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8 Ways to Optimize your Major Appliances Product Data to Boost Conversion

Ankita Ingale — Tue, 05 Apr 2022 13:26:08 +0000

Online purchases of major appliances have skyrocketed over the last two years, after we saw global sales of large appliances up 31% in the first half 2021 alone. As consumer behavior shifts once again back towards in-store purchasing, some trends are here to stay. Consumers are increasingly beginning and ending their purchasing journey online, and because of this change, it is now more important than ever to maintain efficient online product data management systems.

Even if the final conversion is made in-store, most purchase decisions will involve some degree of online comparison. Accurate product data will be key to improved conversions and competitiveness within the major appliances sector. Businesses stand to gain value in the form of better purchasing experience and conversion, lower customer returns of goods purchased, stronger customer loyalty, and improved performance among search engine results.

In this article, we’ll explore a few best practices when it comes to optimizing your product data to boost conversion – let’s get started…

1. Grab Attention with The Product Title

The title is the first encounter the customer has with your company or product. This is the moment when you want to pique their interest by positioning your business as the one which has the products they want – with the features they are looking for. Those few words in the product title is your chance to direct their interest towards your product when it pops up among many other alternatives. It’s essential, therefore, to use the title not just to stand out but to communicate what’s important to the customer.

Additionally, when operating on an online platform, taking into consideration the elements which help consumers land on your page first is critical as well. This process starts with optimizing your title for the search options consumers may enter. Make sure to include the product’s brand name, product type, and size, for example. Include the most relevant information, ordering them according to the importance consumers place on them. You can do this by researching the features of major appliances or household furniture consumers searched for more often and include them first.

Different online marketplaces and channels have different requirements. Make sure to research the required elements for each so that products are smoothly accepted onto those platforms.

Now, once you have a title that captures the consumer’s interest, providing them with what they’re expecting when they click on your product page is essential.

2. Use the product description to reach your customer

Consumer studies have shown the importance of product descriptions in consumer purchasing decisions and conversion. Positive associations and experiences created with product descriptions positively affect buying decisions. The feelings created when they land on the product page and start looking through the information you have provided sets their mood while deciding on your product. Therefore, knowing what consumers are looking for helps with the development of the right descriptions. Make sure to include all the information your consumer will find most relevant. Once again, consider the requirements from different marketplaces such as Amazon, which requires specific keywords, and create descriptions that fit those criteria.

Differentiating yourself is key here as well. Highlight what makes your product different. This can take the form of a brand story, for example, or specific features and qualities unique to your product range.

3. High-quality, clear images create trust.

Images play an important role not just in attracting attention but in the buyer’s decision as well. Especially for major appliances, consumers use images to analyze and decide whether to purchase. Few or none would buy without images.

Images that makeup part of the product description should include some key elements. Firstly, so they have the greatest impact, and secondly, to increase the chance they pop up in a consumer search. These key elements include having images that are of a high resolution, are bright, include different angles of the product, show optional colors clearly, and the images should be uniform across different products.

In the major appliance market, the product description is probably more significant than the image. While the image should be good, the descriptions will contain the information people will be focusing on for comparison purposes.

4. Keep product data consistent across all channels

With product data optimization your goal is to ensure that data quality is of the highest level and the structure of the data is correct. For example, checking that the format of values matches.

You also want to avoid consumer confusion across platforms. Do this by making sure the information across all is the same and that any updated information is present on all platforms as well.

The most efficient way to do this is to automate the process. An automated product data management system promotes accuracy across all your platforms, by eliminating the chance of human error and speeds up the process in multiple ways. The results on a product page are only as good as the quality of the underlying data. So, making sure that quality is of the highest standard should be a priority.

As a business, you want to ensure the data is complete, so consumers have all the information they need upfront. To do this, set parameters for all channels when setting up. Consistent data also allows you to illustrate how products meet industry and legal standards across product ranges. This promotes consumer trust in your business plus provides consumers with a better and more informed shopping experience.

