A Seamless Product Experience Can Make Or Break Sales

The shopping experience today is very different than what it used to be. Because customers can search and shop for products on many different sites – whether it be a company’s website, a google shopping search, Amazon, or any of the other marketplaces – all touch-points need to provide a uniform, yet optimized, customer experience.

A whitepaper by Akeneo, a SaaS-based product information management company, outlined four key points to ensuring a consistent product experience – accurate product descriptions, precise technical specifications, easy-to-understand use information, and visual assets.

With these four points in mind, retailers need a comprehensive strategy to ensure their product story across all owned and unowned channels delivers a seamless, consistent customer experience.

“For shoppers, the first touchpoint they have with a brand or retailer is the product and the information about it. Whether it’s from a search engine results page on Amazon, an ad they saw, browsing a store in-person, viewing a social media post, or landing on the page for the product itself, that first experience determines whether a shopper is intrigued enough to continue discovering and shopping. Therefore, no great customer experience can exist without a world-class product experience,” says Ali Hanyaloglu, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Akeneo.

This seamless experience can lead to brand recognition, revenue growth, and more satisfied and loyal customers regardless of where they choose to shop.

Accurate Product Descriptions

Product descriptions should be detailed, accurate, and as descriptive as possible, keeping in mind that other than product images, this description is all potential buyers have to go by to persuade them to make a purchase.

The description essentially replaces the experience shoppers would have interacting with a salesperson – making it critical to closing the sale. Very specific product information is a must, including features, benefits, materials used, exact measurements, and any other useful information. Product descriptions should also be A/B tested to see which version of the product page outperforms the other.

In e-commerce, accurate descriptions build trust with consumers because the products meet their expectations once they arrive. On the other hand, inaccurate descriptions can not only end up increasing returns, but also lose customers trust, which can often be irreversible, as those customers will be reluctant to come back to the brand to try it a second time.

In addition, detailed product descriptions can increase traffic through search engine optimization (SEO), as relevant keywords help search engines find and rank product pages.

Visual Assets

According to Statista, “Video marketing has become one of the most popular and effective ways of capturing the attention of audiences across the globe.”

Visual assets are crucial, including both photos and videos. Consumers retain 95% of a message when they watch it in a video compared to 10% when reading it in text. With video consumption at an all time high, including videos on product pages should be prioritized.

Rather than going to malls or window shopping, potential customers are shopping from images online – so these images need to speak to the customer. This can be achieved in many ways, such as showcasing lifestyle images, highlighting features of a product, including 360-degree images, or sharing user-generated content showing product in the real world.

Stunning visual assets also encourage people to share products on social media, which is essentially free word-of-mouth marketing.

Consumer Loyalty

Potential customers need to view professional images, watch how-to videos that highlight features and benefits, and read product descriptions that convince them of the value of the product.

According to data from a Yotpo survey, 55.3% of consumers are loyal to a brand because they love the product. This love for a product begins with the desire and decision to make a purchase, and is solidified when that product meets expectations. And 51.3% of consumers say that poor product quality is the number one reason why a brand would lose a loyal customer.

An engaging product experience leads to increased sales, building positive customer relationships, and can turn regular shoppers into brand advocates.