The overlooked product page insights
With brands selling on an ever-expanding number of ecommerce sites, it’s essential that ecommerce analytics providers deliver insights into how products are positioned, priced and sold online.
The key to building these insights is to analyze the information on the product pages of an online retailer or marketplace. It is therefore crucial ecommerce insight providers master all of the data points on the product page. However, our latest report on 2022’s Digital Shelf trends finds that there’s data on product pages that is often overlooked.
Why product pages matter
Product pages are ranked as one of the most important influencers in purchase decisions and customer conversion rates, so it’s essential brands optimize their product information.
According to Salsify’s latest Consumer Research report, high-quality, relevant product pages are more important than ever. As consumers are presented by an increasingly overwhelming number of options online, helping brands optimize product content is crucial for ecommerce analytics providers.
This doesn’t just mean ensuring the product name, price and description are correct. Research from eMarketer found that 83% of US customers viewed product images and photos to be ‘very influential’ in consumers’ purchase decisions.
By collecting and analyzing product page information, ecommerce analytics providers can help brands ensure:
- Product descriptions represent products accurately and are relevant (i.e. answer customer questions and influence purchase decisions)
- The price adheres to the agreed minimal pricing guidelines (MAP compliance)
- Brand style guidelines are met (including logo and proper trademarking)
- The number and quality of product images and videos are properly represented
The missed product page data points
Despite the importance of the product page on purchase decisions, we have found there are three key data points which are overlooked:
Vendor’s Choice
Products marked vendor’s choice help give brands extra visibility and credibility – leading to increased sales. A product with Amazon’s Choice Badge typically experiences a 3x sales boost, making it important for analytics providers to help brands understand whether they or their competitors are achieving this endorsement.
Shipping, delivery and returns information
While retailers may price and describe a product correctly, unattractive shipping and delivery options can hurt a brand’s sales. Shipping can easily add 5-10% onto the price of a product, while research shows offering free shipping can increase net profits by 15-30%, as nine out of 10 shoppers state free delivery is their number one incentive to spend more.
Shipping costs are another reason why analytics providers must deliver more detailed insights beyond just the price and description.
Equally, returns should not be overlooked since three quarters of shoppers state easy returns are an essential factor in their choice of retailer and 78% would buy more if a retailer offers free returns. Returns are a key component of online shopping so ecommerce analytics providers must not ignore data surrounding this post-purchase experience.
Location-based availability and inventory
If a product is unavailable, you can’t sell it. Tracking product availability on key ecommerce sites provides timely insights into potential supply chain issues and fluctuating demand for product model variations. This allows product-line managers to know, for instance, that the black model is more popular than the blue model or that a certain site moves the brand’s inventory more quickly.
Availability and inventory information is a data point on the product page, but there are nuances worth bearing in mind when it comes to collection and analysis. eCommerce sites use location-based intelligence to determine the availability and delivery information shown. For example, if a customer is in the US, different delivery options and costs will be shown depending on whether they are on the east or west coast.
eCommerce analytics providers therefore need to take into account geographic location when understanding the different availability dynamics within a given country or region. This is further complicated by the trend to offer different delivery modalities on a single site such as “click and collect”, where consumers only see availability from their local store or zip code.
The importance of seeing the whole picture
In today’s digitally-influenced world, understanding all the factors influencing consumers’ online purchase decisions is critical for brands and retailers, and therefore to ecommerce analytics providers. This means not just analyzing information on the product page, but making use of all the data related to the digital shelf.
The digital shelf amounts to all the touch-points consumers experience in their online shopping journey. It includes how they research, discover and buy products and brands online.
To find out more about the key digital shelf insights and the overlooked areas to get this data, read our latest Digital Shelf trends report.
With brands selling on an ever-expanding number of ecommerce sites, it’s essential that ecommerce analytics providers deliver insights into how products are positioned, priced and sold online.
The key to building these insights is to analyze the information on the product pages of an online retailer or marketplace. It is therefore crucial ecommerce insight providers master all of the data points on the product page. However, our latest report on 2022’s Digital Shelf trends finds that there’s data on product pages that is often overlooked.
Why product pages matter
Product pages are ranked as one of the most important influencers in purchase decisions and customer conversion rates, so it’s essential brands optimize their product information.
According to Salsify’s latest Consumer Research report, high-quality, relevant product pages are more important than ever. As consumers are presented by an increasingly overwhelming number of options online, helping brands optimize product content is crucial for ecommerce analytics providers.
This doesn’t just mean ensuring the product name, price and description are correct. Research from eMarketer found that 83% of US customers viewed product images and photos to be ‘very influential’ in consumers’ purchase decisions.
By collecting and analyzing product page information, ecommerce analytics providers can help brands ensure:
- Product descriptions represent products accurately and are relevant (i.e. answer customer questions and influence purchase decisions)
- The price adheres to the agreed minimal pricing guidelines (MAP compliance)
- Brand style guidelines are met (including logo and proper trademarking)
- The number and quality of product images and videos are properly represented
The missed product page data points
Despite the importance of the product page on purchase decisions, we have found there are three key data points which are overlooked:
Vendor’s Choice
Products marked vendor’s choice help give brands extra visibility and credibility – leading to increased sales. A product with Amazon’s Choice Badge typically experiences a 3x sales boost, making it important for analytics providers to help brands understand whether they or their competitors are achieving this endorsement.
Shipping, delivery and returns information
While retailers may price and describe a product correctly, unattractive shipping and delivery options can hurt a brand’s sales. Shipping can easily add 5-10% onto the price of a product, while research shows offering free shipping can increase net profits by 15-30%, as nine out of 10 shoppers state free delivery is their number one incentive to spend more.
Shipping costs are another reason why analytics providers must deliver more detailed insights beyond just the price and description.
Equally, returns should not be overlooked since three quarters of shoppers state easy returns are an essential factor in their choice of retailer and 78% would buy more if a retailer offers free returns. Returns are a key component of online shopping so ecommerce analytics providers must not ignore data surrounding this post-purchase experience.
Location-based availability and inventory
If a product is unavailable, you can’t sell it. Tracking product availability on key ecommerce sites provides timely insights into potential supply chain issues and fluctuating demand for product model variations. This allows product-line managers to know, for instance, that the black model is more popular than the blue model or that a certain site moves the brand’s inventory more quickly.
Availability and inventory information is a data point on the product page, but there are nuances worth bearing in mind when it comes to collection and analysis. eCommerce sites use location-based intelligence to determine the availability and delivery information shown. For example, if a customer is in the US, different delivery options and costs will be shown depending on whether they are on the east or west coast.
eCommerce analytics providers therefore need to take into account geographic location when understanding the different availability dynamics within a given country or region. This is further complicated by the trend to offer different delivery modalities on a single site such as “click and collect”, where consumers only see availability from their local store or zip code.
The importance of seeing the whole picture
In today’s digitally-influenced world, understanding all the factors influencing consumers’ online purchase decisions is critical for brands and retailers, and therefore to ecommerce analytics providers. This means not just analyzing information on the product page, but making use of all the data related to the digital shelf.
The digital shelf amounts to all the touch-points consumers experience in their online shopping journey. It includes how they research, discover and buy products and brands online.
To find out more about the key digital shelf insights and the overlooked areas to get this data, read our latest Digital Shelf trends report.
