As an e-commerce business owner, you and your customers do a great deal of shopping online. In order to ensure that your web-based company is as successful as possible, it is important to find the time to monitor and maintain your digital shelves; this way, shoppers will get the latest information and availability on your products. In order to do this in an effective way, check out the following tips.
Make sure your product pages are properly optimized
As your e-commerce site grows, it is important to use a tactic called e-commerce product page optimization to remain consistent and accurate across different retail websites that carry your goods. As Content Analytics Inc. notes, online shoppers are savvy, and in order to trust you and your products, they expect to see certain product-related facts on websites.
For example, the product needs a full name, a number of bullet points that explain what it is and does, photos, reviews, and a clear description of the price and any guarantees. If you leave out certain important points, consumers may assume the worst and end up buying a similar item somewhere else.
Monitor your most popular pages
Just as grocery store managers hire shelf stockers to make sure the shelves are clean, well-stocked, and that the products are displayed properly and are easy to find, the same is true for digital shelves. As CPG Matters notes, once you have your digital shelves set up on your e-commerce sites, they must be constantly monitored to be sure they have the correct prices, the most current images, and that any product updates are updated in the description.
Start with your most popular products and go up from there, checking each digital shelf on a regular basis. While you are at it, you may also want to monitor what your competition is up to in terms of their products’ pricing, packaging, and relevant features.
Make sure online matches in-person
Finally, because some shoppers will research what they are looking for online before heading to a brick-and-mortar store to purchase it, if you sell your items both online and in stores, what consumers see on a website must match what they can pick up and hold in stores. This is where attention to detail is most important — be sure things like color choices, prices and sales, and other options are consistent between your digital and brick-and-mortar shelves.
Keep on eye on customer ratings and reviews
Consumer reviews and ratings have become a key player in online shopping, notes Brand Packaging. Many consumers are influenced to purchase — or shop elsewhere — based on what a previous customer has posted online. Because this feedback from past customers is so influential, it is important to monitor it on a regular basis, thanking those who give glowing reviews and immediately replying to any negative ones. This approach creates goodwill among current and prospective customers and is a key part of monitoring your digital shelves.
Attractive and accurate digital shelves lead to increased sales
As an e-commerce business owner, it goes without saying that you are very busy. But in order to stay as profitable as possible, it is imperative to take the steps you need to monitor your digital shelves. By updating your project pages and ensuring that your pages are properly optimized, along with either setting aside time to monitor your pages or hiring someone to help with that task, your digital shelves will surely stand out among the competition.