Infomatica overview of pim with benefits

The Informed
Purchase Journey
How product information can dramatically
alter the customer’s buying experience
and power sales in retail

Introduction
Only a few years ago, when we
wanted to buy something, we’d
consult brochures and catalogs
or look for a knowledgeable
salesperson. Now, the way we buy
has changed beyond recognition.
And it keeps being reinvented.
First we went online.
The internet was a revolution in
transparency. With a few clicks,
we now compare retailers,
prices, products, and features.
We do our own research and
have become super smart
about what to buy, who to buy
from, and how much to pay.
Then things got social.
Today, we’re routinely seeking
other people’s opinions on
products we’re excited about.
We take pictures, we review
and rate and publicly share
our feelings, advice, photos,
and videos about everything
from hotels to toothpaste.
Today, we’re mobile.
Now all that information and all
those social recommendations
are in our pockets. And shopping
has once again transformed.
Informatica The Informed Purchase Journey Page 02

The power is in your
customers’ hands.
Put these trends together and
you’ve got a completely new –
and enormously demanding
– consumer. The way we sell
has got to change, too.
The increasing need for
product information.
Turns out that one thing hasn’t
really changed all that much:
before people buy, they have
a million questions. And if you
can’t answer their questions –
with clear, comprehensive, and
up-to-date product information,
photos, videos, and reviews –
you’re not going to make the sale.
No matter what you’re selling,
or in which channel.
You want to sell the product –
make sure you bring the data.
This is not going to change: new
prospects, existing customers,
retailers, bloggers, and tweeters
are having conversations about
the products you’re selling.
Your challenge is to join in and
become the most reliable and
attractive source of information
there is. So your customers
won’t need to go anywhere else.
This ebook is about
harnessing the power
of product information
throughout the new purchase
journey. We hope it helps you
discover ways to manage
your information actively, to
package it well, and to
leverage its power to attract
and convert shoppers.
Introduction

This is the new purchase journey
Let’s take a closer look at the way
shoppers buy today. How have
consumer behaviors and the role
of product information changed since
the advent of chunky bandwidths
and social buying? The new
purchase journey looks like this:
Shopper-controlled
The days of the single visit
to a trusted store are gone.
Today’s shoppers are in control.
They’re hugely aware of their
power as consumers, and
they’re exercising it freely.
Multichannel
Buyers aren’t using one specific
channel anymore. They’re
shopping in stores, the web, on
mobile apps, in social channels,
and from catalogs simultaneously.
And new channels are opening
up all the time.
Social-powered
Purchasing decisions
are “crowd-informed”:
recommendations and
reviews guide consumers
and validate their choices
every step of the way.
Search-guided
Shoppers used to be
dependent on a few sources
of information. Now there’s
Google. So they go and hunt
for answers themselves.
So more than anything else, the new purchase
journey is an individual learning journey, led by
empowered and info-hungry shoppers. And
make no mistake about it: these confident
decision-makers will punish vendors if they’re
being starved for information.

The #1 cause of shopping-
cart abandonment is lack
of product information
1
It just makes sense. We click
away from shopping sites for
three reasons:
• We’re just not sure the
product is right for us
• We’re not quite sure the
seller is the best source for
the product
• We’re not confident we have
all the information we need
Product information is
crucial to business success
because it injects desire and
confidence – the fuel of every
commerce engine.
There’s no limit to what we may
want to know about a product
– and any question left
unanswered will inhibit purchase.
Here are six ways to give your
customers what they’re looking
for – so they’ll buy from you.

Six ways to actively
manage your product
information and help your
customers buy from you

Provide consistent
and up-to-date data
across all channels1

10.2Travel
9.8Over-The-
Counter Health
18.2Automotive
11.7Insurance
14.8Technology
(Consumer Electronics)
5.8Quick-Serve
Restuarants
8.9Investment
7.3Consumer Packaged
Goods: Grocery
10.8Banking
14.7Voters
8.6Credit Card
123 456
7Consumer Packaged Goods:
Health/Beauty/Personal Care
1 Provide consistent and up-to-date
data across all channels
Key:
Category Purchased
Number of sources used by the typical shopper
A 2011 Google
study
2
shows that,
on average, across
all categories,
shoppers use
10.4 sources of
information to
make a decision.
This includes, among other things, watching
TV ads, looking up manufacturer websites,
talking to family and friends, reading
reviews, and checking Amazon.
So by the time consumers first get in touch
with you, they’re already armed with heaps
of product knowledge.

