On an earnings call with investors, he announced eBay revenue and gross merchandise value (GMV) grew in the marketplace’s fiscal third quarter, ended Sept. 30. EBay GMV grew to nearly $18 billion in Q3, he said. And much of its GMV in the past year has come just from collectibles.

“We generated over $10 billion in GMV from collectibles over the last 12 months, and more than one in four eBay buyers purchased at least one collectibles item over the past year,” Iannone said. “These buyers carry some of the highest conversion, repurchase, and retention rates on eBay. And they are also among the heaviest cross-category shoppers on our platform, which supports our other categories.”

In the past 12 months, eBay GMV reached about $72.8 billion, according to financials listed in its most recent earnings release. Based on those figures and Iannone’s statement, Digital Commerce 360 estimates eBay collectibles accounted for about 13% of GMV in the past 12 months.

EBay ranks No. 6 in Digital Commerce 360’s Global Online Marketplaces database. The database ranks the 100 largest such marketplaces by 2023 third-party GMV. Digital Commerce 360’s 2023 Global Online Marketplaces Report includes key insights into the biggest players in the database.

eBay capitalizes on collectibles in Q3

Iannone said eBay’s goal is to remain “the world’s most loved destination for passionate collectibles enthusiasts.” Working toward that goal, he said, eBay launched direct submissions to its vault.

“This enables any U.S. resident to send in trading cards valued at $250 or higher from their personal collections to the vault, even if they were not purchased on eBay,” he said.

Additionally, in July, eBay announced what it calls Vault Enhanced Submission. It enables eBay “to gather large amounts” of valuable trading cards in person at events. In one weekend, eBay added “tens of millions of dollars of assets under management to the eBay vault,” Iannone added. That includes a signed Jackie Robinson card valued at about $1 million.

The marketplace describes eBay vault as “a secure, climate-controlled, physical storage facility for graded trading cards available to eBay customers. In addition to best-in-class storage, the eBay vault offers opportunities for seamless buying and hassle-free selling with the confidence that comes with Authenticity Guarantee.”

The eBay collectibles category includes sports trading cards, toys and figures, sports memorabilia, comic books and more. The category accounts for more than 10% of eBay GMV.

eBay revamps condition grading system for trading cards

Iannone said eBay “revamped” its condition grading system for trading cards. It improves transparency for collectibles in the subcategory, he said. New listings now carry more precise details, he added. That includes whether a card has been professionally graded and the numerical grade, or one of several predefined card conditions.

EBay will also migrate existing listings to the new standard “over the coming months,” Iannone said. “Sellers have been asking us for this feature for some time, and we believe it will drive improved trust for buyers, better and more consistent price realization for sellers, as well as more robust data and insights around individual card values for eBay.”

Making the shopping experience more interactive

Although still in beta, eBay launched eBay Live last year in response to its growing community of collectors and enthusiasts, Iannone said. The interactive live-shopping feature is available within the eBay app, and the marketplace continues to expand its availability to more sellers and categories, he said.

Using eBay Live, buyers can interact with sellers and checkout in real time without leaving the livestream, Iannone added.

“Q3 marked an inflection point as we hosted over 1,000 live events, saw our millionth buyer tune in, and grew GMV from eBay Live by 4x quarter-over-quarter,” Iannone said.

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The bridesmaid dress retailer revamped its blog in Q2 2023 with a strategy, plan and one goal in mind: to have Azazie.com show up higher in search engine results, says marketing manager Keily Hernandez. 

Azazie has had a blog on its site since 2019, with search engine optimization as one of its goals as well as using it to promote giveaways and promotions without significant financial investment. But SEO wasn’t the primary focus, and the merchant didn’t have a team dedicated to managing it. As a result, Azazie did not rank highly in search results for its targeted keywords, Hernandez says. 

Now, Azazie updates the blog one to two times a week. Each month, Azazie picks a keyword to focus on, such as “bridesmaid” or “bridal gown,” and focuses all its marketing content, including social media posts, influencer content, content across the website and its blog, on that keyword.  

“We have everything point back to us as the leader of that keyword,” Hernandez says.  

This focused and integrated effort has led to a 24% increase in sales revenue attributed to organic search (which includes blog content) from April until September 2023, compared with that same period in 2022, Hernandez says. And the content is resonating with shoppers, as sales from shoppers who viewed Azazie’s blog content increased 50% from January through September 2023, compared with the year-ago period.  

Azazie is among the roughly half or so retailers that offer a blog or editorial content on their site, according to Gartner data. A Gartner analysis of 300 U.S. retailers (75 luxury retailers, 105 multi-brand retailers and 120 monobrands) in March 2023 finds that 47% of retailers have a blog or editorial content on their site, such as articles related to the products they sell, content about that category’s trends, company history or policies.  

