Simplifying the Complex Process of Data Integration, Part 3

This week in the third part of our coverage of the recent All About ROI webinar, Good Data is Good Business!, sponsored by Stibo Systems, we continue our recap of the presentation from Simon Rodrigue, associate vice president of e-commerce for Sears Canada. Specifically, we offer up step three of Rodrigue's five critical steps to data integration.

(For part 1 of our multipart coverage of this webinar, and a recap of the presentation given by Timothy Holody, COO of Seta Corp., the parent company of multichannel jewelry marketer Palm Beach Jewelry, click here. For part 2, and a look at the first two critical steps to data integration from Rodrigue, click here. To access this webinar on-demand, click here.)

3. Build a 360-degree view of products for your customers. How are you leveraging your data to make it the best experience possible for your customers, Rodrigue asked. One key to this is guided or search-based navigation, where consumers choose how they want to browse products on your website. Allow consumers to search on the dimensions they want, he said. Some of Rodrigue's best practices for doing this include the following:

• program synonyms and aliases to map to search queries (e.g., green=olive);
• always present a result (e.g., alternative sources) to the user even if no exact matches are found — Sears Canada uses top-selling products;
• refine searches by individual product attributes — e.g., category, brand, price, color, etc.;
• ensure consistency across all products in the same category; and
• order search results to optimize shopping experience — and margin.

These steps involve a lot of hard work up front in building a data model that has the flexibility to do product or category attribute navigation, Rodrigue said. Take into consideration that data collection from your suppliers needs to be accurate — it ultimately affects your ability to sell to consumers. Present data and products in ways that consumers can browse them and make purchase decisions on what suits them best.

The reality for all online retailers, Rodrigue said, is it's very easy for consumers to switch; competition is just a click away. Therefore, it needs to be as easy as possible for customers to get to the products they're looking for — quite a challenge for Sears Canada and its 320,000 online SKUs.

Conversion and Upsell
Are you driving all of the additional related products and information needed to complete conversions? For Rodrigue, it's not just about online conversion. He estimates that 75 percent to 90 percent of the consumers visiting Sears Canada's website are there to decide, "Where do I want to purchase, and what do I want to purchase?" By making sure you have rich content on your site, which is driven by product data, you ensure that customers are much more likely to engage with your brand when they ultimately have to make purchase decisions, he said.

When discussing leveraging product data, focus on attachments, Rodrigue said. This involves collecting more than product data, such as margin, inventory availability and inactive status. These present opportunities for upsells, cross-sells and add-ons. Here are some strategies in this area that Rodrigue recommended:

• the margin for the attachment should generally be higher than the core product;
• distinguish between required and optional attachments to avoid customers buying products that are “unusable” when received (e.g., electronic toys without batteries, flat-screen TVs without cables); and
• offer online coupons to trigger discounts across brands, categories, campaigns, etc.

After-Sale Service
Collect the whole view of the product when capturing product-level data, including after the initial purchase, Rodrigue said. Examples of this include the following:

• warranties: follow up with sales or upgrades for end-of-life products (e.g., change your water filter every six months);
• documentation: customer self-serviced downloads for manuals, product guides and installation materials; and
• consumables and accessories: additional sales through customer service.

Check back in the Oct. 13 issue of The ROI Report for the fourth and final part of this series, where steps four and five of Rodrigue's five critical steps to data integration will be revealed.