Sathish Poonath, Head of Client Services in APAC, took to the Tech Talk stage at Online Retailer in Sydney with Product Data: Lifeblood of eCommerce. 

Key Findings:

Late last year, we did an analysis across all of our retailer’s source data feeds that we worked with and the results we found were incredible:

Product Data Analysis Results:

The product titles are the single most important element of your product data, as this is what will primarily increase visibility and relevancy.

Retailers often struggle with what to include in them as well which order to list them in. There are many options to consider, and the different channels makes this even more confusing. 

Here’s a little help:

Google Shopping:

PRODUCT TITLE:

• Product titles are still the most effective way to be found on Google Shopping. The first 20 characters are shown, and the rest of the title is hidden so should be heavily keyword optimised.

TIP: Add category information, keywords from AdWords search term report and keyword planner, and add terms from your own site and off-site activity.

IMAGE QUALITY:

• Quality product images; ensure you follow Google Shopping Guidelines to avoid disapproval
• Multiple images
• Run tests and have the image with better CTR

TIP: Add category information, keywords from AdWords search term report and keyword planner, and add terms from your own site and off-site activity.

COLLOQUIALISMS:

It’s amazing the difference a word makes. Take the humble pair of thongs:

So even if you are just selling across English Speaking countries, there is still a need to customise and optimise your titles for each market.

EVENT TARGETS:

Events and seasonal terms are another great example of what little things can make a big difference.

Events and Seasonal terms to consider:

• Music Festivals: Splendor In The Green
• Events: Melbourne Cup,
• Special Days: Father’s Day, Mother’s Day etc.

DON’T IGNORE THE IN-STORE EXPERIENCE:

If you have physical stores then ensure you use Local Inventory Ads (LIA's) and don’t forget to optimise your content for offline. It’s not just about online product visibility, it’s about product visibility everywhere.

eBay:

Like Google, title optimisation is the most important element for success on eBay; the longer the title or keywords, the higher chance of sale.

Item specifics are second most important after this – especially the item specifics that have drop-down filters in search such as:

• Brand 
• Colour
• Size

We’re already seeing impressive results for retailers that already have this enabled, ensure you can meet the requirements and get it enabled.

PROMOTED LISTINGS:

Promoted Listings are eBay's equivalent of Google Shopping; increase the visibility of your listings on eBay. The great news is that you don’t pay per click, but only pay when an item sells from a Promoted Listing click through.

BENEFIT OF PROMOTED LISTINGS:

• Increased Visibility On First Page Search Results, inc. Mobile
• More Exposure
• Free Listings For Item That Don’t Sell
• Quick & Easy Set Up
• Easily analyse Clicks, Impressions & Revenue
• Select Listings You Want To Promote
• Promote The Products You Need To Move Stock

  TIP:  eBay promotions are where the volume sales comes from. Work with your eBay account managers to get into as many promotions as you can.

Amazon:

In the US, 60% of product searches start on Amazon, and 48% of ALL purchases occur on Amazon. So, while it’s had a slow start here it only keeps growing and growing!

HOW IS AMAZON DIFFERENT:

• Sellers shown on one product page
• Data specifications are very rigid; highly regulated and need to follow Amazon’s format
• ‘Seller standards’ are paramount
• EAN’s are essential
• Title optimisation is less important on Amazon, as they have their own product catalogue, unless you are the brand owner and then you get to control the listings and titles so optimisation becomes important again.

TIP: Add category information, keywords from AdWords search term report and keyword planner, and add terms from your own site and off-site activity.

BUY BOX:

Amazon’s Buy Box refers to the box on the right side of the Amazon product detail page, where customers can add items for purchase to their cart.

• 82% Sales are purchased via the Buy Box
• Not all Sellers are eligible to have the opportunity to be featured in the Buy Box
• It is calculated by a combination of
  • price,
  • Shipping (free and next day ideal)
  • Fulfilled by Amazon
  • Seller Rating
  • And time and Experience

AMAZON SPONSORED PRODUCTS:

Amazon have recently launched ‘Sponsored Products’ to help sellers feature on the first page of search results.

• They are keyword-targeted ads that promote your individual listings and appear in search results and on the product detail pages on Amazon.
• These Ad’s are keyword driven similar to traditional Google AdWords, but they are product specific Ad’s similar to Google Shopping

Assume Nothing!

The key thing to note is to test everything and never assume.

Run A/B tests on a small percentage of products and draw on your high school science class memories:

• Observe
• Hypothesise
• Experiment
• Analyse
• Keeping trying different strategies

This can be overwhelming at best and plainly avoided at worst but great product data much more likely to convert into a sale.

If you’re struggling, we’re here to help.

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