A handbook to e-commerce success discusses building a robust online store, adding a product, running social media campaigns, driving traffic, and generating sales. These stereotyped handbooks often overlook important steps like customer journey mapping, buyer persona creation, catalog management, and the most important catalog optimization.

It is the art of delivering the same product or service in a better way to customers that separates successful e-commerce stores from the crowd. To ensure higher conversion, better sale, and low return, online stores need to look at the challenges first and then the solution.

Why Conversion on E-commerce Platforms are So Low?

2-3% is the average conversion rate for most of the new platforms while leading platforms average at 8-9%. Conversion continues to be a bigger problem for online stores and it needs immediate attention because it is one true measure of online success. Players are relying on a varied medium like search engines and social media for driving traffic but it is of no use if customers are not buying products.

Some of the top reasons why customers leave in the middle include

• Slow product discovery
• Less information related to the product
• Lack of quality images
• Proper categorization
• Slow site speed
• Irrelevant product recommendation or comparison chart
• Misplaced attribute values
• Brand interference

How Catalog Management can help E-commerce Players Improve Conversion?

Well, let’s go through the journey of a customer on an online store.

Step 1: The journey starts with an online search or social media ad.

Step 2: The customer starts looking for a product on the platform

Step 3: Once found the product, the customer clicks on it to view details

Step 4: Customer goes through the product description and product images for a better understanding

Step 5: Rely on UGC (photo and video reviews) for clearing doubts

Step 6: Comparing similar product from other brands listed under the “Similar Products” tab

Step 7: Adding the correct product to the cart

Step 8: Filling the requisite detail for checkout

Step 9: Payment and confirmation

In the illustrated customer journey, there are multiple points where customers can run into challenges and leave, which will bring the conversion rate down. Also, every time the cart abandonment rate goes up, conversion rates go down. Fixing cart abandonment can help online stores improve conversion rates.

Challenges an online shopper will eventually face includes

• Failing to discover the right product faster
• Running into fake or imitated products that are ranking for branded keywords
• Lack of information to facilitate better decision making
• Irrelevant products ranking in similar product tabs
• Lack of proper labeling related to certifications

How Catalog Management can help overcome These Challenges? 

Professional catalog management services include a wide array of processes that guarantee higher conversion by securing varied touchpoints and offering quality content at all junctures of the customer’s journey.

Catalog management generally includes of

• Catalog creation
• Category definition
• Product description writing
• Product photography
• Catalog quality check
• Catalog enrichment

Improve Product Discovery with Catalog Enrichment: Customers are not willing to continue their journey with stores that fail to facilitate faster product discovery. Amazon has aced its product discovery game and now it is the most preferred platform for finding new products. By investing in catalog enrichment, online stores can offer better product discovery and let customers place orders with great ease and grace.

Here’s how catalog enrichment works: In catalog enrichment, e-commerce professionals visit varied catalogs looking for misplaced or missing attribute values. When they find misplaced attribute values they correct it, similarly they add values to the missing places.

Example: If a wristwatch is waterproof then an e-commerce professional will put the “Yes” value in front of the “waterproof” attribute.

Benefits of Catalog Enrichment

• Helps the on-site search engine identify genuine products
• Improves the quality of search results
• Ensures all brand interferences are removed
• Helps with a theme-based bucketing to facilitate the easier shopping experience

Reduce Returns with Catalog Quality Check

Marketplaces identify products that receive maximum return requests and then run catalog quality checks on them. Such an intricate process ensures that all challenges are weeded out of the system and the return requests go down. Catalog quality checks help in controlling return requests because

• 22% of all returns occur because wrong products were delivered
• 24% of returns occur because products look different in real life
• While 23% of returns occur due to the delivery of fake or imitated products

How Catalog Quality Check helps in minimizing return: When catalog executives traverse through the catalog details, they look for errors and wrongly entered details. They match the product from the attribute values mentioned and ensure all wrong information is removed. This intricate process of catalog quality check ensures all fake or wrong information is removed, which then helps users make an informed decision.

Other benefits of catalog quality checks include

• Identification and removal of fake products
• Error-free catalog
• High-quality images with no graphic content
• Images from varied angles facilitating easier identification

Facilitate Better Decision Making with Content Creation & Writing: Writing creative ad copy is an art, often highlighting the right feature or USP can convince users to purchase while ignoring the smallest detail can piss off customers. Users today want to read all about the product before investing their money on it.

The process of content writing also involves creating a chart comparison and highlighting how a particular product is superior to its contemporaries. Such ardent comparison charts help customers identify the right product.

Other benefits of quality content creation and writing services include

• The accurate categorization that ensures improved search results
• More content with distributed keywords guarantees higher search engine rankings
• Brings in free traffic from search engines
• Helps online stores gain quality backlinks

Final Thoughts

Low on-site conversion nulls and voids the purpose of running an online store. Marketplace owners need to look inside to identify challenges and their solutions. External factors like competitor pricing and faster delivery can be dealt with later once the basics are fixed. With catalog management, marketplaces can guarantee their sellers a worthy chance of reaching millions of people.

Fix the nitty-gritty of catalog management mentioned here and you can build an online store that is loved by everyone including customers and search engines.