{"id":3313,"date":"2022-08-01T08:49:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-01T08:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/syndigo.com\/ebook\/product-strategies-for-a-real-time-economy\/"},"modified":"2024-04-05T16:51:07","modified_gmt":"2024-04-05T16:51:07","slug":"product-strategies-for-a-real-time-economy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/syndigo.com\/fr\/blog\/product-strategies-for-a-real-time-economy\/","title":{"rendered":"Product Strategies for a Real-Time Economy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Think about last time you went shopping. Did you do it all online or did you go to a physical store? If you went to the store, did you venture inside or have things brought to your car? Did you consider new or different brands you hadn\u2019t considered before?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way we shop has changed. It\u2019s due to many factors\u2014increasing prices and inflation, the global supply chain being disrupted, continued labor challenges\u2014plus the convenience of how products and services are delivered. For an organization that is central to delivering the customer experience across manufacturers, retailers and distributors through ecommerce and in-store, from a Syndigo point of view it\u2019s clear that these changes have become a part of the new commerce landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These challenges and disruptions have created positive outcomes as well. Companies that have thrived have adapted quickly to these marketplace changes, becoming more flexible and offering customer-centric options for how shoppers could find or buy their products. This has created a new ecosystem that favors speed and availability\u2014what we call the “real-time economy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this new world, the customer has more choice. In addition to shopping in-store, they are used to finding, purchasing and receiving products at their doorstep. It goes beyond Amazon\u2019s same-day delivery. Think about the new formats of shopping, including BOPIS (buy online, pick up in store), or Buy Online, Have Someone put it in Your Trunk Directly or delivery by a ride-share company or professional shopper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And shoppers are embracing the choice. Recent consumer surveys by McKinsey for example, showed that in the US, 75% of shoppers tried a new store, brand, or different way of shopping during the pandemic. Even more, shoppers have shown a willingness to move away from once-preferred brands in favor of new ones that offer value or novelty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that consumers are more open to variety; therefore, the brands that can find ways to meet consumers where they are in their buying journey can benefit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cLoyalty Shake-up\u201d, as McKinsey calls it, is driven by several factors including seeking more value (perhaps due to inflation) and the availability of products (caused by demand and supply chain issues). Brand \u201cpurpose\u201d also has become less of a buying factor, while novelty has risen \u2013 so people are more willing to take a chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: McKinsey<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

So how can companies today keep up? Do the tools they have today meet the new requirements for today\u2019s real-time economy, or are they feeling the strain? How can companies find the right tools to meet this need? And what questions should they ask their providers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on observing our more than 15,000 manufacturer, retailer and distributor clients, we have come up with a few tips that companies must manage around, and some considerations when choosing the product content and data solution that meets your customer demands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip 1: Understand Shoppers are in control<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Brands and retailers may think <\/em>they are in control of their products, but in reality, they are not. If the item is not in stock, a shopper likely won\u2019t wait or look for a \u201crain check.\u201d They will instead jump to another search or buy a different product. And they\u2019re doing their homework. According to Statista, 62% of shoppers today search for product information before they buy<\/a> and 9 out of 10 actually read product reviews<\/a>, according to Trustpilot. Throw in average cart abandonment rates near 70%<\/a> and it\u2019s easy to see that while being online gets sellers more exposure, it also puts the power in the hands of the shopper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means you need to put information<\/em> in the hands of the shopper. Not just product descriptions and pictures; in order to get a connection, you have to engage. Using rich media Enhanced Content<\/a> combined with Core marketing descriptions<\/a> generates an average of 90% lift compared to a product page with only Core content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tip 2: Drive trust through consistency<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Think about it: Every product has its own weight, dimensions, colors, flavors, ingredients, usage requirements, nutritional or dietary specifications, manufacturing locations and hundreds of other characteristics, plus images (from multiple angles), usage examples, advertising videos or glamour shots, 360-spin imagery or additional content overlayed on \u201chotspots\u201d around a picture of the product.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are easily close to 250,000 different attributes that can be used to describe a single product. And some of these attributes simply will not have the same syntax, word order or grammatical requirements based on the different retailer platforms. Syndigo publishes more than 620,000 of these items per day<\/em> on behalf of our brand clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Further, these requirements also change almost daily, based on what each retailer needs for their datasets and how they maintain or update their systems. For example, Syndigo monitors and makes an average of 25,000 updates to retailer requirements for our supplier clients per month.<\/em> How efficient is doing that manually or in house?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Despite many companies\u2019 best efforts, there is a lot of incorrect or poor-quality information out there, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n