The Ultimate Guide to Mastering the Digital Shelf

When you walk into retailer stores like Target or Walmart, they might not know what they are looking for, exactly. But they do have a particular product category they plan to browse in, or specific brands or products needed. Other times, they would ask sales associates for help, or look for the section they’re interested in, comparing the products they see on shelves. 

Think of digital marketing as how one handles a physical store. When consumers look around the aisles of their local store, there are a ton of products calling out to them. The ones that have the best placement, usually those by the register or eye level on shelves, will most likely catch attention. The perceptions of quality and market leadership are influenced by positioning as well, with brands paying for that. 

However, while brands are investing up to $500 billion yearly for better positioning in physical stores, consumers are now looking into the online world for researching, discovering, and purchasing products throughout the day and using different devices. 

The numbers prove it! 84% of smartphone shoppers now use their mobile phones to help them shop when in physical stores. Up to 1/3 of shoppers use mobile phones to look for information rather than ask store employees.

What does this all mean?

 Instead of using retail shelves to find what they need, consumers are now looking for answers on the pages of search results, which we call the digital shelf. Just like physical positioning, brands’ placements on the shelves can make a huge difference, bringing you traffic from hundreds and thousands of interested, relevant audiences. As a result, you gain more sales and brand awareness when potential customers are considering purchasing your products and/or services.

This article will tackle everything you need to know about the digital shelf, from what it is down to its importance, along with what strategies you can follow. Read on!

What is the Digital Shelf?

Before anything else, what is the digital shelf in the first place?

This is how and where your brand’s products and services are displayed online, may it be on product description pages on retailers’ websites, third-party marketplaces, mobile apps, personal websites, or other eCommerce channels. This is the place where digital consumers browse, discover, and buy products they want and need, just like physical store shelves.

For most consumers, the major digital shelf is on the search results page, where most consumers look for products to purchase after they typed (or used voice search) their direct inquiries on the search bar. Or, they can filter their product choices based on their individual preferences and requirements. Other examples that fall under digital shelves are curated product lists, category pages, along new product release email campaigns.

Similar to physical store shelves, digital shelves are where brands control their appearance and the story of the products they post online. However, rather than strategic product placement, flashy packaging, or aisle endcap groupings, brands rely on the content they put out with their products.

Content elements needed for digital shelves will include product descriptions, images, videos, prices, instructions, variation options, along with ratings and reviews. When you combine all these factors, the elements will be displayed on retailer websites so consumers can create informed online buying decisions.

Why Is the Digital Shelf Important?

Focusing your efforts and creating strategies on digital shelves is important, as this would directly impact your sales, profits, and overall brand reputation. For instance, did you know that:

• Studies show less than half of consumers would click past the first page of search engine results, so the majority of traffic and conversion will be gained from the top product placements.
• More than 60% of consumers say that they would search, considering online ratings and reviews before they judge the brand and decide to buy something.
• 73% of consumers state that a key factor when searching through digital shelves is detailed product content, helping them make an informed buying decision.
• More consumers are now turning to digital shelves to perform research before they create a purchase in physical stores. Digital retail channels and detailed product content will influence over half of retail sales.

With all this in mind, it’s important to strengthen your online performance, which will have a direct impact on shoppers’ retail experiences. This will also allow all stakeholders in your business to receive access to just one source of information, which avoids and reduces data handling errors or delays from slower manual processes. That’s why digital shelf services are critical for brands today, so they can deepen ties between departments as they need to work together to grow online.

Why is Digital Shelf Analytics Important?

Now, on to Digital Shelf Analytics, which is a software solution that is an alternative to a manual compilation of retail data made for brands, manufacturers, along consumer-packaged goods companies. That way, people can view real-time data utilizing sophisticated software, which scours the web to collect performance metrics from various digital retailers’ platforms.

As a result, people have access to information regarding their products and category performance online without having to look for it on their own. Such analytics have helped multiple people, along with core eCommerce functions in organizations, form brand managers down to marketing managers, assisting them in creating actionable choices.

Besides what was mentioned above, why are digital shelf analytics (DSA) crucial to your sales and profit?

