Product shapes business

The choice of assortment in an online store determines the size of the market and the sales channels with which to reach the customer. In doing so, the product must be well named, described and photographed. It is the product that is the determining factor for success in online trading.

The choice of a niche or mass product affects marketing tactics and business scale. Mainstream merchandise, sold and bought widely, in similar stores, requires the development of tactics related to expanded sales channels. Although it requires investment, such a product is a sure thing - consumers are looking for it, no need to create a new market or need.

The niche-that is, the sale of, for example, artwork, handicrafts, custom-made goods-requires more image-driven activities. The assortment gives a better chance to create a unique brand, but usually limits the number of sales channels, and in those available, it is also more difficult to reach customers. The size of the niche is determined by the segmentation of the market (age, gender, place of residence, earnings, etc.) e.g. handicrafts are better sold on DaWanda than through AdWords. However, if you succeed, there are better chances to get one of the first positions in the search engine.

<

strong>The name will encourage and the description will make you stand out

Naming and describing products is an important process in which we must take into account whether the product is niche or mass. In popular categories, you need to use names as they are used in the market - by customers and competitors. Models of shoes or TVs are likely to be searched for by name and model only. If a buyer comes to our store - it is worth making the product description stand out. It is worth spending more time on it. This will be appreciated by both the search engine and the customer, if in our description he will find not only the basic information available in other stores, but also, for example, a subjective opinion or an original comment.

Selling in niche industries may require more intuition. If, for example, paintings or handicrafts are unique items, their name and description should also be so. However, there are exceptions. If the wares being sold, for example, are something that can be searched for in a common category, then it makes sense to conform to its standards. So an artist who creates unique works of art can sell them as, for example: communion gifts, baptismal souvenirs, etc. In this way, he combines the originality of the work and its description, and at the same time access to the sales channel on Google Shopping, Allegro, DaWanda or other marketplaces.

Case study part 1

A good example of a store with a niche assortment is Balto. The basis of its offer is... game chews for dogs. The client approached Customer Success with a request to refine the look and functionality of the store. After a conversation and an audit, we determined the needs - the store was thriving, but the owners wanted the homepage to convert better and increase shopping carts.Game chews are definitely a niche commodity, but also subject to the "laws" of the common category, i.e. pet products. Therefore, our activities were not limited to the niche itself, i.e. organic game chews.

Photo aesthetics

A good photo is one that will encourage people to buy. It can come from the manufacturer, but taking a nice photo that is also different from the photos of the competition is a good investment. Especially since Google is gradually transforming the Google Graphics tab to resemble Pinterest, and testing ads in this part of the search engine. Search algorithms are also getting more sophisticated, and by using Google's Cloud Vision API, they search not only for coats, for example, but also for matching shoes on a consumer's query.

Case study part 2

At Balto, we made many changes to the homepage due to the need to optimize it. In particular, graphical elements required changes. We supplemented it with banners with a customer-readable CTA (Call To Action). This simple solution gives quick results.

Merchandise on the e-shelf

The product category is primarily intended to serve the customer and be helpful in searching for a particular commodity. A customer who has reached the so-called "listing" of a category already has a purchase intention, and it is worth taking advantage of this. The most effective in this are:

- clear product names
- clear information on the product card
- well-chosen search filters.

Case study part 3

Within the product card, there were also necessary changes. We removed distracting elements for the customer and highlighted those pieces of information that can speed up checkout. We also highlighted the possibility of free delivery and visibility of related products. These two things often motivate customers to increase their order value.

My product is for everyone

The choice of sales channel depends on the type of product. A common mistake is to assume "my product is for everyone." The implication would be that you need to invest in promotion in every channel, which puts the business at high risk of failure. Why is choosing the right channel so important? Luxury, branded products should be advertised independently of marketplaces, give a sense of exclusivity. For luxury brands, the marketing mix should be based on the 8Ps - Performance, Pedigree, Paucity, Persona, Placement, Public Figure, Pricing. What does this look like in practice?