Researchchannel≠
purchasechannel
• 95% of smartphone users
say they’ve searched for
local information.
• 90% of those users take
action within 24 hours.
• 61% of smartphone users called
a business after searching
• 59% visited a local business
after searching.
5
In fact, 61% of retail managers believe
that shoppers are better connected
to product information than in-store
associates.
3
Google has coined a
term for this elusive but critical stage
of a shopper’s self-education: ZMOT
or Zero Moment of Truth.
4
As well as their very own information
sources, shoppers will also have preferred
channels for buying. It may be a mix
of channels, depending on the type of
product, availability, urgency, time of day,
etc. A purchase may start with an online
search but end up being completed
in the local store.

For vendors,
this means
two things:
1. You need an omnichannel strategy
(if you haven’t already got one).
• A customer who didn’t buy in one channel
may well be won over in another: different
channels will feed each other. Studies
have shown that smartphone users do
mobile research but visit a local business;
and even old-fashioned print catalogs
lead to a 30% boost in online sales.
6
• Multichannel shoppers will spend, on
average, 15 percent to 30 percent more
than someone using just one channel…
• and omnichannel shoppers outspend
multichannel shoppers by over 20 percent.
7
2. It’s crucial to deliver the right product
information in every channel.
The biggest challenge for most retailers
is consistency (another is completeness
of information – we’ll talk about
this below).
Very often, information in your stores,
ecommerce site, mobile app, and print
catalog just don’t match up. You
may well choose to share different
information in each channel – but it all
needs to be consistent and appropriate.

Lack of
consistency
is no minor
oversight.
Consumers used to turn to established
brands because they embodied reliable
quality. In an age where quality is validated
by ratings and reviews, it’s consistent
product information that signals reliability.
It stands for a single point of truth,
a unified customer experience, and better
brand recognition – and it informs social
recommendations and loyalty.
So whichever channels you serve, don’t
send confusing messages: you may not
be displaying the same product attributes
everywhere, but do make sure they are
consistent across all channels.

Action points for
consistent and
reliable data
• Get rid of information silos. Create
one authoritative system of record.
Get everyone to use that one central
data repository.
• Become truly omnichannel. Structure
your data so it’s universally usable –
not channel-specific.
• Make sure your product information
is always up-to-date. Collaborate
with all stakeholders (suppliers, product
managers, shipping specialists, etc.)
to ensure your product information
management (PIM) system always holds
the most accurate and recent information.
Automatic synchronization across all
channels is key.
• Ensure access to centralized
product data for anyone who may
be in touch with customers. Your
sales and support people should
know at least as much as your
most informed prospect.
• Connect your channels and increase
convenience for your customers.
For instance, offer a ship-to-store
option or a local availability check.
Provide consistent and up-to-date
data across all channels1

Offer product info
in the right place,
at the right time2

Time-to-market
is one of the most
important retail
industry KPIs.
For vendors, this effectively means time-to-
shop: the availability of a product plus the
time it takes to collect all relevant product
information so you can display it to the
customer (product introduction time).
The biggest threat is not the competition –
it’s your own time-consuming, internal
processes. We call this Shelf Lag, and it’s a
big inhibitor of retailer profits. Here’s why:
You can’t sell what you can’t display.
In many ways, your data is your product.
And with ever-shorter sales cycles, you can’t
afford to be wasting time consolidating
your data. You need to have it ready when
your shoppers are ready to buy – because
if you fail to manage your product
information, you’ll fail to sell.
Be ready to spin up new channels.
We’ve said it before, but it’s important
to stress this: when consumers want a
hot item, they want it now, and through
whichever channel they prefer. That means
your product information needs to be
universal and flexible enough to wriggle
itself into any shape and mold - including
new channels that keep opening up (some
that you may not have heard about yet).
Watch your margins.
It’s sad but it’s true: you need those top
sellers for the number of sales, but the
high margins are elsewhere. Category
managers everywhere are realizing that
the profits are in niche, ‘long tail’ products
that sell at higher margins. Going with
an Endless Aisle strategy, however,
means an explosion in SKUs and attributes
- often a problem for IT infrastructure,
as well as supplier logistics.
2 Offer product info in the right
place, at the right time

