When it comes to online retail, images can make or break a sale. In this article, Rob Tarrant at Brandbank, discusses the difficulties faced by retailers and suppliers when updating product information and imagery on websites.
Recent reports show that a massive £2.8 billion was spent online over Christmas. This shouldn’t come as that much of a surprise. We all know that Britain is a world leader in eCommerce. Online sales in the UK represent a third of all online shopping in Europe (CRR research) and is constantly on the increase.
As we also know though, with this increase, customers’ expectations have become steadily more demanding. Once the January sales have subsided we will be entering the time of year which is traditionally the most quite for eCommerce, so you can bet your right arm that suppliers will do everything humanly possible to make sure that their products are in stock with the major retailers.
However would it surprise you to hear that many are unable to update their product imagery, video and data on the retailers’ websites? Hardly anyone nowadays will buy a product online if there’s a poor, or worse, no accompanying image. Especially on a major retailers’ website where there will, more than likely, be a number of other suppliers’ competitors.
The high street tends to be the priority and sometimes the importance of retail imaging and cross-retailer data management is overlooked by brands focusing on more traditional, offline shopping. Given the eCommerce market is booming, it is vital that retailers concentrate on making the online purchasing experience as simple and effective as possible. In our experience product sales can increase by anything from 40 to 200 percent by having current, high-quality images and product information. A retail website effectively acts as a shop front, so presentation and information is essential.
There is the potential to do so much more online than on the high street as retailers and suppliers aren’t restricted by the same in-store constraints. Multimedia features, additional product information, images, customer reviews and videos are all devices which should be used by brands to help push their products.
The difficulty is that, as suppliers bring out new lines and as products change, this information needs to be constantly updated, to ensure it is correct and of the highest quality. Throw in the added problem of ensuring it is available in the correct format, specific to the different retailer websites, and you’ve got a bit of a headache on your hands. This is especially true if you’re a major supplier with thousands of products, or a smaller one with limited IT systems.
The bottom line is, retailers just don’t have the time to chase all of their suppliers for this data – Tesco, for example, stocks around 30,000 products from around 3,000 suppliers. In the most basic terms, the man hours required to continually contact every single supplier for every single product and every single image, would be unworkable. So the onus really is on the suppliers themselves. Whilst it is a bit of a logistical nightmare, it can be tackled by putting in place efficiency processes.
Suppliers will need to consider the following:
1. Be sure to provide multiple images and specifications for each product and retailer
2. Be prepared to update existing product images and data with all retailers when the products develop or change
3. A CRM system will need to be implemented to handle updates of this nature
4. A monitoring system will need to be in place to ensure consistent images and data across online platforms
With more people than ever doing their shopping online, retailers and suppliers need to make sure that their online product displays are as high quality and informative as their offline ones. To skimp on this would be the equivalent of providing bashed up product packaging with no information, to put on the shelves of your local Asda!
By Rob Tarrant
Managing Director
Brandbank
www.brandbank.com
