If a product is invisible, it can’t be purchased. It sounds obvious but actually achieving it at scale across millions of products and hundreds of channels can be easier said than done. One of the first steps to visibility is to ensure a strong base data quality, ensuring that all products have accurate and complete attributes. From this foundation of good base product data, retailers can move into advanced optimisation and ideally scientific experimentation.

Retailers need to continually test their product data and match against their customers' searches.

Retailers need not just to be ‘visible’ but relevant, creating an immediate impact with the right product data and a strong call to action so consumers can commit to purchasing. Product content plays an important role in bringing customers closer to purchase as it can tell them whether an item is exactly what they are looking for.