About the company
With operations across multiple international markets, the retailer and its brands provide optometry and audiology services, along with glasses, contact lenses, sunglasses, and hearing aids, through more than 3,000 retail stores and multiple online platforms. Its vertically integrated business model includes in-house manufacturing of ophthalmic lenses and frames, helping ensure consistent product quality and supply across its global operations.
The challenge: Too many systems, too little consistency
For a business operating at this scale, delivering a connected shopping experience is no small task. With an integrated supply chain spanning 11 countries, consistent product information is essential to supporting the retailer's ambitious growth plans.
Like many growing retailers, the company relied on numerous disconnected legacy systems across countries and, in some cases, multiple systems within a single market. The fragmented technology landscape created data silos, making it difficult to maintain a single source of truth for product data and deliver a consistent customer experience.
To support continued global expansion, the retailer needed a scalable product master data management (MDM) solution that could consolidate product data onto a single platform and provide a trusted foundation for the business.
Accurate product data had to flow seamlessly across three critical areas:
- Online retail systems serving digital-first customers
- Store-based retail systems supporting more than 3,000 locations worldwide
- Supply chain operations, including in-house manufacturing
Without a single source of truth, keeping product information aligned across manufacturing, online channels, and physical stores became increasingly complex and introduced unnecessary risk.
"The product data we manage internally must exactly match what our customers see and buy. And being able to distribute a single, consistent data set across every channel is paramount for our business."
Global Data Architect, Leading Optical and Hearing Care Retailer
To support ambitious expansion plans without disrupting the customer journey, the retailer first needed a trusted data foundation.
The solution
Building the right foundation
The team knew a quick fix would not suffice. Instead, they invested resources into a comprehensive request for proposal (RFP) process, evaluating solutions across the market.
After narrowing the field to three vendors, the retailer selected Stibo Systems Product Experience Data Cloud. It ranked highly with industry analysts such as Gartner and Forrester, but more importantly, it offered the required capabilities while staying within budget.
Today, the retailer uses Stibo Systems as the foundation for managing and enriching product data, ensuring accurate and trustworthy information flows seamlessly to its ecommerce platforms and every other customer touchpoint.
The vision: Meeting customers wherever they are
The retailer has reimagined the customer journey, ensuring customers enjoy a consistent shopping experience across every touchpoint. Some customers prefer researching products online before visiting a store, while others value speaking with a specialist from the start. Many products, including glasses, contact lenses, and hearing aids, still require an in-store visit to complete the purchase.
Regardless of the journey, the program acknowledges diverse shopping preferences and focuses on creating a consistent experience wherever customers choose to engage. By ensuring product information remains accurate and consistent across every channel, the retailer delivers a connected experience from the first interaction through to the final purchase.
Trusted data has laid the foundation for AI
Having established a trusted data foundation, the retailer is now exploring how AI can create additional value across the business.
Its first use case focuses on translating product descriptions into relevant languages across global markets. But the team is not willing to settle for generic translations with no personality. The retailer is building an AI agent that ensures every translation maintains the brand's voice and matches the distinctive tone the company uses when communicating with its customers.
The translation project is only the beginning. The company sees Product Experience Data Cloud as a foundation for future AI initiatives.
"Having trusted data means we're ready to take advantage of AI."
Global Data Architect, Leading Optical and Hearing Care Retailer
Scaling with strong leadership support
Executive sponsorship has been a defining factor throughout the transformation. The company's leadership team understood from day one that trusted data was a strategic priority.
Building on that support, the retailer is now entering the next phase of its transformation. The company is updating its online retail websites globally, extending trusted product data across every digital touchpoint and creating a more connected experience between its online and physical stores.
Key takeaways
The retailer's transformation journey provides insights for any retailer managing complex, multi-market operations:
- Prioritize AI readiness: Data quality and governance should be established before pursuing AI initiatives. Structured, trustworthy data is the prerequisite.
- Design for flexibility: Meet customers wherever they are in their journey, whether online or in-store.
- Think globally and implement systematically: Plan for global scale while rolling out in manageable phases.
Trustworthy data: The foundation for lasting growth
As this leading optical and hearing care retailer continues to expand across continents and evolve its customer experience, its investment in MDM provides the foundation for sustainable growth.
By creating a single source of truth for product data across manufacturing, retail, and online channels, the team is ensuring every customer interaction, regardless of channel or market, is built on accurate, consistent information.
For a business with global ambitions, trustworthy data is not just a technical requirement. It is the backbone of the customer promise and a source of competitive advantage.
FAQ’s
Why is product master data management (MDM) important for omnichannel retail?
Product MDM enables retailers to deliver consistent product information across digital and physical channels. By providing a trusted foundation for product data, MDM supports seamless customer experiences, improves operational efficiency, and helps businesses scale across multiple markets.
How can retailers improve product data consistency across multiple markets?
Retailers can improve product data consistency by consolidating disconnected systems into a single MDM platform that serves as a single source of truth. In this case, the retailer replaced fragmented legacy systems with a single centralized platform, enabling trusted product information to flow consistently across online channels, physical stores, and supply chain operations.
What business benefits has the retailer achieved with a single source of truth for product data?
By consolidating product data onto a single platform, the retailer has created a scalable foundation for global expansion. Trusted product data improves consistency across manufacturing, ecommerce, and retail operations, supports future AI initiatives, and helps deliver a connected customer experience across more than 3,000 stores and digital channels.
Why is trusted product data essential for AI?
AI delivers the best results when it is built on accurate, well-governed data. Trusted product data helps organizations use AI for applications such as product content generation, translation, and enrichment while maintaining accuracy, consistency, and brand voice across markets.