Action points
for faster
time-to-shop
• Use a flexible, centralized data
repository for product information
that all channels can tap into. So once
the information is in the database, it’s
also on the website/the smartphone/
the next print brochure.
• Use a supplier/ vendor/ collaboration
portal that enables product information
collaboration between suppliers and
retailers. It will save precious time
and manpower.
• Use an automated validation tool.
This means that, for instance, there’s
a rule in place to make sure “green”
doesn’t appear under “size.”
That saves A LOT of time.
• Develop an endless aisle
(long-tail) strategy. Once a flexible
product information management
system is in place, it will enable you
to handle large numbers of SKUs
and attributes.
Offer product info in the right
place, at the right time2

Make your data
sets as complete
as possible3

Nine out of ten
shopping cart
abandonments
are caused by
poor product
information.
A third of the people who click away say
they didn’t have enough information to
make a purchase decision.
8
Even more shockingly: 40% of all
fashion purchases are returned, and
in electronics it’s 15%. With an average
return cost per package of $20,
9
profits
are melting away.
Buyers return items because they don’t meet
their expectations. Some even anticipate
disappointment and order two or more
variations of a product – because they
just don’t feel confident in their decision.
There’s a powerful way to minimize returns:
by answering every question buyers could
possibly have – about sizes, dimensions,
materials, compatibility, etc. The more
complete your product information,
the more likely it is that shoppers
choose wisely (so they don’t have
to return products).
Studies show that comprehensive product
pages perform best. Buyers want 360-
degree views that tell them as much about
a given product as possible. Here’s a list of
information assets that help buyers decide
whether a product is right for them:
• Good-quality images
• Seeing a selected product
in the color of choice
• Seeing a product on a model/
in use/ in a room setting
• Alternative views
• A zoom function
• Peer rating/reviews (such as
“comes up big for a size 4”)
• Similar products
Better product information
not only means more sales.
It means better sales – with
fewer returns.
Make your data sets
as complete as possible3

Action points for
more complete
product data
• Identify which descriptors the master
record needs for each category (weight,
size, shape, color, material, etc.).
• Define a person or team who is
responsible for data quality of
that master record.
• Use a PIM tool that can handle
different data sources and formats,
so you can pull the best information
into your system (e.g., from existing
data pools and industry standards).
• Automate your data quality processes.
Don’t waste time manually entering
and checking data sets.
• Invest manpower in completing
• Involve external sources to improve
product data, and outsource work to
suppliers, vendors, and translators.
• Think about providing an online chat
function to answer buyer questions.
One in five consumers say they actually
prefer online customer service (like
chat, video chat, and email) to phone calls
or in-person consultations.
10
Make your data sets
as complete as possible3

Make your data
unique and rich4

When everybody’s
offering the same
product at the same
or a similar price, the
quality and richness
of your product
information becomes
an important
differentiator.
But as more and more vendors work
from the same manufacturer data, that
differentiation disappears – unless you
enrich your (consistent, up-to-date, reliable,
and complete) product data to make
it more compelling and attractive.
Many companies still think of product
data as neutral. That’s a mistake.
To the consumer, generic product data
signals that it’s just another bike. What you
should be signaling is that you inhabit your
customer’s world and that your brand has
a point of view. That you’re just as excited
about the bike as they are, and that you
know exactly what makes it special and
why they should buy it from you.
Product data with an emotional appeal
is a unique chance to engage customers
and win them over. Enriching your ‘raw’
data with branded, proprietary descriptions,
images, and video – then deploying this
asset across all channels – will help enrich
the customer experience everywhere.
Other vendors may be selling exactly the
same product – but they won’t be doing
it with your style, clarity, and brand spin.
And that’s where brand power kicks in.
Which dress would you rather buy? A 186 C
or a ‘strawberry red stunner that’s perfect for
Valentine’s Day’?
Or imagine you’re interested in a new bike:
you’ve identified the one you want and you’re
eager for more information that will support
your decision. Isn’t it then disappointing to find
the same manufacturer-supplied product
description and specification list on every
vendor’s website?
4 Make your data unique and rich

