Poor data can queer your pitch

The Amazon “firestorm” that scorched its way across the Internet in April exemplifies the universal need for comprehensive data management for colossal Internet retailers like Amazon, it will only take a few cases of dubious data management before customers will start losing confidence – product information, and the reliability of its source, must be infallible.

The “ham-fisted error”, as Amazon tactfully put it, was in essence born of inconsistency. Amazon has pushed the boundaries of Internet retailing, boasting an astonishingly broad range of products, available through multiple channels in a host of different countries. While Amazon is an extreme example of vast data management requirements, this is a problem faced by any large company offering products across different channels. Keeping product information consistent is understandably challenging, but mistakes like that made by Amazon can, and inevitably will, lead to a PR nightmare without sufficient master data management.

Mark Thorpe
UK managing director, Stibo Systems