United Retail applies automated product data enrichment across multiple retail formulas.
One foundation. Focused priorities. Multiple channels.
United Retail is a Dutch retail organisation behind Electro World and Dé Witgoed Specialist, supporting a large network of independent consumer electronics and home-appliance retailers.
The goal was a more structured way to manage product information and coordinate data across suppliers, brands, distributors and internal teams.
With a broad assortment and product data arriving from multiple sources, treating every product in exactly the same way became increasingly inefficient.
ConnectingTheDots PIM brings product information together in one central environment and helps United Retail determine, per product, which enrichment and attention it needs before it goes to a sales channel.
- One central product data foundation: across brands and channels
- Effort scoring: to make remaining work visible
- Automated data enrichment: via Icecat and Tradeplace
The challenge: not every product requires the same amount of work.
United Retail manages a broad range of consumer electronics and household appliances.
The amount and complexity of product information vary significantly by product type. A television may require a large set of specifications, features and supporting content. A simpler product may require far less enrichment.
When every product follows the same process, teams can end up spending effort in the wrong places. Complex products may require more attention, while simpler items may be pushed through unnecessary workflow steps.
The challenge was therefore not just to centralise product information, but to allocate product data work more intelligently.
A central foundation for product information.
In PIM, United Retail manages product data used for two retail formulas: Electro World and Dé Witgoed Specialist. From one central product truth, a separate variant can be created per formula.
The factual product information, such as specifications, stays the same. Formula-specific information, such as product titles, descriptions and metadata, can be adapted per variant to the formula in question.
Additional information, such as services linked to a product, can also differ per formula. Think of an installation or delivery service.
By using one central product foundation for multiple formulas, product information does not have to be managed twice. Changes to central product data can be made in one place, while each formula keeps the freedom to tailor presentation and additional information to its own formula.
See also Multi-brand Product Operations.
Effort scoring makes remaining work visible.
United Retail uses an effort-scoring mechanism within PIM to show how much work remains before a product is ready for publication.
This gives teams an additional way to prioritise. Instead of looking only at whether a product is incomplete, teams can also consider how much work is required to move it forward.
This helps answer questions such as:
- which products are close to ready;
- which still require substantial enrichment;
- where additional review is needed;
- which products should be prioritised first.
Not every incomplete product requires the same amount of effort. That lets the team focus on the highest-priority products.
Automation where possible, human attention where it matters.
New products are automatically enriched in PIM with product data from content brokers such as Icecat and Tradeplace.
Per brand, you can configure which content broker is used as the source and which product information is taken from it. For a new Bosch product, for example, images and specifications can be added automatically from Tradeplace.
By automating data enrichment, a large part of the manual work is taken out of the process. Employees no longer have to enrich every product by hand, and can focus on checking, completing and validating data where it is actually needed.
From central product data to multiple channels.
Product information managed in PIM is distributed across several sales and information channels for both formulas:
- webshops;
- physical stores;
- marketplaces;
- affiliate platforms.
Publishing from one central product data foundation through Publishing & Channels reduces the need to maintain separate versions of the same product information for every destination. Channel-specific requirements can be supported from the same underlying product data.
The result.
By applying automation in PIM where it is useful, United Retail can automatically pull in product data and, where possible, enrich it via Icecat and Tradeplace. This applies to both formulas.
Employees no longer have to spend time on repetitive manual work, and can focus on exceptions and situations that require expert judgement. This not only reduces manual work, but also speeds up time-to-market for new products and updates to existing product data.