It’s important that your product data is ready for the web. Can you say that yours is?
Ecommerce businesses today are doing everything in their power to meet their customers where they are—with better data. When it comes to standing out in a crowded ecommerce marketplace, your parts and product data is the backbone of your strategy.
Continue reading for a list of the biggest ecommerce trends in the technical data space that will enhance your business.
1. Create a Customized Experience
Today’s customers demand a personalized and meaningful shopping experience, whether they’re B2B or B2C buyers—and ecommerce businesses are making sure their parts and product data fulfill this want.
Research shows when ecommerce businesses implement personalized experiences on their website or in their marketing efforts, there is a significant effect on revenue—all positive, of course. Even more, those “building basic personalization capabilities” earned a 10%+ revenue lift.
So how can you organize your parts and product data to create a customized experience for your customers?
It’s simple—data governance. Data governance is the management of data that ensures the effective and efficient use of information per the requirements, standards, or rules that an organization has set for its individual business goals.
The more ecommerce businesses use data governance to leverage parts and product data, the easier they will be able to create meaningful experiences for shoppers that feel tailored to fit customer needs. The implementation of governance decisions enables data that can be used for personalization at scale.
2. Implement On-Brand Touches
A big way ecommerce businesses are making their parts and product data stand out from their competitors is by upgrading the quality and uniqueness of their product information.
You can enhance the product experience you deliver to customers by simply enriching your basic product data with branded descriptions and photos. And although your competition may be selling the same parts or products, they aren’t going to have the personalized tokens of your brand.
To get started, follow these steps to ensure your data is unique and high quality:
- Implement strong emotional appeal in photos and videos when possible.
- Manage your media assets in a DAM (digital asset management) for easy access across all platforms.
- Use creative language that is tailored to your brand when combining product descriptions.
- Include well-defined product descriptions that are personalized to your target customers.
- Provide comprehensive, accurate product specifications that can be used to filter product listings and assist in selection.
3. Develop a Video Strategy
Since 2018, video has proved to be a genius way to engage customers—and it's not going away any time soon.
Ecommerce businesses are taking their parts and product data images to another level by creating videos for each of their listings and/or promotional assets. This is a great way to instantly grab the attention of a customer and inform them about your product or service.
A well-produced video is more likely to convince buyers to purchase a certain product. And ecommerce businesses can use the data obtained from their video marketing efforts to track trends and monitor customer behavior.
The use of video is a trend that will stick around for decades. They can help you explain and showcase your products better than images ever can.
4. Practice Multichannel Selling
Now more than ever, consumers are finding products from a brand anywhere but their website—from social media, their favorite influencer or a large online marketplace like Amazon or eBay.
Along someone’s path to purchase, they’re likely being tapped with retargeting ads or content delivered through paid distribution channels. That said, ecommerce businesses are jumping on the trend of multichannel selling.
Multichannel selling is the process of using multiple sales channels to offer goods and services to your customers. In addition to your own ecommerce site, other channels can include:
- Online marketplaces (e.g. Amazon, eBay and Etsy)
- Social media (e.g. Facebook and Instagram)
- Comparison websites (e.g. Google)
Regardless of the size of your ecommerce company, you should be selling on multiple channels—this will give you the upper hand when it comes to your competitors.
5. Adopt a PIM
A PIM system is the backbone of ecommerce website data, as it centralizes all critical information fields about your products—that’s why more and more ecommerce businesses are implementing one.
Having a PIM in place is a straightforward way to increase customer satisfaction. Research has shown 88% of buyers say product content is essential to them. They want as much insight into a given product as possible—this helps them decide whether a product is right for them.
Your PIM interface informs consistent, critical fields about your products for your ecommerce website, including images, SKUs, and more. Follow these three steps to set your PIM up for success:
- Include consistent and complete product information.
- Incorporate unique, branded elements.
- Create a simple path to purchase.
>>> Discover Six Ways a PIM System Can Improve ROI.
Discover More Ecommerce Trends
These five trends are just the start. In order to keep your ecommerce website in tip-top shape, you’ll need to keep up with all the latest industry news. Subscribe to our personalized ecommerce newsletter where you’ll receive resources that specifically support your business goals straight to your inbox.
