The right content could boost ecommerce revenue

Online retailers who are stuck in the picture/price/description rut may be missing out on a larger slice of the online shopping pie. A recent study from the etailing group indicates that the right content - not just a picture, description and price of an item - has a direct impact on the bottom line.

by Kristina Knight

That is because online shoppers want more than a simple picture and price tag. Because they are shopping online and cannot touch the items in question, they need to know more about those products. That is where the right content comes in.

Researchers polled both male and female online shoppers and found that 77% were directly influenced by the content - ad copy - accompanying a particular item. Traditional content - product name, picture and price - were important but additional content - product descriptions and online shopping tools - also had a huge impact on shoppers' decisions to buy.

Though the content on a shopping site does influence shoppers, it appears that not enough e-tailing hubs are including good content. A full 76% of those surveyed said that there was "not enough" content on most e-tail sites to help them make purchasing decisions. Of those who don't get the right information on a product, 72% will abandon that shopping hub in favor of another e-tail space.

Rather than having ad copy fail as the holiday shopping season approaches, e-tailers should invest in good copy. Include the basics but also upgrade the content on your site to include detailed product descriptions or even recommendations from other shoppers. This type of content will also help users find your store because search engines will pick up on the keywords used in the content.