Action points for
more appealing
product data
• Use media assets with a strong
emotional appeal wherever you can.
Images and videos that show the product
in use greatly boost sales (see our sidebar
“Videos sell: the numbers.”)
• Use a digital asset management
(DAM) system to manage your media
assets for use across all channels.
• Infuse copy and descriptive data
with branded language - don’t just copy
that supplier marketing text. Make it rich,
proprietary, creative, and emotional.
• Provide target-group-specific
product descriptions for each
customer segment.
Videos sell the numbers
• Using video demos of items on product pages
increased sales for Zappos by between 6%
and 30%.
• Shoppers who viewed video on Stacks and
Stacks product pages were 144% more likely
to add to cart than other shoppers.
• Shoeline.com improved the conversion rate by
44% for product pages containing videos.
• On Ice.com, the conversion rate for shoppers
viewing video on product pages increased
by 400%, while return rates dropped from 12%
to 9%.
• Videos on the simplypiste.com product
pages increased conversion rates by 25%,
as well as leading to a reduction in the number
of returns.11
4 Make your data unique and rich

Connect your
data for maximum
effectiveness5

We’ve talked about
the importance
of presenting
a single face
across channels.
Today’s buyers expect vendors to know
about them: their past purchases, their
preferences, their devices – and they
expect your communications to reflect
that knowledge.
That’s why it’s so important to use
everything you know – about your customer,
your product, and your supply chain –
to maximize the value of data.
A master data management (MDM) system
connects your product data with valuable
information found in other applications
such as CRM, ERP, Marketing Automation
and with supplier and contextual data
like location and device. MDM can help
you answer questions such as:
• Which products has this
customer purchased?
• Which channels were the
products purchased from?
• Who were they purchased for?
• Which employees were involved
in these sales?
• Which suppliers provided
the products?
Connect your data for
maximum effectiveness5

The benefits of
connecting your
product data with
just your customer
data are immense:
• Make better recommendations –
by connecting what you know about
each customer with what you know
about every product.
• Improve the omnichannel customer
experience – by getting the right product
information to the right place at the right
time for each customer.
• Target product information better –
according to where the customer
is (in your store?) and what device
they’re holding.
• Drive up margins – by suggesting the
relevant products with the best margins,
or stock availability, or to earn supplier
volume discounts.
• Improve your supplier performance –
by connecting your supplier relationship
management data with the product
information they supply.
Connect your data for
maximum effectiveness5

Action points for
connected data
• Integrate your PIM data: deploy
MDM to connect your product
data with other data repositories:
With CRM – for cross-selling and
upselling opportunities, personalization
and relevant recommendations
With supplier data – to drive
better supplier relationships
With ERP – to inject the product offers
best-placed to make you money
With contextual data – to target product
information by device, location, weather,
language, etc.
Connect your data for maximum effectiveness
5

It’s a fact:
happy customers
generate more
customers.
That’s why ratings and reviews are such
powerful conversion drivers – and such
a vital part of any product information
management initiative.
Customers actively look for
recommendations before they buy.
Here’s why you should embrace that:
• Most reviews are good: the worldwide
average for product reviews is 4.3 out of 5.
• 80% of reviews on the site of a given
retailer are written by the top 20% of
their customers (by lifetime value).
• Users pay attention to social signals like
reviews. Listings that averaged three or more
stars in reviews took 41 out of 47 clicks.
• The volume of reviews matters.
29 of 47 clicks went to listings
that had at least four reviews.
But what about the bad reviews? Yes, you’ll
get those, too. Even water and gravity have
haters. And seriously, would you trust a
product that only got raves and thumbs-
ups? Negative reviews signal credibility and
authenticity. They show you’re not hiding
anything. And sometimes, they say more
about the reviewer than your product.
When you integrate ratings and reviews
with your product data – more commonly
called product information management
(PIM) data – you ensure they’re available
across all channels, when and where
they’re most needed.
After all, credible consumer opinion
about a product is a vital piece of
information for any shopper.
6 Embrace social power

Action points
to leverage
social data
• Integrate customer reviews (e.g. stars)
with your product information and
PIM platform.
• Make it easy for people to publish
reviews to networks like Facebook and
Twitter: then collect them for your PIM.
• Display ratings reviews alongside
product information – on product pages,
category pages and during checkout.
• Let online reviews feed
your other channels:
Put product ratings and reviews
on packaging
Use digital signage for real-time
review feeds in-store
Use pull-out quotes from reviews
in print catalogs.
6 Embrace social power

