What to do with your holiday data

With 88% of online users not returning to a site after a bad experience and average bounce rates of 41% to 55%, retailers have few second chances. 

Retail merchandising data encompasses all the information generated by your shoppers’ interactions in your online store or app. It includes details like search queries, product views, cart additions, and purchases. 

After a post-holiday data audit, focus your merchandising, marketing, and IT teams’ attention on finding innovative ways to improve browsing, navigation, and the overall customer journey. Be on the lookout for opportunities to increase the richness and relevance of the search experience.

Here are some ways to harness the power of AI search and your merchandising data:

Make data-driven merchandising decisions

Merchandising data gives you the scope to make data-driven decisions that can yield insights on which of your sales channels are most effective. It also helps identify the best times to engage with your shoppers, such as specific days or times. Being sensitive to timing can significantly impact the effectiveness of your campaigns.

Improve your website architecture

Your website's functionality can profoundly impact how your shoppers interact with your content. Your merchandising data can offer some key insights. For instance, if the data shows that shoppers often search for but can’t find certain SKUs, that suggests a need for a better organized layout or more-intuitive search functionality. Targeted improvements based on merchandising data can also shorten the path to a purchase, while improving the customer experience and driving sales.

Optimize product placement and inventory management

Merchandising data on product views, cart additions, and purchases help identify which items are most popular among your customers. This information lets you feature best sellers and works for inventory management too, by helping forecast demand with greater accuracy. 

Build effective pricing strategies

Your merchandising data can accurately inform your pricing strategy, helping ensure that what you charge is competitive and profitable. It allows team members to adapt pricing to market demands in real time. You can also use your merchandising data to confidently clear out inventory and keep your stock fresh and relevant. This can help you compete in markets where price sensitivity is high and shoppers are looking for the best deals.

Identify and leverage trends

Use merchandising data to identify emerging and seasonal trends that can help you stay ahead in a dynamic market. By spotting where things are headed early, you can then adjust your inventory to include appropriate products and tailor your marketing campaigns to align with your shoppers’ interests.

Reduce cart abandonment

Why are your shoppers leaving your site or app before making a purchase? Analyzing your data can uncover the reasons why your shoppers may purposefully be leaving empty handed — maybe they don’t like your high shipping costs, they see unexpected fees, or the checkout process takes too long.

Spot cross-selling and upselling opportunities

One of the best ways to increase AOV is through cross-selling and upselling by making AI-powered recommendations based on your merchandising data. Merchandising data provides reliable insight on which products are frequently bought together, enabling you to suggest item pairings and complementary items. 

Create personalized experiences

AI-powered search allows you to use your merchandising data to tailor unique experiences for each and every visitor based on their preferences and behavior. Shoppers are more likely to purchase, recommend, and repurchase from companies that use the technology.