In today’s retail landscape, the significance of product data management is gaining momentum with the growing complexity of the sales channel and eCommerce platforms. The rapidly increasing volume and variety of product information are demanding smarter product data management services to enhance data quality and reliability for a hyper-connected and frictionless experience across channels.

The Drift towards a Connected Product Experience

The way the modern-day shoppers search, select, and buy a product is a whole new game.` And, everything from providing deals and offers to faster service and easy-to-use apps has to be just inflow. This is where the golden record of product data is essential to provide a seamless experience that is integrated across the system. 

Top eCommerce players are conducting n-number of experiments to enrich product experience with an effective product data management solution to improve conversion. 

Product Data Management is no more a Chance but a Necessity.

The current pandemic situation has forced businesses big and small to drive digital efficiency by integrating offline and online trading systems. While that’s never a possibility for small businesses and startups, an eCommerce product data management system can make it happen.

According to Ventana Benchmark research, three in five organizations (61%) cited improving the customer experience as a benefit they realized from their investment into product information management

With a well-developed product data management system, your business can source, optimize, and enrich product data to deliver a unified shopping experience. And, it creates a single source of product information including suppliers, dropshippers, and manufacturer’s data.

Now that you’re convinced that PDM is no more a chance, but a necessity. Let’s take a step further to identify the best practices while developing and implementing a product data management solution.

Product Data Management Best Practices

Understand your eCommerce Product Data Management Goals and Define the Scope

The first best thing to do is to thoroughly analyze your current product data and define the scope of the solution. This is important for a seamless and proactive product data management experience. In addition, it also helps set your expectations right and measure the effectiveness of managing your product data.

 In a nutshell, defining your business goal will pave the way for your product data management success. 

Here are some examples of goals to define before stepping into finding the solution –

• Enhance the customer experience
• Increase the productivity of marketing strategies
• Expansion into new channels
• Improvement of team collaboration
• Speed up time-to-market
• Scaling business into new geographies
• Onboard vendor data
• Delivery of better quality product data

The next step that follows is to determine the scope of the project and define the process. Should you model your entire catalog and start managing your products from the beginning? Or should you take a “land and expand” approach?

 By starting small, you can test and implement the process for crucial products, and expand it on subsequent phases. While this approach could work well for larger enterprises, a comprehensive approach could be the right choice for smaller businesses, owing to the cost issues.

Invest in Categorizing your Products:

Product categorization helps customers intuitively find the product of their choice on your eCommerce site.

A Forrester research report found that a poorly architectured retailing site sells 50% less than better-organized sites, where searches failed 47% of users gave up after just one search. 

If not with a clear product organization, you may lose customers who can’t be bothered to search for the product beyond the first few attempts. But if you get it right, your conversion rate can soar high. That said –

Be sure to categorize from the customer’s perspective.

Analyze how your customers look for the information and how they want to browse through your website. For example, if they want to search for product information based on “material” don’t limit your attributes to the size and color only.

Use appropriate names and consider search synonyms.

Consider the audience when you name your categories. For instance, If you run a B2B site with a very specific audience, it is essential to use the terms that members of the industry would understand.

Ensure all the product tags and measurements are consistent

Use the word “Large” to represent the product size across all the products and do not switch between using “Large” and “L” and use either inches or centimeters in your product specification and not both.

And, understand that B2B is different from B2C.

Though clear navigation and strong organization are the universal benefits, the audience between B2B and B2C eCommerce differ, and so does their requirement. The seemingly smaller and more focused catalog that works for B2C may not work for a B2B audience. The B2B customer will be more interested in in-depth technical details and are not necessarily overwhelmed by deep categories, and industry-specific terms. 

Focus on Data Quality and Accuracy

High-quality and accurate product data sets the tone right for growth within every structure of your eCommerce business. Certainly, it makes sure that your product ranks high on Google, and your customers will consider your offering and make purchase decisions based on it. 

But how to tell your product is of high quality? 

Here are five significant parameters to consider when measuring the quality of your product data. 

