Product data - Sales booster for your online store

The basic data: name, product description, price...

In order for a customer to purchase a product in the first place, they need all the basic information on the product detail page, such as the name, product description, price, etc. If this information is missing from the product catalog, it can lead to the purchase being abandoned. This means you lose out on sales from the outset.

➔ Ensure that your basic data is complete.

The categories: Women, Men, Other?

In online shops , you often see the menu divided into "Women" and "Men." As a result, these attributes often creep into the product data feed as categories, even though they are not. This can lead tofacet navigation, for example, having too much depth if you use the product catalog 1:1 for this purpose, resulting in poor usability. It becomes difficult to narrow down products, and customers cannot find what they are looking for quickly and easily. As a result, your customers may get lost in the product range and not buy anything.

Product catalogs often include categories labeled "Miscellaneous." This makes it difficult to display alternative products because it is unclear which products are actually included in this category. For example, for sweaters from the category "Men > Outerwear > Sweaters," no alternatives from the category "Men > Winter > Sweaters" are displayed. Conversely, it would be possible, but not sensible, because the category "Winter" provides inspiration and therefore not every type of outerwear should be displayed.

➔ Only use categories that are actually categories.

The attributes: V-shape, baby blue, 38...

Want to enable your customers to search for long-tail keywords such as "V-neck baby blue T-shirt 38 guess"? Then you need these attributes in your product catalog. Only then can the search algorithm of an intelligent search find and combine these products. The more granular the attributes in your product data feed are, the more accurately the search algorithm can work. This allows your customers to quickly and easily find the products they are looking for.

If you also want your customers to be able to search for specific topics, such as "lactose-free" or "gluten-free" in a grocery store, then you need these attributes in your product feed. This gives you the option of displaying products, content, and FAQs related to the respective topic. You can add these attributes as keywords in a new field, for example. This allows you to highlight specific products that are important to your customers. As a result, they will buy from you and not look elsewhere at your competitors.

If products do not have attributes, they will be excluded from the search results list, cannot be used for marketing purposes, and additional products (e.g., the right care product for suede shoes) cannot be recommended. So if attributes are missing, you are probably also missing out on sales.

➔ Add fine-grained and thematic attributes for each product

The color: Forest meadow-colored T-shirt?

Unique color names are often used in product catalogs, such as "forest meadow" T-shirt, to incorporate emotion into the sales process. However, it is important to note that this color name cannot be found using the color filter. It does not belong to any known color scheme. A suitable color field would need to be assigned here so that the customer can find and purchase their product in the desired color.

➔ Assign color fields to your products

The connections: bikini top and bottom

Recommendations in the online shop can only be displayed if there are links between the products. If this link is missing, a matching bottom cannot be recommended for a bikini top, or a desk from the same series that matches the cabinet will not be recommended. If you want to increase the shopping cart value through cross-selling, links must not be missing, otherwise sales will also be missing.

➔ Maintain the links

Availability: Delete products?

Once a product is sold out, you should not delete it from your product catalog. When it is back in stock, you will have to add it back to the product catalog and will most likely have a different product ID, which means that the product knowledge will be lost. This knowledge is used to perform analyses for purchase predictions, which promote sales in your online store. Therefore, availability should be marked in the product data feed by assigning the product the attribute "sold out. " This allows you to continue using the collected product knowledge for analysis.

➔ Instead of deleting them, you should mark sold-out products.

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The spelling: Used or washed out?

To add further attributes to products, an extra column for free text is useful. The catch? Each editor often uses a different spelling. This leads to a limitation of products in the online shop. Customers are not shown all the products that the online shop has to offer and leave the site. This is the case, for example, when there are synonyms for attributes such as "used" and "faded." It also happens when hyphens are used, such as jeans pants and jeans-pants, and when upper and lower case letters are not taken into account.

➔ Be sure to use the same spelling.

Copywriting: Emotion vs. Facts

Emotional texts are particularly important on product detail pages to promote sales, e.g. , "With these pants, you'll be the star of the next party!" However, if emotional texts are included in the product description field, no text can be extracted for the search results. In this case, the product description must be adjusted or given low priority in order to display correct results in the search results list. It is advisable to write emotional texts in a separate field and use the description for the product facts, or vice versa.

➔ Separate product facts from emotional texts