IT-Assisted provision of product data to online retailers in the Home & Living sector

Abstract

The value chain of online retail involves various different parties that need to exchange data among them. One of the most critical information for the end customer that needs to be exchanged is product information as it plays a crucial factor in ones purchasing decision. As this data directly influences the user interface and the customer experience as well as highly depends on the product category the data structures of product information is highly individual among different shops and other parties involved. In order to be able to exchange these information the different data structures need to be mapped onto one another. Even though the general structure of this exchange often is defined by a standard, e.g. EDI, the underlying values and fields of the standard still need to be mapped onto one another. The present work first explores the general problem space and showcases the status quo. Afterwards different approaches towards an assisted provision of this data are evaluated.