Digital Shelf Analytics

Beauty & Personal Care Industry: Trends accelerating BPC eCommerce growth in India

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Praveen Dhama

The astounding rise in the eCommerce segment in Beauty Personal Care (BPC) segment could be credited to the changing lifestyle of the young Indian demographic. The products are not just exclusive segments but daily need products. The Indian beauty and personal care market stands 8th among the top countries in the world with an estimated value of USD 15 billion and growing at a steady rate of approximately 10%. (Based on Euromonitor International Study). The Market is all set to get double by 2030 with skincare products and cosmetics driving growth. The penetration outside metros into Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities has been a major advantage to the Indian BPC market. This provides the Indian BPC e-commerce market with significant headroom to grow and scale up. Lucrative Market with growth opportunities The online BPC market in India expanded significantly in the last few years driven by a steep increase in e-commerce adoption. Across the digital shopping platforms, the beauty personal care segment continues to show accelerated growth post-pandemic. The consistent year-on-year growth over the last 2 years has been the hallmark of the segment. As compared to other emerging segments beauty personal care reported maximum growth with a 143% rise in order volume compared to 2021 along with a rapid rise in order value as well up to 132% in FY22. The emergence of many digital-first brands in the last 2 years has helped the beauty personal Care segment outperform with robust growth. The rising number of “House of Brands” and the flurry of investors hogging on segment potential has been the key factor in its growth. Even the traditional players are leveraging the BPC eCommerce high. eCommerce segment-wise order volume – FY 2021 vs FY 2022 | Source: Unicommerce Report 2022 Technology adoption boosts the BPC e-commerce Segment The adoption of technology has been another factor that led to the rapid rise of the beauty personal Care segment. The Brands switch to a more personalized customer-centric approach to optimize customer journey at every touch point. The move to improve supply chain and logistics with competitive intelligence has led to rapid strides with technology. Solutions like mScanit ensure that beauty and personal care brands optimize their discoverability, pricing analysis, and track availability across multiple touchpoints. The technology is not just limited to purchase experience monitoring sales and reconciliation but also makes the customer feel valued with a seamless post-purchase experience. Build on Brand Trust and Loyalty In changing eCommerce landscape brands across segments need to build a strong presence online. The goal is to connect with the customer. In the beauty personal care segment customers like to trust the brand they use and seek more of what their trusted brand has to offer building a bond. This ensures conducive customer retention. The Brands need to ensure an elevated shopping experience on their website and in the eCommerce marketplace to develop a connection with consumers. Gen Z and millennials stay quite aware of the options they have and offers available on various channels. This makes having digital commerce of paramount importance. Competitive analytics give brands an added edge over the cut-throat competition. The faith of customers reflects in year-on-year stronger growth on the top brand’s website purchases as compared to marketplaces. The stronger growth above 80% in FY22 on the brand websites is indicative of their potential. Brand Trust and loyalty across platforms leads to astonishing customer retention and positive feedback leads to potential new consumers. The competitive analysis of customer sentiment is key to elevating brand loyalty. eCommerce Watershed Moment Post-Pandemic High Demand in Tier-2 and Tier-3 Cities The hinterland of India is steadily getting attracted to convenient shopping. Beauty and personal care products have been the top pick among Tier-2 and Tier-3 new eCommerce shoppers. The remarkable progress and e-commerce penetration have led the shoppers from these cities to make up the major chunk of market share across e-commerce shopping avenues. Post-pandemic the year-on-year growth has been remarkable in Tier- 2 and Tier- 3 cities while the growth rate and slightly lost pace. E-commerce penetration across Indian cities in 2022 | Source: Unicommerce Report In the post-pandemic era, faster delivery and optimized shopping experience have been the driving factors for eCommerce growth. Internet penetration and rapid growth in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities are the driving forces leading to this new demographic towards the e-commerce marketplaces. Final thoughts – Target the right consumer The beauty personal Care industry has a major challenge in terms of reaching out to the right customer. High demand in tier 2 and tier 3 cities has opened the door to a massive range of new customers with varied shopping potential and budget brackets. Brands need to tap into these new geographies with ecommerce competitive analysis paving ways to edge ahead. The end-to-end digital commerce intelligence at every touch point can enhance customer experience and boost sales across the digital ecosystem. mScanIt, a digital commerce intelligence solution provides actionable insights and analytics across multiple KPIs for the brand. Tools like content recommendation help brands go beyond analytics with auto-content generation for product display pages and optimize the content across platforms. In the last few years, new business models and multiple segments have emerged across the eCommerce ecosystem. Brands should keep track of new opportunities opening to target consumers across the digital commerce landscape. Get in touch with our experts for deeper insights. Reach out to learn more.

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Think young… Gen Z the future of eCommerce

