The global e-commerce market is massive. In Europe alone, it is expected to reach almost $4 trillion this year. But it’s not without its wrinkles. We have all been in the situation where what we ordered isn’t quite what turned up. The dress was the European size when you ordered the UK size. The sweatshirt was pink when it clearly looked red online. This sort of scenario is down to poor product data.
Product information management (PIM) is a practice that’s come to the fore in retail in the last 15 years. Good PIM makes sure that data is clean, good quality and – most importantly – consistent. That one product is described in the same way across all your systems and every medium you use. When retailers use multiple systems – ERP, CRM, different e-commerce platforms – the risk of data quality degenerating rises. Significantly. Strong PIM really helps to ensure good product reliability. But there is something that can make it even better – AI.
AI can improve PIM in all sorts of ways. It can anticipate any problems and issues, fixing them before they happen. It can also replace the manual cleaning of product data. So what are the key areas where AI can really supercharge PIM?
Automated data enrichment
AI enhances product listings by filling in missing details, ensuring completeness and consistency across platforms. It automatically classifies products into categories and assigns attributes based on descriptions, images and specifications. Using natural language processing (NLP), it extracts details from supplier data, standardising information across different sources.
Product accuracy through image recognition
AI-powered image recognition makes product data more accurate by generating precise descriptions from images, which makes sure that data is consistent without the need for manual intervention. Machine learning algorithms analyse product visuals and compare them to text descriptions to prevent any mismatch. For example, if a product listing is for ‘dark blue jeans’ but in reality they look stone washed, AI will flag that mismatch. This reduces incorrect product descriptions and ultimately, makes sure the customer doesn’t get frustrated.
Proactive data quality control system
By continuously scanning product data, AI can pinpoint inconsistencies, duplicate entries and conflicting information, all in real time. These intelligent tools suggest corrections, which keeps data accurate and reduces the need for manual adjustments. Essentially, AI acts as a proactive quality control system, detecting and resolving potential issues before they impact the customer experience.
Smart product tagging
AI is revolutionising product tagging and attribute management by automatically identifying key details such as size, colour and material from images and descriptions. This all reduces the need for manual input and so streamlines product catalogue management. AI-driven keyword generation can also boost SEO, which improves product discoverability on e-commerce platforms, so customers can find exactly what they’re looking for.
Translation and localisation
For global retailers, it’s important to be able to adapt product listings to different languages and regional preferences. AI-powered translation tools can make sure that product descriptions and attributes are localised for each market. Beyond language, AI can also tailor product recommendations based on regional trends and cultural preferences – so for a global retailer, they can automatically help customers in Europe shop for summer swim wear, but in Arab nations, the system can suggest products that are more culturally appropriate.
In online retail, from fashion retail to beauty product providers, sports equipment sellers to homeware purveyors, product data accuracy is everything. Good PIM is the key between customer satisfaction or customer misery. And AI just supercharges that – it takes the manual heft out of product data management, it makes inaccuracy detection easy and swift, and it makes the whole thing much more efficient. And ultimately, if that makes customers happier, that’s no bad thing.
If you want to speak to Valcon about AI powered Product Information Management (PIM), please get in touch with Bou Brobbel at [email protected]
