There are generally three reasons why a shopper visits an eCommerce site – 1) they are actively looking for a specific product, 2) have an idea of what they’re looking for or 3) just “window” browsing. When designing the user experience and the product discovery process, it is important to keep all types of shopper intent in mind.
If shoppers cannot easily find what they are looking for or get overwhelmed by too many options, they are more likely to bounce and buy from your competitors. This is why delivering effective product discovery on your eCommerce site is so critical.
In the simplest terms, product discovery refers to the way shoppers find and explore products across your site. Product discovery happens at each stage of the shopping journey and across different channels and devices.
What are the benefits of effective product discovery for eCommerce websites?
In a crowded market, offering a superior product discovery experience can differentiate your eCommerce site from your competitors and help you stand out.
Overall, great product discovery enhances online customer experiences, drives more sales, and fosters customer loyalty. Here are some ways your eCommerce business will benefit from improving the product discovery process:
- Increase customer engagement: A well-structured product discovery process allows shoppers to easily navigate to relevant products and encourages them to explore new products. When customers can easily find what they are looking for and are more engaged with your site, they are less likely to leave, reducing bounce rates.
- Boost conversion rates: By leveraging solutions to help shoppers easily find what they are looking for, they are more likely to complete a purchase, increasing your conversion rate. Product recommendations, relevant content and social proof, encourages shoppers to view more products and purchase more items, leading to greater conversion rate uplifts.
- Higher AOV and increased sales revenue: By improving product discovery with tools that highlight related products or complementary products, you can encourage shoppers to add more items to their carts or purchase higher-value products, leading to higher AOV and increased sales revenue.
- Better retention and long-term loyalty: When customers have a seamless and personalised shopping experience, they develop a stronger connection with your brand. And they are more likely to return to a site when they know they can easily discover new and relevant products.
- Improved Search Engine Optimisation (SEO): Since enhanced product discovery often involves creating better product descriptions and metadata, it can also improve your site’s search engine rankings, driving more traffic to your site.
How to boost your product discovery process and experience
The first step to improving product discovery on your eCommerce site is understanding your customers and their shopping behaviours. This involves collecting and analysing data on how users interact with your site, what they search for, and the paths they take to discover and find products to buy.
Customer journey mapping exercises, along with site analysis, usability testing and customer feedback etc., will help you gain a thorough understanding of your customers’ discovery process and path-to-purchase.
These valuable insights will help devise a strategy for improving product discovery and delivering the best customer experience possible. While the approach will vary depending on the industry, the most effective product discovery strategies include the following.
Optimise site navigation and search
By enhancing site navigation and search functionality you’ll help shoppers find what they’re looking for quickly, reducing bounce rates and increasing the likelihood of new product discovery that will lead to more sales.
Site navigation essentially provides a map of your website with directions to where to find relevant products. Use shopper insights to ensure that your product categories and navigation are structured in a way that makes sense to your customers and that menus are clear and easy to use.
High-performing eCommerce sites typically have a well-structured navigation, initiative search function, clear categorisation and advanced filter and sorting options.
The search function is also paramount as one of the most used paths to finding products. Effective search functionality includes auto-complete, auto-suggest, spell check, and more. More advanced search also includes visual search results, suggestions and the ability to find visually similar products.
Ensuring that the path to finding relevant products is smooth and enjoyable results in less frustration and higher engagement.
Leverage visual content for engagement
High-quality images, videos, and other interactive content are cornerstones of great customer experiences. Great visual content can also significantly improve product discovery, attracting attention and encouraging exploration of different products.
On the PDP, by offering multiple product images from different angles, 360-degree views and zoom functionality, retailers and brands can help customers get a better understanding of individual products.
Additionally, lifestyle images, videos and user-generated content that showcase products in use create a more dynamic browsing experience that captures their interests and prompts them to discover more.
Some retailers and brands also use virtual quizzes and augmented reality to introduce shoppers to relevant and personalised product recommendations.
Overall, rich visual content not only draws attention, but also aids in more accurate and efficient product searches, improving the overall shopping experience.
Enhance product descriptions and product detail pages
Along with high-quality visual content, detailed and compelling product descriptions on the PDP can greatly enhance product discovery. Providing shoppers with the information they need to make informed decisions, well-written descriptions highlighting key features, benefits, and specifications can help them better assess if a product meets their needs.
Incorporating user-generated content, such as reviews or photos of real customers using your products on the product detail page, makes the discovery process more relatable and authentic.
Personalised product recommendations, complementary products, bundling and “shop the look” functionality further enhance the PDP experience and encourage shoppers to explore more products.
Harness the power of social proof
Real-time social proof messages and attribute messaging that highlight product popularity, customer purchases, or trending items can draw attention to different products and encourage shoppers to explore. By displaying relevant social proof messages at the time in the shopping journey, you can attract shopper attention and guide them to discovering more products.
Retailers like Revolve, GoPro and Living Spaces use social proof messaging to help shoppers navigate busy list pages, enhance product detail pages by highlighting bestsellers and trending products, and showcase relevant product details with attribute messaging. Attribute messaging with clickable links can further enhance product discovery by helping shoppers easily navigate to products with relevant features.
How Taggstar can help boost product discovery on your eCommerce website!
In a brick-and-mortar environment, shoppers can easily get assistance from a store associate to help find products, but when shopping online they rely on product information, merchandising and online product discovery tools to guide them.
Digital product discovery is a critical part of the customer experience – it is directly tied to attracting and retaining customers and driving sales growth. Going beyond traditional search functionality, effective product discovery includes navigation, categorisation, content, merchandising and social proof.
Contact us to learn how leading retailers and brands across industries leverage social proof and attribute messaging to enhance product discovery, helping shoppers navigate and explore more products while boosting your online sales revenue.
