Designing for Online - Part 1

As brands are in the throws of 2017 planning, I have been talking to them a lot about the importance of designing for online (and some of the resources, time, and budget they'll need for ecommerce). Here are some things to keep in mind:

I. Content

As brands create new products and update their content, it’s important to create the right content for online. Often, brands take the content they put on their packaging and translate it to their online detail page.  This is not enough for the demands of the online consumer looking for in depth product information.  Brands need to be thinking about:

• Imagery – multiple images, lifestyle imagery (especially if the product is premium), Pinterest-style photos, photos to detail “what comes in the box”. According to Profitero best sellers reports, products that have >5 images (category dependent with CPG highest) are classified as “top movers”.
• Engaging, Short-form Video - products that require 360-views and more explanation benefit from short-form video (<1.5 min).  This is not taking your TV commercial and uploading it to the detail page.  This is creating engaging content that explains your product in depth but in a fun, captive way that will hold even the attention of today's Millenial. One example is this video on the Acer Chromebook page created by Gen.video, a company who takes a unique influencer marketing approach to help brands create content.
• Questions – first, read the questions customers pose on the detail page and make sure you answer them within the content (things like: “does this toy contain lead paint?”, “is this paraben-free?”). Customers are giving you (in your face) clues about what content is missing – make sure to read these and answer them, and improve bullet point and above the fold content with this information about your product
• If you are running paid search advertising, you have data on what keywords are your best converting keywords. Ensure those keywords are incorporated into your titles, bullets, and/or product content.
• Content 2.0 –content beyond the packaging – customers want to know as much as possible about the products they buy – where it’s sourced, how it’s created, details about the ingredients, etc.  Amazon Elements Wipes is a good example that provides all this and more.
• Mobile Optimized - 43% of Amazon customers shop mobile only and 80% shop with some component of mobile.  Cross-device customers on Amazon spend 16% more than single device shoppers (Comscore, April 2016).  With the rise of mobile, it's key that content is mobile optimized.

II. Catalog Maintenance

Every one of my client’s catalogs, no matter how advanced in ecommerce they are, their catalog has never been perfect, often far from it. There are many reasons why (starting with mistakes at the time of setup often done on Amazon's side), but I always encourage a 1-time overhaul when first engaging with a brand and then quarterly scrubs to ensure accuracy.  It's important to have the basics right before engaging in marketing activities in order to optimize your spend.  Companies like Clavis and Profitero have great tools that scorecard and rate your ecommerce catalog health – this includes missing images, out of stock status, pricing, etc across etailers.

Other areas that can significantly improve your overall brand health on Amazon:

• Correct Categorization – the subcategory and category help feed Amazon’s back end forecasting system and also reporting. Contrary to what a lot of people think, the categorization you see in the item data catalog has nothing to do with the "stores" these products show up in on the site. This also is important and requires oversight - ensuring your products are showing up in the correct "store" which is yet another field in the item catalog.
• Hidden Search Keywords – you’ve got up to 1000 characters to include misspellings, and any other keyword associated with your product – use the maximum limit! At the recent SCOE (Seller's Conference for Online Entrepreneurs) I attended, Michael from Merchantwords (a paid service that is a great source of additional keywords) told a story about one of his customers, a jewelry manufacturer, who sells ankle bracelets.  After using his software to get a list of relevant keywords, they were surprised to see the word “Swinger anklet”.  This wasn’t a word they wanted anywhere within their customer-facing product content on the detail page as you can imagine, but they plugged it in the appropriate catalog data field.  Apparently there is a certain ankle to send a signal to the swinger community that the jewelry manufacturer is still not sure whether it’s right or left – but they went from selling hardly any ankle bracelets to many after adding that term. (Search "Swinger anklet" on Amazon and see what shows up).

III. Packaging 

As a Category Manager at Amazon 10+ years ago, when we were launching the Consumables store, we had a very "sophisticated" packaging test to make sure products wouldn't leak or get damaged during the rigorous warehouse and shipping processes.  We would ask our vendors to send us a product sample.  We would then hold the product waist level and drop it. Things have changed since then - but what hasn't are the issues with brick & mortar packaging in the online channel.  I recently sat down with a product manager from the packaging team and here are a few of my takeaways:

• Being Frustration Free Packaging (FFP) or Ship In Own Container (SIOC) is an ultimate goal at Amazon. In order to be certified, the product has to be 9x6 (the label is 4x6 and therefore the box needs to be larger for the label process).  Ever receive a big amazon box with a smaller box inside and dunnage to keep that smaller box from moving around (referred to as “overboxing”)?  Items smaller than 9x6 will ship this way and this additional prep cost can contribute to vendors CRaP (can’t realize a profit) problems, especially if you’re an item on the edge.  A colleague of mine who runs ecommerce at a well known brand recently told me of how he’d sent these requirements to his packaging team for input into the packaging of a new item.  Unfortunately, they wound up creating something 1 inch short and in turn, the product shipped overboxed when ordered on Amazon.  It is not always possible to design for online, but when it is, it’s a good way to limit costs and material.

**To be FFP, the item has to be fully recyclable, have no wires or zip ties. Some key benefits to being FFP is: a) Vine sampling is free - Amazon's paid sampling program where by customers receive a product sample and are required to write a review. It's a great way to launch a new item and get a lot of reviews quickly b) There is no co-mingling with 3P. When a 3rd Party merchant also ships Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA), their inventory ships from the same Amazon warehouse as the manufacturer (1P) and even the inventory is co-mingled in the same bin. If a 3P seller has outdated, short dated, or poor quality control product, it can lead to bad customer reviews on the same shared Amazon sku. For brands with an issue around co-mingled inventory, this is a big deal! c) There are apparently many ER visits due to the opening of packages so you can do your part to decrease these and keep sharp cutting objects out of the hands of your consumers eager to rip into their new purchase. (Ever try to open one of those clam shells? Super frustrating).

• New Prep-Free Certification - Amazon will be rolling out a new “prep-free” certification in Q3/Q4 for items too small to ship on their own. Stay tuned!
• While you can work with Amazon to get these certifications, you can also work with certified labs – to find one, go to the ISTA website and look for either of these tests: 3A test or 6 Amazon
• Best in class examples: When asked for examples of “who’s doing it well”, the Amazon packaging expert mentioned both Clorox and Sonicare: 

Clorox had to rethink the spray bottle. Spray bottle cleaners have a poor for online shipping rating and are constantly leaking with high damages.  Clorox went back to the drawing board and redesigned their spray bottle (detail page here).  They created a fully sealable bottle and put the trigger in the packaging (which could also fit other bottles within their product portfolio).

The Norelco OneBlade is also a good example of online packaging:

The FFP as you can see has no plastic, can simply be opened up and has clear instructions on how to use the product (on the inside of the box).  The Standard packaging on the right, while looks pretty on a store shelf, will require more work to get open.  Which would you prefer to open?

If you have interesting stories or want to learn more about designing for online, please reach out. 

And I’ll be speaking at the Cleveland Research Forum in Seattle Sept 13 along with Patrick Miller & Conner Folley on Critical Traffic Driving Tools in Practice - A Q&A Session with Experts on What’s Working And Not Working To Get Your Brand Seen On Amazon - hope to see you there!