A FRAMEWORK FOR COMMERCE LEADERS

The Problem No One Owns

Why catalog quality is the hidden bottleneck killing your search, SEO, and AI performance — and how to fix it for good.

Free Whitepaper (PDF) • 10-minute read

Catalog Quality Whitepaper PDF

Every retailer and distributor has tried to “fix the catalog.” Most fail.

This free whitepaper explains why — and shows how leading commerce organizations are shifting from one-off cleanup projects to a continuous, system-driven approach to catalog quality that improves search, SEO, and AI performance over time.

Fill out the short form below to receive the full whitepaper instantly.

 
 

Catalog quality is a problem as old as ecommerce itself — but only modern, AI-driven systems make it possible to manage at scale.

Sound Familiar?

Search Underperforms

You tuned it. You switched vendors. Results improved... then plateaued. You're starting to wonder if the problem is upstream.

SEO Stalls

Your agency says add more content. You do. Rankings fluctuate. Competitors with thinner pages somehow outrank you.

AI Disappoints

The demos were incredible. The results are not. You're wondering if AI is overhyped - or if something else is wrong.

These aren't tool failures. They're catalog failures wearing a disguise.

The Numbers Don't Lie

STAT 1

72%

of ecommerce sites completely fail their site search expectations

— Baymard Institute, 2024

STAT 2

15–25%

of revenue lost to poor data quality across U.S. commerce

— MIT Sloan Management Review

STAT 3

82%

of machine learning projects stall due to data quality issues

— MIT Research

What You'll Learn

Why cleanup projects always regress

The structural reason your last data initiative didn’t stick—and what to do instead.

The Continuous Catalog Quality Lifecycle framework

A four-stage system for treating catalog quality as an ongoing discipline: Score, Enrich, Benchmark, Onboard.

Three forces making this problem existential

Discovery fragmentation, AI amplification, and the rising competitive bar.

Project vs. System: A side-by-side comparison

What happens over three years when two companies take different approaches.

How to get started

Practical steps to build visibility, connect quality to outcomes, and create lasting change.

 

 

This Whitepaper Is For You If...

  • You’ve run a catalog cleanup project that didn’t stick
  • You’re planning a platform migration, replatform, or AI initiative
  • You’re tired of explaining to leadership why search isn’t working
  • You suspect your product data is “semi clean” but haven’t measured it
  • You want to stop chasing symptoms and start building a system

About the Author

Rob Desmarais

Founder & CEO, Magnet Labs

I've spent 25 years helping B2B and retail brands build and optimize their eCommerce channels and inevitably, solve the product data problems that silently erode commerce performance. As an eCommerce solutions executive and company founder, I've worked with over 400 companies across enterprise ecommerce. And I've seen the same patterns repeat: the cleanup project that regressed, the platform migration that didn't move the needle, the AI initiative that underperformed.

This whitepaper distills what those experiences taught me about why catalog quality requires a different approach

Connect with Rob Desmarais on LinkedIn

Ready to Stop Chasing Symptoms?

Download the whitepaper - The Problem No One Owns - and learn how leading commerce organizations are treating catalog quality as a continuous discipline—not a periodic project.