5 key areas on the digital shelf that brands and manufacturers need to optimise
Your digital shelf represents your brand and impacts directly on your volume of sales. Here are five of the most important areas for you to bear in mind as you craft a winning digital shelf.
1. High-quality product data
Data quality underpins a robust strategy for launching on the digital self. Your product data must meet high threshold standards in these six dimensions:
Completeness
how much of a data set is populated rather than left blank
Timeliness
how useful or relevant the data is based on its age
Validity
ensuring the data is a true reflection of the type of information you originally recorded
Uniqueness
whether a data entry is duplicated, uniqueness is guaranteed by one recorded version of a data entry
Accuracy
defining whether the information you hold is correct or not (not the same as validity, which is a measure of the correctness of the type of data)
Consistency
how far you can safely compare data across different storage areas, data sets and media and whether they have been recorded in the same way
If your data is poor, customers will notice in an instant, and you’ve lost not only a sale, but a potentially loyal repeat customer. If it’s high quality and enriched, the sky is the limit!
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2. Product data enrichment
Because customers cannot interact physically with your range of product categories, having all the information they need for their purchasing decision is an absolute must. That’s why being able to enrich information in a compelling and sophisticated way is key. Whether it’s hi-res images or videos, ingredients or nutritional facts, sustainability FAQs, persuasive marketing copy, or customer reviews, you need to be able to display all tailored product data easily and rapidly for every channel you use.
3. Product data syndication
Agile syndication tools export your product information onto your digital shelf across all channels, guaranteeing the following:
- High quality: clean, comprehensive, suitably enriched, and totally accurate.
- Customised: validated, structured, and tailored for the format requirements of each and every channel used.
- Contextualised your data is unified but not uniform, so key product attributes like size and price are consistent. Your message, can however be adapted to the unique channel.
- Compliant with all requirements, from major marketplaces to retailers to data pools
4. Omnichannel consistency
The digital shelf exists to enhance your omnichannel strategy. Your brand can outperform conventional business models by employing multiple approaches. The key to success is consistency. The quality of your online brand image depends greatly on how good your information is across your product pages and sales channels.
5. Customer experience
Great content is the cornerstone of your customer experience on your digital shelf. If customers search and find you, but discover that their needs aren’t being met, they’ll look for another seller in an instant. The right PIM creates a seamless and responsive experience, and you can future-proof your offer by deploying the power and capabilities of a responsive and infinitely scalable digital shelf.