5. Maintain the most up-to-date data

Making sure the data is constantly up to date is critical not just to sales but to brand loyalty as well. You want to give consumers the most accurate information possible to help with their decision. Some of this information directly affects the consumer buying experience, such as estimated delivery time/delays. Other factors to consider are price, availability, tax, and shipping costs

Up-to-date information comes smoothly when there is a relationship and easy access to the information from brands and manufacturers. A business can ensure the latest information is available and leverage this advantage with dual syndication. (as offered by ECP)

6. Maximize the benefit from your product description page

Another area to focus on with your product description page is checking the different product description requirements and formats among the various channels. Being such a vital interface for product sales, it is important to determine what can be included in each channel and make sure you utilize it to the maximum by including everything the channel allows.

A long-term strategy you can easily implement is to develop data tags specific for each marketplace to make uploading your products there smoother.

Additionally, use unique values for each product such as product ID and product title. This will help keep it traceable in the future and will help you identify the same products across platforms.

7. Systemize your digital assets so they are easily accessible by your entire team

Consumers interact with your company in different ways, not just online. It may be through chat boxes, phone calls, or emails, for example. Your sales and customer support teams are the face of your business and an important part of the customer experience with your company. Giving your sales and support team the ability to easily answer customer queries, gives your entire business a greater advantage. Internal efficiency gains coupled with better customer loyalty.

By having the data easily accessible, accurate, and up-to-date data, the team can find the products and the product information the consumer is inquiring about quickly.

Customer support team performance can significantly impact conversions, not just by efficiently assisting customers, but also by demonstrating that the company is well organized and professional.

8. Automate the input of your data sources so you constantly have the most accurate data

It takes time and effort to ensure consistent data. Small details such as naming convention discrepancies can wreak havoc for efficient comparison of your products. Manual and repetitive tasks such as checking that all required fields have been included by the supplier and that the product information is complete are tedious and error prone. The onboarding of new products (and the regular updating of existing products) can be transformed by systemic automation. It’s possible to revolutionize your product data management process with the right PIM and DAM system.

Paving the way for product data optimization

The future of competitive business in the major appliance industry is strongly linked to efficiency in the online marketplace. Boosting conversions is certainly an achievable goal when you know how best to represent your products digitally.

Knowing how marketplace platforms work, the best ways to use them for your business advantage, and which details to focus on can take your product listings to another level. Consumers are looking for detailed information, which is accurate, up-to-date, and consistent across platforms. By making sure your data looks professional and complete, you enhance your customer journey and loyalty to your products.

Automating some of these processes means you can provide your customers with all the above much more efficiently. Plus, your team will be better able to service those valuable customers.

One way to do this is by implementing a PIM/DAM solution that takes care of all the product information for you, across all your channels – no matter how many of these open in the future, and no matter how complex or specific product information or assets need to become.

To discuss how ECP can help you tap into these trends quickly and efficiently

Contact an ECP expert

The post 8 Ways to Optimize your Major Appliances Product Data to Boost Conversion appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

20 Actions Every Retailer Can Take to Boost White Goods Ecommerce Sales

Ankita Ingale — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 13:26:08 +0000

While sales of major appliances still tend to be predominantly completed in traditional brick and mortar stores, the amount of business that’s converting online continues to grow. As customers become increasingly comfortable with making larger purchases on digital channels, and the technology delivering this experience develops and improves, we can expect to see the gap between on and offline sales narrowing over the coming years.

To double down on the opportunity that this growing segment represents, it’s time for retailers and brands alike to focus some attention on optimizing their approach to ecommerce. In this guide, we’ll explore 20 actions that every white goods retailer can – and should – take, to drive more ecommerce sales.

1. Get Smart

Whether selling on or offline, now is the time to double down on smart appliances – grow your specialism and establish your niche as a trusted and dependable source for both purchases and education on this topic. The market for connected, smart appliances is rapidly expanding – valued at $23.54b in 2019, and projected to be worth $57.64b by 2025 (a CAGR of 17.3% during 2020-2025.) Putting the effort in now will continue to pay increasing dividends.

How will this help your online sales? In terms of market appeal, smart appliances typically appeal to a younger demographic. These customers are highly likely to come from the digitally native millennial, who are more likely to buy online. Additionally, by leveraging educational content around smart devices, you can drive more traffic to your owned online properties.

2. Get Responsive

If your site isn’t already optimized for mobile, it needs to be. More than half of all ecommerce is now completed on a mobile device. Omnichannel experience is key – and mobile is often the format that bridges the gap between on and offline interactions, with customers using their phones to learn more about your products while they browse. In fact, 80% of shoppers use a mobile phone inside of a physical store to either look up product reviews, compare prices or find alternative store locations.

