Try for Free
Search Close Icon
Solutions
Solutions
Fastr Frontend
Publicator
Features & Pricing
Professional Services
Professional Services
Design Services
Development & Integration Services
Content & Ecommerce Strategy Consulting
Managed Services
Performance Services
Training
Customers
Customers
Use Cases
Case Studies
Case Studies
Health-E Commerce®
The Sak
NIC+ZOE
R.M. Williams
UrbanStems
View All Case Studies
Customer Examples
Resources
Resources
Webinars
Blog
eBooks & Reports
Glossary
Company
Company
About Us
News
Careers
The Team
Contact Us
Try for Free

«  View All Posts

Ecommerce Best Practices

The Ecommerce Content Strategy: Survey Report

October 5th, 2017 | 2 min. read

The Ecommerce Content Strategy: Survey Report Blog Feature

Zmags Blog Author

Sharing perspectives on the latest trends and tips to help eCommerce brands stay ahead to engage and drive revenue.

Print/Save as PDF

Zmags and NAPCO Research recently teamed up to gauge the state of rich content for today’s online retailers. Through an online survey seeded to the Total Retail audience, we have collected over 150 responses across industry verticals like consumer electronics, apparel, home improvement, and more. Below, we examine some of the most compelling data points gathered through our survey, and what they mean for digital marketers.

Content Matters to Retailers – Why?

Our survey found that 79% of online merchants consider content production a top or among high priorities. When planning and designing their digital marketing strategies, brands are clearly placing rich content high on the to-do list. Why is this? 32% said they publish rich content to stay competitive with fellow brands, implying that rich content is quickly becoming an industry standard. And 27% said they create rich content because they think it is what consumers want. This reflects a common trend in the marketplace; online shoppers expect a rich digital experience when they shop. They are dissatisfied with stale product grids that are frustrating to navigate. They want to engage and interact with content, and they’ll spend their money on the brands that serve up this experience. The results confirmed a fairly established fact: content matters to retailers because it matters to consumers.

 

Digital Marketers Face Production Challenges

In comparison to the statistic above, 70% of retailers produce only 1-2 pieces of rich content a month. If we know that over two-thirds of retailers rank content high on their priorities, why are so many only producing one or two rich content pieces a month? Especially when fresh content is a known engagement driver? Our respondents’ top 3 content production pain points provide some insight. 57% said creating rich content is too labor intensive, and 18% found getting rich content deployed by IT takes too long. From design to publishing, rich content production can easily take up several departments’ time and resources. But with the right ecommerce content solutions, digital marketers can bypass this convoluted production process and do it themselves, in a fraction of the time. Final Thoughts:

  1. Brands are aware that consumers want and expect rich content, and want to meet this expectation.
  2. Many retailers are struggling with their current resources - they need new tools to create the rich content they want on a consistent basis.
  3. The trajectory of ecommerce is heading towards rich content. The industry has evolved past the standard product grid, and the ability to keep up could be the difference between ecommerce winners and losers.