When it comes to online retail, product information management tools have never been more important.
Consumer expectations are constantly evolving. Delivering on these expectations means guaranteeing an engaging, authentic consumer experience. In order to meet the high standards which shoppers so rightly hold retailers to, an exemplary product information management (PIM) system is key.
Accuracy is an increasingly important factor in meeting modern consumer expectations. Frustrating consumers with content that is incomplete, misleading or inaccurate is hugely detrimental to their experience and lasting impression of your business.
A recent Forrester report referred to brands and retailers as being in a “sprint for dominance in a content arms race.” There’s a real need for businesses to find effective product information management systems, which take a holistic approach to optimizing their digital product experience.
Selecting the perfect product information management software is half the battle. Success lies in finding the right solution – and making the smartest use of it. Let’s explore some key pitfalls.
Pitfall 1: A Disjointed OmniChannel Experience
Consumer behaviour has changed forever – our experience of a brand and its products now needs to follow us, with consistency, across a wide range of channels. The vast majority of shoppers (almost 90%) now start their hunt for a product on a digital channel, so it’s important to ensure that as they transition from this initial touch point, their experience of a product remains coherent and immersive.
Brands underestimate the need for (and power of) consistency within product attributes at their peril. Even more problematic is the fact that many are unaware they have a problem with consistency to begin with. Missing or seemingly inaccurate descriptions and product images is likely to cause consumers to seek another item, abandon their carts or even switch to a competitor.
This is more than an issue of a missed conversion. Failing to consider the omnichannel experience of your consumers is a contributing factor towards degraded brand reputation, impacting consumer loyalty and LTV.
How ECP’s Product information Management Solution (PIM) Helps:
Ensure a consistent digital product experience across all channels with a product information management solution that enables effortless cross-channel accuracy. ECP’s intuitive dashboard helps you deliver a flawless omnichannel experience, with easy version control and channel management.
Pitfall 2. Ineffective Quality Control at Scale
Online retail is synonymous with convenience and increasingly, choice. The growing number of SKUs generated by sub-brands, regional promotions and diversification of products coupled with the rise in demand for more product detail being shown by consumers, means that retailers and distributors are dealing with more product information than ever before.
If current trends continue (and there’s no reason to believe that they shouldn’t) this pressure is only set to increase. If you’re aiming for high quality product information, it’s simply not feasible to handle content at this kind of scale without leaning on an element of AI and automation.
Distributors and retailers need to anticipate the rising requirement here, taking a proactive (as opposed to reactive) approach. When it comes to maintaining quality alongside quantity, what’s manageable today, may not be so easy to handle tomorrow.
How ECP’s Product information Management (PIM) Solution Helps:
In order to keep on top of the rising tide of digital product information with accuracy and consistency, end-to-end content quality visibility is essential. ECP’s product information management tools help save time by flagging gaps in product content automatically. Business intelligence functionality can then be used to suggest the most profitable areas to invest your efforts. PIM is about more than product management; it’s about effective workflows, aligned teams and ultimately, more revenue.
Pitfall 3. Poor Product Information Taxonomy
Effective taxonomy management brings many benefits to a business, not least in its ability to unify and optimize collective efforts relating to product information management. It’s an especially pressing issue for larger brands, retailers or distributors who can expect to handle ranges of highly complex products.
Better taxonomy also leads to better product ownership. This paves the way for less complication in management and reduction in the risk of work being needlessly duplicated across multiple teams.
Without access to high quality product information management tools, businesses risk experiencing inconsistent and confusing terminology. They provide no single source of truth.
Working with a leading product information management solution means taxonomies can be auto-categorized, with metadata or tagging enabled, for better control and better visibility.
How ECP’s Product Information Management (PIM) Solution Helps:
ECP enables automated, optimized product taxonomy. This removes the risk of human error, and frees teams from a more manual process, giving them more time to invest elsewhere. Ultimately, a seamless product hierarchy means an optimized consumer experience.
Sidestep PIM Problems With A Leading Product Information Management Solution
It’s never been more important to get a good handle of your product information management. The demand for product information is only going to grow (as will the number of products offered), so finding the right solution is important.
ECP offers a product information management solution and so much more. As an “all in one” platform offering a real end to end solution, ECP takes your product information from efficient onboarding right through to downstream analysis, enabling effortless categorization and dependable accuracy across all channels. The result: an enriched, more dependable consumer experience, rewarded by an increase in sales.