For major appliances – purchases that demand a high degree of consideration — retailers should be considering ways in which their online mobile stores can keep transactions friction-free and intuitive. Bonus points for those that factor in the likelihood of customers leveraging their mobiles in-store (for example, demo product QR codes to instant load additional information.)

3. Launch Quickly

When selling online, there’s a need for enhanced agility – getting new products online quickly to keep pace with competition and respond to opportunities as they arise. With so many digital channels, lines, and individual products to juggle, this can be a real stumbling block for retailers, who miss out on valuable selling time as the result of a slow, inefficient onboarding process.

Working with a PIM platform that enables dependable, accurate, and above all speedy product onboarding eliminates this issue. Additionally, if working with an automated PIM platform such as ECP, your team will also be freed from time-consuming, manual processes – leaving them to focus on content optimization and finessing PDPs to achieve optimum conversion rates.

4. Help Customers Help Themselves

The age of helplines is coming to an end! Customers will have questions to ask about appliance features, compatibility, and function – but modern trends dictate that they’d rather find the answers for themselves, without needing to have a long conversation with a member of staff. When looking to make more online sales take every opportunity to provide the information that customers need to action some “self-service” problem-solving.

This might look like detailed PDPs, including additional digital assets such as video demonstrations or downloadable information sheets. Increasingly, user-generated content (UGC) is a powerful tool in helping other customers fact-check and make decisions. Everything from customer images to reviews and answered FAQs can be leveraged to increase the likelihood of digital sales.

The recently released 2022 ACA Study: Achieving Customer Amazement revealed that in the next three to five years, older generations will expect 24/7 availability, online chat, with a preference for human interactions only, and an expectation to never be put on hold or transferred. In contrast, younger generations expect mobile-friendly and intuitive self-service options.

5. Double Down on Social Proof (c. 140 words)

Social proof is a proven conversion booster. 88% of consumers trust user reviews as much as personal recommendations, but 85% of consumers think that online reviews older than 3 months aren’t relevant. It’s essential to leverage customer feedback – whether this be in the form of aggregated star ratings (on owned pages, or pulled together by Google Shopping to display within your Shopping Ads,) or integrated, in-depth reviews leveraged across your PDPs.

The key to success here is a regular cadence of new reviews – so that content and opinion always appear fresh and relevant. Additionally, the number of reviews that go towards making up a rating or supporting a product is important. Major appliances are infrequently purchased on an individual basis, so it’s important to have a dependable and well-optimized method in place to request and collect feedback, woven into your aftersales care and contact.

Social proof is especially beneficial at the product discovery stage – many shoppers will begin their search for an appliance on Google, and Shopping Ads with a seller rating (displayed as small stars in the ad) are thought to command a CTR that’s 20% higher than those without.

6. Digitize your Ongoing Customer Connection

When it comes to nurturing an ongoing customer relationship, the major appliance sector has an advantage that it should lean into and optimize. After the purchase of a fridge or tumble dryer, there’s typically a much higher demand for product aftercare. With everything from installation, set up, repairs, and replacement parts offering an opportunity to connect, retailers can lean on improved digital marketing solutions and CRMs to consolidate everything that’s known about their customers to help provide next-level care and service.

Earning loyalty and improving personalization opportunities, and segmented messaging, factors in the past interactions and purchases of individual customers can help to improve CLT, via targeted messaging and discounts, as well as a generally improved customer experience which will help boost brand advocacy.

7. Eliminate Data Silos for Better Online Service

When it comes to consolidating data, efforts should go beyond the customer and CRM software. Its increasingly important to ensure that your internal operations are well-connected, with product, sales, and marketing teams able to easily share information and collaborate with access to the same data sources.

Not only will this enable better customer service and experience outcomes, but retailers can also expect to enable full-funnel accountability, ensuring that their whole organization is pulling together efficiently. ECP offers a valuable “single source of truth” when it comes to the consolidation and distribution of product information – especially helpful within the major appliances sector, where so many product details need to be accessible and regularly checked for accuracy.

8. Reimagine Online Support

We’ve already addressed the benefits of offering a more “self-service” approach to customer questions – but when direct contact is required, how is your online support optimized to encourage sales? Increasingly, the expectation for 24/7 support is becoming the norm – and this is arguably especially important for the major appliance sector – we’re all so dependent on the appliances that run in our homes and businesses, that when something goes wrong, patience for answers and help may run out fast!

