4 min read
As brands head into 2026, one thing is clear: product data is no longer a back-office task. It’s now a revenue driver, a margin protector, and a critical layer of customer experience. But for many growing businesses, product information is still scattered across tools, teams, and spreadsheets—slowing launches, driving returns, and creating unnecessary risk while economic uncertainty looms.
This shift required an evolution—one built for speed, clarity, and scale. That’s why we’re introducing JasperX.
JasperX represents the evolution of the trusted Jasper platform and built on three pillars that matter most to growing brands:
- eXpertise: More than a decade years of real‑world PIM problem‑solving with global brands.
- eXtensibility: An API‑first platform designed to integrate, automate, and scale effortlessly.
- eXperience: A customer‑first approach that delivers clarity, speed, and confidence at every step.
Together, they transform product data from a daily burden into a growth advantage.
This new era is all about removing friction, so your brand can move faster, launch smarter, and scale with confidence.
Why Product Data Clarity Matters in 2026
The pressure on commerce teams is rising. Growth has slowed in many markets, margins are tightening, and executives are demanding measurable impact—faster.
At the same time, brands are pushing hard to counter these pressures—accelerating omnichannel expansion, entering new markets, and finding smarter ways to scale. And as all of this unfolds, product data regulations continue to evolve, adding even more complexity to already‑stretched teams.
In this environment, fragmented product data becomes a silent liability.
When product information lives in too many places, teams lose time reconciling inconsistencies instead of launching new collections. When content and specifications don’t align across channels, return rates rise and customer trust erodes. And when governance is bolted on after the fact, compliance risks grow just as scrutiny increases.
The financial impact of getting product data wrong is significant. In 2025 alone, retailers are expected to face nearly $850 billion in total returns, with roughly 19% of online purchases sent back.
Product data quality—accurate specifications, imagery, and localized content—has become a direct lever for protecting revenue and loyalty.
The brands that will outperform in 2026 aren’t necessarily the ones with the biggest catalogues or the most channels. They’re the ones with clear, structured, and trusted product data at the centre of their operations.
The Hidden Costs Slowing Teams Down
For many brands, product data issues don’t show up as a single, obvious failure. They surface gradually as missed launch windows, rising return rates, frustrated teams, or mounting complexity that’s hard to unwind.
Common symptoms include:
- Slower launches and missed revenue timing: When product information is fragmented across systems, launching a new collection or campaign takes longer than it should, often missing key seasonal opportunities.
- Higher return rates and support overhead: Inconsistent specifications, incomplete content, or misaligned images across channels lead to customer confusion, product mismatches, and costly returns. Over 70% of shoppers say a poor return experience makes them less likely to buy again.
- Operational drag that gets worst as teams scale: Manual fixes, duplicate data entry, and workarounds may work at smaller volumes, but they don’t hold up as SKUs, channels, and regions multiply.
- Governance and compliance gaps: As standards and regulations evolve (such as GS1’s move toward 2D barcodes, Digital Product Passports in the EU, and enhanced traceability requirements for food products) unstructured product data increases risk just as accountability expectations rise.
Individually, these issues feel manageable. Collectively, they quietly erode margin, confidence, and speed
When Product Data Clarity Becomes a Growth Engine
Product data clarity gives teams the foundation to move faster, reduce errors, and scale with confidence—turning everyday operations into measurable growth.
And this is where the shift really happens: product data clarity changes the equation.
When product data is centralized, structured, and governed from a single source of truth, teams gain the ability to move faster without losing control. Launches become repeatable instead of reactive, product content stays consistent across every channel, and expansion into new markets or marketplaces feels more achievable than overwhelming.
Product data clarity enables brands to:
- Launch new products and collections on schedule
- Reduce returns caused by mismatched or incomplete information
- Maintain consistency across channels, regions, and languages
- Adapt to new requirements without rework or rebuilding processes
- Give teams confidence in the data they rely on every day
In practice, brands that centralize product data often see dramatic efficiency gains—cutting duplicative manual tasks and shrinking workflows that once took days down to minutes. Faster launches improve revenue timing, while better data accuracy reduces returns and service tickets, creating compounding business impact.
Jasper has helped us reduce by about 80% those duplicative tasks—and that’s a huge efficiency gain for our small team.
— Robert Naumann, Vice President, Systems & Integration, Delasco
This is where product data stops being a maintenance burden and starts becoming an operational advantage.
Where JasperX Fits In—and Why It Matters Now
JasperX was built for brands navigating exactly this moment.
It brings together more than 10 years of PIM experience with a modern, extensible platform designed to fit into real-world commerce ecosystems. JasperX replaces scattered tools and manual fixes with a centralized system that gives teams clarity, speed, and control without requiring a full replatform.
Leaders across multiple verticals, including Samsonite, Filson, and Yeti Cycles, already rely on JasperX to manage complexity at scale. From manufacturers modernizing decades of product data, to lean eCommerce teams accelerating launches across Shopify, BigCommerce, and marketplaces, JasperX supports growth without adding friction.
Turn Product Data Clarity into 2026 Growth
As you plan for 2026, here’s the question most growth‑focused teams are asking, “Is our product data helping or holding us back?”
In a market shaped by tighter margins, omnichannel expansion, and evolving standards, product data clarity becomes a foundation for smarter decisions and faster execution. The brands that invest in clarity now will be better positioned to adapt, scale, and protect profitability in the year ahead.
See What Product Data Clarity Looks Like in Practice
If you’re exploring ways to launch faster, reduce returns, and scale without chaos, book a JasperX demo to see how centralized product data can support your goals.
Or, dive deeper and learn how growing brands are building stronger foundations for the future by downloading our free resource: The SMB Guide to Product Information Management: Driving Omnichannel Growth.