The basic rules of retail don’t change as much as it may seem – getting your product in front of the shopper is key for sales. The decades-long rush to win shelves in brick-and-mortar stores has some basic rules: place products to capture shoppers’ attention, dethrone the competition with interesting product variations and convince the consumer with informative packaging & communication. These strategies have been based on two simple insights: consumers have short (and shorter) attention span and respond better to appealing visual imagery.
eCommerce serves shoppers to whom those insights apply as well. While online, they are very easily distracted, even more by ever-expanding list of new digital touchpoints. And they still pay more attention to visually attractive content. 70% of consumers admit that visually appealing images are important to them when making purchase decisions (MGD Advertising 2019). This is not a surprise, knowing also that over half of all page views gets less than 15 seconds of attention (Chartbeat 2020).
Understanding that shoppers have concrete needs and challenges while navigating through online shops, makes us focus eCommerce strategy on two core tactics: visibility and quality. Visibility makes product easily findable on digital shelves, quality assures that the messaging is perfectly tailored to consumers’ needstates. Capturing shoppers’ attention requires a holistic approach and constant synergy between visibility and quality. And to further prove this point, most recent data reveals that on Amazon, one cannot last without the other.
Products with quality content rank higher in search than those with content of lower quality. What’s more, paid campaigns for products with great content turn out to be more cost-efficient on Amazon.
According to combined research of Salsify, Profitero & Kenshoo, highest-rated content on Amazon had 21 times more conversions that lowest-rated content.
The holy Grail of eCommerce – better visibility in search, can only be achieved with quality. This is why content is a critical component of product’s success on Amazon – it will ensure products to stand out on digital shelf, but also, win shoppers’ trust. This is a true win-win for our digitalized times.
