Dive Brief:

• The immediate availability of detailed product information is no longer a luxury for retailers; failure to provide this information will drive away potential customers, CSCMP's Supply Chain Quarterly reported last week.
• The necessity of standardizing product details abounds throughout every industry interested in omnichannel sales and distribution. Wrong information or a lack of information means a failure in sales and a loss of a customer.
• The presence of detailed information was cited by a majority of consumers as the single most important component in the buying process, and the lack thereof a major reason why those consumers would abandon a retailer completely. 

Dive Insight:

Long before the popularity and necessity of omnichannel sales, retailers played the middleman in their interactions with customers. 

Now, however, distributors, logistics experts and suppliers work far more closely with retailers, distributing the amount of risk that had been previously primarily placed on the retailer. In today's supply chain, products are directly shipped to consumers, eliminating said wholesale middleman. Because of this enhanced relationship between retailer and distributor, clarity of product description becomes paramount, not simply for doing business well, but for providing products to consumers that will satisfy their purchasing awareness.

Transparency throughout the supply chain doesn't just apply to where and how. It also guides those involved in providing the valuable "what" so that mistakes and inaccuracies are minimized, or at best, eliminated entirely.