Product data management can be a huge problem for manufacturers and resellers. It involves capturing and regularly updating the product data in their systems as well as sharing updates and information with their buyers. In today’s competitive world, the stakes are very high and there is no room for error in product delivery across the different stages of the supply chain. At the same time, the amount of data ingested via various business systems such as order management systems, POS systems, warehouse management systems, etc., is immense. The use of legacy software such as Excel is not optimal for managing such voluminous data and frequent changes that need to be updated and shared, leading to many versions of excel files being created with multiple stakeholders.
Most stakeholders in the supply chain realize the challenges and importance of data management. However, despite this knowledge, they are unable to formulate a data management strategy that ensures efficiency and promotes accuracy.
The Reasons for Product Data Errors
The present-day brand owners, retailers, and aggregators are unable to manage data efficiently at various stages, leading to incorrect product data residing in various disparate systems. Below are some fundamental reasons that instigate bad data management:
- Rising complexity and frequent changes in product data
- Mismanagement of barcode numbers
- Lack of structure and standardization of data
- Lack of data collaboration in real-time
When errors start creeping in, they start impacting the performance. Moreover, the trust amongst different stakeholders is also impacted. When the trust is compromised, the entire business relationship falls apart. On the contrary, if these errors can be checked by maintaining a centralized repository for master data, this situation can be avoided completely.
The Value of Common Data Management Platform
Majorpart of the problem lies in the fact that retailer or marketplace has to manage data for thousands of products from hundreds of suppliers, big and small alike, in a uniform format, despite the same being supplied in multiple formats. Not only this, at times, retailers also depend on crowd sourced information on the products. This is exactly where DataKart comes into the picture.
DataKart is a solution that intuitively fits into the vision of most manufacturers and retailers. For a retailer, it means no capital investment on an elaborate software development project. For manufacturers, it means the information it wants to convey will be communicated without any errors or mistakes, and more importantly, in real-time. It just takes a few clicks in sharing product information with multiple retailers/e-tailers in their native format.
GS1 India’s DataKart is a centralized repository that stores attributes of products sold in the Indian market. These attributes include information on but are not limited to – product variant, MRP, size, and weight, dimensions, product name, images, etc.
One of the major USPs of DataKart is how it fits into the scheme of things. A manufacturer always wants his new products launches to be visible to every retailer. Earlier, this used to take weeks through the distributor network and they mostly had to depend on ads in media to popularise their new launches. However, the same could be done within a few clicks with DataKart. Also, the manufacturer is assured that every aspect of data is conveyed in the intended format without any errors. There could be absolutely no ambiguity or doubts about the information that is communicated.
In the same way, the retailer receiving the data has absolutely no doubt about the veracity of information it has received since the information is directly populated by brand owners and not received through distributors and wholesalers. . All you have to do is share information with multiple buyers, in their respective formats, at the click of few buttons.
