As an online merchandising manager, you’re aware of the challenges that come with the position -- disjointed data streams and a different view of the site layout than the customer. Bridging the gap between the customer and the items they're looking for is also a challenge. It’s one thing to know that an item is a popular, but it requires more insight to understand why an item is purchased and what the customer is thinking when they buy it. By using merchandise tags, you can track your customers and observe their patterns of behavior. Here is a look at the ways merchandise tagging is useful.
Cross-Selling
Cross-selling in any retail environment is the key to higher revenue. However, cross-selling tactics that work in brick and mortar stores often do not work online. For example, Smarter Commerce observed that outdoor apparel company Orvis' hand-written recommendations are "costly in terms of both hours lost and subpar results.” Orvis recently updated their recommendation system by automating it. Merchandise tagging makes it easy to keep a record of a customer's general purchase habits. The data gleaned from merchandise tagging can be leveraged into precise, categorized recommendations based on a customer's recorded purchase habits.
Customer Navigation
Customers find online shopping falls short the tactile experience of shopping in stores. As noted by IBM, “Less than half (49%) of U.S. adults said their experiences using websites on computers are excellent.“ When faced with a bad experience, most online shoppers abandon the store and navigate elsewhere. But online tagging can help keep customers on your site by making their shopping experience both easier and more meaningful. Tagging systems allow customers to personalize their experience by marking items in your catalog that they find appealing. Personalization through tagging increases customer enjoyment and ultimately, it affects sales.
Search Engines
Merchandise tagging is, at its heart, a catalog search tool. Aside from assisting with merchandise organization, it can also be an effective tool for optimizing search engine results. Part of drawing customers to you is brand awareness, but sales also come from organic traffic. By tagging merchandise properly, you not only pull in users searching for a general item, but you can additionally draw users who are looking for a specific item. This can be especially critical if you sell niche items that aren’t widely available. Being on the first page of a search engine results list is paramount to building the customer relationship.
Marketing Campaigns
Tagging can be a useful guide for your marketing campaigns, as well. Aside from allowing you to isolate top selling items, you can use tagging systems to track the reach of a marketing campaign by comparing before and after sales figures. Comparing campaign-related sales to total sales increases can provide a baseline understanding of how the campaign impacted sales.
Inventory Streamlining
There’s an old saying that if you try to please everyone you will fail. Part of being an online merchandising manager is deciding which items should be removed from inventory. Tagging systems allow you to keep the hot selling items in stock and know when it's time to phase an item out or remove it via clearance.
An online merchandising manager wears many hats. Part of the job is cutting through the noise and making sense of several unconnected, but still related, data sets. Merchandise tagging, when properly utilized, is any site manager's secret weapon.
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