Ecommerce stores can’t turn visitors into buyers! The root problem often lies in how products are discovered by potential customers.
Effective product discovery not only delivered products but personalized the shopper’s journey. By using the right strategies in personalized product discovery, retailers can guide customers toward the product they need.
This blog post will guide you toward the right strategies, benefits, and tips for product discovery, to help you optimize your ecommerce store.
So, let’s get into the game.
What is E-Commerce Product Discovery?
Ecommerce product discovery is the process of providing customers with products in a way that they feel, the store has personalized everything for them.
Simply put, it’s the art of helping shoppers not only give the product they desire but also giving them options they might not have known. Well, it can be called a bridge between browsing customers and happy buyers.
According to a study by ClickZ and Catalyst,
50% of the online shopping journey begins with product discovery.
That’s right, half of your customers don’t come to the store with a particular product in mind. They’re there to explore and find something amazing.
A few aspects e-tailors and marketing merchandisers have to consider are:
- Search functionality
- Navigation and categories
- Personalized recommendation
- Visual Merchandising
- Strategic product placement
Benefits of Fast E-Commerce Product Discovery
An unclear path to desired products leads to cart abandonment and lost sales. It’s because many e-tailors lack a product discovery strategy.
The solution is as simple as it seems, implementing a product discovery tool with actionable tips helps customers find what they’re looking for quickly and efficiently, while also introducing them to new favorites they might not have stumbled upon otherwise.
Here are a few compelling benefits:
- Reduce bounce rate
- Increase conversion
- Improved customer satisfaction
- Personalized shopping experience
- Boost average order value
- Data-driven insights
Ecommerce Product Discovery Tips
Let’s discuss 7 powerful tips to create a helpful product discovery experience that keeps customers clicking “add to the cart”.
Predictive Autocomplete
Autocomplete predicts search queries as user type. For example, a shopper enters the keyword “wireless”, and boom the pop suggestions like “wireless headphones” “wireless mic” & “Wireless cables” etc.
The function of autocomplete includes analyzing a shopper’s initial keystrokes and suggesting relevant products and categories. This saves shoppers time spent typing and gives them new ideas that they might not have considered.
Following are a few winning strategies for implementing autocompletes on your ecommerce site search:
Prioritize relevance: Make your autocomplete suggestion laser-focused on what shoppers actually looking for. Ensure suggestions are relatively based on intent and keywords. It can happen by personalizing the search results based on past trends and user behaviors.
Don’t be afraid to get specific: While “wireless headphones” are a good start, autocomplete can go further. Offer suggestions like “wireless headphones with noise cancellation” or “wireless earbuds for workouts” to cater to specific needs and preferences.
Real-time updates: As users type a keyword in the search bar, it should give options based on real-time suggestions. It should reflect the real-time queries.
Personalization: Analyse user data to give them relative product suggestions. Personalize user data in a way that if a person searches for a particular product, these should appear at the top of the suggestions.
Rich suggestion: Try to include the product price, image, and rating in the suggestions. This lets users decide quickly because they get a lot of information about the product.
Error tolerance: Look for typos and spelling mistakes and try to match these fuzzy keywords with exact synonyms to give relative search results. This ensures users get relative results even if they type wrong spellings.
Autocomplete plays a crucial role in guiding users to discover products in ecommerce stores. Autocomplete simplifies the search process by reducing the amount of typing needed, minimizing errors, and providing immediate feedback. It’s like having a helpful assistant that knows exactly what you’re thinking.
Efficient Filtering
A narrow-down search helps people find products quickly. Filtering options let customers search by product attributes such as price, brand, color, size, and more.
The ecommerce market getting more competitive day by day, and it’s more important than ever for merchants to optimize product filtering to ensure a positive customer experience.
Let’s have a look at the following few ways to optimize product filtering, and product discovery in ecommerce stores:
Offer clear and consistent filtering options
It’s important to offer clear filtering options to ensure a positive customer experience. The categories you offer should be relevant to the products you sell and should be convenient and easy to understand. Keep the filtering options straightforward to make sure customers can quickly find the product they are interested in.
Provide accurate product information
It’s crucial to provide accurate product details, specifications, and images. Make sure products are organized properly and the information is latest and up-to-date. So, when customers visit filtering products they see accurate results.
Make filter options visible and accessible
Place filtering options in a prominent location on your ecommerce site, consider adding a filter button or menu for quick access. The filter button is easy to access allowing customers to find what they’re looking for to boost sales.
Allow customers to sort and filter products
Make multiple criteria such as price, brand, or category and allow customers to sort and filter products. it makes a flexible shopping journey and allows customers to compare products and find the best options.
Continuously monitor and improve product filtering
Analyzing trends and improving product organization accordingly make sure product filing options prove to be effective and relevant.
Track customer behavior and use data analytics to identify areas where improvement can be made. to ensure filtering options remain effective for product discovery in ecommerce stores.