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Praveen Dhama

Tap on the right demographics sentiment to upswing the conversion rate Change is the only constant. Be it life or shopping behaviour. The different age group has different shopping patterns. The way people in their 20’s shop draws quite a contrast from how people in their 30s shop online. The post-pandemic world has been forced to take rapid strides as does the shopping environment and platforms. We have come a long way from browsing items across the crowded marketplace to browsing the products on your phone across the omnichannel eCommerce landscape. The new generation is driving the new shopping pattern across the eCommerce ecosystem. Even influencing millennials to follow their trait to catch up with the trend empowered with hefty purchase capabilities. Brands need to up with energy-driven restless shoppers pampered with options. Evolve with your shoppers and think young! The turn of a new decade marred with the Coronavirus outbreak has changed the way people shop across the world. Spoilt for choices, just getting a product delivered on time is not enough. Gen Z seeks a seamless, secure and omnichannel eCommerce purchase experience. The competition is more cutthroat than ever. Brands need to be on their toes and optimize every touchpoint of their customer journey. So, what are we waiting for let’s dive deep into what goes behind this change in consumer behaviour, explore the idea and Think Young! Tap on Gen Z Shopping potential – Understand Online Consumer Behaviour A massive wave of evolution has hit online shoppers. The new-generation shoppers are more aware of their options. This evolution in consumer behaviour is a by-product of pandemic lockdowns which brought drastic changes in the eCommerce ecosystem triggering the new age of e-retail on a global scale. What is Consumer Behaviour? In simple terms the process of how consumers make decisions to purchase products on an eCommerce ecosystem. The task is simple – Identify a problem your consumer face while deciding to make a purchase and understand the constantly evolving need and expectations of the consumers. The expectations could be regarding availability, transparency, affordability, or a convenient purchase journey. Brands need to be on their toes and keep track of changing behaviour across platforms, demographics, and a wide range of products. Brands need to be aware of what drives their customers and ensure end-to-end optimization of the eCommerce shopping journey. We can’t generalize the shopping behaviour of the entire generation, as preferences and behaviour could be diverse. How behaviour and consumption patterns have evolved from Gen Y to Gen Z Changing Consumer Behaviour – Think Young for 2023 and Beyond The accelerated pace at which unimaginable changes have happened in the eCommerce marketplaces, what otherwise might have taken a decade happened in days during and post-pandemic. The fact that we are still wondering about it as the curtain draws on 2022 is humongous. Digitization, ordering online, swift delivery and remote working became part of our lives practically overnight. Now, business leaders are moving towards long-term strategic moves, in the new normal scenario and beyond. The challenge is to put the finger on the pulse of evolving consumer sentiment and adapt to data-driven ways to optimize the customer journey. The trends in evolving consumer behaviour are driven by the rapid rise in Gen Z demographics that are more concerned about the convenient shopping experience. The key is to think young tap consumer sentiments and optimize consumer journey at multiple touch points. Shape your strategies to meet consumer expectations and focus on customer journey optimization. The digitally native, mobile-first generation, Gen Z exhibits Search for Convenience and speed Preference for mobile shopping Price sensitivity Choices influenced by social media Omnichannel Shopping If you are looking to reach out to Generation Z or Millennials, do consider the fact that they are well aware of what they need, and the majority of these cohorts already shopped across various eCommerce platforms and have high expectations. Convenience is king. Gen Z and Millennials shoppers bargain for convenience. According to a study, 76% of shoppers vouch for an enhanced shopping experience with convenience being a top priority. Cross-device seamless omnichannel buying experience. Gen Z shoppers do not limit themselves to one shopping avenue. Their buying pattern is all about check-out items when and where they see them in case of tempting impulsive buy. But for focused needs, they check multiple avenues before making a purchase. According to a study, 81% of shoppers are looking for a frictionless, cross-device eCommerce buying experience. According to research, 9 out of 10 shoppers look for seamless and flexible payment options as it speeds up their purchase decisions. To succeed in 2023 and beyond build your visibility across multiple channels and target demographics with competitive intelligence. Invest in creative content and ideally implement media strategy to upscale traffic. Source: Based on McKinsey Gen Z Survey Report Final Thoughts Put your foot on the pedal to keep up with the Gen Z! Do you know what your customer thinks about your product? Are you tracking what they say about it? If you are not, then you are missing out on a lot more than what you think – Rather than shooting in the dark switch to a data-driven digital Intelligence solution to combat new challenges in the new year. Track trends across omnichannel eCommerce to monitor consumer behaviour across platforms. Be there at the right time at the right place with the right price to attract the consumer. Don’t miss out cater to the needs of a rising caravan of new shoppers with mScanIt, ecommerce intelligence solution. Understand what they want and cater to the growing Gen Z demographic. The massive rate of high-speed internet penetration has led to an incredible rise in new shoppers. The tier-1 and tier-2 cities are riding the wave of online shopping over the bustling market rush and Gen Z is leading the way. The new narrative of optimizing the customer journey will shape the eCommerce ecosystem in 2023 and beyond.

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Delivery TAT – Should You Be Careful About It?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Expert Opinion

