Enrichening product information

22 April 2009

Ivis Group’s Tony Jones explains how rich product information is critical to enhancing the customer experience.

With the enormous growth in multi-channel retail there has been major investment in online customer experience. Revamped Web sites are launched, new features added and customer journeys improved. Despite the economic downturn online sales continue to grow and the trend to improve customer experience looks set to continue.

However, the impact poor quality product information has on customer experience is often overlooked. The reasons for this are complex. Fixing the data is seen as difficult, expensive and no one department has responsibility for product data quality. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems developed to support stores were simply not designed to provide the rich, customer-centric information demanded by today’s multi-channel shoppers. New channels were initially separate departments and business processes evolved that are distinct from those of the core business.

Whatever the cause, the consequences can be severe – compromised site navigation, poor search results, inflexible categorisation and the lack of sufficient information to enable customers to understand, let alone compare, products. Ultimately, customers cannot find, understand or make informed buying decisions and the bottom line suffers.

The impact goes beyond the online channel. Different teams work on the product details for online, catalogue, call-centre and in-store consumption. Working in isolation with little collaboration leads to escalating costs. Without a single source of extensive, accurate product information, customers using multiple channels receive inconsistent information, leading to potential confusion and lost sales. To overcome these challenges and excel in multi-channel customer experience requires four elements:

First, define an efficient business process. Range reviews are needed all too frequently and an efficient process will ensure that not only is the product information of top quality today but also that new products can be added rapidly. Using business rules to automate as much of the process as possible can offer significant efficiency savings in this area. Working effectively with suppliers and third-party data providers can help streamline the process and reduce the effort involved, but necessitates having clear quality checkpoints during the product induction process.

Second, ensure the product information can grow with the business. Customer needs are not static and neither are the demands on your product information. New product features will be added and new channels may evolve. In either case, the dated, static data models of yesteryear no longer offer the flexibility needed. Retail professionals need to be able to create new product types and new product attributes rapidly.

Third, promote cross channel collaboration. Ensure a central, rich product information repository is available for use on the Web site, for catalogue production, in store and across all other channels. Not only will this reduce costs but it will also ensure the delivery of consistent product messages through every channel.

Finally, place responsibility and control of product data directly into the hands of the business. High quality product information is not the responsibility of IT but must be seen as a core business asset. Any solution must allow business users to manage this vital asset with minimal involvement of IT.

The key to success is often creating a clear process where none exists today. By adopting a clear strategy for product induction and enriching the available product information, an excellent, consistent cross-channel customer experience can be provided.