UK sales spike in jeopardy as 8/10 of product feeds are out of date
Online shopping in June soared but as many as 8 in 10 products listed online could contain out of date information, price or stock availability causing thousands of missed sales opportunities, according to online marketing firm Gillissa.
UK Internet shopping saw a 22% rise in June compared to last year’s numbers according to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, the highest monthly growth registered by the Index in two years.
But despite shopping totalling £4.4bn growth across the board, retailers could be jeopardising their chances to cash in on this latest sales spike by failing to keep details such as stock levels and new pricing up to date on the various online price comparison and product display sites.
Online marketing company Gillissa, founders of automated product display solution Feed Manager™ have been working on improving the quality and accuracy of client product feeds for several years and have revealed that maintaining up to date information is the biggest issue for retailers advertising their products online.
“Maintaining product feeds can be hugely time consuming for retailers or their online marketing providers and as a result, many let the information lapse. We are seeing this happen daily and estimate that as many as 8 out of 10 products listed online currently have inaccurate information displayed,” explains Richard Wood, MD of Gillissa.
Richard believes that many retailers avoid addressing the issue because of fears that the developmental costs to create an automated feed update would far exceed the sales lost through inaccurate product information online.
“It’s ironic that retailers are continuing to miss out on significant online sales when an automated product feed update from Feed Manager™ could cost as little as £100 a month. It is a small investment to make but one which will make a huge difference to their online revenue,”