The agile eCommerce businesses in India have always been on the ascending side. The bars heightened with the pandemic-induced rise in online shopping. According to Statista, in 2019 online sales were $42.58 billion. The same study shows that e-retail sales will rise up to $83.75 billion by the end of 2022 and are projected to reach $145.07 billion by 2025. Highly likely, no signs of downfall! The above statistics are quite evidence that Indian eCommerce is robust and booming for its immense potential of enhancing consumer buying experience. It broadened the scope for major brands to aggressively endorse themselves on eCommerce marketplaces to expand their realms. They shook hands with these platforms to capture a larger market share. With customer satisfaction in focus, brands display discounted prices, lucrative offers, and other such deals which, no doubt, help them keep up their reputation. However, delivery turnaround time also has a crucial role to play. They must honor the importance of tracking delivery turnaround time as numerous strategic and profitable decisions can be made based on the analysis. Tracking Delivery Turnaround Time to Stay Competitive Delivery Time Identification for a Particular City and Pin Code Delivery time tracking for a brand is in part tracing how fast a product reaches a specific city and pin code. It is a geo-analysis of the delivery time trend for a brand giving a clear bifurcation as per the locations, cities, and pin codes, where your brand is present. Now, this analysis can open up insights into optimizing the delivery time. Once you have the respective delivery time for different locations, you are at the epicenter of strategizing for reducing delivery time, wherever possible. It can be through the choice of shipment, scaling up the warehousing in an area, or perhaps, leasing new warehouses. Delivery Time Analysis for Brand SKUs and Variants Your SKU performance is contingent on delivery time to a large extent. Delivery time analytics forms the basis of categorizing your SKUs with a higher delivery time, SKUs with an average delivery time, and SKUs with less delivery time. This raises some questions How can I maintain less delivery time for my performing SKUs? What factors can cause a delay in the delivery time of my SKUs? Why is the delivery time for this particular SKU higher? How can reduce the delivery time for my SKUs? Is it even possible to reduce the delivery time for my SKUs? You can actively participate in the supply chain for full visibility of your SKUs. This way you might have possible reasons for higher delivery TAT of your SKUs and work out a plan of action to maintain as well reduce the delivery time, wherever possible. For the SKUs that cannot be delivered before the time span of say 5-7 days keep your customers pre-intimated. Tracking Delivery Time of Your Product Verses Your Competition As mentioned before, the delivery time of your product is one of the determinants of its performance. With delivery time analysis you get a better understanding of the number of days your competition is taking to deliver the product. Also, your competition’s delivery TAT data with respect to different cities and pin codes is also available. You can use these insights to have an edge over your competitor. For Example, you can tap the locations for which the product delivery time of your competition is higher by using faster shipment methods like airways or railways. Expand the warehousing facility to stock products in regions where your competitor is lacking in delivery performance. Delivery TAT Tracking For Best Seller Analysis The role of authorized sellers in eCommerce marketplaces is not limited to supplying goods. Their market expertise can legit expand your consumer base. These sellers specialize in spotting the right audience, promoting your product, and delivering customer satisfaction which translates into larger sales, more profit, and brand recognition. Delivery TAT tracking can, to a great extent, can make your search for the most reliable marketplace seller quick and easy. Is your delivery product delivery time high even when your seller has enough stock available? If yes, you can raise a question on the credibility of your seller and begin searching for authorized sellers. Reducing Delivery TAT – Concluding Thought A brand got delivery TAT analysis done versus its competition on Amazon and Flipkart for a specific month. It basically recorded the percentage delivery TAT in relation to the number of days taken to deliver the product. This data would have been instrumental in creating strategies to streamline the supply chain and eventually, optimizing the delivery time. Now, this brand would have utilized TAT analysis to reduce delivery time because it knows that customer satisfaction is highly dependent on quick delivery, within a day or two maybe. It tactically adapted to the changing customer behaviour in the era of growing eCommerce. The brand might have keenly monitored the entire supply chain process, worked on key problematic areas to ensure seamless and timely delivery. With this brand story, the purpose was to communicate the happy customer base is directly proportionate to lower delivery TAT. With our proprietary eCommerce intelligence solution mScanIt, brands can easily scan their delivery TAT. It performs delivery time analysis for the brand versus its competition and gives actionable insights.