Best Spotlighting
Sometimes you visit a store and a certain product grabs your attention right away, how does that happen?
This is spotlighting in both physical and ecommerce stores. But what exactly is spotlighting and how does it improve your store product discovery? Let’s find out.
What is spotlighting in ecommerce search?
Spotlighting involves highlighting specific products on your ecommerce products to draw the audience’s attention. Through banners, pop-ups, and feature sections merchants showcase new, popular, or promotional items.
How spotlighting help in product discovery?
Why does spotlighting matter? No shopper wants to go to the store and search for their favorite products in a pile of stuff. It’s frustrating, of course.
Spotlighting ensures that top products remain on top, in the front and center so customers can find them easily. This not only improves the shopping experience but also boosts conversion.
Best strategies to implement spotlighting
Let’s dive into a few best strategies to implement spotlighting in your ecommerce store:
Highlighting best sellers and new arrivals: If re-tailors want to show their hottest products, spotlighting should be a go-to choice. If best-sellers are buried in piles of stuff somewhere on the shelf, customers gonna miss it for sure. Use spotlighting to showcase best-sellers and new arrivals prominently on your homepage and product pages. This grabs customer attention and enhances product discovery.
Seasonal and promotional spotlighting: The best way to improve product discovery on seasonal sales is to showcase trendy and seasonal products with promotional spotlighting.
On these seasonal events, customers need to find relevant products easily, so special promotion through spotlighting is best.
Spotlight seasonal items or special promotions with eye-catching banners and sections. This makes it simple for customers to discover what’s on offer right now.
Personalized recommendations
Research shows that 80% of customers are more likely to purchase from a company that offers personalized experiences.
Ever you receive a notification that feels like it meant just for you?? That’s how personalization is in ecommerce. Let’s see how it works in enhancing product discovery in ecommerce.
Personalization in ecommerce refers to tailoring the shopping experience based on individual preferences, behaviors, and past interactions. It includes personalized recommendations and messages.
It’s the human psyche, they get overwhelmed by several choices. Personalized recommendations cut through the clutter and offer products that match user’s interests the most.
Following are a few tips to keep in mind while providing personal recommendations to enhance product discovery:
- Leverage customer data (Use, analyze and collect customers data)
- Use collaborative filtering (show customers what others like them are buying)
- Incorporate real-time personalization (show recommendations that change as customers browse, not static)
- Cross-sell & up-sell (Don’t let customers miss on complementary products)
Merchandising
Merchandising in ecommerce refers to strategic product placement in your ecommerce stores so shoppers can easily find products, which ultimately increases sales.
Merchandising includes layout, visual representation, and promotional strategies to spotlight certain products. Effective merchandising guides customers to make purchases quickly.
Without merchandising, e-commerce sites would be cluttered, and shoppers get frustrated which would decrease sales. Organizing products properly increases the chances of product discovery.
Let’s talk about a few strategies below:
- Highlight key products
- Utilize visual merchandising
- Create clear categories and navigation
- Use promo banners
- Use show my SKU
- Do product promotion by attribute
- Use show my SKU for promotion
Improve Product Discovery With Data
Analyzing data can transform ecommerce businesses and all can be done by observing their behavior and arranging products accordingly. It leads to better product discovery. Let’s see how exactly analyzing data works to improve product discovery.
Data is the backbone of a personalized and efficient e-commerce business. By analyzing user behavior, and their shopping journey, merchants gain valuable insights. It lets them tailor personalized shopping experiences making it easier for customers to find products quickly.
Best tips to implement data-driven product discovery
- Analyse customer behavior
- Optimize search and navigation
- Personalized product recommendations
- Monitor and respond to trends
Optimize Product Descriptions and Images
“87% of shoppers rate product content as extremely or very important to their purchase decision.” (Salasify)
A meaningful and compelling product description paired with high-quality images can improve product discovery and enhance the shopping experience. It gives all the information to customers they need to make a purchase and boosts their confidence in the purchase.
Tips to optimize product descriptions and images
- Curate detailed, informative, and engaging descriptions
- Use high-quality images
- Incorporate videos and 360-degree views
- Highlight key features and benefits
Implement a Product Discovery Tool Today
The ecommerce world is getting competitive over time, and making your product easily discoverable is crucial for driving conversion and ensuring customers Satisfaction.
By implementing tips like predictive autocomplete, spotlighting, personalized recommendations, data analysis, and optimizing product descriptions and images, you can create a seamless shopping experience that delights your customers and boosts your sales.
So, Don’t let your customers get lost in a sea of products. Implement a product discovery tool today and boost your store sales. Tools like Convertopia can help you streamline the product discovery process, making it easier for customers to find exactly what they’re looking for.
Ready to take your ecommerce business to the next level? Start with Convertopia and transform your product discovery experience now!