Simplifying the Complex Process of Data Integration, Part 2

Factors to consider when planning your merchandise assortment:

• Size of assortment: Are drop-ship and special order items on-boarded?
• Assortment life cycle: When you're building your data model, understand and segment short-lived SKUs vs. long-lived categories. One example is how does your site deal with seasonal products? Also, can your data model handle discontinued products, particularly if they're discontinued in one channel but available in another? “The advantage of being a multichannel retailer is that we have multiple different types of storefronts, the internet, an outlet site and stores, and a catalog business that we can push different products to," said Rodrigue. “It's having that ability to very quickly move not only product data, but the information needed to drive that fulfillment through the channel.”
• Product data scope: Do you have all of the customer-facing information needed for each product? Your master data management system also needs to include supply chain information, regulatory information and the digital media associated with each product.

Check back in two weeks when we'll continue our recap of Rodrigue's presentation with more of his steps to proper product data integration.