Product Data Complexity: A Growing Concern in Consumer Goods
As shoppers turn to digital sources to research products before, during and after their shopping trips, manufacturers and retailers are scrambling to get all the products they sell represented online to have a chance at winning the sale.
To satisfy shoppers’ need for product information, manufacturers are investing heavily in websites, mobile apps, social media and other shopper touchpoints, and their retail partners are doing the same.
In many cases, retailers are asking their manufacturer account teams to provide the digital product images and information they require. While that request might seem simple enough, particularly as it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to provide it, the complexity and volume of these requests are outpacing manufacturers’ ability to comply.
Manufacturers find themselves faced with a product data demand explosion. For each SKU, manufacturers are receiving overwhelming requests for hundreds of ever-changing product attributes and high-quality images, with different images for planograms, cases, e-commerce, nutrition panels and more. Assuming manufacturers were able to piece all this content together, they are then required to deliver this content in specific file formats according to each technology system and process the retailer is using it for, ranging from e-commerce and print advertising to shelf space management and logistics.
Manufacturers must be flexible enough to not only provide these content assets in the formats specific to the content’s end use, but also in line with each retailer’s particular technology vendor requirements, as well as in the delivery formats required by hundreds of third-party platforms such as search engines, blogs, coupon websites and mobile applications.
If that much complexity goes into meeting the product content creation and delivery requirements for one SKU, imagine multiplying that demand across thousands of SKUs.
The product data explosion has caused many manufacturers to ask, “Who is going to help us manage the growing volume and complexity of product data?”
Unfortunately, manufacturers are not finding answers to the product data challenge within their four walls, as the majority of consumer goods organizations are not structured to accommodate this new and evolving paradigm.
Most manufacturers lack the people, systems and processes required to update, host and distribute product images and information in an efficient, scalable, flexible and consistent way. The nature of how product data is created and managed, typically piecemeal by different departments with different systems (R&D, Marketing, Packaging, Operations, etc.), is compounding the complexity issue, with negative effects rippling throughout the organization down to retailers and shoppers.
The pace of product updates is also increasing the onerous task of managing product data. According to the CGT and Gladson research report Current and Consistent Product Data, almost 75% of manufacturers report that 15% or more of their product portfolio is updated each year as a result of changes to packaging, ingredients, marketing claims, regulatory compliance and so on.
The end result is that the demand and complexity of product data has outstripped manufacturers’ capacity to create, maintain and distribute it, particularly in a way that delivers any real advantages to the business and its trading partners.
Recognizing these challenges, a growing number of consumer goods manufacturers are outsourcing the creation, maintenance and distribution of their critical product data to product content solution providers like Gladson. By working with Gladson, manufacturers can establish one version of product truth across B2B and B2C functions, ensuring that they have accurate, up-to-date and consistent product images and data across the enterprise, distributed to retailers and available to shoppers.
Once one version of product truth is established, the benefits ripple throughout the organization: data can be integrated into technologies and processes faster and with better results, internal job functions improve their operations, collaboration with trading partners is strengthened and ultimately — the most important benchmark — shoppers have a positive experience with the brand and sales are lifted.
To satisfy shoppers’ need for product information, manufacturers are investing heavily in websites, mobile apps, social media and other shopper touchpoints, and their retail partners are doing the same.
In many cases, retailers are asking their manufacturer account teams to provide the digital product images and information they require. While that request might seem simple enough, particularly as it’s in the manufacturer’s best interest to provide it, the complexity and volume of these requests are outpacing manufacturers’ ability to comply.
Manufacturers find themselves faced with a product data demand explosion. For each SKU, manufacturers are receiving overwhelming requests for hundreds of ever-changing product attributes and high-quality images, with different images for planograms, cases, e-commerce, nutrition panels and more. Assuming manufacturers were able to piece all this content together, they are then required to deliver this content in specific file formats according to each technology system and process the retailer is using it for, ranging from e-commerce and print advertising to shelf space management and logistics.
Manufacturers must be flexible enough to not only provide these content assets in the formats specific to the content’s end use, but also in line with each retailer’s particular technology vendor requirements, as well as in the delivery formats required by hundreds of third-party platforms such as search engines, blogs, coupon websites and mobile applications.
If that much complexity goes into meeting the product content creation and delivery requirements for one SKU, imagine multiplying that demand across thousands of SKUs.
The product data explosion has caused many manufacturers to ask, “Who is going to help us manage the growing volume and complexity of product data?”
Unfortunately, manufacturers are not finding answers to the product data challenge within their four walls, as the majority of consumer goods organizations are not structured to accommodate this new and evolving paradigm.
Most manufacturers lack the people, systems and processes required to update, host and distribute product images and information in an efficient, scalable, flexible and consistent way. The nature of how product data is created and managed, typically piecemeal by different departments with different systems (R&D, Marketing, Packaging, Operations, etc.), is compounding the complexity issue, with negative effects rippling throughout the organization down to retailers and shoppers.
The pace of product updates is also increasing the onerous task of managing product data. According to the CGT and Gladson research report Current and Consistent Product Data, almost 75% of manufacturers report that 15% or more of their product portfolio is updated each year as a result of changes to packaging, ingredients, marketing claims, regulatory compliance and so on.
The end result is that the demand and complexity of product data has outstripped manufacturers’ capacity to create, maintain and distribute it, particularly in a way that delivers any real advantages to the business and its trading partners.
Recognizing these challenges, a growing number of consumer goods manufacturers are outsourcing the creation, maintenance and distribution of their critical product data to product content solution providers like Gladson. By working with Gladson, manufacturers can establish one version of product truth across B2B and B2C functions, ensuring that they have accurate, up-to-date and consistent product images and data across the enterprise, distributed to retailers and available to shoppers.
Once one version of product truth is established, the benefits ripple throughout the organization: data can be integrated into technologies and processes faster and with better results, internal job functions improve their operations, collaboration with trading partners is strengthened and ultimately — the most important benchmark — shoppers have a positive experience with the brand and sales are lifted.