Conclusion
Product information is the
fuel of the new, informed
purchase journey.
If we’ve convinced you of one
thing in this eBook, we hope
it’s this: product information
is at the center of the modern
purchase journey.
Faster markets, more
channels, and seriously
educated customers demand
and deserve comprehensive,
accurate, rich, and up-to-date
Getting it right opens enormous
opportunities as you embrace
the omnichannel world. And
mastering your product data
makes it easy to extend your
product assortment and create
the high-margin Endless Aisle.
In short, investing in PIM
processes pays dividends.
In customer experience.
In revenues. In process
efficiencies. And in fewer
product returns.
That’s what the PIM-powered
purchase journey is all about.

A PIM platform to support
your processes
PIM is a process and a discipline –
but it’s also a technology. Here are
the benefits of deploying the right
PIM solution, as part of your wider
data strategy:
Customer satisfaction:
71 % of retailers using a PIM
solution reported increasing
customer satisfaction and
customer loyalty due to high-
quality service and information.
12
Conversion rates:
Retailers employing a PIM
system reported higher
margins conversion rates
in e-commerce. There is also
evidence of increased profits
through smart cross- and
up-selling.
13
Data quality:
Organizations with MDM or
PIM systems reported a 17 %
increase in the accuracy of
their product master data,
over 3.4 times the improvement
shown by companies without
these tools.
14
More efficient
internal processes:
• Faster product launches
across all channels
• Instant updating across
all channels
• Streamlined integration
of suppliers’ data
• Optimized localization and
reduced costs for translations
• Faster onboarding
of suppliers
• Easy search and find
• Time savings due to
automated data entry
In an omnichannel world,
there is no going back
to spreadsheets,
information silos, and
manual data entry. Talk
to us about how better
PIM can transform your
own merchandising,
marketing, ecommerce,
and mobile initiatives.

For the hard facts about the business
benefits of a PIM system, download
our whitepaper:
The Return on Investment (ROI)
of Product Data

This ebook was
brought to you by
Informatica
Let’s talk.
We make the world’s most complete PIM solution.
It’s part of a Master Data Management portfolio
that’s changing the world, one company at a time.
Some of the world’s biggest, most successful, and
most agile retailers and manufacturers rely on our
PIM solution and our experts in PIM deployment.
IN18_0214_2623

Sources
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retailers-are-losing-67-45-of-sales-and-what-to-do-
about-it#axzz2tZvCkp00
2. Google ZMOT Handbook 2012, http://www.thinkwithgoogle.
com/research-studies/2011-winning-zmot-ebook.html
3. Motorola Holiday Shopping Study 2012, http://www.
motorolasolutions.com/web/Business/Products/_Documents/
White_Paper/Static_Files/MT_White_Paper.pdf
4. http://www.motorolasolutions.com/web/Business/_
Documents/static%20files/2011_Holiday_Shopping_Survey_
North-America.pdf
5. Google ZMOT Handbook 2012, p. 20, http://www.think
withgoogle.com/research-studies/2012-zmot-handbook.html
6. ECC multichannel survey, http://www.ecckoeln.de/News/
Bei-knapp-jedem-3.-Kauf-in-Online-Shops-findet-vorab-eine-
Inform
7. (http://www.retailonlineintegration.com/article/the-omnichannel-
shopper-anytime-anyplace-anywhere/1#)
8. Internet World Business Magazine 2011
9. http://www.retourenforschung.de/definition_statistiken-
retouren-deutschland.html
10. Google ZMOT Handbook 2012, p.48,
http://www. think withgoogle.com/research-studies/
2012-zmot-handbook.html
11. Econsultancy Ecommerce Best Practice Compendium,
http://econsultancy.com/reports/ecommerce-best-
practice-compendium
12. Informatica PIM ROI of Product Data for Multichannel
Commerce, http://www.informatica.com/Images/02552_
informatica-pim-roi-product-data_wp_en-US.pdf
13. Aberdeen Group, The Business Value of Product Data, p. 4,
http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/6533/RA-
master-data-management.aspx
14. Aberdeen Group, The Business Value of Product Data, p. 3,
http://www.aberdeen.com/Aberdeen-Library/6533/RA-
master-data-management.aspx

Infomatica overview of pim with benefits

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