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eCom Pathway to 2023

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Praveen Dhama

A Guide to Maximizing Sales, Improving Efficiency and Optimizing Your Customer Journey Time to switch from classic front foot drive to 360-degree play – The world of eCommerce is changing being proactive about trends and evolving customer experience is key to edge ahead of your competitors. The post-pandemic world is riding on a new high to elevate eCommerce business around the world. The massive rate of high-speed internet penetration has led to incredible rise in new shoppers. The tier- 1 and tier-2 cities are riding the wave of online shopping over the bustling market rush. The new narrative of optimizing customer journey will enlighten pathway for eCommerce ecosystem in 2023 and beyond. Here is your complete guide to maximizing sales, improving efficiency, and optimizing customer journey by hopping on to the trends. Speed up on the right path As per the Brain & Co. report, online shoppers in India have crossed well beyond 180 million and all set to surpass the United States to become second-largest shopper base in coming years. The brands need to latch on the opportunity step up their game to cater the new potential customers, understand their need and stay ahead among the stiff competition in eCommerce ecosystem. This profane growth is backed by strong underlying rudiments: A large consumer base with growing affluence Low data prices prompting – growing Internet and smartphone penetration Low shipment costs to back swift order delivery Brands need to align themselves with consumer need and work towards enhancing customer experience for sustained growth in sales. Indian e-retail market is estimated to grow at more than 25% per annum to scale to $150–$170B by 2027 Source: Statista Make it a smooth ride – Optimize your Customer Journey The Evolution of eCommerce retail in India: Phase 1 (Before 2015) – An Era of cautious early adoption. Limited to typically affluent at metro and tier-1 cities with major categories being mobile and fashion. Phase 2 (2015-2020) – An Era of growth & massification. The expansion of eCommerce retail touched the masses engaging new shoppers across tier-2 cities and a wide new range of categories flooded the eCommerce retail landscape. Phase 3 (2020 and beyond) – An Era of eCommerce Customer Journey Optimization An era of innovation – Time to address the needs of distinct micro-segments, innovate with new business models making business decisions based on data, and differentiate on customer experience. The covid induced lockdown has led to multi-fold expansion of eCommerce industry juxtaposed with innovative affordability constructs like low-cost equated monthly instalments (EMIs), Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL), and the scale-up of third-party logistics. In last couple of years, three distinct hallmarks of Phase 3.0 have emerged which mark the advent of new era of change where optimization on every step of customer journey is the way towards the future. Emergence of shopper micro-segments The use of technology to deliver a bespoke product Effort to enhance customer experience In this phase of sustained growth, brands need to cater distinct shopper micro-segments across geographies, incomes, and age groups. Specially during the time when 1 in 3 shoppers is Gen Z, 3 out of 5 shoppers belong to tier-2 or smaller cities, and 1 in 3 shoppers belong to low-to-middle income segments. Every innovation in eCommerce ecosystem caters to distinct customer micro-segments. The current phase is led by tech innovation – data driven AI & ML guiding business decisions and enhancing customer experience. E-Retail market projections | Source: Bain Analysis eCommerce Trends for 2023 – What future hold? The new post pandemic world has set the new world order for eCommerce. The rising inflation around the world, Ukraine-Russia crisis is talking a toll on the global scenario. But still things are looking bright for India and neighbouring South-East Asian region as the eCommerce ecosystem is soaring high on massive internet penetration and influx of new generation shoppers. Let’s cherish the last two-plus years of astronomical eCommerce growth and wonder what 2023 could transpire for online retails and brands in future. The eCommerce habits of the shoppers are set now with higher preference to eCommerce marketplace as compared to brick & mortar stores. The change in shopping habits has prompted expert to predict sales to soar above US$ 8 trillion from now existing US$ 5 trillion by 2026. Keep an eye on changing consumer expectations and preferences to latch on this growth trend. Sustainable growth to be key. Share of new ecommerce to continue growth especially in key categories like beauty, fashion, and grocery as they continue to effectively serve a key need for specific consumer cohorts. Trends that will shape the future in 2023 1. Don’t overlook your shoppers’ experience and omnichannel avenues The fluid omnichannel shopping experiences is way to the future. A major chunk of buyers around 75% use multiple channels before making a purchase and during their customer journey 73% of e-commerce consumers report using various channels. This highlights the desperate need to eliminate friction in customer journey. The shopping is no longer limited to eCommerce marketplace or brand website – social commerce is rising as a new avenue for shoppers where they can buy product as when and where they see it. Brands offering omnichannel shopping experiences will continue to thrive in 2023.2. Can you hear me now? Customer sentiments will drive sales for e-commerce in 2023 Listen to what your customers have to say. The customer sentiments do matter. The right measure will not just ensure customer retention but also build brand trust and help cater to customer needs. Brands need to make rating, reviews, and Q&A assessments their top priority. The record amount of time spent online not only increases shopping spend but also engages customers to provide feedback. Unsurprisingly most customers do especially when their product experience is not satisfactory provide feedback. Switch to Rating & Review Tracker with Time Trend Analysis and Brand-Wise Analysis for your own vis-à-vis competition to ensure the voice of your customer is heard and acted upon. Take the help of

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QSR – Delivering Tempting Prospects

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Anukirti Jain

Your order is on the way!” These words set up a flurry of emotion for those who crave a quick bite. The QSR players need to tap into these dwindling emotions to provide a frictionless customer journey with ease of ordering to on-time delivery ensures higher ratings and review and of course, the food needs to be good to deserve that. But before all of this, your product needs to be picked by the customers. The prospects of growing QSR industry in India and globally are immense. The rise in internet penetration and shift in food ordering habits of new generation consumers. The focus is on optimizing customer journey across the platform. Brands are slowly but steadily shifting to generating the ‘pull’ to the digital-led market – The latest trend suggests the customer-led market is not digital-led as media, and content drive customer needs – telling them what they want based on an assessment of consumer behaviour – creating a smooth path to purchase and frictionless customer experience. The Emergence of QSR Even the dominant brands like McDonald which has been in India since the mid-90s took time to find its feet in the segment, but it paved the way for QSR in India. The Quick Service Restaurant format has led the organized food service industry in India to the upswing. The QSR format is a perfect mix of being lucrative and maintaining decent customer connections which contribute almost 12% of the organized segment. The growing popularity of QSR among urban and sub-urban settings will lead to its projected growth at the rapid rate of 17.27 per cent and worth up to Rs. 827.63* billion by 2025. (*Source: Research and Market projections) International brands have dominated the QSR market in India with a +50% share of revenue on the back of Glocalization of Menu Investments driven rising geographical presence Value focus driven higher sales and customer preference Ability & agility to keeping up with trends Consumer needs based focused marketing efforts Backend integration of technology to ensure quality service A healthy demand outlook for QSR and surge in investments, the industry is expected to witness substantial growth. A large segment of the unorganized market is expected to get streamlined into an organized market with QSR. The Scenario – Know your customer Imagine your customer going to a physical store/restaurant – going through the menu – pondering upon what to order – but the item is unavailable or does not suit the budget bracket or is too pricy for two. Then you offer him some alternative if it suits his needs then you got him but still the pinch of missing out on what he wanted remains and ruins the customer experience. Now imagine knowing about your customer need what are they looking for and your performance across platforms on parameters like – Reach of your service Performance across age bracket Pricing range own vis-à-vis competition Delivery time impact on Ranking and ratings Knowing all that just imaging what your brand could do for not just acquiring new customers but will also help you pinpoint the area to improve and work towards the goal of optimizing customer journey. What future holds for QSR? The internet penetration across geographies and demographics has paved the seamless growth path for the QSR industry. Here are some key scenarios that will shape the future. International QSRs have struck a chord with Indian consumers Value proposition offered by international brands has led to their acceptance among young Indian demographics – The variety of entry-level products, affordable meal upgradation options, and discounted prices on combos & meals has led to a growing loyal customer base. The average Indian consumers’ socializing over food The rise in the ability and willingness of the average Indian consumer to spend on aspirations, experiments and socializing over food along with their stickiness in terms of cost-consciousness will continue to drive them towards fast food brands. Value remains the belly of the market Top brands have not shied away from introducing premium offers to meet customer needs with better indulgence, which aids in increasing ticket size as well as margins. QSR companies expanding beyond their core offerings From pizza to pasta (Domino’s), from burgers to beverages, breakfast, fried chicken, rice bowl, etc. (McDonald’s, Burger King) – The swift beyond core offering and combos with competitive pricing strategy will enhance consumer trials and eventually scale up consumption of these offerings. Rapid Convenience channel Quick delivery, takeaway, and drive-thru are other key driver of growth since it is not just the need of the hour for any QSR brand, but also a significant enabler of the future due to an increase in the frequency of ordering and a growing user base across the country What do brands need to do? The format has transitioned to comfort food across price segments, catering to all income levels or segments benefiting from any downtrading along with addressing the aspirational demand in non-metro areas. The QSR players need to address the growing demand with a strategy guided by data and insights. The top players in the QSR space benefit in a big way with growing industry potential as they have the necessary infrastructure, a healthy balance sheet, and an established convenience channel to cater to evolving consumer demand. Let’s consider the case of brands like Domino’s and Mcdonald’s listed on a platform like Swiggy and Zomato along with their own online apps – what do they need to be more feasible and appealing to the customers? Having an established brand name is not enough. Target demographics and enhance customer experience by optimizing the customer journey on multiple touchpoints Improve product discoverability based on section-level insights – for own vis-à-vis competition on platforms like Swiggy, Zomato Uber eats etc. Track own brand/product performance vis-à-vis competition across the platform, location, and delivery time. Final thoughts The food service industry is running a race against time with every day being a new day and a new challenge. The prospects are unlimited, and quicker services and quality service are

