Great Product Data – Making Product Search a Success

If a consumer already knows the product they are searching for, they are likely to follow two broad approaches to Search. They will either use a generic search, and start searching for supply by brand, product name or type, or by specification, before selecting their chosen outlet. Alternatively, they will select a favoured or preferred supply site, and search for the required product within this.

If the product is totally new, or new to them, and therefore unknown to the consumer, the route to purchase is through discovery. It can be browsing at a favoured store, link advertised via a similar product, recommended by an influencer (how to, best value, ambassador) or simply advertised.

In all cases, comprehensive quality product data and content, accessible, optimised and delivered to all channels will assist in ensuring the customer has the best possible opportunity to find, check out and purchase your product. Where a product is new, ensuring product data and index terms are consistent with established products will ensure they will appear as choices within comparable product ranges. Good flexible use of a data management system can facilitate the maintenance of additional terms and data enabling selected products to appear in additional promotional views – usually for a pre-determined (and funded) time.

A single product data management system will also significantly reduce the possibility of conflicting or incomplete data appearing in different channels – reducing customer journey loss, and ensuring your enhanced data enabled maximum return for all search enquiries.

Within a retail or trade sales environment, a combination of sales staff product knowledge, packaging information and the physical product itself (including prime aisle locations for new or promotional product), can often provide all the information needed to make the purchase.

Great product data, delivered seamlessly across all channels, is likely to enhance and create a similar experience for the virtual consumer.

Ryan Young in his excellent article on digital trends and content marketing for 2017 http://bit.ly/2eC8Kg1 - identifies aspects businesses should consider when planning, maintaining and developing their product data and e-content delivery for the year ahead. Without doubt, the increasing use of video clips to both attract attention, communicate and explain is identified as being a priority consideration. To that I would add in-house hosted video content enables each clip to finish with a further call to action – keeping the sales process on course and in-house!

So while great product data can enhance the ability to find products, and convert to sales once found, clear loud advertising of new products on the front of the web shop remains a much overlooked and obvious way of advertising new products to both returning customers and new visitors.

Lastly, the importance of mobile search cannot be over-estimated. Google currently estimate 35% of all searches are initiated from a smartphone. It may be worth checking product search on your website from your mobile to check how well your data is optimised for smartphone use. And then we recommend checking your own web stats to see visit by type of device – you may be surprised.

Contact Cygnus Business to review your Omni-channel product content strategy

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