Merchants cite several reasons why investing in editorial content can help their bottom lines, including more traffic from search engines, higher conversion rates and low return rates. But execution is key, as retailers will not see any return on their investments if they are not thoughtful and thorough with their strategies. And investments can be significant, as merchants may have to invest in internal employees to generate the content or hire outside agencies. 

Only 6% of online shoppers say blog content is an important feature for a well-designed and functional online shopping experience, according to a Digital Commerce 360 and Bizrate Insights survey of 999 online shoppers in October 2023. But shoppers put a higher value on similar content, which retailers could publish on a blog, such as how-to guides, at 19%, and an About Us page, at 12%. 

Data from research firm Forrester Research Inc. also finds that only a small subset of consumers consult a blog before a purchase. 3% of U.S. online adults who purchased clothing or footwear (online or in person), and 5% who purchased furniture or home improvement products in the past six months visited the retailer’s blog in the past month, according to data fielded between November 2022-March 2023. 

Yet, only 17% of shoppers say online retailers have met or exceeded their expectations with providing detailed product information such as origin story, history, business policies and sustainability. And only 12% said online retailers have met or exceeded their expectations with additional content such as how-to guides and blogs.  

Retail blogs boost SEO value, organic search traffic

While shoppers may not rely on blog content to make a purchase, retailers and analysts still believe it can be an important component in the online shopping journey. In fact, shoppers may not realize that a blog post was how they landed on that retailer’s site to begin with. If brands write their blogs and editorial content with search engine optimization in mind, it can have a large impact on bringing in organic traffic, says Brad Jashinsky, director analyst at Gartner.  

And organic traffic is important for Azazie. The wedding apparel retailer says about 10% of its site traffic and sales come from organic search, which includes shoppers finding its site from the blog articles. 

“I would think and I would hope that every company and every brand in every industry has a blog,” Hernandez says. “It’s kind of like the low-hanging fruit of organic content.” 

Chip Malt, CEO and co-founder of cookware brand Made In, says that roughly 25% of its site traffic comes from organic search, which includes shoppers who come to Made In’s robust blog. On average per month, its blog receives 2 million page views, and each reader views about six pages in the blog, Malt says. This shows good engagement, Malt says. On average, this is about 20% of the site’s overall page views, he says.  

What’s more, when Made In sends content-focused emails, the click-through rates are three times higher than its selling-focused emails, Malt says. Similarly, its content-focused ads on Google produce click-through rates at four to 10 times higher than selling-focused ads, he says. 

Education through content has been a part of cookware brand Made In’s strategy since Day 1, Malt says. Made In launched a blog six months prior to launching products on its cookware site and the fourth employee the brand hired was a part-time content contributor, he says.  

“Education is a part of the brand’s story,” Malt says.  

Made In sells high-end cookware that’s designed for cooking enthusiasts and is popular among professional chefs. For example, its 10-inch blue carbon steel frying pan is $109, and the brand’s average order value is $330, according to Digital Commerce 360 estimates. The blog helps to explain the value of its cookware.  

Today, the brand has 10 full-time employees on its content team, it publishes roughly 50 blogs per month and the blog ranks for 56,000 keywords within Google Search, Malt says. About 50% of these keywords are in the top 20 search terms on Google, with 25% of those on the first page of search results, he says.  

One of the top navigation tabs on MadeinCookware.com is “Learn,” where the brand publishes its founding story, recipes, care for its products and cooking techniques. As Made In has expanded its product lines to include bakeware and wine glasses, it also has added content to support these products as well.  

“If we are offering this line of cookware, we also want to keep up the pace of content. …. It’s something we wanted to do for our community,” Malt says.  

Retail blog content connects to shoppers post-purchase 

This large breadth of content distinguishes the brand from its competitors, such as All-Clad, Malt says. 

“Long term, we believe if you are shown All-Clad or Made In, and you walk out the door and you are on your own, and you went with Made In, you have all this helpful content behind you. And that makes the consumer go with us overall, because they see us as a value-add,” Malt says.  

All-Clad has a blog on its site with recipes and other product content. All-Clad did not provide a comment as of press time.  

Top online floral merchant 1-800-Flowers.com Inc. also invests in editorial content as a way to engage with shoppers, says chief marketing officer Jason John.  

It operates six blogs across its 17 brands, which include a variety of giftable products such as cookies and chocolates as well as flowers. The goal is to deepen the relationship with shoppers, so they don’t just view the e-retailer’s ecommerce sites as shopping destinations, John says. It updates each blog multiple times per month.  

“It takes us beyond one transaction and helps solidify us as a part of the customer relationship,” John says.   

