Most retailers are aware by now that clean customer and product data is what will take their business to the next level in the coming years.

Most retailers are aware by now that clean customer and product data is what will take their business to the next level in the coming years. It’s what will help them understand their customers and predict future buying patterns. But retailers aren’t the only ones keen to get control of it. Google is on a drive to get businesses to sign up to their latest e-commerce drive, which focuses on the value of information on local stock levels.

It might sound slightly dry, but it’s a good idea – keeping things local is at the heart of Tesco’s strategy for international expansion. Their group strategy director Andrew Higginson said at the National Retail Federation conference in New York last week, “Retail is still a local business. Even within the same city, two stores can display completely different needs. It’s a balance between getting global knowledge, IT and marketing consistent, and being absolutely local in what we offer consumers.”
Google appears to be on the same page, with business product manager Paul Lee speaking on the topic at the same conference.

There are two trends driving this. Firstly, the number of transactions that people research online and make in-store is rising to a predicted 64% of total purchases by 2019. So the real winners, Google says, will be bricks and mortar retailers who have useful information online – both about the product, and about where you can find it.

Secondly, the increasing use of mobile internet means people are searching in-store for immediate information. If they can’t find what they want on the shelves, they’ll search for it on their phones and go to the nearest place with the product they want in stock.

Google is working with technology suppliers like Oracle on the logistics of collecting this data, and already has a sizeable list of retailers signed up. Ventures like this are likely to need lots of work, aggregating and cleaning up data, uploading product listings to websites, and making sure it can be updated in real time. But if the big names are to be believed, the effort will be worth it.