Basics tips for optimizing your Product Content on eCommerce

In eCommerce, one of the great lessons of the Covid pandemic has to do with the shopping experience: in the past two years, shoppers have increased their demand for information from brands before their purchase decision (both online and offline). 

The users expect to receive a personalized shopping experience rich in details. To achieve this goal, brands have a very powerful tool. Product content empowers buyers with all the information they need to make a conscious decision. 

Product information is, simply, the text, images, and other “content” that a brand or retailer provides to describe its products. This includes names, prices, images, dimensions, descriptions, and anything else that further helps consumers to understand the items they are viewing.

There are some things that eCommerce managers and brands sometimes cannot “control” of their product online (like prices or reviews) but others are a direct result of the content that’s submitted to retailers. 

Before listing a product, it is recommended that the product information is fully optimized. 

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The 4 basics of Product Content Information

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Product Titles

The purpose of the title is to hint shoppers what your product is about. Next to product images, this is generally the shopper’s first contact with our item.

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‍Product Images

Pictures, videos and other images are the visible “face” of our products online. Like when shoppers see products on the physical shelf, the presentation of our products online needs to be appealing.  

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Product Descriptions  

The product description provides key descriptive features such as size, color, and size packs. It gives a little more information on what the shopper can read already on the product title and image. 

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‍Search keywords

These are the keywords your average shopper will type in the search bar of a retailer looking for a specific product or brand they want to acquire or get information on.

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Tips for optimizing your Product Content basics

There are differences across the different retailers regarding what to prioritize on these 4 aspects of the Product Content. Without being exhaustive, the following basic tips can be applied to all of them. 

1. Product titles

Titles should be accurate, descriptive, and concise. A customer should be able to discern what the product type is about, along with key product attributes such as the brand, color, size and quantity. Also is important that, as much as possible, it resembles the user searches for.

• An ideal product name should easily identify the brand, size, format and personalized name of the item.
• Avoid using too-long titles that can scare the shoppers: between 40 and 80 characters is more than enough for most retailers.
• Include the most relevant keyword in your title. 
• Avoid empty or generic words to describe your products.
• Use different title versions for the same product according to the requirements and needs of each retailer.

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2. Product Images

High-quality and personalized graphic content (like photographs or videos) are very powerful elements to increase our brand’s sales conversion rate.

It is also a type of content in high demand: according to Hubspot, 54% of people want marketers to produce more video content for their products.

• There should be at least one updated image on your Product Detail Page.
• The main image should be on a pure white background and there should have 2-5 alternative images (on retailers that allow it, like Amazon) to highlight product features, product in use, and product details/textures.
• Make sure the retailer is not using outdated photographs (like old product presentations or with old branding).
• Use the secondary images and videos to show the added value of our products and the different versions that we offer (dimensions, color, power…)
• High-resolution images convey confidence in our brand and our products. Images should be high-quality so the shopper can zoom in.

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3. Product Descriptions

Consumers crave details when they shop online, so you should provide key descriptive features such as ingredients, size, color, and size packs on your descriptions.

• Focus on benefits and use persuasive language. 
• Keep bullets concise. Today’s price- and health-conscious consumers want to know what’s in your products, but that doesn’t mean you should rely on lengthy text to engage them. 
• Use each bullet to detail nutritional information, highlight ingredients, and spell out your product’s unique selling points. 
• It is recommended to keep bullets to <100 characters.

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4. Search Keywords

Research what terms shoppers use to find products like ours. Also, find out which is the most suitable term or category to classify them.

• Use keywords in the title and descriptions to capture search terms that relate to the product.
• Use your categories and subcategories as keywords. 
• Brands should have a keyword strategy for each of their products.
• Use hidden keywords in the detail page if the retailer allows it (like Amazon)

Summary

eCommerce managers have realized how difficult it is to monitor (and then optimize) their product titles, images, and descriptions with the proper keywords, across the different channels and retailers to sell their products.

It would take a tremendous amount of effort and time to manually check a brand’s portfolio product on each retailer every day. Thatʼs the reason why Digital Shelf Monitoring platforms are today’s essential tools to achieve a good optimization of our product information. Learn how we can help you keep your Product Content in shape.