And how to implement it?

Collect Data from Verified Sources

Invest time in verifying the facts, images, videos, and texts attached to each product SKU. Analyze it for inconsistencies, errors, duplicates, and missing information, and add, modify or delete the information accordingly.

Regularly update your product data.

Run regular updates on your data. With every change in any product details, there is always a call for an update across channels. 

Centralize Data and Digital Assets

Avoid duplication of data. Ensure that your product data gets centralized into a single document that will serve as a reference document for users to refer to. 

Include comprehensive information in your product catalog. 

Provide all the details your customers need to assess your products quickly. That is to say, include technical attributes, images, videos, inventory information, units of measurement, and product usage combinations, and this information needs to be straightforward and easy to navigate.

Choose the right eCommerce Product Data Management Solution.

As a business owner or a product data manager, a part of your responsibility is to choose the best product data management solution for your business.

There are several similar software and service providers available in the market. But, identifying the right choice that best suits your business needs can be a challenge. 

There is no “One-size fits all” solution. Some software can be suitable for eCommerce giants that need many people to have access to the same data sets; others will better suit smaller startups with only a handful of people to work with the data. 

So choose based on your business needs.

While several factors go into choosing the right product data management solution, here are some basic requirements that can be highlighted –

• Facilitate collaboration easily between teams
• Reduce development errors
• Fit your budget/usage
• Improve productivity
• Help you find the data you need as quickly as possible
• Maintain your company’s security standards

Here are some examples of commonly used PDM software:

Sales Layer:

A PIM tool that offers PDM functionality. Centralizes all product data, including technical sheets and SKUs, with automated information updates.

Salsify Product Experience Management Platform: 

Delivers a unified product experience platform that brings together content management, publishing, syndication, and analytics.

Siemens PDM

The most commonly used PDM software to get familiar with if you are applying for Data Product Manager roles.

No matter the solution you choose, try to keep a single source of truth to avoid duplicating product data and risk making mistakes. For example, suppose you are already using an ERP or PIM system to manage your product catalog. In that case, you want to avoid replicating the existing data into a separate e-commerce platform. This can be done with ERP-integrated e-commerce.

Planning to Outsource Product Data Management Services?

All’s said and done; eCommerce product data management is not a “ride in the park” kind of task. It is time-intensive and requires a high level of diligence and accuracy. And, even a tiny mistake can cost you your business reputation. Moreover, it also needs expert skills to manage both offline and online product data management processes.

While the entire task is best left to the experts, you can focus on business activities that boost sales and revenue.

About Vserve

As one of the top, full-service, eCommerce support agencies, Vserve offers a comprehensive range of product data management services for both B2C and B2B eCommerce businesses. No matter the product or service you provide, we can help manage and streamline your company’s core asset – your product data to reduce operational costs, increase sales, and improve partnerships.

 

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10 Proven Benefits of Outsourcing Product Data Management Services

Are you caught in the web deciding whether outsourcing product data management is the choice for your business? And how to find the right outsourcing partner?

Assuming, as you click on this blog, you’re already aware of the power of product data in maximizing your online sales and your need to streamline and organize it for better benefits. Here, we have made efforts to throw some light on how best you can achieve your desired data management results by outsourcing it rather than investing in-house.

To begin, it’s tough –

The process involved in eCommerce product data management is time-intensive and requires a high level of diligence and accuracy. And, a small mistake can cost you your business reputation. It also needs expert skills and technical knowledge in both offline and online product data management support.

While everything from data entry, catalog management to inventory management and logistics, is best when left to the experts. You can focus on more than essential tasks such as marketing, promotion, and business expansion.

Why is Data Management Outsourcing popular among top eCommerce players?

A majority of eCommerce businesses now find outsourcing an economical and trustworthy way to manage their product data. They outsource their product data management services to a reliable partner with expertise and experience in their domain. This decision has proven to be rewarding in the long run for many. And, Let’s see why –

Cutting Cost and Saving BIG –

Product data management is relatively cost-effective when compared to doing it in-house. You cut down big on labor cost and infrastructure, when your specialized partner, well-equipped in resources and technology, will serve you best at a reasonable price.

