Conventional wisdom (and Google data[1]) says that content that appears “above-the-fold” on a web page is almost twice as likely to be seen than content that the user must scroll to see. Experienced online retailers well understand the importance of a product being placed above-the-fold and its impact on business results. The question for merchandisers is how to best use those valuable above-the-fold pixels to maximize conversion rate and cart value. This question is particularly hard to answer for new products with which a retailer has no sales history.

In order to make this question easier to answer, SLI Systems has recently launched new Enhanced Product Impact Testing functionality that allows merchandisers to quickly assess how new products will affect sales. To do this the SLI Product Discovery Platform allows merchandisers to artificially “boost” new products on a search results page to a position that they wouldn’t normally achieve to see how shoppers react to them. Historically, Product Impact Testing has looked at the “age” of products and moved recently added products further up towards the top of the results. The position of new products is determined by a combination of the boost and learning score, but the exact placement of any given new product or group of products could not be determined in advance.

Enhanced Product Impact Testing Boosting is a smarter way to define a product as “new” and provides more control over the position in the result set of where the new products will appear.

• Defining new products: A product is determined to be new based on the number of times it has been seen by shoppers. Once it reaches a certain threshold, it will no longer be considered as new and Product Impact Testing boosting will no longer be applied. The learning score (or other ranking criteria) will determine its position from then on.
• Position: Enhanced Product Impact Testing Boosting offers more control over the positioning of new products and defines available location blocks that products can occupy within the result set above the fold. The actual position of new products can change over time.  If more new products exist than available slots, a random selection of new products is shown within the slots available for new products.

The image below shows how this functionality might work on a sample product results page:

While Enhanced Impact Testing is most frequently used by apparel retailers when they post new seasonal collections, it also has great applicability to specialty retailers that depend upon repeat purchases from their most loyal customers. As long-term customers frequently already own a broad selection of a retailer’s standard merchandise, the very best way to get them to convert again is to make sure they have visibility on new items or categories of items as they appear in a store. Thus, if you’re selling archery equipment to past customers that already have a half dozen bows, lots of arrows, and a selection of targets, a retailer would want to boost new accessories, seasonal clothing items, or new technology upgrades.

[1]https://think.storage.googleapis.com/docs/the-importance-of-being-seen_study.pdf

Product filters or “facets” are one of the most commonly used tools that online shoppers use to find specific products or discover products they might want based on product attributes such as color, brand, size, etc. Effectively managing facets to accelerate the path to purchase, however, is something of an art. Getting it right can have a dramatic impact on conversion and cart value. Getting it wrong can literally drive shoppers away in frustration. Consequently, care is required in deciding which facet options to show to which shoppers and how to manage those options during any given shopping session.

SLI now offers two complimentary approaches to managing facets to maximize conversion rates and average order values. The first approach completely automates the process of managing how facets are presented and prioritized while the second offers merchandising teams the ability to hand tune their facet presentation based upon their unique knowledge of their product catalog and target customers. This blended automated/manual approach provides merchandisers the “best-of-both worlds” by leveraging automated machine learning while also providing very granular control of search and navigation pages.

As an example of the kind of issues SLI facet management tools address, consider the page on the right. This (artificially generated) page shows all 21 of the facet categories in use by a UK based seller of light fixtures, bulbs, switches, and accessories.

Obviously if they presented all 21 with each product search results page they would overwhelm their shoppers and probably drive many away. The question is which facets should they present on which pages and in what order should they appear?  At SLI we know from long experience that answering these questions correctly can have a dramatic impact on the results achieved by online retailers.

The easiest and most automated approach to answering these questions is to leverage the recently announced Smarter Facet functionality included in the SLI Product Discovery Suite. Smarter Facets automatically calculates optimum facet presentation based upon the behavior of previous shoppers on a store and which facets historically have the most impact on purchase behavior.

For online retailers with larger merchandising teams, SLI also offers Facet Merchandising Controls to allow retailers to boost, suppress, or even hide various product attributes (aka facet topics) based on shopper behavior. These new facet control features allow merchandisers to manually tune filters based upon their business objectives and unique shopper behavior patterns.

