Imagine buying a laptop online, but the specifications are missing, the images are blurred, and the price is inconsistent. Sounds frustrating, right? While the customer has multiple other options to explore and shop, the online business loses its valuable customers. And what is the probable reason behind this? Utilization of obsolete and inaccurate product data.

Yes, bad-quality product data is the main culprit here! Product data, including photos, descriptions, tags, pricing, etc., is the backbone of ecommerce business operations, influencing everything from customer experience to sales performance. Not cleaning ecommerce product data regularly degrades data quality. The consequence? Ruined product visibility, dissatisfied customers, and operational chaos.

The Impact of Bad Data on Product Visibility

Did you know that incomplete descriptions, incorrect specifications, and inconsistent categorization directly impact how products are displayed to potential customers? Search engines like Google, Microsoft Bing, Safari, etc., rely on accurate and structured data to rank ecommerce listings. Inaccurate data leads to misaligned search results, decreasing the chances of products appearing in relevant queries.

The next important thing is to identify when to clean ecommerce product data. Remember, ecommerce is a dynamic landscape wherein information becomes obsolete after a period. Watch out for these common signs to know if it’s time to clean your product data:

As evident, the consequences of uncleaned product data are adverse. Any incorrect information, such as dimensions or materials or ingredients may confuse shoppers, resulting in abandoned carts. In other words, it’s natural for customers to leave the website when they don’t find any relevant information there! With such significant stakes, no ecommerce business can afford to overlook the importance of data cleansing services.

The Benefits of Cleansing Product Data

I- Enhanced Customer Satisfaction

Clean product data ensures that customers easily find what they’re looking for. This creates a seamless shopping experience, resulting in satisfied shoppers who act as brand ambassadors by spreading good word of mouth. Providing what your customers ask for is the easiest way to convert browsers into buyers.

In the fashion apparel industry, for example, accurate sizes, fabric details, and high-quality images matter the most. And the result of using clean and accurate product data? Enhanced customer satisfaction and reduced return rates.

II- Increased Sales

Customers require accurate and up-to-date product information to decide whether to make the purchase. That said, clear pricing and easy availability of product details and features reduce friction in making purchase decisions and drive conversions. Clean data also supports effective cross-selling and upselling strategies, boosting the average order value.

According to the recent forecast, B2C ecommerce revenue is expected to grow to USD 5.5 trillion by 2027 at a steady CAGR of 14.4%. Consumer electronics, fashion, furniture, and biohealth pharmaceuticals are some of the segments that’ll lead the B2C ecommerce market growth. Thus, ecommerce businesses must gear up to tap into this potential— and clean data is the key here.

III- Improved Traffic and SEO Performance

Well, this is a common pain point for online businesses: how to improve a website’s traffic and search engine rankings? The answer to this is using clean, accurate, and high-quality data. Yes, because search engines favor ecommerce sites with accurate metadata, relevant keywords, and consistent formatting. Thus, businesses can easily sell their products via different platforms like eBay, Amazon, Shopify, and more.

In short, regular data cleansing ensures that the product data is accurate, verified, and enriched, which helps improve business visibility, gain more organic traffic, and ultimately increase revenue.

IV- Better SERP Rankings

Any guesses what is the direct benefit of well-cleansed and optimized product data? Increased chances of appearing in snippets and featured results on search engine results pages (SERPs). That’s right! When the data is clean and well-structured, search engines can easily crawl through the information and display the products prominently. The result? Higher click-through rates (CTR). A brownie point here is that ecommerce businesses get organic traffic, which is undoubtedly beneficial for long-term growth and success.

V- Efficient Product Management and Compliance

Data cleansing helps inventory management by ensuring consistent categorization and accurate stock levels. Moreover, clean data helps ecommerce businesses meet regulatory requirements, avoiding potential legal or compliance risks associated with incorrect labeling or misrepresentation. Think of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, where clean, accurate, and verified data is essential to ensure compliance!