Expert Professional Support –

Need access to the expert eCommerce specialist best in the industry? 

Your outsourcing partner can guarantee that you get a high-quality output that would otherwise be subpar when in-house due to the lack of training and expertise. While training your in-house resources on specific data management tasks can be expensive. Your reliable outsourcing partner will be a specialist and will best serve you at a reasonable cost. 

100% Data Accuracy –

Around 40% of customers return their product because of the unmatched product description, and 87% are unlikely to purchase again from the retailer with inaccurate data.

The product data is the only source of information your customer can rely-on. Therefore the accuracy needs to be perfected to more than 97%. Easier said than done, trying to accomplish this in-house needs additional resources for data verification and quality assurance, which might cost you more than expected. Outsourcing ecommerce product data management to an expert can assure the utmost accuracy and highest data quality at considerable cost.

Enhanced Data Security –

As the world of online sales continues to expand, so does cyber threats and data theft challenges to your business. A competent data management service provider will have stringent protocols and detailed NDA to safeguard confidential product information. An ISO 27001:2013 certification for ISMS on their profile can give you the confidence that they have taken the necessary precautions to prevent a data breach and have a plan set in place if any security risk does occur.

Consistent Data Update –

Frequently updating a product catalog is a resource-intensive process that every business cannot afford. While you are set to focus on expanding your product range and business operations, an accomplished outsourcing partner can provide a comprehensive product data management solution that involves constant and on-going upload of product data.

Simplified Catalog Management –

Catalog management is one aspect that helps retailers stay ahead of the competition and stay in the race. However, it is a strategic process that involves organizing, standardizing, and publishing product information. And with a range of products, you might also need unique product descriptions and proper categorization. By outsourcing ecommerce product data management tasks, you will be able to focus on your core business needs. They have a talented team of experts in building, maintaining, and updating your databases regularly. 

Well-Presented Product Information –

Presenting the product content without any ambiguity is as crucial as presenting itself. A competent team of product data management experts will include copywriters, image editors, and data mining experts who will tap into your product industry’s nuances. Create informative and attractive product descriptions, videos, product images, and digital content that attract your buyers and compel them to make a purchase – Which is quite a task when done in-house.

Result-Driven SEO Strategies –

Yes, ecommerce SEO still matters, and we could argue that they are more efficient in driving customers to your website than traditional and paid marketing efforts. 

Stats prove that around 40% of ecommerce traffic comes from search results, and 80% of prospects choose organic search results compared to paid ones.

Most product data management teams will be equipped with SEO experts. They can help with extensive keyword research for your product content and on-page optimization for your product pages. Thus driving your products to stay on top of your search results and stay ahead of your competitors.

Quick Access to Information –

An efficient management company will help you to manage the data with ease. By outsourcing your product data management services to a reliable partner, you can rest assured that your data is digitized, processed, and stored for easy access and retrieval. Regardless of how old the information and value is, it is quick and simple to find them for further use. 

Scalable Solutions –

Deploying in-house resources can sound to be the right choice for immediate results, but it might prove to be wrong in the long run. 

During a sudden surge in demand for your product or increase or decrease in product volume, neither adding on resources or overloading all the responsibility to one available support may be a feasible choice. With the best product data management service, you can benefit from hiring or relieving a high-quality resource on-demand basis. You can able to make it without any full-time commitment.

Are you ready to Outsource Product Data Management?

We have done our part in proving how outsourcing ecommerce product data management is beneficial. By outsourcing, you can yield tremendous results in the long run. It is time to find the right outsourcing partner to help achieve your data management quality and accuracy goals. – here is our resource on helping you find the right data management outsourcing partner – The blog explains in-depth how to find an outsourcing partner who ensures collaboration, technical support and customer care, and beyond that a better return on investment.  