Thus, if a shopper searches for “fixtures” on our example lighting site, the results page (left) displayed only shows 6 of the 21 facets we know have historically impacted purchases based on that search term. SLI automatically displays 6-8 of the most relevant facets allowing the shopper to select the refinements that make the most sense to them.

Manual facet control is executed with a modern graphical drag’n’drop console shown below. When used in conjunction with the Results Tuning Console, it gives merchandisers very granular control of how and when facets affect product presentation to shoppers.

So, which of these two facet control tools should a thoughtful merchandiser use and when? The table below provides guidance on this question and if you have further questions, please do reach out to your SLI Customer Success Manager.

Most of us can’t imagine life without our mobile phones. From a podcast on our daily commute to seeing who’s at the door when we’re not at home to last-minute holiday shopping, smartphones touch almost every aspect of daily life. Including how we go online. Since 2015, more people access the internet via mobile as compared to desktop or tablet, and in some locations use mobile at four times the rate of fixed access.

Yet many e-commerce companies still don’t give mobile equal treatment.   

Not for long. As consumer trust in mobile shopping rises, faster checkout and payment options become available, and optimization increases, mobile commerce is poised to take center stage. In fact, a recent study by Business Insider Intelligence reports that by 2021, mobile commerce will catch up to e-commerce, accounting for about 45% of sales.

It’s time to give mobile commerce a seat at the table.

So how are e-commerce professionals preparing for increased mobile commerce? SLI Systems asked qualified retailers about it for our H1 2018 E-commerce Performance Indicators and Confidence (EPIC) Report. The results reveal considerable investment in mobile and high expectations for mobile-related revenue. Ninety-one percent of those surveyed report either maintaining (50%) their 2017 financial commitment or increasing (41%) their monetary investment this year, and almost all expect maintained or increased revenue.

It’s clear that when it comes to small-screen transactions, digital retailers are optimistic.

With only 1% of those surveyed foreseeing a drop in mobile revenue, e-commerce retailers are upbeat about growing consumer confidence in mobile site and app transactions. Eighty-one percent of retailers queried expect overall revenue increases from mobile sites and apps. And more retailers are expecting growth over 21% in the first quarter of 2018 compared to Q3 2017.

Investment in mobile is happening worldwide.

A look at the three most-represented regions in SLI’s EPIC Report shows close alignment in increased investments: 38% for the U.S., 41% for the UK, and 40% for the Australia-New Zealand region. And worldwide, more than half of those surveyed (54%) report an increase in the number of mobile initiatives and projects for 2018 compared with 2017, indicating retailers continue to anticipate consumer confidence in mobile site and app transactions will grow.

But regions vary in how they expect small-screen revenue growth to occur.

While globally retailers agree mobile is set to grow, there are geographic differences in predicted rates of growth. For example, when it comes to larger scale growth (over 21%), retailers from Australia and New Zealand are the most aggressive with 32% predicting larger revenue jumps for mobile site and app transactions. By contrast, 55% of U.S. respondents predict modest growth of 1-10% while that number remains closer to one-third in the UK and AU-NZ regions (35% and 32%, respectively).

Some industries are more focused on mobile than others.

SLI cross tabulated by industry to find out where retailers expect mobile to boom and where it will grow at a slower pace. Housewares / Home Furnishings leads the way in mobile investment with 65% reporting an increase related to mobile. Only 22% from Sporting Goods, by contrast, make similar plans. Representatives from Food and Beverage expect the biggest jump in small-screen revenue with 95% of respondents predicting an increase, while retailers from Sporting Goods and Media / Publishing were the least optimistic of the top five industries, with 78% and 63%, respectively, predicting an overall mobile site and app revenue increase.   

Digital retailers can’t afford to ignore mobile commerce.

It’s clear that mobile will play a large role in the future of digital commerce. What was once e-commerce’s biggest challenge is quickly becoming it’s largest asset. And the rapid growth predicted for mobile commerce means retailers need to prepare now or face getting left behind.   

For more on the latest trends in mobile commerce initiatives and revenue, click here to download the H1 2018 EPIC Report.

