Why Does Product Data Matter?

Last week I started posting a series of "Product Data Failures" in my status on LinkedIn. I was attempting to bring awareness to the fact that small issues with product data, like a 1/2" mistake on filling in a dimension attribute, have consequences downstream in web site presentation. A single data error could make an item disappear from a navigation facet, display odd data that is confusing or ambiguous, or appear in an entirely incorrect experience. It doesn't take a major data error to have major consequences downstream.

If you haven't guessed by now I'm kind of a product data geek. Being in product taxonomy for nearly a decade, I've honed my ability to be able to find data errors quickly on just about any platform. Most of the errors I showed last week took no more than a couple clicks into a website, and were not the only examples.  They were the first examples I found, not the best. I am positive larger data issues exist on each of these websites. (FYI I did not call out the individual websites in those updates.....  That's about to change.)

Turning on the Data Lamp

As egregious as those product data failures were, they could easily be overlooked as minor inconveniences. Someone would have to have a tolerance less than 1/2" on a refrigerator or click a specific facet to encounter an actual issue with that data. (Well, technically that refrigerator would have fallen off the experience if they chose a minimum 30" wide refrigerator, but let's not split hairs.) Although they looked bad, they could easily be forgiven. Brand credibility might have taken a minor bruise, but it wasn't enough to stop a buying decision.

So what does it take to cause a change in buying behavior? Let's look at the example of the Adesso Draper 18" Gooseneck Lamp in Black on 4 major websites: Walmart, Home Depot, Target and Amazon.

First off, yes these are the same lamp in case. Walmart has chosen to show it as a "Goosneck" lamp, but that is a data error. (A very visible error at that.) Secondly, these are the exact same images re-used on each sight. They are rendered with slight differences, but they are the exact same image. 

The interesting data issues appear when you start looking at the specifications for this single lamp  on each of the four sites. In the image below Walmart is bordered in blue, Target in red, Home Depot in orange, and Amazon in yellow.

Let's play a game of "Spot the Data Issues"!

First off, I realize the last image is small. LinkedIn restricts the width of an image, so unless I posted 4 different images (which is a giant pain to post 4 images in a row without the entire LinkedIn blog webpage crashing... Fix this LinkedIn!!!) you'll have to squint or trust what I'm about to tell you.

Issue #1 - Lamp Gender

For reasons I have yet to understand Walmart has chosen to display the gender of this lamp. Yes, it's correctly assigned as "Unisex", so it's not wrong. However, why bother? I can see using a facet in a PLP (Product Listing Page) of gender for lamps so that you could filter to lamps with Hello Kitty or My Little Pony themes, but by the time you get this far you don't care about gender.... at all! This is a display issue, not a data issue.... but it does make me shake my head and wonder what they were thinking. The PDP (Product Detail Page) should not need data like this.

Amazon also lists the size of the lamp as "Table". They list dimensions for the lamp, so listing "Table" as a size is kind of odd. I know they were trying to show that it was a table lamp, but there are much more effective ways of displaying this data. It probably should only be a facet on the PLP and not a data point on the PDP. It's still a forgivable issue, but it does make you wonder why it happened.

Issue #2 - What are the Dimensions?

This issue is a little more extreme. Amazon and Target show the same dimensions for this item. Walmart's dimensions are different, as are Home Depot's dimensions. What are the actual dimensions of this item? If we chose based of democratic methods Target and Amazon are right. But are they? Unfortunately I can't tell you, as Adesso's website doesn't give simple dimensions. As this lamp is adjustable they only give a range of heights that don't match up with any of the data presented on these websites. The range of heights actually starts higher and ends lower than the data presented on these sites.

How did this happen? There are three different sets of data here for one item. There are two options: 1 person entered the data on four different websites on different days and wasn't consistent, or 4 people entered the data and weren't consistent in their data source. My guess is it's a combination of both. Regardless, if I was looking at multiple sites for this lamp I would be forced to see it in person to know what the actual dimensions were. I wouldn't buy this lamp online.

If you look closely at the material and finish attributes you'll notice similar issues. I can't tell if this is a black or silver lamp when I cross-shop this item, nor am I sure of what material it's made of. The image is pretty clear, but the data is not. This is purely a taxonomy issue, as the questions asked during the data collection process are dissimilar across these retailers. Because of this inconsistency in data collection either a single person or multiple people answered these data collection questions with conflicting data. If the taxonomies for these items were more aligned this situation could have been potentially avoided.

Issue #3 - California Title 20 Compliance

So the issue above only really matters if you cross-shop several sites. You won't even notice the dimension issues if you only look at a single source. There is an issue that could actually make the item unsellable on one of these sites though, and it has to do with incandescent bulbs.

California has a law that states that you cannot ship a lamp to the state of California that contains an incandescent bulb. It is part of their green initiative called California Title 20, and it was a huge issue a few years back. If a lamp contained an incandescent bulb it had to be flagged so it couldn't be sold, and the same lamp with a different bulb, like an CFL or LED bulb, needed to be offered for it to be legal to sell that lamp in California.

Target states this lamp doesn't come with a bulb. They actually call out with an attribute that a bulb is not included, where normally what is included is called out. However, they make the correct assessment that, because of the lack of a bulb, this item is not subject to the California Title 20 law. Home Depot also calls out that no bulbs are included, but then states that the lamp is NOT California Title 20 compliant.  Because of this discrepancy this lamp should not be sold in California even though, if it does lack an enclosed bulb, the data says it should be sellable in California. Home Depot may be losing sales on this item because of this error.

I can't tell you why this issue occurred. There are too many variables. All I know is that, based on Home Depot's own data, they can both sell and not sell this item in California. If Home Depot, Adesso, or a distributor inbetween is responsible doesn't matter: Based on the law one data point makes this lamp unsellable in one state while another data point says it can be sold in that state. This is a huge issue that could be costing Adesso and Home Depot sales and profits.

Product Data is Brand Credibility

Due to the issues listed above I would have concerns buying this lamp, and I may not be able to at all in California if I'm on HomeDepot.com. If you are a consumer and come across this kind of data issue you might wonder who has the right data. You might have to go to Adesso's website to find out, and you'll find very little help there as well. Even finding the item on that website was a challenge. If it were me I would probably shop a different manufacturer and/or website.

Product data is all about brand credibility. If you have bad data your brand suffers. I fully realize that a sizable percentage of people would buy this item based on the image alone, so I don't believe this is a complete sales failure.  However, each of these brands, including Adesso, should be worried about the customers that do care about product details. They are the difference between selling this item at full price and selling it as clearance. They are the make-or-break for a profit margin goal. They will determine if this item sits on a shelf for an extra 3 months, sapping capital for the next item to be brought to market and eating away at the ROI on that item.

There is a way to solve this. I normally don't advertise for who I work for, as I don't write these articles to be a commercial. However, at InRiver PIM we know how to solve this issue. It starts with a single source of product data, and if you don't have one you cannot succeed in product data. If you want to know more, reach out to me here or offline. I'm always happy to talk about how to make product data better.

And for the record, I had to look at 3 products before I found this issue. Again, there are more extreme cases. This is the first one I found. How many other data issues could I find if I spent more than 10 minutes looking at your items? When was the last time you looked at your items with this lens?