In the competitive world of e-commerce, effective product management on a website is crucial to guaranteeing a smooth user experience and meeting the expectations of customers, search engines and marketplaces. Poorly organized or categorized products can have a significant impact on an e-tailer's performance.
1. Impact on user experience
Poorly categorized products can cause considerable confusion for site visitors. If products are not correctly arranged in their respective categories, or if search filters don't work properly, customers can quickly become frustrated and leave the site, resulting in lost sales: 60% of American and European consumers abandon an average of 5 purchases a year due to poor user experience on websites.1
2. Reduction in conversion rates
Poorly organized products can also have a direct impact on conversion rates. 43% of online shoppers abandon their shopping cart because they couldn't find the product they were looking for.2 This means that if products aren't properly organized, e-tailers risk seeing a reduced conversion rate, which directly affects their revenues.
3. Increased bounce rate
Bounce rate, or the percentage of visitors who leave a site after viewing a single page, can increase dramatically when products are poorly organized. A study by Google Analytics indicates that a high bounce rate is often linked to a poor user experience, and poor product prioritization is a major contributor to this phenomenon. The higher the bounce rate, the more sales opportunities are lost.
4. Impact on search engine optimization (SEO)
Search engines like Google use product organization to understand and index a site's content. Incorrect ranking can lead to SEO problems, which can affect the site's visibility in search results. The higher a site is in the search results, the more clicks it receives. For e-tailers, a good CTR is crucial, as it leads to more visitors and therefore more sales. Between the first and second google positions, the difference in CTR rate is 16.1%.3
5. Reduced customer loyalty
Customer loyalty is essential to the long-term success of an e-commerce business. 61% of consumers have started doing business with a competitor as a result of a poor customer experience.4 Knowing thata 5% increase in customer loyalty can generate 25% extra profit,5 it's therefore very important to pay attention to keeping those customers loyal. If products are poorly arranged, customers may perceive the site as unprofessional and less trustworthy, which can damage their loyalty.
6. Increase in operating costs
Product misclassification can also increase operational costs. Support teams have to manage customer complaints and resolve navigation-related issues, which can increase customer service costs. In addition, frequent errors often require constant revision and updates, adding further costs.
Conclusion
In short, proper product storage on an e-commerce site is more than just a question of organization; it's a crucial factor in optimizing the user experience, improving conversion rates, and reducing operational costs. Investing in effective product management is essential to ensuring customer satisfaction and maximizing revenues. E-tailers must therefore ensure that their products are correctly classified and accessible to avoid the negative repercussions mentioned above.