Thankfully, vast improvements to AI-powered customer service, via intelligent chatbots and optimized triage systems that filter requests, escalating complex or high-value inquiries to a human agent, have helped ensure that around-the-clock help can be delivered to a high standard.

9. Blur the Digital Divide

When looking to boost your online sales, remember to factor in the full, omnichannel experience of your customers – there’s no “one pathway” that shoppers will take on the pathway towards conversion. Some may research online, and then buy in store, while others will wander your physical stores while checking their mobile devices for features and comparisons.

Think about ways that you can help to “blur the digital divide” when it comes to this kind of omnichannel experience. Digital experiences can be a part of in-store shopping – consider aspects such as QR codes to help quickly load product information or enable a helpful side-by-side comparison with other scanned products in store. Similarly, bring the in-store experience closer to your digital customers by enabling an easy “click and collect” service.

Increasingly in-store beacons, which can send targeted messaging or discounts to customers, provide interesting opportunities for retailers ready to get creative. This kind of additional data can also help to better inform future segmented digital marketing and retargeting, which in turn, helps to polish up that seamless omnichannel experience.

10. Be Ready for New Channel Opportunities

New digital sales channels are constantly emerging. As a sector that centers around the sale of larger goods with a higher price point, major appliance vendors run the risk of assuming they don’t need to pay attention here, but we’d argue this can represent a shortsighted view of the market’s most exciting opportunities.

While the latest digital channels often seem skewed toward a younger demographic, we need only look at TikTok and the huge commercial clout that this platform now holds for brands in terms of reach and recognition to see we underestimate potential at our peril. While you may not be making many sales on certain channels in the short term, the sooner your presence is established, the stronger your foundations will be as the opportunity evolves. From live video shopping through to social platforms, every channel carries a value – be it recruitment, customer service, brand recognition, or, eventually, sales – every new channel should be carefully assessed for present and future opportunities.

11. Get Transparent On Timings

Consumer faith in supply chains has been rocked in recent years. The major appliance sector has on occasion been somewhat overreliant on JIT (“Just In Time”) or lean manufacturing practices and the pandemic exposed the fragility of these systems given the right mix of problematic circumstances. During the period of high demand and low supply that the pandemic represented for white goods, long order times became commonplace – leading to a loss of brand loyalty (as customers opted for items with shorter lead times.)

While this was a disadvantage for the sector, it can now be worked up into an opportunity for ecommerce sales. Customers may still be feeling concerned about delivery times and delayed orders, so online retailers can double down on transparency when it comes to timings and turnaround. Keep your PDPs regularly updated with lead times and clearly displayed delivery dates – showing a customer when they could be enjoying their new appliance if they placed their order that day. With a PIM platform such as ECP, keeping this information accurate across all digital channels is simple, offering the chance to erase an otherwise significant blocker to conversion.

12. Reassure on Returns

In a similar vein, be very clear about your returns policy – major appliances are a tricky category here but knowing you have a fair returns policy should help instill confidence in shoppers who are hesitant to buy without having seen a physical product.

Once again, by prominently displaying this information across your digital channels, you can remove a blocker to conversion, and amp up the convenience factor that an ecommerce consumer is typically chasing.

13. Sidestep Content Degradation

When making sales online, the accuracy of your product data is critically important. Major appliance retailers should be taking extra measures to ensure this, as products are feature-heavy, with a lot of information and assets required to satisfy a curious customer.

Content degradation occurs when the original content, assets, and information provided by a manufacturer or brand is slowly eroded in quality as it passes through the supply chain and is communicated by resellers across a range of channels. Old images or outdated specifications mean that any product presented online is at an immediate disadvantage.

Sidestep the issue with ECP, which enables dual syndication of product information – pulling data and assets directly from brand catalogs to ensure you’re always displaying the latest, most accurate content – optimizing your sales and enabling much better brand control.

14. Aim for Omnichannel Consistency

With more channels to control than ever before, this has never been more important. When browsing products across a wider range of channels, the impression a customer gains should be always consistent – digital assets and product information plays a key role here. We’ve already spoken about ensuring you have access to the latest and most accurate content – a PIM and DAM system will help to ensure that this data is consistently distributed across every owned channel.