1800Flowers.com addresses themes within each brand’s product assortment and customer base to appeal to shoppers. For example, topics that have resonated with consumers are about how to write sympathy cards, including pet sympathy cards, for its 1800Flowers.com blog, and articles about hosting holiday dinners for its food and gifting brand HarryandDavid.com.  

Results from retail blogs 

Web visits to its blog have increased 70% year over year, John says. Even more telling is that shoppers who view a brand’s blog content convert at a 3%-5% higher rate than shoppers who don’t. This speaks to the quality of its blogs, John says.  

“You need a North Star with content,” John says. “A lot of companies, you can tell they are putting out content to put out content, and they are putting out content for a commerce outcome. We don’t believe there is authenticity in that type of content.”  

While conversion metrics are a clear performance indicator, Made In says privacy regulations can make it difficult to track a direct conversion to a blog post, because many shoppers don’t accept cookies and may visit the site several times before deciding to make a purchase. The path to purchase becomes more muddled especially with products that are high-ticket and more considered, like Made In’s relatively pricey skillets and knife sets. Instead, Malt describes its investment in content as a “brand tax that we absorb,” meaning a cost of doing business for higher-end products.   

Besides increasing site traffic, results from investing in a blog shows up in other ways, Malt says, such as aiding in the customer journey, helping its customer service team and low return rates. If shoppers are more informed about the products they buy from reading the blog, they are more likely to purchase the right product for their needs and not return it. He points to its stainless-steel products, which have a less than 2% return rate, without sharing more. 

Roughly a third of the visits to Made In’s blog come from shoppers already on the website, and the rest from outside the site, such as search results, emails and ads. If Made In was only doing the blog for SEO purposes or completely focused on that as the goal, Malt would expect 99% of the traffic to come from outside sources. But that’s not Made In’s primary goal.  

The fact that a third is internal traffic shows that the content is providing value to shoppers as they consider the brand’s products. Instead of having an article only live in the blog section, Made In peppers relevant content throughout the site to aid in the shopper journey, Malt says. For example, on the search results page, it may surface a post about the difference between nonstick and stainless-steel cookware.  

“We believe content should be intertwined in the customer journey and are happy to have internal traffic get there,” Malt says. 

Using blog content in multiple ways is smart, Gartner’s Jashinsky says.  

“If you are going the extra mile to make great content, you need to make sure it’s discoverable, across social, across search, and product pages and search pages,” Jashinsky says.  

How retailers know what to feature in blog content

Made In surveys its shoppers via email and uses that feedback to inform its content strategy. Based on 20,000 comments, Made In determined it needed more blogs about how to care for its products post-purchase, and now publishes such articles regularly.  

“The nice part of being a direct brand is that people tell you exactly what they think,” Malt says. 

Made In’s editorial team plans the focus of its blog posts for each month. Each of the brand’s departments, such as its product, customer service and marketing teams, give input on their teams’ current priorities. For example, the product team may say that it is launching a bird beak’s paring knife that month and request at least two articles featuring the product. The customer service team might say it’s had an influx of shoppers calling in about how to season their carbon skillet and propose a video blog and step-by-step instructions on how to do this.  

“Customer service acts as a very direct line to our actual customer. So our customer service team has direct input into the content calendar,” Malt says. 

The customer service team’s input gets particularly high priority when planning the blog’s editorial calendar, as the articles they suggest can help them assist customers much faster, Malt says. For example, with the “how to season the carbon skillet?” question, instead of taking 10 minutes to write out tailored instructions for each shopper, agents can direct shoppers to a video or blog that addresses their need.  

“It’s an efficiency play,” Malt says. While Malt doesn’t have a direct KPI figure to tie to its retail blog, he knows speeding up solving customer service issues keeps agents and shoppers satisfied.  

Azazie also taps its customer service team for input on what it should include in its blogs.  

“If they have a question about a trend, we can respond and create a content strategy to that, that tying into what’s trending, and what we are also offering,” Hernandez says. 

For example, a common question shoppers call in about is sizing for a bridesmaid dress while pregnant. Azazie has a blog that provides examples and tips on this topic, but it was first published in 2016. So, the content team refreshed the blog with examples of Azazie’s current maternity dresses and relevant links to its products. The customer service team refers to this blog while helping shoppers and directs shoppers to read it.   

Azazie also looks to any interactions it’s gotten on social media and trends in the bridal industry to inform its content strategy.  

The blog is under the purview of its digital marketing team, and Azazie also employs an SEO consultant to help determine its content and execution. Overall, the blogs that gain the most traffic and lead to the most sales are the ones that are integrated into its overall marketing strategy and are tied to press releases and influencers, she says.  

