Why eCommerce businesses struggle without automated supplier catalog management and onboarding
Today, poor product catalog data represents more than an operational challenge — it’s emerged as a strategic vulnerability that can fundamentally impact business performance.
While traditional approaches often categorize catalog management as a routine operational concern, mounting evidence suggests otherwise. Incomplete, inconsistent or inaccurate product details erode customer trust and degrade the shopping experience, resulting in significant financial implications for organizations.
Recent studies reveal that data quality issues can have a direct impact on click and conversion rates. In fact, Gartner puts the cost of poor data for organizations at an average of $12.9 million, annually.
For organizations operating marketplaces or dropship platforms, these data-related challenges present even greater strategic implications due to its reliance on third-party suppliers for product information and fulfillment.
This blog explores how forward-thinking businesses are reimagining supplier catalog management through automation, transforming what was once considered a basic operational function into a source of competitive advantage.
The hidden costs of manual processes in catalog management
Manual supplier catalog processes introduce a range of challenges that can negatively impact an eCommerce business’s financial performance and competitive position. These challenges include:
Delays in time to market
Manual processes, such as the collection and validation of supplier product data, can extend over several days or weeks, as each SKU requires multiple interactions before it can properly enter a catalog.
This back-and-forth slows down the introduction of new products and hinders a company's ability to capitalize on emerging market trends and demands.
As a result, businesses miss out on crucial sales opportunities, allowing competitors who can move faster to capture market share.
Operational inefficiencies
Teams are often consumed by repetitive, time-consuming tasks, such as data validation and formatting.
This consumes significant human resources, leading to wasted hours that could otherwise be directed toward more strategic initiatives.
The labor-intensive nature of these tasks also drives up operational costs, putting additional strain on a company's financial resources.
Compromised data quality
Manual processes frequently result in inconsistent product information, missing attributes, and categorization errors.
Poor data quality impacts the customer experience, as consumers rely on accurate and complete product information to make informed purchasing decisions.
This diminishes customer trust and adversely affects conversion rates when buyers abandon purchases due to incomplete or incorrect product details.
How catalog management and onboarding solutions can help retailers compete more effectively
Ingesting new data is one of the most inefficient aspects of catalog management and supplier onboarding. Mapping and aligning data from one system to another is a tedious process that requires intense attention to detail and isn’t always made easier by hiring more resources.
For example, consider organizations like Graybar, a Fortune 500 distributor and leader in the North American market, specializing in electrical, communications, data networking and industrial products.
With more than 155,000 clients, 1,200 supplier partners and over 1 million products, catalog management already faces quality control challenges that are exacerbated by the human element.
Fortunately, innovations in AI now allow businesses to take a different path, with robust catalog solutions offering organizations valuable tools to simplify supplier catalog management and improve onboarding efficiency through automation.
Chief among them are integration and data ingestion capabilities that help organizations cut down the time it takes to add new SKUs from days to hours.
Whether dealing with APIs, CSV files, or XML formats, leading solutions can effortlessly map data, aligning supplier information with your unique taxonomy. This means seamless integration with minimal manual effort, enabling businesses to quickly adapt to various supplier formats, saving valuable time and resources typically spent on data harmonization.
Catalog management and supplier onboarding solutions can also help retailers automate their quality control processes through a number of different ways.
Built-in validation rules and automatic categorizations
These solutions ensure your product data remains complete and consistent. This reduces the need for manual checks, significantly cutting down on errors and enhancing data reliability across your operations.
Process automation
Organizations maintain greater control over their product data and ensure that data adheres to specific standards and business rules, allowing for better governance and oversight. As a result, businesses can confidently manage their product offerings, knowing that the data is accurate, up-to-date and aligned with their strategic objectives.
Better supplier comms and service
Effective catalog management solutions play a crucial role in facilitating supplier communication and self-service. They provide a centralized hub for optimizing interactions and clearly outlining data requirements.
Ultimately, this minimizes tedious back-and-forth communications, simplifying the management of supplier relationships and ensuring clarity in data handling. By alleviating these complexities, businesses can shift focus to strategic growth and operational excellence.
Streamline supplier catalog management and accelerate time to market
Staying competitive in eCommerce today requires agility and efficiency.
Yet, manual supplier catalog management and onboarding often lead to delays, operational inefficiencies, and inconsistent data — directly impacting retailers’ bottom lines.
Automated catalog management and onboarding solutions eliminate these bottlenecks by automating data ingestion, quality control and supplier collaboration. This helps retailers reduce time to market, optimize resources and deliver accurate, reliable product data, resulting in enhanced customer experiences, higher conversion rates and a stronger competitive positioning.
The Mirakl Catalog Platform helps businesses eliminate the inefficiencies of manual processes associated with supplier catalog management and onboarding.
“Speed to market means everything in business. It would take days to add a new SKU as we worked with our suppliers to get all the product information from them in the correct format. Now, all of the requirements are in the Mirakl Catalog Platform, ensuring the right data and format when suppliers import their products. As a result, a new product can be live in a single day.” - Lisa Schaffer, Manager of Online Merchandising at Graybar
Learn how Mirakl has helped brands like Graybar streamline catalog management and accelerate time to market, by reading our recent case study.
Download the Graybar case study here.