The SLI Reporting Console provides merchandisers with more than 100 metrics, pre-built reports, and an easy-to-use drag and drop interface to create custom reports. These analytics provide the detailed activity and revenue metrics required to understand customer behavior and take action to improve the site search experience. Analytics also provide visibility into the metrics used to calculate billing and assist in budgeting and assess return on investment. Earlier this month SLI Systems announced a suite of new analytics and reporting features that give our customers even more visibility of their shopper’s behavior. The newly launched functionality includes:

New Phrase Metrics

A new suite of top search phrase metrics and updates to our metrics give merchandisers more useful, actionable analytics including:
• Search phrase metrics for device types (mobile and desktop)
• Metrics that focus on search visitors
• Consistency in the way activity is counted across all metrics
• Metrics that report how many shoppers follow which redirects
Impact: The new metrics help merchandisers to understand more about how shoppers engage with their online stores. They can access data about product searches, search terms with poor results and high exit rates, and search performance and trends over time for any phrase. Merchandisers can also see the differences between how mobile and desktop users engage with a site. This information can be used to modify the shopping and mobile device experience, assess the impacts of merchandising activity, or identify opportunities to better meet shoppers’ needs.

Spider Free Metrics

Spider and bot activity can now be removed from the SLI Commerce Console reports using a combination of the International IAB/ABC Spiders & Bots List and user behavior analytics.
Impact: This new functionality will allow your merchandising team to focus their analysis and make decisions based on real user behaviour not malicious bot activity.

New Metrics for Learning Navigation, Site Champion, Learning Search and Log Data

New metrics are available and pre-existing metrics and reports have been enhanced.
Impact: New metrics increase the reporting coverage and level of detail available about how visitors engage with Learning Navigation and Learning Search. Merchandisers can also assess overall traffic with new details about which search engines crawl the site and which produce the most referrals.

This morning, we announced several enhancements to our SLI Product Discovery Suite^TM – all designed to help retailers drive greater online success. Which retailers are looking to drive more online revenue this year? According to a survey of almost 300 e-commerce professionals – and as reported in Inside Retail— 91% are. Read more about ecommerce growth trends in SLI’s just-published E-commerce Performance Indicators & Confidence Report.

Therefore, if you are in the 91% – or if you’re not, but would like to be – today’s product update is relevant for you. We’ve focused on enhancing the analytics, metrics and merchandising tools retailers need to improve both conversion rates and average order value. New elements include:

• Improved Product Filtering that allows retailers to boost, suppress, or even hide various product attribute variables based on shopper behavior. These new facet control features allow merchandisers to set up automated filtering rules based on SLI’s industry-leading machine learning and/or to manually tune filters based upon their business objectives and unique shopper behavior patterns. This blended automated/manual approach provides merchandisers with the “best-of-both worlds” by leveraging automated machine learning while also providing very granular control of search and navigation pages.
• Upgraded Metrics and Analytics that includes new reports on top trending search phrases, desktop vs. mobile search trends, and the dreaded no-results phrases. The new metrics and analytics focus on insights and actionable information to help retailers increase revenue and average order value. The new reports also filter out spider/bot-generated searches. We also now provide global reporting and merchandising functionality for online retailers running multiple sites. New global reporting provides separate, as well as aggregate, reports on all key operating metrics. New merchandising functionality enables shopper behavior learned across individual stores to be applied to multiple sites.
• Merchandising Tools that include Product Impact Testing and Analytics allow retailers to place new or potentially high-impact products “above the fold” to promote visibility and accelerate learning of shopper reaction to them. Included in this update is support for SLI Enhanced Search Personalization^TM (ESP) for our customers integrated using the SLI API. There are also new shopper segmentation tools that allow promotions and search results to be segmented based on geography, shopper attributes, and/or device.

On average SLI customers see 70% better shopper conversion and almost double the average order value compared with industry averages. With these new product enhancements, we expect that advantage to continue to grow. These new features are, however, just the tip of the iceberg of the new features we’ll be adding to the SLI Product Discovery Suite over the course of the next year.

