An analysis of effective sales enablement tools available to brands on leading ecommerce websites.
To help brands better understand the key content opportunities available on leading ecommerce websites, Mars UnitedSM Commerce this year began sharing the Digital Shelf Report, a cross-retailer assessment guide for brand success.
Included in the report is an assessment of 13 key Sales Tools, engagement levers that, if utilized (or earned), can amplify the discoverability, shoppability, and convertibility of products sold on the digital shelf.
The following article examines one of those tools: Shoppable Collections, which are available to brands on all eight of the ecommerce websites tracked in the report: Albertsons, Amazon, Best Buy, Gopuff, Instacart, Kroger, Target and Walmart.
As inflation continues to impact spending, many consumers have been switching to different brands, moving into different categories, even shopping different retailers. In response, retailers are trying to get more products into each basket by improving the perceived value of products, whether that’s through inspiration or just easier, more convenient shopping.
Walmart, Target and Amazon use Shoppable Collections to do both, inspiring shoppers to buy in bulk with relevant suggestions or themed collections, then using add-to-cart functionality to simplify the purchase.
In the example above, Walmart uses basic back-end functionality to create a “frequently purchased together” opportunity. Below, Target — which has been using these kinds of tools for a while — takes the inspirational approach with a recipe that lets shoppers add all the necessary ingredients to their cart with a single click.
Amazon, meanwhile, is employing technology that enhances above the fold images. Hotspots within an image expand when clicked to present a digital shelf where every item depicted in the image can be shopped (see below). This is an interesting new functionality explore.
The last example is another one from Target that taps into the retailer’s “#TargetStyle” content feed, which you’ll find across soft goods, apparel, accessories pages, as well as home categories like the example below.
Here, Target is taking user generated content (UGC) and making it shoppable, curating all the showcased items that are available on Target.com. UGC is a great way to inspire shoppers, especially younger generations.
In all these examples, the retailer is using product discovery to drive incremental sales, creating compelling — and shoppable — stories featuring multiple brands and categories. Brands should investigate opportunities like these at all their key retailer partners to better enable sales on the digital shelf.
The information provided in the Digital Shelf Report only scratches the surface of the ecommerce guidance Mars United deliver to our clients. Optimizing the digital shelf demands a blend of art and science in which brands must appeal to shopper preferences while simultaneously adhering to the retailer’s content criteria — using a mixture of deep shopper insights, extensive retailer intelligence, and ecommerce expertise for which Mars United is uniquely suited to provide. If you’d like to learn more, contact Kristin Wall, VP-Ecommerce, at [email protected].
