Wise PIM choice: product data quality
What is the most important aspect of your product data? Good quality, of course! Only when your product information meets the customer's requirements will you have made a good offer. This only works if you have everything in order. But how do you get this done?
Start with good data quality
What is "good" varies from product to product. For example, you need to report different specifications for a screw than for a garment or a cabinet. Therefore, with each product, fulfil specifically the information the customer needs. In short, be complete.
- Do your lamps list the brightness?
- And for your clothes, the size and fit? Maybe even a size chart is appropriate, or an instruction video. There are many ways you can improve your product information.
Think about all these and provide the most complete experience for the customer for optimal results.
Other issues that come into play are:
- Correctness and consistency of product features
Are all product features completed in such a way that a customer can easily choose between alternatives via the website? And are good products recommended? - Timeliness of product status and stock
Some customers need certainty of delivery date. Make sure this is accurate. - Unique product features
Make sure each product can only be found once on your site. Is there an error that makes an item number refer to multiple products? Then expect a lot of returns. - Relevance product information
Is the product data shown on the webshop relevant to what a customer wants? For a mixer tap, the material type is relevant, but perhaps not the noise level.
The help of a PIM system
You can think of a PIM system as the guardian of your product data quality. This is why choosing a PIM is very important. The last thing you want is to allow errors or not be able to do everything your business needs.
Our tip is to look out for the option in PIM systems for mandating attributes and generating data quality reports. Also look at the various methods and techniques of the PIM system for managing product data quality. Then pay particular attention to the following aspects:
- Attribute management
- Data profiling
- Data cleansing
Data cleansing and data profiling do not apply to many PIM solutions. Do you want to analyse and clean up large quantities of product data (100,000 or more products)? Then check carefully whether this is included in the PIM solution. If not, you may be able to arrange this separately from the PIM system. Often, data is easily swapped between the separate solutions and the PIM (but check this beforehand).
Attribute management
PIM systems often stand out when it comes to attribute management. Therefore, think carefully about your requirements and wishes in this section. Ask yourself the following questions:
- Is there a view or dashboard to see if the mandatory attributes are sufficiently populated for the intended channel?
- Is there a possibility to create, search and filter attributes via a user-friendly user interface?
- Are there possibilities to modify attribute properties?
- Are there possibilities to manage rules on attributes?
- Are there possibilities to hang attributes in groups or categories?
- Are there possibilities to report on attributes?
Conclusion
Product data has good quality when it is complete, correct, up-to-date, unique and relevant. Take this into account in your PIM solution and see if you can make attributes mandatory. In addition, you want to be able to generate data quality reports and various options for managing product data quality.