How to increase average shopping cart value in ecommerce with better product data

Your marketing team may already be analyzing hotspots and testing CTAs to drive better product performance online. However, typical performance metrics are just one part of the ecommerce equation. If you want to drive greater shopping cart value, there’s one more key element to consider: the product catalog.
By crafting more compelling and relevant product data, and using it in more innovative ways, any brand or retailer can keep shoppers more engaged. That means a better product experience and larger shopping cart purchases.
Here are four things you can do with your product data to drive higher cart value.

Provide better on-site recommendations and cross-selling

On-site search engines are responsible for responding to queries on your site. They’re designed to serve the most relevant page, likely a product page in this case, to the user. They also help relate selected products to other offers. For example, you can show shoppers products they may like based on what they’re looking at. By showing products that are deeply relevant, and genuinely interesting, to shoppers, you make it much more likely that they’ll add more products to their cart.

How it works

On-site search systems start by taking a business’s product catalog. This catalog helps them understand the product offering as well as the relationship between those products. In order to pair products accurately, it will then compare data like categories, custom labels, and titles.
With this information, the system can automatically suggest products a shopper is likely to be interested in. This is particularly useful for:

• Surfacing products related to a search query
• Cross-selling and offering compelling purchase recommendations

What to do with your product data:

• Try to leverage as much thorough information as possible, particularly analytics.
• Use custom labels to create groups that go beyond title or category.
• Ensure relevant copy is accurate and consistent; that means titles, categories, and descriptions show clear relations or differences to other products

Keep shipping and stock information (always!) up to date

There is nothing more frustrating than going to buy a product and finding that it’s actually out of stock. However, shoppers who are met with an “out of stock” notice won’t just be skipping on that particular product - they may skip out on several products and never grow their cart size beyond the basic product they came for.
In order to keep shoppers happy with your brand and customer experience, you need to ensure there are no sudden changes to key information like shipping or stock. Two great answers to this problem include: a solution that updates product data frequently enough that it is accurate in real-time; or a complete order management solution.

How it works

Every product data management solution works by fetching product data from a source, so the first option is to leverage a solution that allow users to fetch data using a set schedule, multiple times per day. This is enough to keep levels largely up-to-date without requiring manual work.
The second option is suitable for those who need to integrate with a shop system or manage orders from multiple channels. Order management simply makes it easier to keep product information up-to-date. These connect directly to the source(s) to stay on top of your new orders and update stock levels as they change.

What to do with your product data:

• Schedule product data to be fetched multiple times per day, and preferably upload new data using Delta uploads for maximum efficiency. These only update the information that has changed, rather than sending the whole catalog.
• Work with an order management solution capable of automatically managing your orders across channels.

Test content to pinpoint what really works

Shoppers are complicated. No best practices can tell you with absolute certainty what kind of titles, descriptions, or selections will lead to the most sales. The only way to find out what works best is to test. By A/B testing different attributes, marketers can identify exactly where to focus their efforts in a way that will grow shopping cart value in reality, not just in theory.

How it works

Product data is just like any other data or collateral in the performance marketing toolkit. Treat it like any other attribute that can be tested and optimized. Sometimes the most unexpected variations will perform best.

What to do with your product data:

From custom labels to keywords to descriptions, just about anything can be tested. Here are the tests you’ll want to start with:

• __Product title__: test synonyms of words and inject different product details (like price, category, color) or keywords.
• __Categories__: compare different types of taxonomies, including parent and subcategories. Find out if users are actually looking for your products using different categories.
• __Images__: try different angles and colors and include additional information where possible (price, title, dates, keywords).
• __Custom labels__: focus on using groups that go beyond category. Try arranging products by collection, theme, or season, in particular.

Make product information complete and compelling

Users have unique and complex personal needs. In fact, that user checking out your cat t-shirt isn’t just a simple demographic. They’re a complicated individual with beliefs, expectations about fashion, and ideas about how they want to spend their money. That’s why, even if you have great marketing-tested product copy, you may still be missing some key information.
Gen Z is a great example. No matter how compelling your product title and images are, Gen Z users are more statistically likely to buy a product that is environmentally sustainable. One study found that 72% of Gen Z shoppers will spend more on products and services that are environmentally sustainable.
By adding unique details like this in your product data, you can speak to users on a more personal level. It is much easier to suggest related products, create collections that are compelling and useful, and drive great shopping cart value just by making your product offering more understandable.

What to do with your product data:

Pinpoint product information that may be relevant to your audience—even if it’s not immediately related to the product—and include this data in titles, descriptions, and even images. This can also be used to create custom label groupings.
Popular additional details can cover an array of topics, including:

• Sustainability
• Sizing systems
• Subcultures
• Ethics
• Sociopolitical topics

The last step? Absolutely highest-quality content

No matter what solutions or smart custom labels you put in place, the absolute foundation is high-quality product content. This means copy is not only clean, it’s also optimized for keywords and readability and includes all of the information a shopper could want.

What to do with your product data:

• Include all the details and attributes that a shopper will want. Leave nothing to chance.
• Show off your brand with copy that is consistent and inspires trust.
• Pay special attention to titles, descriptions, and creative.

By providing product data that is high quality, and optimized using all the tips listed above, you can ensure the best possible product experience for every shopper. That means not only higher shopping cart value in ecommerce, but also other benefits like reduced returns, happier shoppers, and maybe even new “true fans” of your brand.