Data Stewardship

Definition

Data stewardship refers to the formal responsibility assigned to individuals or teams for managing and overseeing specific data assets within an organization. Data stewards ensure that data adheres to defined quality standards, policies, and regulatory requirements. Their tasks often include defining data standards, resolving data quality issues, approving data changes, documenting data definitions, and ensuring compliance with data governance policies. This role is critical for maintaining trustworthy and reliable data across all systems and operations.

Why It's Important for E-commerce

In e-commerce, effective data stewardship directly impacts product data quality, which is fundamental to customer trust and operational efficiency. Poor data quality leads to incorrect product descriptions, missing attributes, and outdated pricing, resulting in customer dissatisfaction, increased returns, and lost sales. Data stewards ensure that product information is accurate, complete, and consistent across all digital touchpoints, from product detail pages to marketing campaigns. This proactive management of product data assets minimizes errors and supports confident decision-making.

Examples

• A PIM manager acts as a data steward for product descriptions, ensuring all new content follows brand guidelines and is free of errors.
• An IT specialist is the data steward for technical specifications, verifying that all attribute values conform to predefined formats and units.
• A marketing team member is responsible for managing media assets, ensuring images and videos are high-resolution and correctly linked to products.

How WISEPIM Helps

• Clear data ownership: WISEPIM helps define and assign data stewardship roles, ensuring clear accountability for specific product data sets.
• Integrated quality checks: Data stewards can implement and monitor data quality rules directly within WISEPIM, preventing issues at the source.
• Streamlined data governance: Support data stewards with tools for version control, audit trails, and workflow approvals to enforce governance policies.

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