As retailers consider adding yet another channel to the sales and marketing mix, consistency of product information becomes increasingly critical.
Retailers have been talking about cross-channel retailing for many years. At first, consumers had a choice between making their purchases in store and catalogue shopping. But when the Internet arrived, retailing was revolutionized beyond recognition, offering the potential to reach far greater numbers of consumers with a much more flexible and immediate service. The introduction of mobile commerce looks set to turn everything on its head once again, but how many businesses that talk about cross-channel retailing are really ready for it?
Inconsistency of product information across different channels is a big issue that continues to trouble retailers. It will only be exacerbated with the addition of mobile commerce as consumers are offered the chance to compare prices and products via their mobile handsets "on the go," review "edited choice" lists based on recent purchasing history, make purchases via online catalogues, scan product barcodes in store for possible purchase at a later date, and request pickup, delivery, and returns from any location.
With the consumer calling all the shots, it will only take one bad experience – whether it be out-of-date pricing, incorrect information about sizing, color, or availability, or the inability to offer a tailored and personalized shopping experience – for that consumer to switch brands or change their retail outlet to make their purchase.
The mobile and Internet channels are capable of changing and responding quickly to meet the individual needs of consumers, but retailers must be able to identify individual customers when they log in to a site and then present them with an experience tailored to their needs. Both channels are able to carry and promote an extensive range, but if product search, "if you liked this, you'll love this" comparison, and speed of purchase are not managed well and presented to the consumer in aneasy-to-use manner, sales will be lost.
At the heart of the successful inclusion of the mobile channel into any cross-channel retailing strategy is data integrity. The integration and consistency of product information across all channels must be assured if reputation-damaging data error is to be eliminated.
Centralizing all product data in one location on a product information management (PIM) platform will enable retailers to create a single source of product data that is fed to all channels simultaneously.
This should be the starting point for real integration across the business and an end to the empire building that typifies the departmental structure of many retailers. Integration of data and business processes behind the scenes should enable retailers to take advantage of the new cross-channel world that customers increasingly favor. It should help retailers operate as a single business with one cost center fighting to win and retain customers, not separate channels with different revenue streams, fighting against each other to be the lead channel.
As competition between retailers becomes more fierce, the key will be delivering the right product and services, at the right price, to the right customer, at the right time. Consumers will increasingly become channel agnostic. Internal battles over which channel is the flagship store or reporting the highest sales is irrelevant. The consumer only sees the brand, not the delivery mechanism.
The technology is there to make cross-channel retailing a reality, but if the walls between departments are not broken down, if the systems supporting each channel are not integrated, if information about products, services, and promotions is not consistent, if the customer is not placed at the center of all communications, customers will go elsewhere.
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