Still skeptical about why you need to outsource product data management? Here we are to help you further. Our team of industry experts in eCommerce Outsourcing Services can connect with you to also understand your business model and provide the needed support.

Also, feel free to include your ideas and queries about this blog in the comment section.

 

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Impact of Product Data Management in Ecommerce Business

How to Pick the Right Product Data Management Service Provider?

Data is the backbone of any successful organization today. Although it comes in numerous forms and can be utilized to many ends, the worth scarcely changes — at least when discussing performance and optimization. You need the information to be competitive; however, you also need data to keep satisfying your customers’ needs. The right PDM system is accessible by multiple teams and multiple applications across businesses and supports business-explicit needs. Picking the right product data management service provider can offer an organization in any industry with a strong foundation that can be effectively ventured into a full PLM platform.

At its core, a product data management offers solutions for secure configuration management, data management, and process enablement.

Every Business Needs a Product Data Management Solution

Even though the digital transformation in some organizations is still in its early stages, eCommerce product data management system is already prominent in some businesses. For their success, these organizations depend on the safety standards and highest quality of their sustainable products. The ideal PDM aims to make product data readily available at the point of need. New data can be stored in a couple of simple steps. This is quick and saves a lot of work and expenses.

How To Land The Right Product Data Management Services Provider?

Owing to the massive amount of choices available, businesses may feel overwhelmed when they start the quest for a PDM provider. Different recommendations might come from friends and colleagues in similar businesses that leave people seeking for a PDM provider feeling confused.

When running a product campaign, you need to ensure that you are targeting the right market for a higher ROI. The ideal data management provider can likewise help organizations facilitate better customer relations and customer care service by keeping information organized. Businesses end up with a more proficient custom data system when managed through a decent PDM. The followings are the critical factors to consider when looking for the right product data management service provider;

–> ROI

The first move to precisely assessing a PDM service provider is to check whether their service will offer an adequate return on investment (ROI). This doesn’t mean only up-front cost, but all it takes to install and maintain the system. By linking data sources, adding structure to the data on account of the publisher’s business rules, and helping make the data significant, the PDM brings higher revenue for their inventory, gives more insights into their audience, and comes up with better business decisions. There are numerous ways a PDM can help an organization build its bottom line.

–> Size Versus Flexibility in Product Data Management Service

How large is the data management service provider you are considering working with? Some PDM companies reduce their personalized services as they grow. Indeed, data management providers that are part of a more prominent company will have fabulous marketing resources; however, you should find out how responsive they will be to your needs.

When you are looking for support, a provider that responds professionally and quickly is extremely valuable. Who is going to be your direct point of contact once you have an agreement? Are you going to have a dedicated resource for your company or only a set of online FAQs? Depending on how much of a support you’re looking for, that may influence how you pick a product data management service.

–> Ensure Collaboration

Product data management services are primarily used to centralize data storage, but likewise to maintain it, update it, and have easy access to it. Therefore, you have to circulate your data from central storage to all your working folders, and the other way around. One point to consider is that the PDM service provider you pick ought to be able to manage conflicts of data.

–> Excellent Technical Group

Numerous data management providers in the market will meet your requirements. Along these lines, pick a provider who has brilliant technical support and an attentive account team. When issues emerge within the data management network, they usually have a major effect on your business. Your capability to resolve these issues timely will be crucial to your success.

–> Good Customer Care Service

Every data you control acts as a powerful tool; however, what if you do not know how to go about your PDM or have one or two questions, what are you going to do? Who will you call? When you are looking for a PDM service provider, a company that responds rapidly and professionally is valuable.

Conclusion:

For businesses to be successful, they need to identify the issues they are trying to solve and how well they know the tools provided to solve them. Then execute the project understanding what you are trying to accomplish, have the ideal people who can make it happen, and the most appropriate procedure that will take you there. Vserve product data management services offer you with the characteristics as mentioned earlier. It would be best if you kept in mind that picking the ideal PDM provider is the only way to make your business grow.