“It’s a lot of moving pieces and work, in order to put a campaign behind a keyword, but those are the most successful, the ones with a content strategy,” Hernandez says.  

Involving multiple departments in content creation will serve retailers well, Gartner’s Jashinsky says. Retailers would also be wise to track which types of content shoppers click on, and use that information to personalize product recommendations and for ad targeting. This is a way to gather first-party data directly from the consumer, which is especially valuable now that cookies that track shopper behavior across the web are increasingly being phased out, and can greatly benefit retailers in the long term, he says.  

If retailers do decide to make a focused effort on improving SEO through blog content or guided selling tools like a quiz to match shoppers with suitable products, they should expect it could take a year or two to see results, not months, Jashinsky says.  

“We always tell clients, this is not something you can get up and running in a week or month,” Jashinsky says. “This takes many months to get up and running, and takes a year or two to start to see significant payout. So you really need to make sure you have a long-term strategy and you are ensuring you reallocate this content as many places as possible to make sure that investment pays off.” 

For something like a quiz that guides shoppers through a series of questions and links to relevant product pages, retailers should expect to pay thousands to tens of thousands of dollars to a vendor to build it, Jashinsky says. But to do an editorial program at scale — which may take a team of writers to publish content daily and collaborate with different teams, plus the technology to plug into personalization software — that could take hundreds of thousands of dollars to millions, he says. 

For Made In, these marketing costs show up as the salaries for 10 employees dedicated to digital content instead of spending these dollars on ads. Similarly, the cost of the blog for Azazie shows up in its marketing staff resources. 1-800-Flowers also has an editorial staff that “fluctuates” depending on the time of year, John says without revealing more. 

Retailers that do strategically invest in content often see an increase in traffic from organic search, and small increases in basket size and conversion rates for shoppers that engage with this content, Jashinsky says. This, of course, varies by how well the content strategy is executed and product category.  

“Whether you are selling online or in-store, it is a pretty cost-effective way to increase SEO and increase conversion rates, and typically almost every retailer is already creating content and already has a lot of these pieces in other parts of ecosystem,” he says.  

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“What we know about our customer is she is interested in fashion — but she’s not a fashionista and looks for guidance,” says Tom Nowak, chief marketing officer.

That’s why the retailer launched “Evereve TV” in 2021. It is composed of videos featuring how clothing fits employees. Each week, the retailer posts about four to five videos. There is also a livestreaming session on Monday mornings. The content has to be fresh because clothing items tend to sell quickly, Nowak says.

“We always have to be doing new content because there’s always new product,” Nowak says. “We can’t run these as evergreens.”

A popular video category is denim, specifically blue jean pants, Nowak says. There are videos that talk about overall denim trends and others of employees showing how different styles fit them. One video features a staff member showing viewers how to cuff the ends of jeans or what type of top to wear depending on the jean leg cut. A typical shopper views an average of 1.8 videos with a completion rate of about 60% for all videos which range from under a minute to as long as 5-6 minutes, Nowak says.

“There’s a pretty high completion rate,” Nowak says, without revealing more.

Evereve staff members showcase various types of jean pants and how to style them.

Evereve TV videos lead to higher conversion

Shoppers who watch Evereve TV are more likely to buy, Nowak says. From August 2023 through mid-September 2023, conversion rate increased 12.7% for shoppers who watched the videos compared with those who did not. Evereve did not share its overall conversion rate.

Currently, Evereve TV accounts for 4% of the retailer’s web traffic. “Our hope is to increase this over time,” he says.

Conversion for shoppers engaged with videos focused on denim was about 20%. The best performing denim video was a how-to styling wide-leg denim video. This particular video resulted in a more than 35% jump in conversion during the two-month period, Nowak says.

The average order value for shoppers who engage with any Evereve TV videos was 28% higher compared with those who did not during the August through mid-September 2023 period, he says. Evereve declined to share its overall AOV.

Evereve staff address body type and fit

Nowak says the Evereve customer relies on it for a curated shopping experience.

“Finding the right pair of jeans can be life changing,” Nowak says. “It’s an important category for us. It’s an emotional experience — will you come out of it feeling awesome, psyched or disappointed?”

There’s a nuance to fit, Nowak says. The ability to showcase different styles for different body types is valuable, he says.

“Having our staff represent those body types and personally talk through the pros, cons, things to look for — there’s a lot of trust in that because they have knowledge of the product,” Nowak says.

In addition to a higher conversion rate, Nowak says that customers tend to purchase more units of clothing at checkout after watching the curated styling videos. This includes complementary clothing items to go with a pair of jeans or more than one pair of jeans, he says, without revealing more.

Retailers are focusing on authentic brand voice — and conversion

Evereve plans to continue using Evereve TV to align in-store and online shoppers.

