There isn’t much you can say is an “absolute standard” among shoppers, but at least one universal truth rings true:

All consumers want a quick, easy, and informed path to purchase.

This is accurate for online shoppers as well as those in brick-and-mortar stores. You undoubtedly want the same whenever you buy something, too.

Today, delivering that quick, simple and streamlined buying process is harder than ever as consumer expectations have skyrocketed. You can say that’s thanks to ecommerce and the immediate gratification of one-click buying power. Or, you can say it’s due to the overall downward slide of consumers’ collective attention span. “Quick” today has to be practically instantaneous.

Whatever the “why” behind the change, it’s still a universal truth that you can use to your advantage. And if you don’t, it will hurt you in these three principle ways.

What is the buyer experience (and why is it important)?

The buyer experience (or “buyer journey”) is the impression a user has from start to finish when purchasing your product online. When purchases are made on your own website, you have extensive control over the product data and web design that will ultimately drive a purchase through the most logical and enjoyable shopping experience possible for your brand.

The reality for most, however, is that bigger online marketplaces are the preferred venues to sell. And on these platforms, you have little-to-no control over the web design and user experience. You can, however, impact the buyer experience by the way you manage and present your product data.

Just imagine cruising Amazon while you look for something to buy for your sister’s birthday. You find several listings that look promising, and the price is right on the first one you click on, but the product photos just don’t match up next to the more expensive option from another seller. Even if you can forgive the seller for those photos, as you look quickly over the product description, you can’t pick out the dimensions. They’re in there, but you don’t see them right away, and in a split second you close the tab and go with the more expensive seller instead.

This is one small example of how poorly-managed product data results in decreased traffic, decreased conversions, and a lack of trust users feel for your brand. Now, we’ll dig in deeper as to why and what to do about it.

1. Product Data and Decreased Traffic

Traffic is the measure of how many users view your products, whether on your website or an online marketplace. And creating traffic through getting “found” by those users requires one (or both) of two things:

1.    You buy ads to target users and push traffic to your products

2.    You improve search rankings so you show up when users look for what you offer

The most cost-effective way to get more traffic is the latter—improving rankings through search engine optimization, or SEO. It’s also a fairly simple process if you properly manage your product data, since it’s precisely that data that will boost your rankings and get more eyes on your product listings.

Successful SEO based on your product data will help not just your traffic, but your conversions, too (more on that later). Think about it—when people are looking for the keywords your products rank for, they’re ready to buy. No one will type “glass coffee table” if they’re looking for any other kind of furniture. Buyers get specific when they’re at the precipice of their purchase.

To make sure your SEO is buyer-focused (to get the most of that high-converting traffic), here are some best practices to keep in mind:

1.    Diversify the keywords you use: don’t focus on the same keywords across all like products. Switch it up a little, otherwise you could end up competing with yourself in search rankings.

2.    Do NOT keyword stuff: this refers to inserting multiple instances of keywords into a product page where it ends up reading unnaturally. Remember to think from the buyer’s perspective. If text sounds redundant, you’ve gone overboard.

3.    Place your keywords strategically: when you can, use keywords in “weightier” parts of your product data, such as in the vignettes in product descriptions, in the product names, or in the “keyword” fields on certain marketplaces.

4.    Write detailed descriptions: to get the most out of your product data, ensure the full descriptions are detailed. Include dimensions, materials, and examples of use. This will be great for SEO, and ideal for the buyer experience.

Read more about how to build the best product listings here.

2. Product Data and Decreased Conversions

When we talk about buyer experience, that point of conversion is akin to the electric pulse that makes a heart beat. Without that pulse, the whole system fails. This is why there are whole firms devoted to journey optimizations, like Omniconvert. If your product data is not making it easier for buyers to pick out the details they want, users could be staring at their perfect product without even knowing it. And then they’ll move on.

Whether you see these numbers in your own website’s online shopping cart or in the marketplaces you sell on, we’re willing to bet you have more than a 50% cart abandon rate. Why? It could be that would-be-buyers aren’t getting the experience—specifically, the information—they need from your product data.

We just saw with traffic and SEO that the buyer experience is about more than just the web design and visual elements of a page. It’s also about transitions from product to product, fast feedback, even faster answers to product questions, easy payment flow and so much more.

But, once again, if you’re selling on marketplaces, you’ll have very little control over options like how the payment flow works.

Instead, to turn more would-be-buyers into new buyers (and repeat buyers in the future), focus on data and enrich your product information. Once you see more traffic, help more of it cross the finish line of conversion by thinking like the buyer and organizing product information for the quickest answers to the questions you know they have (and remember to follow content accessibility guidelines, too, so everyone has a fair shot at that information).

3. Product Data and How It Impacts Trust in Your Brand

When it comes to buyers’ trust in your brand, there are two ways that poorly-managed product data can totally collapse the buyer experience:

1.    First, with limited, messy or unintuitive product data, buyers will wonder what you’re hiding, and read “lemon” or “scam” between the lines.

2.    Second, even if buyers know you just have lousy product data, they’ll be left unimpressed and will choose another seller.

In either case, negligence with product data will mean you’re hurting your brand’s reputation. Poorly-managed data can even pull a good reputation out from under you, while well-managed data can put you a cut above all the rest. There’s no middle-ground on this one, because buyers will either like you…or not.

Back on the quest for universal buyer truths, perhaps the most important product data for the greatest number of buyers will be your product photos. Ecommerce shoppers aren’t going to be able to touch and interact with products before they purchase, so the best way to boost their confidence in what they’re about to buy is with well-done product photos.

Here are some best practices to keep your product photo library up to scratch:

• Show multiple angles of each product

• Show the product in the context of where it will be used (e.g., a couch you’re selling in a staged room where it looks smashing)

• Zoom in on the most interesting product details

• Consider including video (e.g., showcasing the product in use, how it’s made, etc.)

So, What Can You Do About Poorly-Managed Product Data?

Poorly-managed product data costs you traffic, conversions, and trust. These are such well-documented phenomena in ecommerce that many solutions have popped up to answer the need. Take, for instance, our Product Information Management (PIM) software. It’s the simple solution that takes all your product data off the spreadsheets and out of your inventory to organize and optimize it for each marketplace you sell on. You save so much time that you’re able to work through bigger business strategies without the stress, including having your data professionally enriched to make even more of each product listing on every marketplace. You save time once, twice, and a third time for good measure, then end up happier and with a more successful business as your reward.

Ready to roll out better SEO and product visibility?

Ready to quash cart abandonment and see more consistent conversion?

Ready to celebrate the best reputation your brand has ever enjoyed?

Start by organizing your product data in our PIM, and unlock all the benefits that come next. Schedule a demo today!