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Impact of Product Data Management in Ecommerce Business

Data is Worthless Without Data Management Services

A sound product data management system provides a business with a “solitary source of truth”. It is also, a central system where you can easily access the company’s product data, in the knowledge that the information is valid. In a PDM system, you gather all of the product data, enrich it and disperse it rapidly and productively to the entirety of the channels, digitally to websites, online stores, and marketing channels, for example, eBay Amazon, and PriceRunner, and in printed brochures, datasheets, and catalogs, and so forth.

The Need for A Product Data Management

The requirement for a PDM system often emerges when a business’ product information requirements increase, and the old method of managing data is never again satisfactory. The organization’s ERP system is too rigid, unfit to manage the expanding complexity of the product information, and chaos of databases and Excel sheets makes finding the right data and dispersing it to the right channels.

The PDM system is incorporated into the company’s different systems. It’s set up between the company’s sources for product data on the side (PLM, ERP supplier data, and so forth.) and the external data distribution marketing channels on the other (CMS lists, online store, datasheets, catalogs, etc.)

Things You Need to Know About Ecommerce Product Data Management

While it is standard for some big ventures to monitor their vast databases of parts, associated documentation, assemblies, it does not mean smaller organizations can’t profit from all the benefits related to enterprise-level information management. Effective data management services keep your company moving like a well-oiled machine.

Are you using data management services in your company? If you aren’t, it is time you did. Be that as it may, where do you start? To start with, you have to understand some fundamental things about the data management system. Some of which you never knew before.

• PDM Is More Accessible To Smaller Companies Now

Generally, PDM software has only been accessible to big organizations with substantial and healthy budgets. Anyways the era of expensive and sophisticated business software only being available to large organizations is about to end. With the introduction of some new PDM essentials, you can make use of the same secret weapons that organizations like Volvo and Philips use. Now the software is priced and scaled for different team formations, from only one user to many users. What’s more, here is the best news: it very well may be the installation and configuration takes only a day!

• Product Data Is Critical to Purchasing Decisions

The battle for the cutting-edge customer – in B2B and B2C – is generally a battle about data. The cutting-edge consumer does a ton of researching online prior to making a buying decision, and the more and better product data available, for instance, in your online store, the more the probability that the buyer will become your customer.

A PDM system makes it simple to develop and maintain all sorts of product data so that you could provide the customer a full description of the item, its exact specs, the necessary videos, and images, relevant, and so forth. The entirety of this is the combination of user-focus descriptions rather than internal item numbers and different terms that the ERP system commonly uses.

• A Data Set Brings Benefits Only When It Is Used on Decision Makings

If you use best practices, for instance, clean a data collection, distribute its schema, assign a data steward, and layer on an open API. Still, no one ever uses the data set; then you have not delivered any direct benefits. Decisions and actions bring about benefits, and until we utilize a data set to support our decision making, it is merely incurring costs. (We recognize that a data index that is “all set” has an option value; however, that shouldn’t be your initial eCommerce product data management focus).

• You Have to Consider Security

Storing your data is just an aspect of data management services. You will have to remember a few different things. Security ought to be the priority on your list. Information security is more critical as an ever-increasing number of organizations get the risks of hacking. No customer likes discovering the compromising of their data. No company does either. Be mindful of security breaches. Consider security measures like a regular part of your data management.

• It Saves Time

Setting up a data management system requires time and effort, particularly when you are working with too much existing data. The result, however, will be worth what it took you to get there. When you have your system fully operational, you will wonder how you ever coped without it. When your data is overseen productively, you have more time to commit to other things.

Product Data Management Services

Product data management Services is very critical to the success of your organization. It makes it run smoothly and allows you to focus on other meaningful things. With vserve product data management, your company’s data management will take your business to more productive heights. If you do not have a data management system already set up, start the process today.

