As an online retailer, it’s a matter of fact that even if you have all the right products, you have a very real problem that needs addressing if shoppers can’t actually locate those products. This is where better online product discovery makes a big difference.
To help move the product discovery process forward, here are our top tips:
Tip 1: Keep Product Data Detailed with the Power of AI
To keep product details healthy and robust, rather than thin and inconsistent, it can be an effective method to deploy AI-powered image recognition in providing an assist.
People each have their own ways of searching for items, and that doesn’t always fit with the cut and dried attributes that may have originally been associated with a product by a merchant or a manufacturer. Humans are more intentional and if they’re looking for a New Year’s Eve dress, then that’s exactly what they’re going to search for. However, they’re not going to have much luck finding their dream dress if that item wasn’t set up and attributed that way.
With the help of AI-powered image recognition, more product attributes can be extracted and the chances of that more exact match (i.e. NYE dress) being found go up. This allows retailers to boost product discovery and conversions.
Brands and retailers who merely take in the generic product attributes provided to them by manufacturers and distributors – and don’t also implement AI that takes the language of the customer into consideration – aren’t going to successfully allow shoppers to discover the products they’re looking for.
Tip 2: Make Items Quick and Easy to Find
In order for a shopper to be able to find what they’re looking for with the least amount of clicks possible, it isn’t going to be quick or easy if the results returned are 10+ pages of irrelevant results. To keep results relevant for shoppers, the results need to match their shopping goals.
By using granular, customer-centered product attribution data and enabling long-tail contextual searches, retailers can easily guide shoppers directly to the items they actually want without the hassle of endless scrolling.
Tip 3: Implement Better Personalization Practices
Quick and easy product discovery not only brings results that are more likely to be relevant, it also can help with better personalized recommendations. In order to show the shopper that you know and understand who they are as an individual, this requires an understanding of not just what they purchased – but why.
When your taxonomy is rich with details from AI, it learns about the customer and can help retailers understand how they engage on a website. This helps to create product recommendations that reflect a customer’s genuine personal preferences, leading to higher conversions.