ECP offers both PIM and DAM functionality, pushing content quickly and accurately to any specified channel and ensuring that the picture you’re painting is the same no matter where a customer encounters a product that you offer for sale. Why is it so important to get a handle on a digitized strategy here? With new channels emerging at an ever-increasing rate, the future is only going to get more complicated…

15. Enable Side by Side Comparison

When you’re looking to see more online conversions, one of the best steps you can take is optimizing a shopper’s ability to make up their mind! There are a lot of factors to consider when buying a new major appliance, and multiple options will typically be considered. Offering functionality that assists side-by-side comparison can help the purchasing experience and decrease the chance of shoppers navigating away to compare competitors’ products.

Once you’ve optimized for product comparison, it’s time to further boost chances of conversion by throwing enhanced product discovery into the mix. Leveraging AI to add product suggestions into the experience, guiding your customer to discover the perfect product for their requirements.

16. Deploy Persistent Shopping Carts

Persistent shopping carts “remember” what a customer added to the cart and, if they don’t convert, ensure that the same items are waiting for them the next time they visit your online store. This strategy has advantages for most ecommerce verticals but is especially helpful for the large appliances sector, where customers will typically take longer to make a purchase decision and may even be leveraging the shopping cart as a “shortlist” function – collecting a range of products that they’re considering to help them keep track before completing a purchase.

Once a customer has added an appliance to their cart, the chances are high that this item meets many of the criteria they’re considering. By ensuring that it’s ready and waiting for them on their next visit, you can decrease the amount of time they need to spend tracking down the specific model again (often something of a chore given the amount of variation within a major appliance line.)

17. Optimize On-Site Search

On-site search is an (often undervalued) secret weapon of mass conversion. By leveraging AI-led solutions to optimize the experience of searching for a product on your online store, you can have a huge impact on sales, by ensuring that the right product is always placed in front of the right customer.

By assessing personalized user behavior and purchase intent, search results can be optimized to ensure that the products most likely to convert are returned at the top of the page. By applying an understanding of whether your customer is likely to be shopping for products that will suit a large family home or small condo, for example, a generic search term like “fridge” could turn up a wildly different range of results, getting them closer to the right product quickly and efficiently.

18. Apply Personalization to Your Visual Merchandizing

AI can also help to improve the visual merchandising of your store, automatically reordering your category pages and internal search results to ensure the products with the highest chance of conversion are always boosted.

This kind of finetuning goes down as far as variant level, for example, if the anthracite grey colorway of a certain fridge is your best seller, this product variant will be displayed as the default thumbnail image when a customer is browsing your store or search results.

19. Keep On Top of Attributes

Another factor to consider when boosting your ecommerce sales for white goods is the high dependency on filtering that your customers will likely display. With so many options, variants, and models on offer, the ability to filter by feature and attribute plays a huge role in online shopping for major appliances.

This means an increased need for consistency and regular review of attributes – and an efficient and accurate method for onboarding products. Effectus Content Platform can help here by ensuring an automated workflow for onboarding that pulls data directly from manufacturer or brand catalogs and applies it consistently across all channels with minimal manual input. Additionally, ECP’s content scoring feature will help ensure that if any of your PDPs are falling below the necessary threshold for optimum conversion (when it comes to the amount of data and attributes available) you’ll be alerted to act and update to fix the issue.

20. Online Data Can Have Offline Impact

Finally, the importance of collecting and leveraging data (both relating to customers and your products) can simply not be overstated. Data-driven decisions should be at the heart of your ecommerce strategy, highlighting the path to improvements and optimization that apply continuous growth across these important channels.

Ecommerce custom offers a window into the hearts and minds of your customers, with purchasing behavior tracked and interpreted with greater ease and to a greater degree than anything that in-store purchase can offer. Prioritize collection and clear interpretation – thinking about the lessons that can be applied to your entire omnichannel operation as a result.

Ecommerce represents an ever-increasing opportunity for the major appliance sector – but control is key

While most major appliance conversions are still made in-store, ecommerce represents an ever-increasing proportion of sales. With the pandemic accelerating both technical capacity and consumer willingness to shop online for an expanding range of products – including those which are traditionally “in-person” purchases – there’s every reason to believe that this gap will continue to reduce.