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3 Best Practices to Get Most Out of Shopping Ads

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Anukirti Jain

As we sit on the verge of the festive season, online shopping is increasing rapidly. Most users search for products they want to buy over search engines or search modules of eCommerce marketplaces to find gifts and decorations or upgrade their wardrobes. According to a source, 40% of shoppers across the globe used search engines to find a product, whereas 38% and 35% relied on Amazon and other marketplaces, respectively. Therefore, online shopping stores and web browsers have become crucial to the customer journey. Brands understand this and need to market their products across spaces to acquire higher brand awareness and eventually increase their online sales. The benefit of this has also been taken by the owners of the web browsers offering shopping ads to brands. Did you know a study claims that 76.4% of the retail ad expense is spent on Google Shopping Ads, and achieves an aggregate 85.3% click-through-rate? So, e-commerce brands are ensuring that their shopping ads reach the maximum number of people. Achieving this would help acquire higher sales, and revenue through online shopping stores. Moreover, it would generate higher brand awareness, visibility, and a competitive edge in the online retail ecosystem. Unfortunately, a single user comes across 4,000-10,000 ads daily, including search ads. The competition between brands is extremely high, given that a single person comes across more than 400 ads in an hour. Therefore, optimizing shopping ads has become important for digital marketers. Simultaneously, brands must comply with the incorporated ad guidelines. Keeping these thoughts in mind, we have curated a set of best practices. 3 Ways to Optimize Shopping Ads Question Your Keywords We understand that you have selected the keywords based on thorough research, but enhancing visibility begins by re-evaluating the data. Before getting started, check the negative keyword list. Recognizing the appearance of your ads on unwanted keywords is necessary to save the ad budget and reach the target audience simultaneously. For example, let’s consider that you sell ‘gold jewelry,’ but your ads appear under ‘silver jewelry.’ The campaign might elapse the set budget much faster and display results to an audience that may not have an interest in it. However, adding ‘silver’ and ‘silver jewelry’ under the negative keywords will help to diminish such repercussions. Simultaneously, as the sale season is just around the corner, it is necessary to identify the keywords that would show more of your ads to the target audience. Using such keywords on the product page will certainly impact your product results in search ads. However, you should refrain from using words like sale, offer, deal, etc., in the ad. Instead, focus on features, benefits, qualities, etc. Once you figure out the new relevant and negative keyword list, you must make the final evaluation before proceeding to ensure that you don’t miss out on anything. Examine the Product Display Pages Offering the brand name, in the beginning, brings trust to the title. Following it up with quality and features helps impulse buyers make decisions easily and makes it relevant for web browsers. The description should be crisp, include keywords mentioned in the title, and be easy to understand. Here is an example of the description of a product of a shoe brand: Image Source: Neeman If you check the product title and match it with the description, you will see that the word ‘comfortable’ is common and seems to be the focus of the product. Moreover, the description clearly states the material used for manufacturing and qualities like stretchable, all day long, anywhere, and anytime. The best method to keep track of the most used keywords by competitors on shopping ads is conducting daily, weekly, and monthly text analysis. Our eCommerce competitive analysis solution, mScanIt, can help in this assessment. Post analysis, the marketers of your brand can make strategic decisions to boost the ads’ visibility, which would also directly impact the brand’s Share-of-Voice. Setting the Correct Price Price is one of the factors that can boost your page visits. But your brand must ensure that the currency and price are not formatted incorrectly. It can cause drastic repercussions like a high level of undeliverable orders, higher SERP on the web browser, and MAP violations. Tracking the price of competitors on different platforms has also become a necessity as it enables brands to curate better pricing strategies for their products. Earlier, we also mentioned that words like ‘price drop or sale’ should not be included in the description. The reason behind it is that it is already shown by Google, the biggest shopping search engine. While focusing on title, description, and price may prove beneficial in boosting the visibility of shopping ads, marketers should not ignore other factors. These include campaign structure, articulate segregation of ad groups, bid adjustments, etc. Conclusion Selling a product using search ads is challenging, but optimizing the title, price, product page, and keywords can certainly prove beneficial in enhancing visibility. The lower SERP result certainly helps a brand to achieve a better click-through rate, page visits, sales, and conversion rates. Simultaneously, brands must identify the search result trends or changes that can boost the sale of their variants with lower sales volume. The whole practice would help the brand to achieve a higher Share-of-Voice. Many researchers say that page optimization in the eCommerce marketplace can influence the web browser’s SERP. Therefore, the need to identify all the facets of the product listing has become crucial for brands. Connect with us to learn more about scaling your business with Share-of-Voice results on web browsers.

