number of telltale signs that your product data needs work, it’s also a multiplier to the problem at hand.
Think back to the year 2000. The internet was ripe for big ideas. Amazon was still in its infancy, and we were seven years out from the first iPhone and a full decade out from the invention of Bitcoin.
At that point, the average number of brand touchpoints a consumer had before buying a product was two. The first touchpoint was typically some type of ad, whether a billboard, TV spot, radio jingle, or magazine spread.
In most cases, the second touchpoint was when the consumer went to a physical store to buy the item.
A lot has changed since then. Today, the average number of touchpoints a consumer has before buying a product is six. That magic number refers to the new buyer journey and all the new channels it involves along the way.
Consumers interact with brands now on social media, e-marketplaces, e-commerce websites, and also in blogs, through Google, in chat, via text, through e-mail, in-store, and more. The brands whose products are present on each of those channels in a consistent and compelling way are the ones who win sales.
Are you surprised that product data plays a leading role in this multichannel norm? Are you surprised how hard it is to manage that data well?
It makes sense. These new channels require new and more refined product data like photos and video. Then, with hundreds or even thousands of SKUs to manage for a single brand, you multiply the number of products by the average number of touchpoints—six—and that’s the real number of product data files you’re working with.
The resulting stockpile of polished data needed to sell online is enormous.
Here are the six signs that you might be in trouble with your own product data.
6 Signs Your Product Data Needs Work
Whether you’re just starting to organize product data and want to know what you’re really up against, or you think you have a decent system but want to see where you can improve, these are the six signs there’s trouble in product data paradise.
1. Customers return orders stating “it wasn’t what they expected”
If you have a lot of returns of products you sell online, do you collect data on why they were returned? The answer is most likely “yes.” How many options do you give customers to choose from? Or is the question open-ended?
However you collect that information, if you see a trend where products are returned because they weren’t what your customers expected, this is usually caused by thin or inaccurate product data.
Fill out product listings in their entirety and be sure to include the photos and video that show each product in its intended environment. These optimizations will give consumers a more thorough and consistent idea of what they’re about to buy.
2. Your product information isn’t consistently structured
Look at a handful of your product listings on any channel you sell on. Do they have the same structure product to product?
Let’s say they each have a short paragraph description followed by a bullet-point list of benefits the product offers. Then, they’re each optimized with four photos from three different vantage points. All of the technical specifications are filled out under that.
This is the level of consistency that your product data requires. The same product on different channels also needs to be structured in a similar way.
Without this consistency, consumers will lose confidence fast because it will feel like your brand is sending mixed messages. Give them the certainty that they crave through more consistent product data.
3. You expect to rank on Google but can’t seem to crack the SEO code If you’ve tried to apply SEO principles to your product data but still aren’t ranking, your data is in need of more work.
In most cases, completing each possible field on every channel gives you a running head start on this problem. The more information you give Google, the better it can rank you for the organic keywords you were born to own.
4. Multiple people are working with your product data This is the number-one culprit of problems with product data. When multiple people and departments have their hands in product information, especially if that information isn’t stored in a collaborative space in the cloud, there will always be inaccuracies and no one will ever have a truly definitive version.
5. You don’t have brand “loyalists” Consumer loyalty has dropped drastically over the last 10 years and it’s easy to see why. When price-checking is as instant as opening a new browser tab, the channels where brands build loyalty are now content channels, not sales channels.
Product data has to be consistent in content, because this consistency is what builds buyer trust. 87% of consumers rate product content as “extremely important” when choosing a product, and if your brand hasn’t tapped lasting loyalty yet, your buyers are probably looking for product content from your competitors.
6. Your product data doesn’t offer a personalized experience Consumers today expect a personalized experience with your brand. This personalization means ads, content, and products directed to them based on what’s relevant to their likes and behaviors.
Product data that does not support this level of personalization will be flat across channels and marketing segments. The opportunity you have here is to gain greater loyalty while also boosting conversions and creating a recognizable and authentic “brand personality.”
All you have to do is optimize your product data with the channel and end-user in mind.
Signs Your Product Data Problems Require a PIM
Managing hundreds or even thousands of SKUs and fixing all those problems in your product data is a beast. As long as any of the six signs above remain an issue, there are operational challenges you face in fixing it.
For brands selling online, a new-gen product information management software (PIM) is where you easily aggregate, clean up, optimize, and export product data for every channel you advertise or sell on.
There are recurring headaches that point to you needing a PIM solution, because today’s new-gen PIMs are built to solve specific pain points for e-commerce brands.
Here are the signs your ROI (and overall mental health) will benefit from a PIM:
- Dealing with multiple sales channels has become harder
- Your business or product catalog is growing
- You’re unable to handle cluttered digital assets
- Coworkers are constantly swapping different versions of Excel files with product data
- Managing your product data feels burdensome
- Launch to e-commerce (or a new channel) has taken months—or more
- You have limited or no searchability of your product information
- Analytics about product data are non-existent or don’t give you a clear action
- The departments who need it don’t share access to product data
Product data, when managed and optimized for every channel, is one of the central assets your brand has.
Without product data doing the work it was designed to do, your brand won’t get the sales it should (and your life will be harder than it has to be).
To continuously sharpen your brand’s competitive edge, assess which of these six signs have exposed an area of opportunity for you. Then, take the steps to optimize your product data and work past it.