Imagine walking into a shop, only to find on close inspection that products are incorrectly or inaccurately labelled, with no sales assistant, and a lack of fitting rooms or mirrors. You’d be likely to leave pretty swiftly and never return. Yet this is exactly the digital experience that some brands are still offering their online customers.

All too often when brands think about their content, they focus on the hero content, like TV and online ads, that sits at the top of the sales funnel to engage and excite new customers. However, it’s vital to ensure that the performance of this content isn’t damaged by poor content at the end of that funnel – the critical product-related content that sits close to the point of purchase and compels browsers to actually buy. We call this 'Primary Content' due to its direct impact on e-commerce sales.

So, what can marketers do to improve their digital stores, cultivate consumer trust and boost revenue?

1. Show AND tell

Customers buying online obviously can’t see, touch or interact with the item in person, so the likelihood of them buying and enjoying a product relies wholly on them being provided with detailed, reliable and descriptive product information. A couple of bullet points outlining the product isn’t sufficient to maximise sales - yet that’s the reality consumers too often face. For example, less than three in 10 online apparel retailers satisfactorily describe garment fit in their product descriptions and as a result, one in five consumers do not complete an online purchase due to poor or incomplete product information.

What’s more, statistics show that up to 40% of all online goods end up being returned, costing retailers £20 billion a year. Comprehensively describing a product is a proven way for brands to materially reduce return rates. For instance, nearly half of consumers say they’ve returned an item of clothing ordered online due to ‘poor fit’ – a figure that would clearly be lower if more retailers described ‘fit’ more effectively than they currently are.

Aside from product descriptions there are several other ways to boost sales with compelling Primary Content. Consumer research has shown that 31% of shoppers are more likely to buy from a retailer if it offers useful online buying guides, and 75% of consumers say they are more likely to make a purchase after watching a video that explains what they are buying. Offering guides and videos not only increases conversions, it can also increase basket size, offering the opportunity to suggest complementary products, while simultaneously reducing return rates and boosting customer satisfaction.

2. Pick a category, any category

All marketers know the value of SEO, so it’s pretty surprising that over 85% of e-commerce companies we’ve audited haven’t fully optimised their category descriptions for search. With 95% of all traffic coming from the first page of Google, and category descriptions having the potential to draw in significant volumes of traffic from generic and long-tail search terms, under-performing category pages waste a huge revenue opportunity.

In relation to search, product descriptions also play a key role. There’s a strong difference in the level of intent-to-buy between someone starting a Google search with ‘white jacket’ and someone entering ‘Topshop women’s white fitted work jacket with pockets’. The latter search is likely to take a user to a product they want to purchase, but will only do so if that product page description is suitably descriptive.

3. Be nimble

One of the reasons that digitally-native brands and online marketplaces succeed is down to their agile approach to business. They move quickly by outsourcing non-core competencies rather than trying to deliver everything in-house.

Many brands lack solid e-commerce content due to operational issues. They have multiple lines and products but don’t have the content creation resources or enabling technology to handle large-scale content production. Often the most vital content for purchasing – the descriptions that sit at or near the point of purchase – are left to interns or merchandising teams who don’t specialise in content creation or know what content factors drive traffic and conversions. Poor quality Primary Content also risks the reputation of the brand and undermines the ROI on the hero content that marketers have often spent months crafting.

Consumer trust and loyalty can so easily be undermined by poor content, but so many companies are still failing to get the basics right. In doing so they’re driving potential customers away, because without high-quality Primary Content people won’t find or buy your product.

Set against the shiny flashing lights of hero marketing campaigns, product-related Primary Content may not seem so exciting, but brands mustn’t lose sight of the fundamentals of retail. Primary Content informs consumers to make purchase decisions, and is the critical driver of browsers converting into buyers.

 

By Ed Bussey, founder and CEO of Quill

PrivSec Conferences will bring together leading speakers and experts from privacy and security to deliver compelling content via solo presentations, panel discussions, debates, roundtables and workshops.
For more information on upcoming events, visit the website.

comments powered by Disqus