Major appliance retailers looking to optimize their market position – today and in the future – need to get their digital house in order now. The coming years are likely to bring more channels and more demand – and all the associated challenges that this combination represents. Digital transformation of omnichannel processes, to bring greater accuracy, efficiency, and consistency to customer service, are essential if the growth potential of ecommerce sales is to be fully realized.

Take control of your digital sales channels with ECP – book a demo today to streamline your systems and lay the groundwork for a leading omnichannel strategy.

Contact an ECP expert

The post 20 Actions Every Retailer Can Take to Boost White Goods Ecommerce Sales appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

Major Appliance Product Page Analysis: Here’s What We Found

Ankita Ingale — Sun, 20 Mar 2022 13:26:08 +0000

The major appliance sector continues to experience a global boom – retail sales across the industry reached an eye-watering $240b in 2020. What’s been driving this exponential growth over the last few years? When it comes to rising demand, the impact of the pandemic is impossible to ignore. With people spending more time at home than ever before and cutting back on spending due to factors such as limits on travel and socializing, many started looking to spend their disposable income on house improvements, to provide a more comfortable and luxurious home environment (learn more about how the pandemic has impacted the major appliances market, here) .

This continues to present a huge opportunity for retailers in the major home appliance space to increase sales, upsell and cross-sell to consumers. Those that have caught on have doubled down on digital – shifting their focus toward optimizing the product pages on their websites, with a special focus on adapting their outputs for an omnichannel experience.

The way that retailers showcase white goods online is influenced by many factors – from the channel being used to distribute the goods, to the customer journey stage and even the brand’s image. On owned commercial sites, every aspect from page format, content structure, and layout to the colors, language, and tone of voice can be considered carefully to portray the right image and capture the intended audience. If the product is being shown via a social platform such as Instagram, eye-catching features may be communicated in formats such as infomercial style videos or influencer-led showcases), as opposed to the more static, attribute-focused listings found on marketplace platforms, intended to allow better product comparison.

In this article, we’re going to be taking a deep dive into how some of the major industry players are presenting their products online across multiple channels and platforms and analyzing how they’ve used certain techniques and trends to further capture audiences.

Link to this article once live: How Has The Pandemic Impacted Import of Major Appliances?

What new technologies are enhancing the PDP experience?

When it comes to product pages in the major appliances sector, there’s an ever-expanding range of tools and techniques that retailers can leverage to stand out from the competition. Household brands are utilizing innovative technology to not only drive sales but also provide an improved and frictionless customer experience, to encourage greater purchasing confidence and fewer returns from customers.

Some of the technologies that big-name brands are using to enhance their PDPs include:

Augmented Reality (AR)

Swedish-founded furniture and major appliance retailer, IKEA, has developed an in-house app called ‘IKEA Place’ that uses augmented reality (AR) technology to enable customers to view furniture and other major appliances in their home setting, from the comfort of their sofas. Consumers simply use the AR app to scan the room to collect all the dimensions, and then they select a product from the retailer’s catalog and the app shows the buyer how and where the item would fit in the scanned room and what it will look like – with a 98% accuracy rate. The simple app design facilitates smooth and easy navigation via an interactive space while engaging consumers. The use of this technology has facilitated greater purchase confidence and fewer returns from buyers for IKEA.

3D Planning Solutions

Another valuable tool that white goods retailers are increasingly placing on their product pages for consumers to leverage is 3D planning technology. Brands including Pottery Barn and Wayfair are leveraging easy and intuitive 3D planning solutions to enable users to design their dream homes. Customers create floor plans in 2D and browse their chosen brand to furnish the home in 3D. Available via desktop and mobile apps, customers can create designs on the go and even produce like-like 3D renders and HD imagery, providing a truly immersive visual experience.

Virtual Showrooms

For retailers targeting consumers who prefer to browse products in the comfort of their own homes but find the lack of ‘virtuality’ that 3D planning solutions and renders offer a barrier to completing a purchase, digital showrooms are ideal. Virtual showrooms are a great alternative for retailers that want to motivate conversions while allowing customers to see product ranges in near real life. Alongside its new range of appliances, multinational corporation, Sharp, launched its own virtual showroom in December of 2021. The tool demonstrates the retailer’s range of appliances and allows users to move around the kitchen and interact with products virtually, including opening appliances to view the interiors, as well as an interactive feature that provides specification details virtualized alongside each product.