Example

A gold watch perfectly matching the creation of a TV presenter on a breakfast show, worth two average minimum salaries, coincidentally every now and then in the center of the camera lens, whose presence will be highlighted by the sponsor's banner after the program ends, will advertise better than even the largest marketplace.

Putting them on Allegro would not necessarily improve their sales, and it would certainly reduce elitism, which is quite important in this category. If the product is comparable to others and mass then we will sell it through Allegro, Ceneo, or Google Shopping. If we are building a luxury brand, we need to think carefully about how we will distribute them. Certainly, sales of luxury goods via the Internet are steadily increasing. Until recently, such brands shied away from this distribution channel. However, as data from Deloitte's report "Global Powers of Luxury Goods 2017: The new luxury consumer" shows, in 2017 already one in three transactions in the luxury goods category took place online. The European Union has helped premium brands control the distribution of their products. The Court of Justice of the European Union, in a December 6, 2017 ruling, gave brands the right to block the sale of their luxury goods on marketplaces. This was explained by the ability to take care of their brand image.

Case study part 4

The owner of Balto has already spent some time optimizing the site for search engines, which in the case of niche products is a good solution that will show the site in search engines relatively quickly. It is important to emphasize the active cooperation of the store owner, who, thanks to the recommendation of the Customer Success department, spends more time refining the descriptions of specific products.

Expanding content helps attract expertise in the long run and builds the store's image. The product, of course, shapes the customer's approach - game chews, for example, seem to be an ideal choice for avid hunters. However, Balto also wants to target a different type of customer - combining tradition and modernity, also taking care of safety confirmed by certificates.

The more, the better

The customer likes to have a choice, so most retailers want to have as much merchandise on the shelves as possible. The same is true in e-commerce - the more complete the category, the better. However, it is necessary to organize it so that the customer does not have to browse a dozen screens with products. An internal search engine comes to the rescue here, making it easier to navigate the catalog. If there is a lack of funds for such an improvement, it is worth consciously arranging products in categories. For example, if there are 15 models of televisions on offer - let the ones that are expected to sell most often appear on the first page. Remember that if you decide on "deep" categories - you need to give customers a tool for filtering and sorting. Otherwise, they will not find their way through the maze of goods.

Market monitoring

Many tools allow you to compare websites and product prices online. Regardless of how deep the comparison and alignment of prices with market ones should be, it is useful to know how the run e-store looks against the competition. You can use tools for this:

- tradewatch
- pricepanorama
- spyglass
or simply: check on a price comparison site, allegro, or a competitor's site.

Case study part 5

When working with Balto, it was important to have a strong commitment from the client on the one hand, and on the other hand to emphasize and differentiate between short- and long-term investments. Without understanding, it would be difficult to achieve good results. The client needs to know the rationale behind why certain activities are done.

In the short term, improvements to the homepage and checkout helped - we focused on making sure that customers already hitting the site saw a clear CTA and became more profitable. In parallel, SEO fixes allowed better exposure of the store in search results. Usually, the most difficult part is to convince the client of the content marketing efforts, because their effects are noticeable only in the long run. Much depends in this case on the client - his approach, activity and regularity of the work carried out.

Not everything can be advertised

Choosing certain products means more restrictions on advertising. Some are due to regional legislation - in Poland, for example, alcohol and gambling cannot be advertised, which is possible in many other countries. Sometimes linguistic issues, such as the names of colors - champagne, cognac or pomegranate - determine whether advertising a particular product may pose problems. This is due to the ambiguity of the words used, and from the perspective of a giant advertising company, it is better to blow the whistle.

Their own restrictions on advertising products are put in place by e-commerce service providers like Google. It is worth reading the information they provide, for example, in their FAQs or internal regulations. While remembering that the message about changes in regulations may disappear in an avalanche of daily emails. It is worth logging into your Google Merchant account at least once a year to catch such changes. When everything is going well in a business, Google can spoil it unexpectedly with a change in regulations.