Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy
E-commerce sales hit $791.70 billion in 2020, up 32.4 per cent from $598.02 billion in the prior year and the prediction is that online sales will grow yet again in 2021. However, it’s not all good news for some retailers who are simply seeing the cannibalisation of their in-store sales by online. Worse, some retailers saw an outright drop in revenue when their customers didn’t make the shift online during the early days of the pandemic.
These retailers are challenged with creating a similar buying experience in the digital space. They are unable to provide the same user journey across their brick-and-mortar, mobile and desktop stores. However, there is a solution, and it can be implemented in a few short weeks.
Creating a positive user experience starts with critical search functionality to power the online experience. Ensuring that product data is complete and product discovery is effortless is critical, so that a search can answer all the questions a buyer may have. Software that presents the right product at the right time is important and will protect or increase revenue for the retailer.
The search engine must be capable of understanding the intent of complex mobile and desktop searches while processing all available information in order to refine and deliver the most relevant search results. Null search results frustrate consumers, which means the search engine needs to be able to translate and correct misspellings.
Consumers and retailers are both happier when the engine can dynamically reorder product attributes and associated values for any search or browsing path from the shopper so that the highest converting attributes are automatically pushed to the top of the page every time.
Another important feature, personalisation, tracks and leverages individual customer actions across the website to customise each user’s individual experience. Machine learning algorithms surface or suppress products based on brand, style and price preferences, previously purchased items, location and more.
Analytics helps retailers easily understand buyer behaviour once they’ve walked through your virtual front door and allows retailers to continuously improve their metrics.
Additionally, removing all the friction that exists within the online purchase process is critical. Offering same-day delivery or BOPIS (buy online pickup in store) and accepting multiple types of credit mechanisms such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay will easily eliminate common areas of friction.
These easy solutions come from an e-commerce product discovery solution. A far more constly and time-consuming complete re-platform is unnecessary. Look for a company such as GroupBy Inc. that uses API-first micro-services to build on certain elements of the site to remove friction in a fast and agile fashion. Retailers immediately see those benefits in a matter of a couple of weeks over a couple of sprints versus a re-platform which is slower, more complex and a lot more risky.
Join our customers who have experienced GroupBy’s fully cloud-native technology that powers the world’s most relevant and highly converting e-commerce websites, while reducing manual effort. Our SaaS-based product discovery suite provides industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, personalisation, merchandising, SEO and search autocomplete, and is backed by our ongoing commitment to partnering with our clients. We work with retailers such as Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
Learn more about our solutions and how we can grow your online revenues at groupbyinc.com.