“Evereve is very much about the styling experience,” Nowak says. “It’s very high touch. Our NPS scores are through the roof. With ecommerce, we have to raise the question about how to bring that styling point of view and guidance into the digital universe.”

Net promoter score is a customer satisfaction metric that measures how likely customers will recommend a brand or product to a friend or colleague. Retailers conduct customer surveys asking for a ranking based on a scale of 1-10. Nowak did not reveal the actual NPS number.

Getting consumer attention is critical, says Calla Murphy, vice president of digital strategy and integrated marketing at Belardi Wong.

“Clients are focused on authentic brand voice — and conversion,” Murphy says. “We see retailers use video on product detail pages as well as in email and customer relationship management (CRM) efforts as well as in paid ads across Meta, Google, YouTube and TikTok.”

Nowak believes Evereve TV is the retailer’s best way to reach both in store and online consumers.

“We’ve figured out that to have our staff talk about the same things, products, needs, occasions and body type issues our customers can relate to is really at the heart of what we’re trying to do,” Nowak says.

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The consumer package goods giant best known for its toothpaste has close to 1,000 online product detail pages when factoring in its dozens of SKUs across the 10-plus retailers where it sells its products, including Amazon.com, Walmart.com, Thrivemarket.com, Instacart.com, Albertsons’ brands and more, says Todd Hassenfelt, global digital commerce director, strategy and execution at Colgate-Palmolive.

Ensuring those product detail pages are up to date, and resonating with the target audience on each of those brands’ sites, takes a team of people. That’s why Colgate is piloting a new generative artificial intelligence tool to help optimize those pages.

Colgate already uses digital analytics vendor Profitero Inc.’s digital shelf technology to manage these pages. Starting in July and through September, Profitero is piloting a generative AI tool called “Ask Profitero” with eight of its existing clients, including Colgate.

How Colgate plans to use the generative AI bot

The tool allows brands to ask the generative AI bot questions about specific details on any product detail page on a merchant’s site. For example, Colgate could want to improve the conversion rate of its mouthwash on the Walmart.com site. It could ask the bot, “What is the optimal title length to drive sales in this category?” The bot could then answer with the ideal length of characters for the specific category on that merchant’s website.

The bot could even recommend new titles for products and explain why it tweaked the language.

Todd Hassenfelt, global digital commerce director, strategy and execution at Colgate-Palmolive

Profitero derives these insights based on how highly products rank in search results on a retailer’s website when a shopper inputs certain keywords, says Bryan Wiener, CEO at Profitero.

This data is publicly available but takes time to analyze. The vendor also has 4,000 brands globally that use its software (one account can have multiple brands, Profitero says) that also helps improve its data models.

Retrieving insights faster

The AI tool can also just be a quicker way to retrieve insights from Profitero’s software. For example, a Colgate employee could log in and find these insights, or it could just ask the chatbot, “How are my sales on total whitening toothpaste in mint across all brands?” Or retrieve out-of-stock data and find out how often a product is out of stock at a certain retailer and for how many days over the course of 30 days, Hassenfelt says.

Another example of how Colgate plans to use the tool is to easily summarize the sentiment of ratings and reviews. Instead of finding the information and doing a manual analysis, Colgate could ask “what is the sentiment of reviews for this product?” If many of the highest-ranking reviews highlight a certain attribute, such as good flavor, Colgate can then update the product detail page with this information.

Effective product detail pages are not only important for online sales. They’re important for in-store sales as well, Hassenfelt says. Shoppers frequently check their phones while shopping in stores, and they might look up additional details on product detail pages. Plus, retailers may pull information from a product detail page for any in-store signage or product promotions. Ensuring this information is up to date with the information a retailer’s audience cares most about could help influence even more sales, Hassenfelt says.

Goals for the Ask Profitero AI tool

Hassenfelt expects this tool to save its teams weeks or months of time in manual analysis. There is a huge time component to creating content and content variations for one SKU in multiple places, he says. Then, if Colgate wants to change something and then see how that improves the conversion rate, it could take months of waiting to implement and analyze something, he says.

Despite the time savings, Colgate doesn’t anticipate changing any headcount.

“It will allow our teams to make faster decisions,” Hassenfelt says.

Another goal for using the tool is an increase in conversion rate, Hassenfelt says. A one percentage point increase in conversion (for example going to a 3% conversion from a 2% conversion) could equate to $1,000 to $10,000 in dollars for each product, Hassenfelt says. An increase like this would be possible if it received actionable insights out of the tool, he says.

In the short-term, overall the goal is to, “make it simpler and faster for our teams to take the analysis from our products to then actionability, going to act on those insights, specifically for conversion rate and improving sales,” Hassenfelt says.

