Shoppers today don’t just trust an image of a clothing item from a brand or retailer when they need to buy one. They thoroughly research various websites, explore different clothing materials, compare prices, and analyse many other aspects. Imagine you lose out on a sale just because you did not mention the material your dress is made of and another similar-looking brand won on it. Nightmare!
You see, how important the content and media around your product is? Considering all retailers and brands provide the basic information now, the competition has gone a notch above. You need to give even the tiniest details to the shoppers, and it might influence them big time to take a decision to buy your product. Enhanced content and rich media for your ecommerce store play a crucial role in the success of your business today. They enhance the overall shopping experience for customers and contribute to higher conversion rates, increased engagement, and improved brand perception.
What is rich media?
Rich media refers to digital content that goes beyond simple text and static images, often combining various forms of media such as images, videos, audio, animations, interactive elements, and more. It's designed to engage users in a more immersive and interactive way, enhancing their online experience. Rich media is commonly used in advertising, online presentations, websites, and other digital platforms to create more compelling and dynamic content.
Here's why you need enhanced content and rich media for your eCommerce store
The below survey shows that the top three elements for a great shopping experience are clear product images, product reviews and product descriptions. It’s important to have them all enhanced for a better experience for your buyers because if you won’t, someone else will and boom! You lost your sale.
Source: https://www.marketingcharts.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Namagoo-Elements-Great-Online-Shopping-Experience-May2018.png
- Engagement and Visual Appeal: One of the most important, as the first thing that catches the eye is images or videos. Enhanced content such as high-quality images, videos, animations, and interactive elements captivate visitors' attention and keep them engaged. Visual appeal is especially important in eCommerce, as customers can't physically interact with products before purchase.
- Product Understanding: Rich media allows you to showcase products from different angles, zoom in on details, and demonstrate how they work. This helps customers understand the product better, reducing the uncertainty that often leads to cart abandonment.
- Building Trust: About 86% of consumers were unlikely to make a purchase again with a retailer who provided wrong product information as they took it as a breach of trust. Detailed images, videos, and customer reviews contribute to building trust in your brand and products. When customers can see products up close and hear about others' positive experiences, they are more likely to feel confident in making a purchase.
- Reduced Returns: Enhanced product information and comprehensive visuals, including videos showing products in use, can help set accurate expectations for customers. This can lead to fewer misunderstandings and, subsequently, reduced return rates. According to a study, 40% of consumers returned an online purchase due to poor product content, while more than 90% abandoned their carts out of which 30% contributes to poor product descriptions.
- SEO and Discoverability: Rich media can improve your store's search engine optimization (SEO). High-quality images and videos can be optimized with relevant keywords, making it easier for potential customers to find your products through search engines.
- Social Sharing and Virality: Engaging and shareable content is more likely to be shared on social media platforms, increasing your brand's exposure, and potentially going viral. User-generated content, such as customer reviews with images or videos, can also contribute to this effect. Good product images have a 40% chance of being shared by shoppers on social media. Considering video stats, here are some from a survey:
- 94% of video marketers mentioned that user understanding was facilitated by videos.
- 78% of Video marketers say videos increased sales directly.
- The videos give good returns- as told by 87% of video marketers.
- Video's unwavering support keeps support calls down at 43%.
- Mobile Shopping Experience: Rich media is particularly important for mobile shoppers, who might be viewing your store on smaller screens. High-quality images and videos that load quickly contribute to a smoother mobile shopping experience.
- Storytelling and Branding: Enhanced content allows you to tell a compelling brand story and convey the value of your products. Through videos, images, and interactive elements, you can showcase your brand's personality and ethos, forging a stronger connection with customers.
- Cross-Selling and Upselling: Rich media can be used strategically to showcase related products, accessories, or complementary items. This encourages customers to explore more of your offerings and potentially increase their order value.
- Differentiation from Competitors: Well-curated and informative content sets your eCommerce store apart from competitors. It shows that you're investing in providing a top-notch shopping experience, which can sway customers to choose your store over others.
- Educational Content: Videos, tutorials, and guides can educate customers on how to use your products effectively. This can lead to higher customer satisfaction and reduced post-purchase support inquiries.
How can PIM help to enhance content for your eCommerce store?
A Product Information Management (PIM) system can significantly enhance the content for your eCommerce store by providing a centralized and structured platform to manage and distribute product-related information. Here's how a PIM system can help:
Centralized Data Management
PIM serves as a single source of truth for all product information. It allows you to centralize and organize product data, attributes, descriptions, images, videos, and other rich media assets in one place. It minimises the chance for errors as your data goes to various platforms from one single place.
Enriched Content
PIM systems allow you to add rich media elements such as images, videos, 360-degree views, and interactive presentations to product listings. This enhanced content can engage customers more effectively and provide a better understanding of the products.
Consistent and Accurate Information
PIM ensures consistency and accuracy across all product data, which is crucial for maintaining brand identity and avoiding customer confusion. Also, accurate information about the product helps shoppers make an informed decision and makes it less likely for any returns to take place.
Cross-Sell and Upsell Opportunities
PIM systems can help you identify and promote cross-selling and upselling opportunities by suggesting complementary products or accessories based on the information stored in the system. So, detailed and enhanced content and rich media that is stored in your PIM will allow you to optimise your marketing efforts and give cross-selling and upselling opportunities.
Efficient Updates
PIM enables easy updates and changes to product information. When specifications, pricing, or other details change, you can make updates in the PIM system and have them automatically reflected across all channels and platforms. The hassle of continuously updating product data on multiple sales channels manually makes it highly prone to human error.
Multilingual and Multichannel Support
PIM systems often support multiple languages and various sales channels (e.g., online stores, marketplaces, mobile apps). This ensures that consistent and localized product information is delivered to customers across different touchpoints. The language barrier is a major setback for ecommerce businesses trying to sell abroad but PIM helps in handling that with its above-mentioned capability and offers an enhanced content experience to the shoppers.
Personalization
PIM systems can facilitate personalized product recommendations and content based on customer preferences and behaviours, leading to a more tailored shopping experience.
Optimized SEO
PIM systems can help optimize product descriptions and metadata for search engines, improving your eCommerce store's search engine visibility and driving more organic traffic. So, the better the content, the better reach your products have. As search engines show the best results around a query and take into consideration the quality of media and content alike.
Analytics and Insights
PIM systems can provide valuable insights into how customers interact with your products and content. This data can help you refine your content strategy to another level and make informed decisions in the direction of enhancing your product content (text and rich media) further.
Conclusion
This is an era of content and media where all online shoppers are dependent on it. Even to shop offline, people first look for the products online to narrow down their choices, while the offline visit is all about experiencing their choice physically.
Where the first impression of your products starts with online searches, you need to tap on the opportunity to make it worthwhile. Enhanced content and rich media works wonder and can make shoppers fall in love with your products without even touching them.
So, what’s the wait for? Get to work now!
Read More about PIM:
9 Ways to Conquer Modern Marketplaces With PIM
From Chaos to Control: 11 Signs That Your Business Needs a PIM
Going at Scale: How PIM Can Help You Sell Globally?
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