Save Time and Effort 

The biggest benefit of DSA is the time you save manually when compiling data. Rather than manual work, which was once the way to gather and compile data, most brands would see this as insufficient, with them preferring to spend the time on other important activities such as taking action from valuable data.

Because compiling manual data is consuming, slow, and resource-heavy, big brands that have an expanding digital shelf will find it difficult to work without Digital Shelf analytics software or tools.

Furthermore, Digital Shelf Analytics improves the analytical accuracy and will help you completely understand the current online performance of your product and categories across various digital shelves. There is no human error and you are constantly updated in real-time without wasting hours of manual work that runs the risk of mistakes.

As a result of all the valuable data you receive, you can audit and measure products, making sure that the product range is constant across all digital channels, meeting standards. This will have you drive higher conversion rates, product discoverability, and increase chances that your products show up in the top part of search results.

Track Digital Performance

DSA helps you track digital performance using visualized category data insights. Information that would have been missed from manual processes is now easily accessible at any time. Such insights will give a better idea of your digital shelf and its current performance.

The best digital shelf analytics provider will give a complete category view so you see your products and the rest that are part of your category across retailer channels.

Serve Digital Customers Better

Compared to customers in physical retail stores, digital shoppers have more access to information helpful in their buying journey. Customers are probably considering various things as they compare products with one another, including ratings and reviews, product images and descriptions, promos, and prices.

In digital spaces, customers won’t need to walk to other stores to get information, as they can get it within seconds without having to approach anyone. That is why customers would feel frustrated if they find products with missing data or inconsistent messaging when checking other channels. 

This is why accurate product content is crucial to building trust, which is often what can help you get a sale compared to competitors. They want detailed, complete, and exact! 

With DSA, they can track inconsistencies and flag them as soon as possible for you to edit. Doing this will improve your digital image and optimize your digital shelf.

The Data Digital Shelf Analytics Can Provide

When you use DSA applications and software, you get to receive various useful data, which falls under six categories:

• Sales Data helps identify trends that can have one see what factors can influence shoppers’ behaviors.
• Search Data is also known as product visibility or search performance, which ensures that optimized products are shown. From here, you see information on ranking in organic and sponsored product positions, so you can make informed decisions on the necessary retailer promotions.
• Product Data will help refine shopper perception, making sure that buyers are satisfied with the information they find as they research products. It can span from basic factors like consistent product titles, down to advanced factors like rich media.
• Promotional Data is linked to price, though Digital Shelf Analytics permits you to monitor this part separately. When you are updated with percentage discounts, you stay competitive across other platforms and areas.
• Pricing Data provides you valuable data on your and competitors’ product prices.
• Ratings and Reviews can help with new product ideation and improve on existing products, analyzing brand feedback. From here, you get shoppers’ perceptions of your brand and your competitors as well, so you can find opportunities to fulfill demands that haven’t been met yet.

Under this, there are category-specific insights in DSA Platforms, which are similar to total category sales that can’t be manually retrieved. This allows you to gain competitive insights so you know how to step up against your competitors.

Each category of data can give you actionable insights to take advantage of.

The Challenges of a Digital Shelf

While it’s crucial to perfect the digital shelf, you may encounter challenges along the way, such as:

• Digital shelves aren’t standardized across all retailers, meaning product detail page setup and requirements need customizations for every retailer brands partner with, which can be tough for small brands with limited resources
• Consumers can’t physically interact with the product, so ALL necessary information needs to be included in order to make a positive purchasing decision.
• Requirements continue to change and evolve, which is why brands need to keep up with all new trends, consumer behaviors, retail channels, and changes in search algorithms, which can change every day.
• Assortment might be tougher to manage online compared to offline. When selling online, sell-through and in-stock rates can be tough to manage since your products are available in different retailers with various fulfillment models, making it vital to set up and sync such processes earlier.
• Just like trends, digital shelves are dynamic and change constantly. Search placements can be updated hundreds of times throughout the day, making it hard to manage and keep up with.

While challenging, it’s worth the time and effort spent, with the benefits mentioned above. Furthermore, there are ways you can win the digital shelf despite these challenges, starting with effective strategies.