Jenn Markey, vice president of marketing, 360pi
Brands and resellers have a lot to worry about when it comes to maintaining appropriate standards of brand identity—from pricing consistency and discount coordination, to packaging, marketing, warranties, return policies and more. But one often-overlooked part of this identity is the product listing description.
When selling online, it would seem that accurate and rich product details are conceptually simple and easy to manage in order to ensure higher profits. However, there are actually multiple challenges preventing brands from doing this well across all channels and with all retail partners. This needs to change if brands and retailers want to optimize business relationships, and ensure their consumer relationships are as healthy as possible.
The business case
Digital shoppers in particular are extremely reliant upon the information available on the product page. According to a recent Salsify survey, 90% of consumers shop online today and 88% expect product information to be accurate, rich and complete if they are going to proceed with their purchase. In fact, detailed product descriptions ranked first in buying decision criteria among surveyed shoppers, higher than reviews (2nd) and price (3rd).
Beyond the relatively abstract argument of appealing to consumer demands, there is also a proven ROI in providing detailed, visual product descriptions. For example, apparel shoppers surveyed by Shotfarm cited images with multiple angles as the most important type of product content for retailers to include. Offering the full suite of content has a verified impact on reducing cart abandonment, and improving product sales, repeat purchases and overall brand equity.
Consider that Shotfarm also reported one out of four shoppers admits to abandoning an item in their cart due to poor product content. It really shouldn’t be excusable to allow the great marketing, merchandising and digital experience to go to waste because of such a preventable issue. Giving shoppers the confidence that they have all the information they need to convert the sale is essential.
Worse than never making the sale is having the sale lead to a negative relationship with the brand, and potentially alienating customers for the long term. Not surprisingly, Shotfarm found 87 percent of shoppers will abandon a brand in the future if they find the initial description for a purchased product contained incorrect or misleading information. They also found that nearly half of shoppers have returned a product in just the past year because of low quality product content. This compounds issues with brand equity in the long-term while simultaneously putting pressure on logistics teams to manage additional ecommerce returns.
Challenges
Not every retailer has a commitment to great online product content, and not every brand is able to guarantee that channel partners are portraying products appropriately. This is because there are three primary roadblocks to doing so, and each must be addressed as soon as possible.
- Prevalence of legacy silos and systems.
This is a problem that extends beyond poor product descriptions. Several departments within both brands and retailers touch product data and traditionally there have been few processes and tools to ensure data integrity and consistency. Breaking down these departmental silos will be a crucial first step.
- Diversity of the product content requirements retailers place on retailers and the ability of the brand to maintain a consistent messaging for each.
Different retailers request different types of product content in different formats, which leads to inconsistent and incomplete listings. Retailers and brands need to work together to ensure that information displayed on an ecommerce site is not only rich, but also accurate and timely.
- The reality of selling products through retailer partners that are creating a competitive advantage or market segment for themselves based on factors beyond price.
The very nature of ecommerce enables unprecedented price transparency and comparison shopping. To avoid a race to the bottom, many retailers try to appeal to shoppers with differentiated product listings, including their own images and descriptions that are more difficult to price-shop across sites. Finding a healthy balance that meets the needs of everyone involved is essential. It might be challenging or uncomfortable, but the numbers don’t lie: this needs to be a problem solved by both parties.
Make it real
Some retailers, such as Everlane and Zappos, are models for other organizations to look to for inspiration on how to do product listings right. Zappos became a footwear powerhouse by providing a massive online assortment, supported by exhaustive product descriptions, sizing guides, imagery and peer reviews. Everlane takes product listings a step further. Its product pages provide not only detailed imagery, video and product characteristics, but also list the full costs of manufacturing and merchandising. By giving customers transparent, detailed information about the products they’re buying, they build unrivaled trust, breeding enthusiasm and long-term loyalty for the brand.
Similarly, Google, Amazon, and eBay are all invested in helping their sellers improve the integrity of their product listings with tools and tips to increase their own dominance with shoppers and within the retail channel.
Simply, these organizations understand that the more detailed the product information is, the more likely customers will see and then click on those products. It is in everyone’s best interests—the brand, the retailer and the shopper—to have rich content that reinforces the brand identity in the digital store.
360pi is a provider of product and price intelligence technology to online retailers.
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