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What Does Your Search Rank on Marketplaces Say About Your Brand?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Praveen Dhama

Turning visitors into customers starts with achieving high search rankings. The higher search rank directly results in high visibility and more probability of getting picked up by the shoppers. It is just like a physical shopping scenario where your product is placed at a perfect place to catch the shopper’s eye and at a distance to be easily picked up from the shelf. In an eCommerce marketplace, most shoppers buy the top product on the list unless they are looking for something specific not featured in the list. A higher search rank also means the product will be available to more shoppers online based on the search. The goal is to create an attractive Product page, grab shoppers’ attention – convert that add-to-cart decision to an instant buy. eCommerce platforms like Amazon use their own search algorithm to list a product that is completely different from Google’s. When a buyer searches for a product on Amazon, results are delivered through a two-step process. Firstly, they pull relevant results from their catalogue and then they rank them according to relevancy. They continually evaluate their algorithms using human judgments, programmatic analysis, key business metrics, and performance metrics. Here are some important things that your search rank on the eCommerce marketplace says about your brand 1. Identifies your product position vis-a-vis competitor product in the products category or sub-category The product with the best search rank on the digital shelf gets the highest visibility and, eventually, has a chance at achieving higher sales. The search algorithm of eCommerce marketplaces shows results based on historical purchases, best sellers, reviews & ratings, and other factors. Brands try their best to make their product easily discoverable, especially on the top keywords. One of the methods of optimizing the pages is by identifying the most relevant keyword for a specific product and product category on the product’s page. By doing so, they can evaluate the leader and measure their overall performance on the organic and sponsored search results. Analyzing the search results would show the top-ranking product under a category and enable making strategies around the same too. But a more diversified method of knowing the top performer and runner-up would include measuring search results across the platform, variants, pin code, and other levels. 2. Does your product have the best SEO? Or could the product achieve a higher organic ranking? Brands only select a few keywords on which they display their sponsored listings. One of the key components affecting the search rank of the digital shelf of the remaining organic product listings is SEO. Regularly monitoring such search results on the organic keywords helps to find the product with the best page optimization. Analyzing the top search results against the competitors enables brands to find the brand leading the search rank on the digital shelf. A higher search rank on organic results only requires efforts from marketers. So, the brand saves money whenever the product has a high search rank without additional bidding costs. This is how high search ranking will impact your business: Established authority and good reputation Round-the-clock promotion Higher Organic search traffic High-quality visitors and increased conversion Such product listings help brands to achieve a higher conversion rate. The biggest factors influencing page optimization include the images, video, title, description, and any other form of content in the hands of the brand. The most effective method of measuring the performance of each of these components is by analyzing them with the competitors. Once the results display the product pages with the best results, marketers can use the information to enhance the page performance for each listing. 3. Does your Product Listing have the Potential to Influence Customer’s Buying Decisions? The urgency to buy a product is higher on quick commerce apps like BlinkIt or Dunzo than on Amazon or Flipkart because they offer fast delivery. If you want brown bread and search for it, the tendency to buy from the top results due to urgency is the highest. Wouldn’t you agree? Maybe not, but many do the same. Most visitors across a pin code often see similar results on eCom apps, so the demand for products on the top search results is higher than others. Therefore, the top results often go Out-of-Stock (OOS) faster than others. The top results on Amazon and other eCommerce marketplaces can change the buyer’s perspective. For example, if you searched for ‘shoes for men’ and saw a variety of sporty shoes, you might not go for a known brand and opt for a new one, just because of the design and features. The designs shown in the top results convince the online shopper that the results display the trending forms of shoes, and sport shoe buyers must have them. The top results on the keyword searches influenced the buyer’s perspective about the sport shoe designs. Final Thoughts The search rank of a product on sponsored and organic keyword-based results tells a lot of tales to brands and e-commerce marketers. Brands need to focus on the results of the digital shelf as it enables them to achieve higher visibility and, eventually, sales. Moreover, digital shelf analytics enables brands to understand more about the areas of improvement of their products. Measuring the product’s performance at this level would require measuring the performance of the competitors with real-time actionable insights. Our eCommerce competitive intelligence solution, mScanIt, is helping brands to measure the performance of their product pages. It also helps brand marketers to find factors enabling competitors to achieve higher results and earn the trust of customers.

