Product information management: what it is and why it matters

Think product information is just technical specs and barcodes? Think again. In the ecommerce landscape, it's the backbone of your product's digital identity. From the moment a shopper searches online to the second they click 'buy', product information shapes every step. With AI-assisted shopping and tightening compliance standards, getting your product data right has never been more crucial.

From data to experience: understanding the evolution of product information

Product information refers to all the information associated with a product that helps define, describe, and market it effectively. This information comes from a variety of sources, each contributing different elements essential for the product’s lifecycle and sales journey. 

The terminology around product data or information can sometimes be confusing. In simple terms:

• Product data refers to internal data used by the company that manufactures the product.
• Product information is product data enriched with marketing and sales context, making it usable outside the organisation.
• Product experience comes into play when product information is enriched with customer behaviour, analytics and user-generated content.

To complicate things further, in ecommerce discussions, the term "product data" is often used to mean "product information."

At Columbia Road, we’ve talked extensively about the role of customer data and how it needs to be in excellent shape to support the processes that rely on it. The same applies to product data. It’s core to your business: it influences how customers perceive your products, how effectively your partners can help grow your business, and how smoothly your operations run.

Key sources of product information

Let's explore some of the typical sources of product information. Depending on your business model, you may rely on one or several of these:

• Manufacturer data: Includes technical specs such as dimensions, materials, weight, model numbers, and images. This is the backbone of product information and crucial for accurate listings.
• Distributor data: Distributors might provide localised information, including warranty terms, compliance documentation, and translated descriptions.
• Retailer data: Retailers often create their own content to appeal to their target audience. This includes lifestyle imagery, SEO-friendly descriptions, and promotional assets such as videos.
• User-generated content (UGC): Reviews, ratings, customer photos, and unboxing videos add authenticity, build trust, and help consumers make better decisions.

Product information in action

Product information plays a critical role across many touchpoints, both internal and external, ensuring a consistent and optimised customer experience.

Internal use cases:

• Ecommerce platforms: Accurate listings, images, and descriptions rely on well-managed product data.
• Website: Product pages, landing pages, and even blog posts that reference specific products all need consistent data.
• Catalogues: Whether printed or digital, catalogues require structured product data to present the items effectively.
• Advertisements: Data is key in generating ads, especially when using dynamic content or feed-driven marketing, like Google Shopping or Facebook ads. Accurate titles, images, and prices are crucial.

External use cases:

• Retailers: Third-party sellers rely on your data to accurately present your products.
  Marketplaces: Platforms like Amazon, eBay, or Etsy require you to upload detailed product data to ensure your listings are compliant with their standards and easily discoverable by shoppers. This data helps with search engine optimisation and ensures the product is presented consistently across different platforms.
• Product feeds: Providing automatically updating product data for e.g. Google Shopping or Instagram, is a necessity in today’s ecommerce. At the time of writing, AI tools such as ChatGPT are planning to introduce product feeds as a way for merchants to import their product data for more accurate recommendations.
• Digital Product Passport (DPP): One new use case which requires the product information to be in good shape is the European Union’s Digital Product Passport (DPP) requirements. These requirements will require many companies to level up their product information management systems and processes. 

The evolution of product information management in ecommerce

Based on our experiences at Columbia Road, there are roughly three steps or maturity levels in handling product data in ecommerce.

Step 1 - Data scraping and manual maintenance

The starting point for many is to scrape product data from systems like ERPs or manufacturers, clean it up, and enrich it with better images, attributes, and descriptions. Getting the data from several sources is a complex task and often involves: 

• Image processing
• Harmonising inputs from various sources
• Excel sheets
• Manual or automatic bulk updates

While manageable at first, this method becomes unsustainable when new channels with unique requirements are added. Errors become frequent, inventory levels can fall out of sync, and product availability may be incorrectly represented. Especially if there are different people doing updates for different channels. 

Step 2 - Implementing a PIM system

When multiple channels utilise product information, there is typically a business case for implementing a product information management system (PIM). PIM systems are designed to take in all the product information, make the manipulation and enrichment easy and provide the data to other systems. A set of APIs enable both importing and exporting data from source systems to the users of the data. 

A PIM system becomes the single source of truth. This reduces errors and makes the data more trustworthy for everyone using it.

Step 3 - Enhancing product experience

Once data is harmonised, the next evolution is optimising it for user experience. This is where Product experience management (PXM) comes into play:

Creating a feedback loop from channels and markets to product data enables personalisation and optimisation of the data, for example, for specific markets or customer segments. Personalisation and optimisation can mean using different kinds of images, descriptions that promote some features over others and so on.

User-generated content (UGC) is also a big part of the product experience because it allows customers to engage with other customers more directly and see the products in real use or share authentic experiences. 

Mastering your product data

Effectively managing product data requires a strategic, business-aligned approach. High-quality data doesn't happen on its own; it must be built and maintained intentionally.

Business drives the need
Your goals dictate your data strategy. Expanding to new markets? You’ll need translations and regional compliance data. Scaling ecommerce? Data must be structured for SEO and customer intent.

Tools and data will evolve
Your tech stack should grow with your needs. Many businesses start with Excel, but growing complexity often calls for more robust tools like a PIM.

Improve with analytics and feedback
Use behavioural data to continuously refine your product information. Which pages get traffic? Where are conversions happening? You can also use user-generated content to enhance product descriptions, improving credibility and SEO performance.

Additional considerations

Data enrichment
Beyond just having basic product data, enriching it with high-quality descriptions, lifestyle images, and video content can make a huge difference in customer engagement and SEO performance. Tools that offer data enrichment can automate some of this process, integrating reviews, ratings, and other external sources.

Data governance
Ensuring product data is accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across all platforms is crucial. Implementing a clear governance strategy ensures that all stakeholders (such as product teams and marketers) are aligned and working with the correct data.

Compliance and legal requirements
Some products require additional information to meet local laws or platform regulations (such as health warnings, safety certifications). Ensuring that your product data management system tracks this compliance data is critical to avoiding fines and maintaining your reputation.

Automated data syndication
Syndicating your product data across various sales channels (your own site, marketplaces, social media shops) can be automated. This ensures that whenever you update product details in one place, they are updated across all channels, reducing manual work and errors.

Wrapping it up: how to turn product data into a competitive edge

Managing product data effectively is vital to ecommerce success. Centralising, enriching, and governing this information ensures your products are represented accurately and compellingly across all channels. Whether you’re using spreadsheets or sophisticated PIM/PXM systems, a clear strategy and the right tools will help you scale and grow with confidence.

Ready to put your product data to work? Contact us and let’s make it happen!