Many ecommerce businesses believe their main goal should be to make a certain number of sales each day. While sales are what keep a business running, it’s important to consider what occurs before a sale is even secured because it could be the difference between a closed sale and an abandoned cart.
This is where an ecommerce web strategy comes in. We preach to our ecommerce clients that creating a personalized customer experience should be their number one priority and goal as they continue to build their website strategy and online presence.
The key to accomplishing this thoughtful customer experience is product attribute data.
Continue reading to discover what a product attribute is and why it matters for your ecommerce business.
What Is Product Attribute Data?
Product attributes are easy to understand—they are simply the properties that describe a product. Each includes information that enables buyers to find, compare and choose products. The most commonly used product attribute data include:
- Product Name. The title of an item, which often contains the model name, manufacturer and other important details (e.g., “Space Gray iPhone 13 Pro Max”—color, name and model).
- Product Images. High-quality images that showcase the top features of a product. Similar to the iPhone example, product images would show the overall design, size and screen of the device.
- SKUs (Stock Keeping Units). An alphanumeric barcode that is unique to individual online providers. This code contains information about the product itself, its manufacturer, the price and can help trace the movement of inventory.
- Retail and Cost Price. The retail price is what a customer pays to purchase the item and the cost price is the percentage amount added to achieve a selling price that matches competitors.
- Barcode. A two-dimensional code containing product information that can be read by an optical scanner or a tool (e.g., Google Lens).
- Weight. How much an item weighs with and without packaging.
- Category. A group of products sharing similar characteristics.
- Brand. The name of the company producing a product. This is a handy attribute for filtering items by manufacturer.
- Product type. The classification groups your ecommerce company organizes its parts into—physical, digital and services.
- Variants. The different forms a product can come in (e.g., color, size, memory capacity).
- Custom Attributes. In some cases, there may be certain features of products required for your PIM but aren’t commonly provided by other data management systems.
Why Does Product Attribute Data Matter?
Running an ecommerce business isn’t just about offering the best products—it’s about providing the best product descriptions to give customers a seamless and memorable user experience. It’s not only important to make a sale but to also deliver on your promise because if you don’t, that’s when you’ll start seeing more bad reviews and returns.
While it may seem tedious, taking the time to ensure your product attribute data is accurate, organized and meaningful helps market your brand and gets you noticed online.
Including plenty of information within your product descriptions enables you to cover more keywords, increasing the chances of users finding your shop. It can also help site visitors get a better feel for a product, compare it to other options and ultimately decide if it’s what they were looking for.
Does Product Attribute Data Influence Ecommerce Sales?
Product attribute data not only creates an unmatched customer experience. It also helps your ecommerce business stand out from your competition. While all of this is extremely positive for any organization, at the end of the day, sales are what keep a business running.
So, how does product attribute data influence sales? Let’s look at the current trends:
- Demand for Transparency. It’s common for businesses to keep the “annoying” details private—do customers really want to know where a product was produced? The answer is yes. Research shows that 81% of consumers prefer product transparency which can be achieved by including more details in product labels and providing easier access to product attribute data.
- Huge Online Buying Shift. If anyone has anything to thank the pandemic for, it’s the ecommerce industry for the increase in online shopping. Even as we fizzle out of the COVID-craze, research shows ecommerce sales are predicted to grow 16.1% and reach $1.06 trillion by the end of 2022. Product attributes are essential to providing customers with the most authentic shopping experience possible—even while shopping online.
- Omnichannel Capabilities. Selling products on multiple platforms is one of the best ways to reach more of your target market (e.g. social media, direct mail, display advertising). Even more, the growth of artificial intelligence allows you to chat with customers at any time—we call this omnipresent. With intentional product attribute data, you can develop a chatbot that solves customer requests in real time versus bogging down your support team.ors that match your branding—this will help increase conversion rates and drive ROI.
Best Practices for Managing Product Attribute Data
We understand that it can be difficult to manage product attribute data. Here’s a list of best practices we feel will help you on your way to meaningful, complete and consistent product attributes:
- Collaborate With Your Coworkers. Two (or more minds) are better than one. Consider involving all departments of your organization to develop the best possible product attribute data.
- Create a List. This will help you keep track of what you already have documented and help you to avoid duplicating work.
- Group Attributes Together. As you start building a grand list of attributes, grouping them into categories will help you and your coworkers find and organize them easier.
- Develop Attribute Rules. Implementing a set of rules for managing product attributes will ensure your entire organization is on the same page.
- Invest in a PIM. If you don’t already have one, investing in a PIM system will help keep all product attribute data organized and easily accessible.
Realize the Benefits of a PIM
Do you need help setting up your PIM to manage product attributes? Contact one of our technical data experts for support in creating a seamless experience for your ecommerce business and its customers.
