Why product data must rise from being a basement child to a strategic success factor.
One click: Abandonment of purchase. No one goes back and forth as quickly as online shopping customers. But why is that?
Dr. Kai Hudetz from IFH Cologne knows the answer to this: "Not only the demands on the product itself, but also the demands on the product data are becoming increasingly complex." Today, data has a tremendous relevance for purchase or non-purchase, says Hudetz. This means that if you want to score points with your target group as a retailer or manufacturer, you have to make the topic of product information an integral part of your marketing and corporate strategy.
A dying dinosaur: Master Data Management
But everything was different in the past, wasn't it? That's right, because product data was still allowed to simply slumber away in the basement of master data management at many companies. It only had to meet the minimum requirements for operations, but was by no means used as a marketing strategy tool. With the online boom in recent years, this has changed. The IFH Cologne is therefore concerned about companies that have difficulties in setting up automated product information management and creating product experiences for their customers. According to IFH Cologne, the risk of purchase cancellations is now very high if customer expectations are not met.
"Only with complete, error-free and trustworthy product data can customers be won over and retained in the long term," explains Dr. Kai Hudetz. Otherwise, it's a case of abandoning the purchase and going away.
Get out of Master Data Management! What's so hard about it?
That's exactly what atrify and IFH Cologne wanted to know. That's why we asked various retailers and manufacturers during our study in autumn 2020. Many can hardly imagine a way out of the manual and time-consuming data processing of their products, these are the answers:
- Our product data is so inconsistent that it cannot be automated.
- My company is too conservative for that.
- For a new software we need training again.
- We've always done it that way!
But if you ask again, a big BUT flashes up. According to the responsible teams in the companies, it would be a great help to no longer have to enter everything by hand.
So much for the corporate side. It's high time that we now also hear the voices of online customers. As part of the study, we asked 500 people why they had stopped buying online in the last twelve months.
Why did you cancel your online purchase?
Here come the answers with the highest percentages:
- Because the product information is incorrect or missing. (68 %)
- Because information on nutritional values is missing. (58 %)
- Because customer questions and answers are not mapped transparently. (58 %)
- Because there is no information about the manufacturer of the product. (57 %)
- Because the product is not sufficiently presented. (53 %)
- Because there are no product reviews from other buyers. (43 %)
Overall, 77 % of the study participants have completed an online purchase in the last year. 23%, on the other hand, abandoned the purchase. A number that you can work on strategically. You can find out exactly how in our next blog post. There, we'll cover the topic of "Product Information Management: How High-Quality Product Information Serves as a Hygiene Factor."
They read from us!
All results of the 2020 study
"(R)evolution from Master Data Management to Product Experience Management".
Where are the most abandoned purchases and how can you ensure a first-class shopping experience? If you want to know exactly, you can download the entire study now for only 199.00 euros.
