'Net Features : walmart

Optimized Product Pages to Check Out

Allison Howen — Mon, 04 Mar 2013 18:55:00 GMT

Product pages are like treasure chests for serious online shoppers.

These data-rich Web pages contain valuable information consumers need to make purchasing decisions, such as images, pricing, descriptions and reviews. Even so, not all product pages are built with the consumer in mind. In fact, often times the most important product information is either missing or too difficult to find, which results in high abandonment rates and user frustration.

Companies with optimized product pages, however, experience favorable conversion metrics and better engagement from their site visitors. This includes increased time-on-site and interaction with product reviews. Learn from the best by checking out product page examples from some of the Net's top retailers, as featured in Website Magazine’s Web 100.

Nordstrom

Product Page Takeaway: Innovative Images

An online shopper’s first impression of an item is the product images. These are what entice the consumer to learn more about a product, so they can make an informed purchasing decision. In order to leave a good first impression, merchants should include alternate views of their products as well as zooming functionality, just as Nordstrom’s does on its product pages. These features allow consumers to view the details of an item without having to go to a brick-and-mortar location.

Wal-Mart

Product Page Takeaway: Robust Reviews

Product reviews are one of the most influential aspects of an e-commerce website, because these unfiltered opinions provide online shoppers with social evidence as to how a product works. Although Wal-Mart’s product pages follow many best practices (having multiple product views, detailed descriptions and site-to-store pickup options), the company really excels with its product review offerings, which includes key statistics and a filtering option.

Victoria’s Secret

Product Page Takeaways: Suggested Products, Sizing Tool

Suggested products are beneficial for both consumers and merchants. This handy element of a product page helps consumers find items that they weren’t originally searching for, as well as helps merchants increase their average order value. While Victoria’s Secret does a good job at suggesting items to its visitors who are browsing product pages, the retailer also deters returns with its “Size and Fit” link, which appears next to every relevant product. By clicking on this link, visitors can use the chart to determine the correct clothing sizes for their body.

Toys "R" Us

Product Page Takeaway: Up-Front Shipping Information

Shipping rates and times can greatly influence purchasing decisions, so why not be up front with this information? Often times, consumers have to wait until the checkout page to find out how much shipping will be or how long it will take. However, Toys "R" Us offers this information directly on its product pages. In fact, on this retailer’s product pages, consumers can see how much money needs to be spent in order to receive free shipping, if the product is available to be shipped internationally, how long it will take for the product to leave the warehouse and if store shipping options are available.

Ulta

Product Page Takeaway: Detailed Descriptions

A picture might be worth a thousand words, but is it worth its retail price? For online shoppers, the answer to this question is sometimes unknown because a product image doesn’t always provide the details one needs in order to make a purchasing decision. This makes description information useful. Ulta, for example, provides detailed explanations for all of its products, which also includes specifications and access to an ingredient list.

Webcollage Signs Walmart Subsidiary

Amberly Dressler — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 11:45:00 GMT

More than 3,000 e-commerce sites worldwide, including Walmart, Best Buy, Sears, Staples, Amazon, Office Max, Costco and Target in the USA, use Webcollage to provide rich product information for their retail websites (and mobile visitors).

Now, Webcollage, counts Asda, the British subsidiary of Walmart, as a client.

The New York-based Webcollage will provide the tools to build and syndicate rich content for thousands of products accessed through all of Asda's Web and mobile properties in the United Kingdom. Webcollage also syndicates content features interactive tours, videos and detailed descriptions of products. The company reports U.S. and Europe retailers see up to a 36 percent increase in sales with these features.

Webcollage has a similar arrangement with Walmart in the U.S. with rich product content live on 36,014 product pages on its site. The company also reports that customers accessed this content 107 million times in 2011.

"Delivering the lowest prices and the highest level of service to our customers is our number one priority,” said Frazer Locke, Trading Director at Asda Direct. “This includes making sure they have as much information as necessary to make informed purchases either online or in our stores.

“Webcollage can help us to provide our customers with topnotch content for a wide range of products ranged on Asda Direct, including images and videos to make shopping even easier and more appealing.”

Here are two rich content examples that are already live with Asda:

Example 1 (Power Page starts with “From the Manufacturer”)

Example 2 (A Mini-Site is launched from the “Play Product Video” button)

According to Webcollage research, manufacturers often get a 6 to 18 percent lift in sales from Webcollage-provided Mini-Sites and a 12 to 36 percent increase from the use of Webcollage Power Pages.

Is Walmart's Semantic Search an Amazon Killer?

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 21:23:00 GMT

Amazon may be far, far ahead in the race towards all-time e-commerce glory, but Walmart is leveraging some powerful technology to cut into its lead - namely on-site search.

Walmart's Labs project/division unveiled a new search engine for Walmart.com which uses semantic search technology, enabling the retailer to anticipate the intent of a shopper's search and deliver more relevant results. Going by the name Polaris, Walmart.com has already seen an (approximate) 10-15 percent increase in shoppers completing a purchase after searching using the new search facility.

“Search is a crown jewel for any e-commerce company to own,” said Neil Ashe, president and CEO of Walmart Global eCommerce. “Today’s announcement underscores our commitment to owning technology that is fundamental in giving our millions of customers anytime, anywhere access to the products they want at the lowest prices.”

Polaris is based on the Social Genome project, a platform that "connects people to places, events and products giving Walmart a richer level of understanding about customers and products" according to the announcement at Walmart Labs. The new Polaris search engine at Walmart uses advanced algorithms including query understanding and synonym mining to determine user intent when delivering results.

“With Polaris, we are giving users the ability to connect with the items they want but also surface items based on their interests and likely intent,” said Sri Subramaniam, vice president for @WalmartLabs and head of the Polaris initiative. “This is the start of what we imagine search to be as we continue to deliver products to accelerate Walmart’s global e-commerce efforts.”