My colleague Garry Moroney asked the very pertinent question “Is your data ready for Global Data Synchronization?” in a recent blog – Given the massive rise in online sales during the recent holiday period in the US there is an equally burning question to be asked about whether your data is ready to sell on-line?
So-called Cyber Monday – the online equivalent of Black Friday – saw online sales grow 22 per cent to $1.25 billion, according to research firm comScore, to become the biggest online shopping day in history and the second day on record to surpass the billion-dollar threshold. More than $15 billion has already been spent online during this year’s holiday season – a 15-percent increase versus the corresponding days last year.
That’s impressive, but there is evidence that shows it probably could be better if suppliers and retailers provided better data on their ecommerce sites. Shoppers are wary of websites or mobile shopping apps where data is missing, incomplete or inaccurate. The recent GS1 Consumer survey draws a direct link between data quality and online or mobile app sales, concluding that when consumers can’t get data, or feel they cannot trust the data they do get, they don’t buy!
And further research by Cap Gemini shows that the impact of bad data online can go even further than the loss of individual sales opportunities, but can actually damage brand equity. According to Gap Gemini when consumers receive bad data, it represents, at best, a missed opportunity for brand owners to accurately inform consumers about products, but at its worst, it is a direct assault on the integrity of your brands and damages consumer trust, which may be hard if not impossible to regain.
So ask yourself the question is data ready to sell online? – If you don’t know it might be worth doing a bit of work to find out.
The short answer to your question, at least from the standpoint of FMCG, is no.
ShelfSnap has done studies on various categories over the last two years. We compared the products actually on shelf in Kroger, Ahold, Walmart, Safeway and other major chains, with the images and data contained within the master-data at manufacturers and their commercial suppliers.
Roughly a third of the products on shelf had NO images or data available
Roughly a third of the products on shelf had the WRONG images in the database. Images that did not match the package on shelf.
In food products where we found the package on shelf differed from the databased item we also found the nutritional facts had changed 2/3rds of the time.
This standard, the Consumer Relevance of the images and data in your database is not currently considered in GS1 or other rules. Yet it is the only standard that matters on the digital path to purchase.