For more information on these product enhancements, please visit our Merchandising and Analytics web pages. If you’d like to be notified of the upcoming announcements or learn more about how SLI Systems can improve online retail business results, please get in touch.

In today’s e-commerce landscape, setting your products apart from the competition is vital to creating brand awareness and loyalty. Using a platform that your e-commerce merchandising team can leverage to spread product awareness will ultimately increase your sales and bottom line.

E-commerce merchandising today is about more than simply showcasing specific items. It should incorporate a broad social media campaign to access larger pools of prospective buyers. Additionally, it requires having the right tools to turn prospective buyers into customers, and customers into loyal, repeat shoppers.

This article will examine how merchandising has evolved and give you the information you need to effectively merchandise your products in the digital age.

Leverage Social Media to Create Awareness and Drive Traffic

The social selling of goods and services continues to be a growing trend that you need to capitalize on. Using social media to showcase your products is becoming one of the dominant methods through which your products can be marketed to potential customers.

The vast reach of social media allows you to showcase your products to more customers than ever before. Savvy e-commerce companies use social media to generate buzz around their products drive traffic to their sites. Social media allows you to generate brand awareness and reach untapped markets and cross-generational divides with your products.

Through effective social selling, your merchandising team can turn that awareness into increased traffic, higher sales, and greater brand loyalty. Ensure your merchandising team has the tools they need to create a strong social media presence. Doing so will lay the groundwork for continued growth in social selling, and allow you to adapt to changes in how social media is used by future generations.

Curate Your Products and Your Brand

E-commerce merchandising today is more far-reaching than simply placing popular items above-the-fold on your homepage or emails. Merchandising today must provide context for those products through intelligent curation.

Today’s best curating decisions are based on your unique site visitors’ behavior. But most merchandising teams don’t have the bandwidth to consistently pull customer data and manually curate item by item. That’s where automated merchandising solutions are changing the playing field. AI-powered product discovery solutions learn from customer behavior to automatically order search and navigation results based on popularity and even seasonality. Yet they won’t remove the power of the merchandiser, who can still easily curate, promote and move products with drag-and-drop merchandising controls and SEO-friendly URLs.

Curation is about more than showcasing a specific product. It is also an avenue through which you can, over time, define and sell the uniqueness of your brand. Cultivating brand loyalty will ensure a greater success rate in converting one-time purchasers to repeat customers. Think about what makes your company unique, and leverage those ideas as the framework through which you curate your specific products.

Harness the Power of User-Generated Content

User-generated content, such as ratings, reviews and customer images or videos increase sales by increasing engagement and shopper confidence.

Beyond merchandising onsite, user-generated content can also deliver powerful SEO benefits to increase your traffic from search engines. As users provide unique content for your product detail pages, their unique terms boost your rankings and provide social proof for other shoppers, making them more likely to convert.

Market to the Individual

Customers today expect a customized online shopping experience. E-commerce merchandising is an often overlooked, yet crucial, aspect of creating a personalized shopping experience for your customers. Use intelligent product recommendations to drive sales by relying on information about specific customers and their preferences.

Individualized merchandising requires a platform that can filter through shopping patterns, search history, and past purchases in real-time to generate product recommendations. In the past, your merchandising team had to do this by hand. Now, with a machine-driven e-commerce solutions, customizing your customer’s experience can be accomplished quickly and accurately.

Meeting your customer’s desire for a personalized shopping experience will ultimately result in higher AOV and a notable increase to your bottom line.

Incorporate Merchandising into your Site Design

Every aspect of your site design should be designed to maximize your merchandising. This ensures the products that you want to sell, and that customers want to buy, are always easy to find. Use a platform that allows your merchandising team to create bespoke landing pages to drive sales to promoted products.

Banners that incorporate customers’ past search queries or product views can also be used by your marketing team to further customize an individual’s shopping experience. Remember that merchandising is as much about the customer as it is about the products you are promoting.  Customers today expect to have a personalized, aesthetically pleasing user experience. Meeting these expectations is critical to your success.

Improve your e-commerce merchandising by downloading our white paper 16 Merchandising Strategies to Drive Online Revenue.