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3 Things to Consider While Writing Product Descriptions

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Praveen Dhama

Do you remember when you had to visit the nearest retail store (Kirana-wala) and check out the product’s qualities by reading its description? We still have an audience that does the same as their preferred choice. Product description in an e-marketplace, like Amazon or BigBasket displayed after clicking on a product listing. It is much more than the standard description written on a product’s label. It signifies the product’s audience, benefits or features, suitability criteria, and more. The question that ecommerce marketers come across while writing a compelling description is ‘How to make the product description convincing to potential customers?’. A convincing description would increase the buyer’s interest in purchasing and re-purchasing the same product while simultaneously increasing interest in exploring more about it. Here are the 3 things to consider for writing a great product description Leave No Room for Doubts If you have ever visited a clothing outlet in a shopping mall, you must have been greeted by a salesperson who can assist you in searching for a section or finding the product for you. The salesperson leaves no room for doubt and helps you out with every possible detail. Also, create a user-centric content product description that provide answers to all possible questions that a customer may have about the product Understand customer needs Evaluate customer reviews and Q&As Address every possible customer concern in description This would not just increase customer’s interest in purchasing the product but will give the existing shoppers a loud and clear message, ‘we are hearing your voice’. It also leaves no doubt in the minds of the buyers. Include All Essentials Convincing a customer to buy a product takes more than stating the benefits or features of a product. It demands showing off humbly. It requires stating the obvious and the not-so-obvious factors. The product description should have sufficient room for all the qualities, which also helps in removing repetition. Keep it precise and informative Use Story telling style – engage with facts and benefits Include all essentials that customer seeks For example, people searching for hiking backpacks would want to know its capacity, whether it is waterproof, materials, and ‘unsuitable for’ criteria. But, ensuring that everything the product offers is mentioned requires knowing the aspects mentioned in similar listings of your competitor. Sometimes, you may not regard a feature as desirable, but the competitor might use it to scale up sales of similar products. Our eCom Competitive Analytics solutihelps brands analyze product descriptions and discover the critical aspects through a word cloud. The most mentioned words often appear the largest and using them in their description helps in page optimization. Use high performing keywords for your brand Writing a similar description for almost similar products gives a wrong impression to the online shopper. On the other hand, it also makes it easier for regular buyers to distinguish between the products and makes buying decisions easier. So, it’s a slippery slope for ecommerce marketers whenever the demand for new product descriptions arises for similar listings. Keywords play a significant role in product discoverability on ecommerce marketplaces. An ecommerce marketer writing a one-paragraph description could include 2-3 keywords at the most. However, deciding the right keywords becomes essential as it can place similar listings together or under different search results. The best way to find the correct keywords would be to look at competitors’ listings. Doing so helps to know the approach they are following for similar listings of their products. Our solution, mScanIt, shows the top keywords used by your competitors along with your keywords. The analysis through mScanIt helps to know their most used keywords and measure whether their keywords have been used in your description or not. Conclusion A powerful product description can increase an online shopper’s interest in the product and convince them to buy it. Ecommerce marketers know that descriptions should be crisp, enriched with keywords, and scannable. However, eCom marketers should also include customers’ interests, all the ‘need-to-know’ aspects and know competitor’s keywords. Doing so would help to make a much better product description. Ecommerce Competitive Intelligence Solution helps brands to evaluate the differences between their product descriptions against their competitors. The analysis helps brand marketers to achieve their description goals and optimize their content for search engines.

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Why Do Rating Matter to eCom Brands?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Anukirti Jain

Online shoppers judge a product through its ratings and impact purchase decisions The first and only way to know about customer experience in an eCommerce marketplace is through ratings. They are eye-openers. Product reviews and rating can make the customer interested in buying the product or scroll until a better product becomes visible. The importance of ratings is undermined by reviews, as they offer ‘textual’ feedback from online shoppers. However, many reviewers only submit product ratings and don’t write about their experiences. Brands have to incentivize customers to submit their feedback through offers, scratch cards, gifts, etc. Such customer experiences are also biased, as many brands clearly state, “give a 5-star rating and write a few words” in their lingo. Brands also run campaigns to acquire customer feedback on their products. They approach influencers to submit feedback on eCommerce marketplaces in text or video format along with the ratings. Moreover, they also ask influencers to create unboxing videos or product feedback for their Product Display Page (PDP). Implications of Ratings on eCom Products Customer’s Interest in the Product Let’s say an online shopper searches for ‘best smartphones under Rs 10,000.’ The top search results have a rating between three to five stars. Which one do you think the customer would likely prefer? While this is an open-ended and subjective choice, as it would also account for the brand, price, image, and other crucial aspects, the product’s rating will undoubtedly change the decision to visit the product page. The next step in a customer’s journey after searching for a product now depends on the ratings shown on the digital shelf. The product ratings are also displayed at the top of the PDP on most eCommerce marketplaces. It’s a signal to re-affirm the experience of online shoppers. Online Shopper’s Decision to Read Reviews If a product’s ratings are below three stars, an online shopper may not be interested in buying or even looking at the product. However, if it is between three and five stars, the decision to explore more about the online shoppers’ experience through reviews would substantially increase. Therefore, ratings have the power to impact an online shopper’s decision in two extreme directions. The need to have a positive rating is always a priority for eCommerce marketers. Online shoppers read more about the product if a product has a neutral or positive rating. It makes them more interested in the features or qualities of the product. It also removes their distrust of the brand, especially if they buy a product for the first time. Helps to Make Product Judgements A three-star-rated product informs online shoppers that the buyers could face problems and should not expect the best results. A four-star product rating states that ‘it’s almost up to the expectations given in the PDP.’ Now, it’s easy to know what to expect from a one, two, or five-star-rated product. Right? Online shoppers start judging the credibility of a product based on the rating. In most instances, people would always go for a four to five-star-rated product. (If you disagree, please comment and let us know your reasons). The eCommerce search algorithm understands that the highest-rated products under a category would interest a higher number of buyers. Therefore, most top search results include the best-rated products, which generally don’t go below three stars. Wrapping Up A product’s rating has a wide range of implications. They can either build an online shopper’s association with a brand or disassociate existing loyalists to competitive products. The need to have a positive rating for all eCommerce listings has become essential, as slight differences can alter customer buying decisions. Moreover, product ratings are a window into the customer experience. Poor ratings keep the customer’s interest in the product at bay, and good ratings uplift their enthusiasm to know more about the product. Our digital commerce Intelligence, mScanIt, enables brands to track their product ratings in real-time and measure their performance with the top competitors. The solution can also set alerts in case there is a sudden surge in ratings. Using the alerts helps brands to notify eCommerce managers to take swift action against an issue or find out the reason for positive publicity by checking the PDP.

