Developing Your Ecommerce Catalog
Developing Your Ecommerce Catalog
Developing Your Ecommerce CatalogPlan Your Catalog
Develop an outline for your catalog that includes categories and sub categories. It is important to have your category and product names align with phrases that people actually search for. Example: you sell shirts and you have a category named "green." Do people actually search the term "green' or would "green silk shirts" be a more likely search term? You want to carefully consider your navigation/category structure in this early planning stage to ensure that you are using words that can generate traffic to your site.
A user should instantly feel like he or she knows what to do and what is being asked of him or her to get to a preferred destination. A navigation bar with browse by category, special offers via a colorful rotation banner such as deal of the day, merchandising boxes that work together to offer popular items, and a clearance or discount section should all be items you should consider in your catalog planning process.
Don't bite off more than you can chew. A big catalog is great. A complete catalog is better. You want your site to go live as soon as possible so you can start laying claim to your important keyword phrases in the search engines. So, it's better to have your Web site go live with 25 products rather than waiting 9-months to develop the content for 200 products.
Avoid Duplicate Content
Your content needs to be unique. Category and product descriptions should not be borrowed from another Web site, even if the manufacturer says it's ok to use their content. The search engines will know and punish you for it. Google only displays the first page it indexes with that identical content
so your page may end up in the supplemental results.
Typically you will have to write your own quality, keyword rich descriptions. The internet is highly competitive so you will be competing with many other sites. If you and your competitors are all getting your products (and content) from the same manufacturer, how will your site stand out from the pack in the search engines?
Significant, Useable, Filterable, and Actionable Product Information
First, provide an easy to filter navigation (sort by size, color, price etc). This puts a user in charge of his or her own shopping destiny and encourages buying by increasing participation in the selection process. A good amount of content in each section and about each product allows users to learn more about your categories, products, your company, and the experience one can expect, building the consumer confidence needed to make a purchase and be happy about his or her decision.
Cross-selling and Up-selling
Popular products,related products, and "also purchased," are popular up-selling and cross- selling features. The idea is to try and show products to your site visitors that they might be interested in purchasing. If they are looking at a sweater, show them the matching hat, scarf, and gloves. It is worth the effort to review your products and determine what items are related to each other so you can help the customer to purchase multiple items in one order.
Push that Product Promotion
When you go to a store, are all products set up the same? Most likely, not. A store's objective is to push viewers to see many items in a way that is fashionable and exciting to the customer. Many online stores forget that cross-selling suggestions, product reviews, featured products sections, clearance areas, and coupons all push viewers to more interaction, and to buy today! Additionally, online merchants that now provide advanced, exceedingly fast shopping experience tools such as AJAX can gain a competitive advantage via site speed increase, earning customer loyalty and additional revenues.
Refine Your Catalog Look
Refining the look of the catalog will also help convert sales. Large, bold fonts with loud colors don't help. Nor do big ugly clunky buttons. Take a look at what the big boys (target.com, macys.com, homedepot.com) are doing. You don't see big ugly buttons or loud colored fonts there do you?
You don't need them on your site either. You can't always be there to answer your customer's
questions in order to help sell your products, so you must create the best catalog experience possible.
Quality Product Photos
A picture is worth a thousand words! Users need to see, in good detail, the quality of the product he or she will receive. Include zoom tools so users can see the detail, even if you think this is not important. If your product warrants multiple angles or light shots, show them. Your users will reward you with a quick purchase, one less likely to be returned. Find the best competitor out there and make sure your site has better or "as good" pictures as that site.
Calls to Action
Invest in features that will help customers interact with your site and understand your products better. Investment ideas are to go with some leading trends such as expandable interactive images, flash, interactive tours, product videos, live chat with customer service, professional looking slideshows and so on. The idea here is to provide a user an experience not found elsewhere.
Review and Compare Your Pricing
Low prices always attract customers. No matter how products are sold (online or off) your price point matters, especially on the Web where the next store is only a couple of clicks or search queries away. Research your competitors to make sure you can price competitively. If feasible, increase your pricing slightly in order to offer "free shipping," as this tends to convert more shoppers into buyers.
Review the competition's Web sites to make sure your features are better, your content is better, your photos are better. In an online store, the customer must be taken on a unique tour of your products, so you must create the best catalog experience possible.
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