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Impact of Product Data Management in Ecommerce Business

Why Data Entry Outsourcing? Top 6 Benefits

Product data management systems offer a centralized location for product data that all your other departments and channels can source from. Well-executed PDM has a massive impact on a business by standardizing your product information and streamlining the process of sending it out to all other channels, especially the product data management in eCommerce business. PDM software is available from various providers and can integrate with specific aspects of your other eCommerce software like your control systems and inventory tracking.

Some eCommerce businesses have PDM features built-in straight out of the box. The sole purpose of PDM is to mitigate the difficulties of product information management and consistency through the whole of your business, ensure distribution of the top-notch quality product information as smoothly as possible, and offer you the opportunity and tools to improve your product data in all cases.

What Is the Most Common Scope of Product Data Management in eCommerce?

PDM ordinarily acts as centralized data management and repository system for eCommerce businesses, or brick and mortar, retail brands. Its focus is entirely on product information, and other aspects of eCommerce, for instance, marketing (besides data identified with digital marketing channels), returns processing, customer, segmentation, and order management have no spot within the PDM.

As the ultimate source for product information, PDM feeds the eCommerce businesses, as well as other third-party systems. Combined online and offline trading system and multi-language, omnichannel environments, and multi-store set-ups all have exceptionally complex information management needs. PDM guarantees data integrity across all these environments and systems.

The Impacts of Product Data Management Services

The reality of e-commerce and business today makes data management services a fundamental part of operations. Regardless of whether it is your client’s data stored in your CRM, in-application analytics, conversations done via chatbots, the thousands of Slack messages exchanged between your team, or any blend of these, data management is a significant part of running a company.

You could summarize the fundamental benefits of PDM by saying that it unfathomably improves the manner in which your business deals with product information, but what precisely does this mean? How about we take a look at the details of how a decent PDM system can impact your business in many ways:

Improves Data Management

Having a focal information management tool brings both responsibility and ownership, with an unmistakable workflow for product data within the company. Information quality improves and the time needed to amend or add product data is highly reduced. PDM’s can likewise add reports about the quality of product information (at different levels), workflow to urge different users to improve various aspects, the capacity to automate enhancement in places and localize different fields, and so forth.

Improves Customers Experience

When your products are correctly described, categorized, and stocked, customers can quickly locate what they’re looking for, be positive about their buying decision, and be enticed by up-sells and related items they come across. This is what a proper eCommerce product data management brings.

Productivity Gains

With PDM, retailers can bring in product information from numerous sources, which includes suppliers, to develop a mind-boggling product data rapidly, precisely, and effectively. Users are likewise able to automate different aspects of the enrichment procedure and establish workflows to make checking more effective.

There is no compelling reason to manage information into different systems. Since the PDM acts as the grand source of product information and afterward feeds other systems where required. With minimal time spent on the data entry, there is enough time to be spent on product optimization. This will help you in bringing about increasing sales.

Improves Speed to Market

When your business has a new item, getting it quickly to the market is significant. Every minute you’re, your product is on the proverbial rack, you’re losing money. That, however, you are allowing your rivals to get their items to the market first. This results in reducing the effect of your product launch. Product data management services are one of the best methods of speeding up to the market. Once every product data is on hand, you only need to input them, and you are good to start selling.

Makes Searching for Product Information Easier

Almost everyone in your business will require easy access to product data, particularly your sales group. Obviously, you would have already trained your business group about the items; however, it is imperative that they can address technical questions decisively. PDM system will guarantee that all the latest product data is in one place and is easily accessible. This will ensure that every member of your staff is informed and well equipped to sell the products.

Restructuring your product life-cycle requires a deep dive into the information output from your current system. However, getting to this degree of visibility utilizing data silos or spreadsheets is a vain effort, considering the sheer amount of information created at each stage in the lifecycle. By embracing a PDM strategy, you will reduce unnecessary costs, empower your workers, and develop a good relationship with customers.

Final Thoughts on eCommerce Data Management in eCommerce Business

Now, you may know the importance and the impact of product data management in eCommerce business. It is one of the most important task in online retail business to stay on top of your competitors. You can outsource to a reliable PDM agency to make your eCommerce business reach millions of customers online.

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