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How Reviews and Rating Impact eCom Sales?

Leave a Comment / Blog, Digital Shelf Analytics / Anukirti Jain

According to a study, products with at least five reviews have a 270% higher chance of a sale.  The number of stars in the rating and shoppers feedback are vital for every eCommerce marketplace be it Amazon, BigBasket, Flipkart or any other. The heating up race to grab attention of buyers via multiple images, attractive prices, product comparisons, reviews & ratings are helping buyer to make more and more informed decisions. The customers feedback & reviews help buyers learn more about the product quality, brand, seller, features, benefits, etc. The sentiments and personal experience shared by the buyers makes reviews worth reading. According to research, about 91% of online shoppers read reviews before making a buying decision. The online shoppers want to know pros and cons of a product before deciding to buy. The negative feedbacks help judge the authenticity of the product, the core problems, irregularities, and more. On the other hand, positive reviews help build brand or product trust & credibility by stating the best features and clearing doubts about value for money. Why businesses need to assess customers sentiment? Reviews and ratings also influence marketing decisions. Brands often analyze the product with the worst feedback to find customers’ most problematic areas. Addressing customer concerns often helps brands to convert overall negative sentiment into positive or at least turn them into neutral. As a result, the new buyer decisions also get influenced in a positive way. The regular monitoring of reviews can help brands enhance their customer experience and develop new ideas or features. An evaluation of your brand vis-a-vis the competition can help to identify the most used words by customers for similar products on an ecommerce marketplace. This analysis helps in optimizing the marketing strategies. Brands need such analysis for optimizing the marketing strategies. Our solution mScanIt can even provide real-time alerts if the sentiment intensity is moving towards the extreme, keeping a tab on customer sentiment. Replying to customers reviews & ratings in real-time often results in a higher conversion rate. Impact of online reviews Boosts SEO and Product Discoverability Ease of finding the product listing on an eCommerce marketplace is crucial to product discoverability. Discoverability is directly proportional to Share of Shelf (SOS). So, when the keywords targeted by the brand appear higher, it enhances the share of Shelf. Most eCommerce marketplaces’ algorithm includes reviews and ratings to find out how relevant and popular the product is, before displaying the results to the online shopper. The targeted brand keywords used in the reviews also boost SEO. For example, a Bluetooth headset review would contain words like best Bluetooth, wireless, hands-free, etc., as part of the feedback. As these words are the SEO keywords, it might help the product become more visible in the top page listings. The product may also appear in the duplicate listing under organic search results of hands-free and wireless because these have been mentioned in the reviews. eCommerce marketplaces understand the importance of reviews and display them before the product price in search results. Products with reviews on the digital shelf listings often achieve higher conversion rates, depending upon the price parameters of the buyers. Products with good reviews and ratings on online shopping stores often boost their organic SERP on web browsers which leads to higher visits to the product display page, conversion rate, and sales. Additionally, they alter the Share-of-Voice of brands on Google, Microsoft Bing, and other search engines. Even if the product is new to the online shopping platform, lack of review will affect its sales unless it is of a well-known brand or much anticipated product. The businesses continuously engage in campaigns for acquiring product reviews as in most instances, people want to see the customer experiences of the same product from other online shoppers before deciding to purchase the product. Build customer trust and loyalty Products with reviews and ratings instill trust in a brand or eCommerce seller. The likelihood of purchasing an item from an online shopping store increases as the customer trusts the brand’s reliability and resolutions. Brands use eCommerce competitive analytic solutions like mScanIt for monitoring positive and negative sentiments with such tool they can evaluate customer reviews in their marketplace dashboard and send instant responses. Brands that proactively respond to customer reviews often witness higher conversion rates and sales. Simultaneously, they may boost customer loyalty and trust of potential buyers on the products, as they can see the resolution offered by the brand to resolve customer problems. The subjective view and understanding of the product usability also resolve frequent queries of the potential buyers, which once again impacts loyalty, trust, and the final buying decision. Help customers make final buying decision Many marketers believe that people spending a long time on a product page are probably checking the specifications, measuring pros & cons, and matching them with their needs before making the final buying decision. Reviews and ratings are opinions or comments given by product buyers and influencers which often include the brand name. The increasing number of brands mentions indeed impacts the algorithm of the eCommerce marketplace, especially while curating the best results for its buyers to boost sales. When the viewer read about other customer experiences, and name dropping of brands in reviews build a subjective opinion about the brand or product. Do you recall when ‘Realme was first introduced into the market, and people slowly forgot about ‘Redmi? Brands also use reviews for showcasing customer experiences to potential buyers or target audiences. You might have come across shopping ads on social media and search engines. Did you scroll past a new brand after seeing the reviews, or did you check out its product page? The length of reviews and ratings goes beyond the eCommerce sphere. Many websites have full-page articles and videos on products offered in online shopping stores. The brands also highlight ratings in product images to boost page time on their product page. Buyers sentiment matters! Reviews and rating could be a great tool to understand

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