Beat the Online Retail Giants and Increase Revenue With GroupBy
GroupBy is a Business Reporter client.
E-commerce sales hit $791.70 billion in 2020, up 32.4% from $598.02 billion in 2019, and online sales are forecast to grow yet again in 2021. However, it’s not all good news for some retailers who are simply seeing the cannibalization of their in-store sales by online purchases. Worse, some retailers saw an outright drop in revenue when their customers didn’t make the shift online during the early days of the pandemic.
These retailers are challenged with creating a similar buying experience in the digital space, but are unable to provide the same user journey across their brick-and-mortar, mobile and desktop stores. However, there is a solution, and it can be implemented in a few short weeks.
Creating a positive online user experience starts with critical search functionality to power the journey. It’s critical to ensure that product data is complete and product discovery is effortless, so that a search can quickly answer all the questions a buyer may have. Software that presents the right product at the right time will protect or increase revenue for the retailer.
The site’s search engine must be capable of understanding the intent of complex mobile and desktop searches while processing all available information in order to refine and deliver the most relevant search results. Null search results frustrate consumers, which means the search engine needs to be able to translate and correct misspellings.
Consumers and retailers are both happier when the engine can dynamically reorder product attributes and associated values for any shopper search or browsing path, so that the highest converting attributes are always automatically pushed to the top of the page.
Personalization, another important feature, tracks and leverages individual customer actions across the website to customize each user’s individual experience. Machine-learning algorithms surface or suppress products based on brand, style and price preferences, previously purchased items, location and more.
Data analytics help retailers easily understand buyer behavior once they’ve walked through the virtual front door, and allow retailers to continuously improve their metrics.
Removing all the friction that may exist within the online purchase process is also critical. Offering same-day delivery or BOPIS (buy online, pickup in store) and accepting multiple types of payment, such as Apple Pay, Samsung Pay or Google Pay, easily eliminates common areas of friction.
These easy fixes are derived from an e-commerce product discovery solution, which makes a far more costly and time-consuming complete platform overhaul unnecessary. The GroupBy Inc. solution uses API-first micro-services to build on specific elements of a site to remove friction in a fast and agile fashion. Retailers see benefits in a couple of weeks—versus a re-platform, which is slow, more complex, more expensive and a lot more risky.
Join our customers who have experienced GroupBy’s fully cloud-native technology that powers the world’s most relevant and highly converting e-commerce websites, while reducing manual effort. Our SaaS-based product discovery suite provides industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, personalization, merchandising, SEO and search autocomplete, and is backed by our ongoing commitment to partnering with our clients. We work with major retailers that include Bed Bath and Beyond, CVS and BJ’s Wholesale Club.
Learn more about our solutions and how we can grow your online revenues at groupbyinc.com.
— Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy
This article originally appeared on Business Reporter. Image credits: iStock-1249219777
