Global report examines US, UK, Nordic, Benelux and DACH regions across industries to determine most common drivers of lost revenue, delayed launches, and customer dissatisfaction in B2B

inRiver, a leading SaaS provider of product information management (PIM) solutions, released: How B2B Companies Solve Challenges of Revenue and Scale with Better Product Information. The third party research analyzes responses from more than 1,300 business decision makers across sectors including manufacturing, food and beverage, construction, fashion and luxury goods to identify common drivers of lost revenue, delayed or cancelled product launches, and customer dissatisfaction among global businesses as well as the impact of consumerization of B2B practices.

All industries included in the survey expect an uptick in revenue around a new product launch. However, businesses miscalculate the impact erroneous product information has on revenue potential, critical relationships among distribution partners, a brand’s ability to go to market faster than the competition, or in building and sustaining trust among customers. This new report is part of inRiver’s commitment to educate enterprises on trends and insights that affect business growth and how to solve them via Adaptive Merchandising.

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The definition of Adaptive Merchandising is knowing how customers are making purchasing decisions, adapting to their needs and merchandising product content so that they make the most informed purchase decisions.

Highlights of the B2B report:

• Incorrect product information is the leading driver of lost revenue around a launch: 1 in 3 US businesses have had product pulled from shelves or experienced a delayed product launch because of inaccurate or inconsistent product information. Among the 26% of UK businesses where this has happened, 33% identify this as a frequent challenge. This is also a key driver of product returns among German businesses, and core source of customer dissatisfaction.

• Competition will continue to intensify: The average business has more than five competitors, and for some enterprises, this exceeds 15 competitors. All global businesses are experiencing greater competition since 2014, and expect this to increase. This is in addition to planning around the “Amazon Effect” and new online channels or distributors. The industries most impacted are construction and industrial manufacturing as syndication of content is difficult for thousands of SKUs and products.

• Automation remains a struggle: Keeping track of product information updates is a global challenge as many product detail updates are still manual. In the US, 52% of business leaders identify this as a major pain point, particularly around what information is updated and where. In the UK and Germany, the larger challenge hinges on ensuring product details meet all the standards, formats and compliance standards of a new market or channel.

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“When it comes to an effective and profitable product launch or development of a new channel, the devil is in the details,” said Thor Johnson, CEO, inRiver. “Millions of dollars and thousands of team hours are invested into and around the launch of any product, but many businesses struggle in making this process faster, scalable, and a frictionless experience for their buyers. Our latest research spotlights shared headaches among business leaders and offers guidance on how companies can bring new efficiencies to their go-to-market strategies for commerce and merchandising success.”

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