How to Meet Consumers’ Mounting Obsession with Product Information

Shoppers both online and in store are becoming increasingly picky about how they shop and the products they buy. Across the board, consumer brands and retailers are under pressure to step up their game to deliver a satisfying customer experience that removes frustration, mystery, and disappointment. By taking the right steps, brands have everything they need to meet these escalating expectations.

The Rising Tide of Shopper Preference

Consumers have high—and rising—expectations about their shopping experience. Notably, they’re obsessed with the availability of product information to empower their decisions and enable them to shop with confidence. According to The State of Product Content, consumers will quickly abandon a shopping experience if they can’t find the information they’re looking for

This product content experience extends beyond just an immediate yes-or-no purchase decision; it directly influences their perception of your brand, too. The report indicates at least 62% of consumers will think less of your brand if your products are not represented completely and accurately online.

Impact of Product Content on Brand Perception

Does it negatively impact your perception of a brand if their products are not accurately and completely represented online?

Consumer expectations aren’t the only reason world-class product content has taken on greater importance. For brands, reliable data is the lifeblood that powers everything—marketing, ecommerce, inventory management, customer service, regulatory compliance, and more. When product information is scattered, incomplete, or flat-out wrong, there are inefficiencies, slowdowns, and loss of credibility at every turn. 

Imagine a brand trying to market a new line of hair products without complete ingredient lists or product claims verified. Or an apparel retailer with inaccurate sizing information and fit data for its clothing items. Or a CPG brand with outdated nutritional info that violates compliance rules. The consequences of getting it wrong are serious— whether it’s slow sales, logistical snafus, fines and penalties, or damage to reputation and customer trust. 

Meeting the Challenge of Comprehensive, Accurate Product Content

So if product content excellence is a must-have for modern brands and retailers, why is it so difficult to achieve? There are a number of factors that make it an uphill battle:

• Product Proliferation – Many brands deal with vast product catalogs containing hundreds or even thousands of SKUs across multiple product lines, categories, and versions. Keeping up is a Herculean task.
• Complexity – The level of detail required for products today goes far beyond just name, description and image. There are complex data points around specifications, ingredients, compatibility, legal disclosures, and more. Miss any of these and the content is incomplete.
• Change – Products are constantly evolving with packaging redesigns, formulation updates, new versions, and other changes. What was accurate last month can quickly become stale and obsolete.
• Lack of Resources – Particularly for fast-moving consumer brands, they simply aren’t equipped with the bandwidth, expertise, tools, and data management capabilities to fully cope with the challenge in-house.

Getting a Handle on Product Content Quality

Given the obstacles outlined above, what’s a brand or retailer to do? The smartest first step is to ensure you have all the fundamental product data locked down across your catalog. Consumers consistently report they look for basic images and information first when browsing, more than any other type of content.

For retailers and consumer brands, that means focusing first on core content:

• Basic product descriptions and marketing titles
• Standardized outline images showing multiple angles
• Weight, dimensions, and other key specifications
• Ingredients, materials, and other regulatory data

This core information is essentially the baseline table stakes for any product you sell. It’s what customers use to first evaluate an item’s basic facts and figure out if it’s worth deeper consideration or not.

For many brands overwhelmed by the prospect of overhauling all their product data, just getting this core content correct and consistent can be a big victory. It allows you to put your best foot forward initially while building towards layering on more enhanced content over time.

That’s why many brands and retailers are turning to experienced third-party product content creation and verification providers.

Get a Handle on Product Content Quality with Verification Experts

Given the obstacles outlined above, what’s a brand or retailer to do? For most, partnering with an experienced product content creation and verification provider is a powerful solution. These specialists deliver comprehensive content capture, creation, and rigorous confirmation for your entire product catalog.

These specialists have built efficient processes and tools to accurately capture and create core product data through:

• Standardized data capture processes customized by product type
• Ability to efficiently gather physical product samples or shoot sample product images/video
• Teams of workers meticulously trained on verifying key data points per category
• Robust data validation through double-checks, auxiliary confirmations, and other processes

With the basics solidified by a provider, brands can start publishing more reliable core product content right away, knowing the fundamental facts are accurate. Then they can layer on richer, enhanced content over time.When vetting potential partners, there are a few key areas of capability to prioritize:

Expertise & Industry Focus

Look for a partner exclusively dedicated to product content, with know-how spanning major retail verticals and categories. They should have a finger on the pulse of evolving trends like new data attributes becoming mandatory.

Speed

In today’s world of Amazon-level expectations, fast turnaround time is critical. You need a solution that can accurately capture product info and get it implemented in days or weeks, not months. Look for streamlined processes and the ability to capture data on-site if needed.

Flexibility

Having flexibility to handle products of all types, specifications, and data formats is valuable. The partner should work with you whether providing physical samples or digital assets, and make content deliverables available in your preferred methods.

Rigorous Verification

Most crucially, the content provider’s processes must ensure complete accuracy through extensive cross-checks, accessory confirmations, data validation processes and more. You need to have 100% confidence in your core data.

By partnering with the right product content verification provider, brands and retailers can solve one of their biggest operational challenges through an efficient, cost-effective solution. Accurate, up-to-date product information becomes an effortless reality, allowing you to meet customers’ demands and maintain a leading competitive edge.

The Ultimate Product Content Verification Solution

Syndigo’s veteran team of content creation and validation experts verifies 150,000 products every year and offers second-to-none expertise, speed, flexibility and quality standards. Tap into our capabilities and accelerate your product content production.