How Digital Shelf Analytics can drive profitability in the eCommerce sector

When a customer enters a physical store, they may or may not know exactly what they’re searching for. It’s possible that they’re seeking a certain product category or a specific brand. They may need to seek assistance from an assistant, or they may just proceed to the section they require and begin comparing products on the shelf.

The digital shelf refers to the way and location in which a brand’s products are presented online. In essence, its the collection of the digital assets and experiences that consumers use to find, compare and shop your product. This includes all different forms of online content available that gives out information about your product to the browser on your own website, marketplaces & other channels. . Most brands and sellers selling online , believe monitoring & optimizing the digital shelf to be an integral element for their  overall eCommerce success Everything from search engines to how customers navigate your website, find your products, and purchase them is covered. Its very crucial for brands to understand why digital shelf is important to them and how to track & optimize it.

Why is the digital shelf so important?

Brands must understand the digital shelf since it has a direct impact on sales, profitability, and brand reputation. For example, reports show that:

90% of users use Amazon for product discovery.

45% of users don’t even scroll past the first and second pages.

Nearly 9 out of 10 read reviews before making a purchase decision.

65% of shoppers look up price comparisons on their mobile devices while shopping in-store.

50% said detailed content is a crucial factor when searching through the digital shelf and making an informed purchase decision.

The above statistics highlight the fact that it is important to have a constant eye on each aspect of your portfolio’s online presence as it can have a significant impact on a customer’s shopping experience.

How can brands win on the digital shelf?

Though it is clear today that data and analytics play a key role in digital success and are essential to intelligent decision making in this increasingly competitive market, it can be a daunting task. To be able to efficiently collect, collate, analyze and derive real action points from the large amount of fragmented data available, is the key differentiator. This is where an effective DSA tool comes into play.  Leading brands with an expanding digital shelf may find it impossible to work without DSA, as manual data compilation becomes too time-consuming, resource-intensive, and slow. The time of an ecommerce manager is better spent on more strategic initiatives.

DSA presents an efficient and scalable alternative for these brands, allowing for rapid growth and expansion.

Furthermore, another benefit is the capability to improve analytical accuracy and, as a result, offers brands insight into their online performance in categories across the digital shelf.

Automated data is free of human error and is regularly updated, giving you a real-time picture of how your products compare to those of your competitors. Because this data is so fluid, it’s much easier to notice trends, track price fluctuations, and make data-driven decisions. Rather than focusing on static text, a good DSA tool provides a stream of accurate data that is more appropriate for the fast-paced nature of digital business.

This increase in analytical accuracy also helps to improve product content precision. DSA tools help in   auditing and measuring product content completion and consistency, ensuring that a brand’s product range is consistent across all digital channels and fulfils defined criteria.

Optimizing your  brand’s digital shelf product content increases conversion rates and improves product discoverability,  ensuring that your products appears in the top of search rankings.

DSA’s facilitates to better support of the company’s digital customers. Digital buyers, unlike those who shop in traditional places, are used to being able to access a wealth of information throughout their purchasing process. When comparing the merits of one product to another, they may take into account a variety of factors such as rating scores, review material, product pictures, product descriptions, promotions, and pricing. Customers no longer have to traipse from store to store to gather this information; instead, they can access it with a single click in the digital world. As a result, they’re quick to become annoyed when data is missing or messaging is inconsistent across platforms.

Accurate product material is essential for gaining digital shopper’s confidence, and it often provides a competitive edge in terms of sales.

When it comes to product listings, digital customers expect predictability. They’re searching for things like consistent standards across multiple sites and an agreement on customer feedback. Any contradiction can cause customers to doubt the information they’ve already read about a brand, thus returning them to square one in their purchasing process.

Digital Shelf Analytics assists businesses in tracking these anomalies and highlighting them as soon as possible. This can assist the brand in being compliant, as well as boost their digital image, making it a perfect strategy to optimise their digital shelf.

In addition to supporting the offline customers, digital shelf analytics has a cross-functional role to perform. Digital channels can be more effective in delivering early signs of product success or market fit for New Product Launches.  Customer feedback and ratings enable a company’s marketing, sales, and commercial teams to react quickly and make improvements in order to provide better product offerings and purchasing experiences.

Finally, DSA provides the ability to track digital performance using fully visualised category data insights. In the manual procedure, information that would have been missed (or only available through purchase) is now available at all times. These in-depth analyses let businesses get a clearer understanding of their entire digital shelf and how it’s operating.

Summing up

Understanding how to use the digital shelf can make or break a company’s online success. Creating a solid digital shelf strategy can result in better product content, better search placement, more traffic to product pages, and higher conversions (i.e., sales).

From eCommerce, consumer relations, and account managers to marketing, research and development, supply chain, and merchandising professionals, the digital shelf has an impact on a complete brand’s ecosystem. As a result, adopting a cohesive approach will ensure that all moving parts operate together effectively.

(The author is Mr. Punit Sindhwani, CEO, Paxcom and the views expressed in this article are his own)