Master Data Management (MDM) is the backbone of Retail & CPG—driving everything from personalized customer experiences to inventory optimization. But even with powerful tools like Reltio, data challenges can derail your success. Based on real-world experiences with leading Retailers and CPG brands, here are three common MDM pitfalls—and how to sidestep them.
Pitfall 1: Poor Data Quality at Ingestion
Imagine this: your MDM ingests customer profiles, product SKUs, supply chain data, and sales transactions from multiple systems—some real-time, some batch. By the time it lands in Reltio, duplicate records, missing attributes, or outdated product data create inconsistencies across marketing, e-commerce, and fulfillment channels. One major retailer we worked with saw pricing mismatches between online and in-store inventory due to bad source data.
The Fix: Take control early.
Implement data observability early in the pipeline. Automated quality checks can catch dropped files, duplicate entries, or conflicting SKUs before they hit your MDM, preventing errors from cascading downstream.
Pitfall 2: Blind Spots in Data Lineage
Retail and CPG brands rely on real-time promotions, supplier updates, and customer engagement data—but if you can’t track where data originates, how it transforms, and why it changes, decision-making becomes a guessing game. One global CPG company struggled with product recall tracking because it couldn’t trace data back to its source after cleansing and merging operations in Reltio.
Data transformations happen fast—merging supplier feeds or syncing online and in-store customer records. But you're in the dark if you can’t trace what changed (or why) before it landed in Reltio. One global CPG company struggled with product recall tracking because it couldn’t trace data back to its source after cleansing and merging operations in Reltio. In Retail and CPG, where pricing disputes or regulatory compliance are always on the radar, that’s a gamble you can’t afford.
The Fix: Track data lineage end-to-end.
By mapping how customer, product, and supply chain data flows from source to MDM, teams can verify accuracy, ensure compliance, and streamline recall management or supplier audits.
Pitfall 3: Limited Data Visibility Inside Reltio
Once data is in Reltio, spotting issues without pulling everything out is slow and disruptive. A national grocery chain told us their biggest pain point was identifying incorrect product attributes and incomplete customer profiles after ingestion. They needed a way to monitor data integrity within Reltio without disrupting their operations.
The Fix: Boost visibility with smart observability
Imagine AI-driven checks that analyze merges or flag anomalies right in your MDM—no extraction needed. It’s proactive, not reactive. Advanced monitoring tools can flag anomalies, detect unusual merges, and proactively surface quality issues in near real-time—without requiring full data extraction.
From Data Chaos to MDM Confidence
That major Retail & CPG brand transformed its MDM with enterprise-grade observability—reducing errors, improving data trust across marketing and supply chain teams, and eliminating the need for constant cleanup.
Want to improve your MDM strategy? Grab our Data Quality Tips for Reltio Users for practical steps.
Let’s talk—we’ll show you how to make your Reltio data bulletproof.
.webp)
.webp)
.webp)