This holiday season, with more consumers shopping online, your e‑commerce portfolio will be under the spotlight more than ever before. In this blog we share some ideas about how you can make sure your e‑commerce content is making the very best job of maximizing conversion and Q4 sales opportunities.
Product Description Page (PDP) content has two key roles in the e‑commerce shopper journey. First, it needs to drive search results to get browsers to your landing pages on e-retailer sites. After that, its next job is to explain your products’ features, functions and benefits to engage, reassure and convert shoppers.
Content for Conversion
In our recent blog about e‑commerce content optimization, we looked at the role of Matrix Content in driving positive Google search results. It covered the first vital steps in the buyer journey – the online equivalent of bringing the shopper to the point where they are standing in front of a physical retail shelf with your products prominently displayed at eye-level.
The next step is to convince the shopper to place the item into their basket, which requires a deeper level of content. Creating, maintaining and distributing product content that effectively ‘sells’ takes a bit of effort and planning, but it’s worth it. According to a study from Content26, enhanced content, such as A+ Content on Amazon, can increase purchase intent by up to 20%.
LEGO Group achieves even better results with its enhanced content efforts. Speaking during a recent eStoreAcademy webinar, LEGO’s Global e‑Commerce Lead Mark Boston explains how the toy manufacturer uses a data-focused approach to content investment, design, deployment and optimization. According to Boston, the methodology improves conversion rates by as much as 30% across the online channel.
In his presentation, which you can view on demand, Boston explains how LEGO optimizes PDP content to address different shopping channels, and the role of images – including contextual and mobile-specific images – and videos in helping to improve conversion rates.
Checklist for Perfect Store Content
As you prepare your e‑commerce listings for the 2020 holiday season, consider additional investment in enhanced content, and heightened e‑commerce monitoring to ensure the rich content you develop is used appropriately by your online retailer partners. To help with your approach, here’s a reminder of the e-Commerce Perfect Store content 'checklist’.
- USPs: does my content clearly communicate my products' USPs, and differentiate them from competitors?
- Complete: is the content complete? Does it answer all the questions a consumer might have about the features, and functions of each product?
- Aligned: is it fully aligned with wider brand messages, benefits and visuals? Does it tell the brand's story?
- Efficient: does the content effectively and efficiently deliver benefit messages for time-pressed consumers?
- Suitable: Is it suitable for different online retailers' technical capabilities, styles and shoppers?
- Adaptable: How can I develop the content as the product matures over time?
- Searchable: Will it help deliver high-ranking search results in online store search, and wider web search?
- Practical: How am I going to create, manage, host, approve, change and distribute my e‑channel content efficiently?
Enhanced Content Monitoring
Your PDP content is your product on the digital shelf. Its proximity to the point-of-sale means it is the final line for driving consideration, conversion and sales. The development, maintenance and distribution of product content for the e‑commerce channel, is an ongoing challenge for brands as e‑commerce grows in importance.
Once you have created your enhanced content, and syndicated it to online retailers, you need to ensure it is implemented correctly. Monitoring can start with basic, quantitative measures such as, "Is my strategy of having three pictures and one video per PDP live?". The next stage would be to use eStoreCheck to track the quality and integrity of the content on e-retail sites. For example, in addition to checking that images or keywords are in place, you can track whether the most appropriate content is in place, answering questions such as "Are the correct keywords present in the title and description?” or “Are the most current pack shots implemented?”.
With advanced content tracking in eStoreCheck we can help you monitor the quantity and quality of your content on PDPs and highlight areas for improvement so that your content is always working towards your Perfect Store goals - improving visibility and increasing conversion.
If you are using eStoreCheck already, you might consider tracking more advanced content metrics. Depending on your strategy, the options are unlimited. Your eStoreCheck Client Partner is on hand to help you develop this more sophisticated level of analysis, or should you want to learn more about our advanced e-content tracking drop us an email at contact@estoremedia.com.