“Long term, does this give our teams a source really to take information in a more timely way, in a way to consolidate data and find the trends and find the information,” he adds.

Colgate has about 10-20 employees from its U.S. team working on the pilot. Plus, the brand added another seven to 10 employees from various teams across its global digital organization including marketing, branding, customer service and logistics to make a cross-functional team.

Profitero builds AI tool

Profitero built this tool in house based on artificial intelligence consortium Open AI’s language model, Wiener says. After OpenAI became available to companies, Profitero developed its tool in about 60 days, he says.

Bryan Wiener, CEO, Profitero

“We immediately saw the opportunity to make our clients’ lives easier by providing faster and better insights. The question was how to implement it,” Weiner says.

Profitero debuted the tool at a user conference in June and began working with clients on the private beta then. It was looking for the right clients to work with Profitero to train and tweak the tool to ensure it delivers valuable insights, such as, “Yes, I agree with these insights,” or “These answers are not working,” Wiener says.

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So what are online shoppers thinking about apparel buying online and across channels? Digital Commerce 360 in conjunction with Bizrate Insights surveyed 1,003 online shoppers in June 2023 to see where online shoppers stand.

Seven in 10 online shoppers are buying at least the same or more apparel online

One can’t help but conclude that with one in three online shoppers spending less on apparel in stores year over year that digital is the beneficiary and may be for some time to come.

Shoppers frequent store favorites

Retailers must understand that customer retention has important implications for purchasing apparel, with half of shoppers asserting they have their favorite stores and frequent them. Companies will need to be aggressive to become part of any apparel shopper’s routine, but the good news is that it will be worth the effort.

An understanding of fit and sizing also supports such a notion as 38% will go to retailers where purchases have been made in the past when looking for specific products.

Shoppers acknowledge that they like to get something new (31%) and update their wardrobes seasonally (30%). The web provides an opportunity for 20% to browse trends online and for 19% to look for new brands. When it comes to specifics, 18% shop mostly for special occasions and make purchases for social activities. Just 11% say their purchases are work-related, and work-from-home models may be a factor as wardrobe demands have changed.

Money still matters for 20% as they track retailer markdown strategies and only buy on sale.

I’m surprised to see that a lack of sales associates in stores pushes only 10% of those surveyed to buy online, as it is certainly challenging to hire in today’s employment climate. Additionally, it’s interesting that a lack of in-store inventory drives online buying more by 25%. Just 14% prefer to take advantage of store pickup options. There are many dynamics to monitor as shopper sentiments often shift over time.

Online shoppers use a multitude of features when shopping for apparel/accessories online focusing on targeted information that aids selection

Shoppers like to zero in on products, and it’s efficient to use search filters such as sizing, color or type, as 56% noted. It’s also significant that 46% appreciate the ability to compare products. Fit tools are also valuable, as sizing can be one of the biggest challenges when buying apparel. The fact that 13% find the ability to customize products also important may be a response to that as well.

First and foremost, 66% call out ratings and reviews as being most important. In the same vein, 34% enjoy seeing photos from other shoppers. Zoom is also a standard among apparel shoppers at 54%.

Online shoppers are accustomed to knowing products will be delivered. Additionally, a majority cited accurate delivery windows as high on the list of important website features.

Merchandising was more limited in its value but still had a role to play with new products (34%), product recommendations (29%), top sellers (25%) and trending products (19%) delivering the following importance results. Content was least significant and saw the following lower penetrations with videos (13%), how-to guides (12%), and livestreaming (6%) lower on the importance scale.

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Apparel and accessory shoppers visit stores to see and try on products, save money and get products quickly

While the physical store is seeing sales decline, it still has a role to play for 63% of participants who enjoy trying on products while 59% appreciate seeing the merchandise in person. For 56%, it’s a timing issue when they need items quickly. Store shoppers are also likely to return products to the store (31%) as they prefer seeing a quick credit to their accounts.

Some shoppers want to have guaranteed inventory availability while the same number prefer to pick up in store (19%).

Money-savings always comes up strong. 45% cited their interest around in-store sales or promotions. Along the same lines, 43% don’t want to pay for shipping.

It’s nice to see that 28% of online shoppers want to support local/small businesses. There also appears to be a trust issue as 28% feel more confident about store purchases.

Online shoppers buy from a variety of retailers with Amazon attracting the most apparel, accessory and shoe shoppers

The ecosystem of players in this category is complex. Like many categories, Amazon manages to find itself dominating. 74% of our survey participants shopped for apparel on it.

Amazon is No. 1 in the Top 1000. The database is Digital Commerce 360’s ranking of the largest North American online retailers. Amazon is also No. 3 in the Online Marketplaces database, which ranks the 100 largest global marketplaces.

