Lowes Raises the Bar on Data Quality
Lowe’s continues to raise the bar on product information quality. On a recent trip to Lowe’s Head Office in Mooresville, Aligntrac met with Lowe’s Product Information team to discuss Lowe’s current and future initiatives on GDSN and Product Information. Lowe’s continues to expand their use of GDSN data thus requiring additional data attributes as well as greater attention to accuracy and timeliness.
In the meeting Lowe’s outlined the status of their various PCM initiatives and the impact that Product Information has on their business:
| Brand Name |
Lowe’s makes use of the “brand name” field in their consumer website and internal reporting systems. Therefore absolute consistency is a must. In order to achieve consistency, Lowe’s has implemented a list of acceptable “brand name” values and validates incoming GDSN data against this list. Any deviation from that list results in the vendor’s item listing or change failing PCM validations and a CIC “review” message being returned to the vendor. Checking the brand values in your GDSN data is easy. Just go to Aligntrac's Sync/PDI Search Screen and view the Brand search criteria -- the dropdown has a complete list of all the brand values contained in your data. It is quick to identify any typos or inconsistency in the brands you have specified, and of course all you need to do is click "search" to get a list of those GTIN's that you need to correct. Vendors need to ensure that their Brands are specified exactly as defined on the Lowe's maintained list of valid brands. If your brands are not on the list then you need to request that Lowe's add your brands to the Lowe's maintained list BEFORE you publish your items to Lowe's. The Lowe's maintained list of valid brands and the procedure to add brands are on the LowesLink web site - www.loweslink.com/pubdocuments/pcmBM_Introduction.pdf.
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| Imported Products |
Lowe’s has been contacting vendors to certify that the “Country of Origin” information within GDSN is correct. This is a requirement for Lowe’s to sell product to the Federal Government. As part of this initiative, Lowe’s is validating GDSN data and requiring that imported product also specify the Harmonized Tariff Classification. GTINs missing these fields fail PCM validations and a CIC “review” message is returned to the vendor.
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| Dimensions |
Lowe’s has begun to physically audit vendor’s GDSN case and item dimensions and weights. Lowe’s is communicating these audit results to vendors and requiring vendors to validate all discrepancies and update their GDSN dimensions. Lowe’s is currently piloting the GS1US In-Box Standards, Data Resolution Process and GS1US Dimension Scorecard. As part of the In-Box Standards, GS1 is updating the GS1 Package Measurement Guidelines with additional samples of hardlines-oriented products.
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| Out-of-Box Dimensions |
Lowe’s is starting to collect out-of-box dimensions. Lowe’s Merchandising divisions are targeting certain vendors and categories in 2010. Lowe’s highlighted the importance of this data in meeting consumer labeling requirements for both in-store signage and website information. Lowe’s provided several examples where accuracy and understanding the definitions of out-of-box dimensions is very important to the consumer or in complying with regulations:
Lowe’s current focus is on products that require assembly. Lowe’s vendors should start collecting out-of-box dimensions. These dimensions are the dimensions of the product after removing packaging and performing any assembly of the product. GS1 is currently creating a Out-of-Box Measurement guidelines document.
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Lowe’s is also expanding their use of GDSN Catalogue Item Confirmation (CIC) Messages. Lowe’s will soon be issuing additional CIC’s when Lowe’s identifies a data attribute value that the vendor should change. These “Request Change CIC” messages will follow the same path as Lowe’s current CIC’s and will be available to Sync/PDI users in exactly the same manner as today. By leveraging the GDSN standards in this way, Lowe’s is looking to help vendors improve the quality of their product information – a “win-win” approach for Lowe’s and their vendors.