Incomplete Product Information: How It Impacts Consumer Behaviour and Sales

In the rapidly evolving landscape of e-commerce, consumers increasingly rely on comprehensive, accurate, and reliable product information to make purchasing decisions. Retailers failing to provide such information risk significant sales decline, negative customer experiences, and a tarnished brand reputation. Alarmingly, up to 70% of consumers abandon a product page due to poor or incomplete product information. This article aims to elucidate how incomplete product information impacts consumer behavior and ultimately, sales.

The Significance of Comprehensive Product Information

In an online shopping environment, consumers lack the physical touch-and-feel experience that brick-and-mortar stores offer. They lean heavily on the quality of product information presented online. Detailed descriptions, accurate specifications, high-quality images, videos, customer reviews, and other relevant information constitute comprehensive product information.

Complete product information helps consumers visualize the product, understand its applications, and make confident purchase decisions. It lends credibility to the retailer, enhances customer satisfaction, fosters loyalty, and stimulates repeat purchases.

Influence of Incomplete Product Information on Consumer Behaviour

Incomplete or inaccurate product information can cause significant dissonance between consumer expectations and reality. Inadequate or unclear product descriptions and specifications generate confusion and hesitancy among consumers, leading to shopping cart abandonment and lower conversion rates.

Transparency and honesty are highly valued by today's consumers. They quickly lose trust in retailers who provide incomplete product information, damaging their purchase decision and overall perception of the brand. Furthermore, consumers will likely divert to competitors offering more detailed and dependable product information, leading to missed sales opportunities and a shrinking market share for the retailer.

The State of Product Information Among Major UK Retailers

Our recent report analysed product data quality across six major UK retailers, yielding intriguing results. The overall average score for product data quality was just 78.67%. This number highlights that there is a considerable margin for improving product information among major retailers.

Product descriptions, an essential part of product information, scored a low average of 63.5%. Renowned retailer, John Lewis, managed a meagre score of 50%, indicating a significant opportunity for improvement.

These scores reveal that many retailers may be underestimating the crucial role of comprehensive product information. While digital assets like product images and rich content fared slightly better with an average score of 63.15%, it is evident that even these need enhancement.

Addressing Incomplete Product Information

The challenge of providing complete and accurate product information can be tackled through a structured approach. This includes enriching product data quality, providing detailed product information, and standardising product data across all sales channels. Committing to quality product data and regularly updating it can drastically improve the online shopping experience and boost sales.

How Start with Data Can Help

We offer a range of services to help retailers enhance their product data quality:

Product Data Enrichment: We enrich your product information by adding detailed descriptions, specifications, rich media, customer reviews, and more, thereby increasing customer trust and encouraging purchase decisions.

Data Cleansing and Standardisation: Our services aim to eliminate duplicates, correct errors, and ensure consistent formatting across your product catalogue, leading to improved searchability and an enhanced user experience.

Product Data Onboarding: We capture, validate, and transform your product data for seamless integration with your PIM or e-commerce system, allowing swift and efficient product launches and maximising your e-commerce opportunities.

Incomplete product information significantly impacts consumer behaviour and sales. In a highly competitive e-commerce landscape, retailers must ensure their product data is not only accurate but detailed and engaging. This approach enhances the online shopping experience for customers, builds trust, and drives sales. Through our services, retailers can overcome the challenges of incomplete product information, paving the way for success in the digital marketplace.

For insights into how major UK retailers are performing in terms of product data quality, download the free report today.