With people shopping across websites, apps and social sites, it’s become harder for brands to maintain trustworthy product information everywhere. Effective retail product data management is now essential for ensuring consistency across every channel. Problems can occur in the customer experience if any important information is off by even a little bit.
Today, as omnichannel retail grows popular, how companies deliver accurate, current product data plays a big role in building their brand and earnings. It explains why having clean product data is crucial today, the problems inconsistency can cause for brands and options for retailers to ensure their customers are satisfied.
Why We Need Product Data Now More Than Ever
All the signals a brand uses to sell a product, like title, price, specs and the image, make up product data in ecommerce. Businesses and customers gain trust mainly thanks to clean and accurate product data. As product data management ecommerce grows in importance, the ability to maintain high-quality, consistent data across all platforms becomes a clear competitive advantage.
There are many problems with inconsistent data. A mistake on only one channel such as listing the wrong price or missing images, makes customers lose trust. The survey conducted by Statista in 2023 found that 62% of online shoppers globally said they would not buy from a brand if the product data is wrong.
Brands focusing on product data management trends understand that customer loyalty now depends on data accuracy more than ever.
The High Stakes of Inconsistency in Omnichannel Commerce
Modern shoppers switch from apps to web sites and social networks, always expecting reliable information wherever they go. This shift has driven brands to invest in product data enrichment and omnichannel customer experience strategies to ensure every product listing is up to date. Wrong or old product information shown online can soon lead to customers losing trust in the brand and looking for shops elsewhere.
To stay ahead, leading companies now adopt automated solutions for product data governance, ensuring all information is updated and synchronized. AI and automation are now commonly used to ensure a smooth omnichannel journey, helping businesses handle the problem of inconsistent product data.
The Hidden Gaps – How Omnichannel Analytics Solutions Uncover Data Failures
Ensuring product data is both accurate and similar in every sales channel matters a lot in retail today. Omnichannel analytics solutions serve as indispensable tools, enabling brands to monitor and analyze product performance across websites, mobile applications, social media platforms, and online marketplaces. By aggregating insights, these solutions make it easier to track product data management trends and ensure every channel reflects up-to-date information.
For example, Decathlon, a global sporting goods retailer, used omnichannel analytics solutions to spot missing images and outdated specs in 12% of their online listings. By addressing these gaps, they saw a measurable increase in customer satisfaction and conversion rates, demonstrating the benefits of product data management in a real-world setting.
Recently collected statistics remind us why it’s crucial to address inconsistencies in data. So far in 2024, the rate of online shopping cart abandonment is 70.19%. A major reason is providing inaccurate or unclear product information which can harm customer trust. By implementing product data management software and omnichannel retail examples like automated alerts, brands can detect and rectify data discrepancies more efficiently, leading to faster issue resolution and enhanced satisfaction.
With omnichannel analytics and by connecting these tools with data integration workflows for products, the information remains trustworthy everywhere it is delivered. This not only builds trust but also helps companies adapt to changing omnichannel marketing strategies and drive higher sales.
Solving the Omnichannel Trap – The Role of AI-Driven PIM Solutions
What does a PIM System do and why should we care about it?
PIM is a platform designed to gather, organize and sync all your key product data for your company. Brands rely on PIM to avoid the hassle of working with spreadsheets and to ensure information always stays updated every time it’s shared with other channels.
With the rapid evolution of product data management trends, relying on manual work is simply not enough. Inconsistent product data causes confusion and lost sales—especially as brands expand into new channels using omnichannel marketing strategies.
How AI-Driven PIM Systems Transform Product Data
Modern PIM solutions, like the AI-driven Gepard PIM solution, harness artificial intelligence to automate and optimize every aspect of product data management. Here’s how AI makes a difference:
1. Automatic Updates for Products:
When updates (including prices, availability or info) are made, AI will share them instantly with all web stores, apps and marketplaces, helping both old and new omnichannel analytics systems.
2. Information Enhancement Using Data Analytics
By leveraging AI for product data enrichment, brands can automatically fill in missing details, generate better product descriptions, and enhance media assets for a seamless omnichannel customer experience.
3. A system that monitors stores in real time.
With AI, it is possible to watch over how products are displayed on every platform. As a result, pictures, price tags and product details won’t be updated until customers do notice, so sellers must make the updates beforehand.
4. Governance and Harmonious Combination of Data:
Advanced PIMs offer robust product data governance and easy product data integration with ERP, DAM, and syndication systems. Because information is standardized, all guidelines are met easily.
Real-World Impact: Success with AI-Driven PIM
Brands using AI-powered PIM and omnichannel ecommerce software have reported significant improvements in operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing reported that in 2023, companies who automated PIM had two times fewer product data errors and introduced new products 30% sooner than groups using standard approaches (Deloitte Global Powers of Retailing).
Effective Ways to Improve Product Data
Using an AI-focused PIM system for the first time:
- Start Small: Audit your current product data management software and select a core set of products to clean and standardize.
- Run sync rules for product details when possible to lower the risk of mistakes.
- Track Improvements: Use retail omnichannel analytics and integrated reporting to measure reductions in error rates, faster updates, and increased customer trust.
- When you are confident, make PIM automation work for additional product categories, more channels and international areas. For brands with complex operations, integrating your PIM with pdm manufacturing systems can streamline collaboration between retail and manufacturing teams, ensuring accurate data flows from production to the digital shelf.
By combining these steps with a modern solution like the AI-driven Gepard PIM solution, brands are equipped to meet rising customer expectations, manage complex catalogs, and succeed with the latest components of product data management.
Why Reliable PIM and Analyzing Omnichannel Data Are in Our Future
The integration of AI-driven PIM with omnichannel analytics solutions is now considered best practice for retail success. These systems allow brands to move beyond reactive fixes, offering proactive insights and seamless execution of their product data management ecommerce strategies.
In other words, more reliable outcomes, improved compliance with standards, quicker product introduction and a reliable experience with the business every time customers interact.
Conclusion
Having good-quality, reliable product data everywhere is key to winning today’s shoppers and maintaining brand trust.
Advanced tools and AI for PIM make it possible for brands to update without manual effort, regulate product data and connect easily to both retail and pdm manufactoring systems.
Activities that ensure top quality data allow businesses to provide smooth services, keep customers loyal and remain successful in today’s market.