Maintaining Accurate Catalogues to Support Growth
A leading online retailer of mid to high-end home and outdoor furnishings and décor encountered data entry and processing challenges that directly impacted their bottom line. As a carrier and distributor of over 500 furniture brands, they needed to consistently make updates their product catalog of over 750,000 SKUs. Offerings, features, and availability shift regularly in the furnishings industry, and the client quickly identified a need for ongoing support.
The critical nature of having a current and correct listing for all available offerings lead the client to establish in-house data entry efforts. With a team of 12 data entry and product catalog specialists on the payroll, the client hoped to have dedicated resources that primarily focused on interacting with their furniture brands, receiving relevant updates to product descriptions and data, and updating prices.
Hiring directly can benefit organizations that are able to manage and retain talent that understands their value proposition. However, the client’s in-house team was rapidly plagued with high turnover, low productivity, high absenteeism, and poor accuracy. The client found it difficult to keep employees engaged and performing at a high level due to the mundane and repetitive nature of the catalogue data entry and accuracy work.
As a result, the client continued to work with their own buyers and partners while leveraging inaccurate and outdated catalogues. This broken process negatively impacted their relationships with their furniture brands and suppressed both revenue and sales potential while incurring the additional costs of full-time data entry employees and lost ROI to turnover.