NEW data from MRA Research, in partnership with Pimberly, has revealed that just over a third of UK merchants and manufacturers have lost sales as a direct result of poor product data.
The research surveyed 80 senior decision makers, from 40 merchants and 40 manufacturers, with direct responsibility for the purchasing of IT and technology within their individual organisations.
Product data is all the information that describes a product. 92% of respondents said they face at least one product data challenge, with merchants and manufacturers on average spending 26 hours a week managing and fixing product data issues, close to £50,000 a year in staff time. Despite that effort, 45% have published ‘inconsistent’ product information across sales channels, 43% have made errors in orders, fulfilment or returns, and 41% say it has caused poor customer experience.
Pimberly, a provider of Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) for the construction sector, said that failure to provide a ‘central, owned source of accurate, structured product data’ will result in a failure to sell in a market led by digital-first buyers.
Martin Balaam, CEO and founder at Pimberly, said, “Every board I speak to has digital commerce on the agenda; almost none of them talk about the product data it runs on. You can’t win at one, without the other. Whether you’re a merchant or a manufacturer, clean data alone isn’t enough – quite frankly that’s table stakes. The same data as everybody else wins you nothing. To really get in the race, you need comprehensive data enrichment. We’re already seeing the shift in preference to AI as the primary search tool for digital first buyers, and in this new ecosystem the penalty for poor data will be lost sales.”
Callum Budd, research director at MRA Research, added, “This research is a timely benchmark for a sector facing rapidly changing customer expectations and growing pressure to improve digital capabilities. The finding that 34% of businesses admit to having lost sales directly because of poor product data shows this is no longer simply an operational issue, but a clear commercial risk. The report gives merchants and manufacturers valuable evidence to help make product data a board-level priority.”