Department stores play a strong role in this category as well at 47%. Brands are also an integral online destination for 37%, along with specialty retailers at 36%. Mass merchants Walmart (at 46%) and Target (32%) are also entrenched sellers.

Marketplaces are also significant; 30% providing selling opportunities for large and small sellers alike. Price-sensitive sellers like warehouse clubs and off-price retailers are neck and neck at 23%. Resellers only saw 20% penetration, though gains are likely to come in the next couple years.

To bring Amazon’s impact further into focus, four in 10 apparel buyers purchased 26% or more of their online apparel purchases in the past year on Amazon. It certainly feels like this dominance just might continue into the foreseeable future.

Each year, we gauge how aggressive shoppers are in adopting online apparel services. In all honesty, I’m surprised at the low penetration of some of these other services given their longevity in the market.

One in four ordered apparel from a company outside of the U.S. Beyond that, 18% say they have purchased custom products online that were designed to their specifications, while 17% have purchased a used/previously owned product from an online consignment seller. Sustainability is seeing inroads, as 15% have purchased apparel from an online retailer based on their sustainability stance.

Two in three apparel buyers find the overall look and feel most important to their online buying

Tastes in online branding have evolved, especially in the past few years. This is powerful. 36% enjoy seeing a presentation of diverse models that mirror the population. The brand’s story and history has always had a role to play, and 34% of respondents find it important. It’s positive to see that in a category like apparel, 25% find a brand’s sustainability practices important. Beyond that, it’s charitable giving (17%), social and political views (17%), and diversity stance (16%). Fair trade views are of lesser importance.

Seven in 10 online shoppers care about sustainability, though their buying strategies vary

Looking further into sustainability, just 21% say they seek sustainably minded retailers, with 9% already buying and only 12% willing to pay extra. Half of the respondents care about sustainability, but they simply are not willing to pay the price. Of those, 17% won’t pay more and 33% do not seek it. The 29% who have no interest in sustainability may be hardest to move into a more positive camp. Hopefully, these shifts will begin to take place in the near term.

Four in 10 online shoppers avoid retailer customer service departments

Email and in-store interactions topped the list of those touchpoints most likely to drive conversion at 22%, with a phone call to customer service (at 19%) and live chat with a human being close behind (at 17%). Interesting to note that people were a factor, so I will be watching to see if more recent tactics like social media and bots become conversion drivers in greater numbers as one might expect.

Social media is not part of the shopping process for three in 10 online shoppers. It does, however, prompt advertising clicks, get shoppers inspired and allows them to learn from others and follow products.

40% of online shoppers purchase apparel and accessories on social media platforms. This, too, suggests that time will be required for revenue growth via social media platforms.

Getting on the customer’s “favorite” list

Online apparel and accessory buying is still poised for growth, though we shouldn’t count out physical stores just yet. These categories are served by a broad ecosystem of traditional retailers and brands, though Amazon once again manages to dominate. Branding along with the features and tools retailers make available are powering positive shopping experiences, though finding the right size remains an issue. There are certainly stories still to be written from sustainability to social media. Positive customer service is always in fashion and will serve all retailers — apparel/accessories and otherwise — well.

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Hobbycraft had to learn what parts of its website did and didn’t make sense for its shoppers, what bugs to work out, and what changes its website wasn’t capable of. And after about 12 years with its previous website, it replatformed in March 2022.

It used key insights it had gained from years of web traffic data, North said. And it implemented Contentsquare, a digital experience analytics platform, to better understand changes in its website metrics.

Contentsquare “helped us understand what we needed to protect or keep,” North said. “Then it also gave us the ability to say: Based on what we know through Contentsquare, it’s an opportunity to start meeting customer needs in a different way that we hadn’t been able to deliver on the old site.”

For example, in 2017, Hobbycraft’s share of mobile website traffic “radically changed — almost overnight,” North said. Its share increased 20% to 30%.

“We’d taken that site and that technology and that architectural capability to the absolute Nth degree of what we could do with it,” North said. “We’d also optimized it as far as we could as well. It was a known entity to us, so we knew it very well. It had served us all the way through the pandemic.”

Hobbycraft is a United Kingdom-based retail chain that sells arts and crafts supplies. It ranks No. 361 in the Europe 500, Digital Commerce 360’s database of the largest ecommerce retailers in the region. About 20% of Hobbycraft’s total sales are digital, according to North.

Better understanding user behavior

She said among other features, Contentsquare tracks rage clicking. Rage clicking is when a user repeatedly clicks on part of a website because it doesn’t perform the way the user expects it to.