VI- Increased Operational Efficiency

Streamlined inventory management operations translate to enhanced operational efficiency. In other words, clean and accurate product data helps simplify inventory management, fulfill orders in time, and update prices dynamically. Having correct product dimensions and material details in the home goods industry, for example, helps streamline warehousing operations.

Take another case in point: Clean and accurate product data in the electronics industry helps businesses optimize their inventory levels. Furthermore, clubbing this with sales data enables stakeholders to make informed decisions about which products to restock and which ones to discontinue.

Read Also: Outsourcing Data Management Services: A Guide for Modern Internet Businesses

Steps Involved in Product Data Cleansing

Implementing an effective product data cleansing strategy requires a structured approach. Below are the key steps involved:

1- Perform Proper Data Audit

The first step is to audit the existing product data to identify errors such as missing attributes, duplicate entries, or outdated information. A fashion apparel seller, for instance, may find its product images blurred and descriptions and other details like uniformity and material composition missing.

Or take another example, an electronics dealer finds out that the product details like screen sizes, software versions, etc., are incorrect. Proper product data cleansing helps determine areas where businesses should improve first and how to measure progress. In the case of an electronics dealer, the business should begin by adding the correct and up-to-date descriptions.

2- Remove Duplicate Data

What are the consequences of duplicate product data entries? Cluttered product catalogs, confused customers, and diluted search engine rankings. This usually happens when businesses use multiple worksheets to maintain product data. On the other hand, removing duplicates is essential to maintaining a streamlined inventory and ensuring consistent product information across all platforms.

Given the time-consuming nature of this process, the smarter approach is to either implement automated tools such as a product information management (PIM) system or partner with a seasoned data cleansing company. The latter is more effective when businesses have dynamic requirements and need a human-in-the-loop approach to get optimal results.

For instance, a PIM system implemented in the automotive parts industry can easily identify duplicate entries for parts with similar specifications but different part numbers. The data cleansing professionals, however, manually review these entries to ensure catalog consistency and improve searchability.

3- Standardize and Normalize Data

Data standardization facilitates easier data management by ensuring its consistency. These include standardizing date formats such as DD-MM-YYYY or MM-DD-YYYY, listing weight in lbs or kgs, and unifying attributes such as “colour” and “color” as a single term.

On the other hand, data normalization is necessary to ensure that all listings are uniform and standards are maintained. Apparel retailers use data normalization tools to ensure that all size measurements follow the same format. For instance, converting XL and “extra-large” into a single standardized entry.

4- Enhance and Enrich the Data

Missing data points, such as product dimensions, materials, or images, must be identified and addressed to improve SEO. Collaborating with manufacturers, suppliers, or internal teams to fill these gaps ensures that customers have access to all the information they need to make informed purchasing decisions.

For example, instead of writing “green-colored baking gloves,” you can write “silicon, heat resistant, green-colored baking gloves” to enhance searchability and visibility. Or take another case of an electronic item, writing “Samsung 4K Ultra HD Smart TV,” instead of “HD smart TV” leads to increase in organic traffic and improved ranking.

5- Constantly Monitor and Update Data

Product data must be continuously updated to reflect changes in pricing, availability, and specifications. In the healthcare industry, accurate information is necessary to ensure compliance with regulatory standards. For the electronics sector, data cleansing implies checking that product specifications like model version, screen resolution, battery life, etc., are up-to-date. In the fashion industry, data cleansing includes regularly verifying whether the product sizes and colors are accurately mentioned.

Wrapping Up

Data cleansing is an important process for ecommerce businesses. And the next time you wonder why there are no conversions or website traffic, clean your product data. This is because clean, accurate, and verified product data is the key to ensuring that listings are reliable, which leads to better customer experience, higher search engine ranking, and seamless business operations.

At the same time, product data cleansing is a resource-intensive and technically complex task. That’s where the expertise and experience of a professional data cleansing company helps businesses achieve their goals efficiently. These companies bring specialized expertise, advanced tools, and industry best practices to ensure comprehensive and scalable solutions. By outsourcing this critical function to specialists, ecommerce businesses better focus on their core competencies while reaping the benefits of clean data.