One such case of this is when Hobbycraft would have a statement near its checkout cart at the top of the page identifying how many items were in a user’s basket.

“It wasn’t actually a link,” North said. “It was more of an indicator, but we made it an active link that jumped you to that first line in your order because that was what the customer was expecting — what that information was there for. There’s lots of little micro-frictions all over the site that we’re always refining and reading what the customer’s doing.”

Similarly, there was a misunderstanding among consumers who went to check out and saw “gift voucher” as a payment option. The word “voucher” led shoppers to think they should look up coupon codes. Because of that, shoppers would reach the checkout page and then become overly fixated on finding a coupon code online. Hobbycraft then changed the copy and moved elements on the page, and the issue went away.

Seeing the problem clearly

North attributes the ability to understand that behavior to Contentsquare through its analysis of rage clicks and exit rates, and its session replay feature. By watching session replays, Hobbycraft and Contentsquare learned that the country field on the checkout page was editable — but it shouldn’t have been.

“So in some cases, the user was accidentally changing the country, therefore making their checking experience invalid. It had been eluding us for a while,” North said. “Sometimes, it’s really hard for the development team to recreate a bug or it’s impossible for them to do, so you really go around in circles. The session replay is what unlocked it for us.”

Hobbycraft also noticed it received more guest logins than account sign-ins on its login page. Because of that, it moved the guest login option above the user sign-in option, “which helps on a mobile screen,” North said.

“It all starts with the understanding,” said Niki Hall, Contentsquare’s chief marketing officer. “The retailers know what’s happening because they might have Adobe or Google Analytics, but they don’t know the why, so they can’t improve.”

Watching a user’s session allows Hobbycraft’s and Contentsquare’s teams to see exactly what went wrong in a user’s journey.

“When someone’s engaging with your site digitally, how do you understand their non-verbal communication? You really can’t,” Hall said. “You’re kind of flying blind unless you have something like Contentsquare.”

User journeys

North said Hobbycraft analyzes user journeys, segmenting them by traffic source. It also segments sessions with a transaction versus those without to better understand what success — conversion — looks like.

North and her team noticed shoppers exiting Hobbycraft pages because they had gone back to shop through Google, or they would hop to other product pages.

“They might look at seven product pages, and the only way they can really do that is by looking at the recommendations because the only other way to go directly from one product page to another is through the recommendation panel/widget there,” she said. “It’s telling us the consumer has come with an idea in mind of what they want, but they need to go on more of a product discovery journey to find what they want.”

In response, Hobbycraft figured out ways to position recommendations higher on product pages. After a seven-second delay, it shows recommendations of products similar to the one the shopper is viewing. Hobbycraft tested that at two-second, five-second and seven-second intervals before deciding on seven seconds.

Product pages power post-pandemic site

North said a key trend Hobbycraft noticed, for example, is that consumers became less brand loyal coming out of the pandemic. They’re under pressure in terms of cost of living, she said, so they started to shop in a different way.

“That means rather than come to us through an organic or direct landing on our homepage and start in a linear journey, we’re actually seeing that a vast majority of consumers are landing on the site directly on the product page,” North said.

They’re landing directly on product pages through Google shopping searches, she said. And because they aren’t entering Hobbycraft website through its homepage, product pages have to also perform as landing pages and “engage the user when they’re quite far down the funnel.”

That has led Hobbycraft to put a “strong focus on the product page during the replatform,” North said. For example, it has slight variances in product pages depending on if an item is out of stock or if a shopper has landed on the page from a shopping ad.

Moreover, Hobbycraft has increased its investment in paid traffic. About 30% of its traffic now comes from Google paid advertising, such as paid links, she said. The biggest share is still organic, direct traffic, she said. Organic social traffic and paid traffic each reflect about 10% of traffic, she said.

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The alarming part is that a bad customer experience could be going on without setting off any alarms for you and your team. In organizations, different teams own different parts of the digital experience and while their small part may seem to be doing well according to quantitative data, it’s impossible to have a clear understanding of what the entire customer experience is really like from start to finish. 

This is why it’s vital for ecommerce teams to clearly understand how shoppers interact and experience their brand across all channels and touchpoints. Empowering your digital and ecommerce teams with human insight enables them to capture rich context on customer behaviors and needs, optimize digital touchpoints, and make decisions quickly with confidence. 

Join us on Aug 1st as Rima Campbell, VP Experience Research Partner and Sarah Stern, Lead UX Research Partner at UserTesting delve into how adopting a test early and often framework can boost conversions and lift sales with real insights from your target audience.

In this webinar, you will learn how to:

• Address cart abandonment head on by optimizing your  ecommerce experience
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The post Boost retail conversions: The art of the possible using human insight appeared first on Digital Commerce 360.