Artificial Intelligence

AI technology has progressed leaps and bounds over the last 5 years and retailers and taking advantage of its improvements. For example, online furniture and appliance retailer, Wayfair, is using machine learning technology to decipher which products complement each other and then recommend them to its customers. This ensures the brand only recommends relevant products as the intelligent algorithm uses historical data to provide a hyper-personalized experience to the Wayfair customer base.

Video killed the radio star

Radio was top of the advertising list for many international brands and marketplaces 10-15 years ago – they were a great way to reach consumers on a regional and national level. Now? They virtually don’t exist anymore, especially within the major appliances sector. Online advertising quickly took over soon after the dot come boom and now, video is set to do the same.

The video format has given the white goods industry the chance to provide a variety of helpful tips and tricks, ‘how-to’ guides, measurement, and installation guides, and more, to consumers. This has all been made possible and available in an easily digestible and engaging way thanks to video, and the majority of retailers are now placing product, sales, and marketing videos on their online product pages.

But there’s no reason to stop there. Although we’re yet to see major appliance retailers leverage this specific technology for video, brands that want to evoke a real wow factor reaction to their products could use first-person view (FPV) drones to create awe-inspiring product videos like those that have been used by the automotive and housing industries. FPV drones could be used to launch new products or film appliances in operation to provide a new level of quality videos that will undoubtedly encourage customers to purchase.

However, note that the key here is length. To remain engaging and encourage the ‘stickiness’ factor’ product marketing videos should be under a minute.

What’s included?

The type of information included on product pages differs from industry to industry. For those in the major appliances sector, this then differentiates even further depending on the actual product on the page.

Standard information that all major appliance retailers should include on their fridge freezer, dishwasher, and washing machine product pages, for example, include things such as brand and model, measurements/ dimensions, load capacity, technical compatibilities like Bluetooth or WiFi connectivity, or including information such as if the appliance can be controlled via an app, available colors and ECP rating. All this information provides the consumer with the majority of what they need to know to complete a purchase. Of course, this depends on the individual consumer, some will inevitably seek additional information, resources, or research to instill a greater level of confidence to buy.

But how are retailers delivering this information? While some have opted to keep it simple and have the relevant product information laid out in a single list, some have taken an alternative approach. Best Buy, for example, has included collapsible sections on each of its product pages such as ‘What’s included’ and ‘Customer reviews’. This ensures that all the information a consumer needs or wants is available but it’s easier to find depending on what category of information that consumer is looking for. The result? A smoother customer experience and a quicker purchase cycle.

Alongside this standard product information, many major appliance retailers like Home Depot are implementing urgency creator tactics on their product pages. For example, a retailer may include ‘limited stock available’ or ‘buy now while stocks last’ tags on certain products. This is often down to two reasons, either the product is indeed selling out fast and stock levels are low or, the retailer has failed to sell the product stock and is now creating a false sense of urgency to help encourage consumers to purchase it. And these tactics work, according to research, urgency is a prominent psychological technique that compels people to act straight away.

Additional information sections such as delivery, installation, warranty, FAQs, and the return policy should also be included as standard on product pages. For retailers that want to go the extra mile, provide customers with peace of mind, and encourage a greater level of purchasing confidence, including information such as customer reviews and trust badges are ideal. Offering unbiased and unaltered product reviews are a great way for retailers to make potential customers feel more confident with their product choices. The more reviews a retailer shows, the more convinced a shopper will be that they’re making the right purchase decision. Also, for major appliance retailers looking to increase their online presence, reviews are a great way to achieve this goal.

Something else that retailers – or more specifically – marketplace platforms have only really started doing in the last 5+ years is comparisons. This is where a retailer not only provides a consumer with the means to compare prices of the same product across channels but also different versions or models of the same products. The retailer will then often divulge what is and isn’t included with each product, whether that’s technical capabilities, size, ease of use, or something else. This helps to install greater trust and honesty in the brand from a consumer perspective, as they are in a sense, putting all their cards on the table in plain sight.

Cross-sell the upsell

We’ve all been browsing a brand’s online catalog and noticed a small scroll bar at the bottom of a product page with the words ‘if you like this, we think you’ll love this’ or, ‘those who bought this, often bought this’ and sometimes, ‘frequently bought together’. Major appliance websites are no different.

These messages are a great cross-selling technique that helps to keep not only existing customers but also entice potential ones too on a retailer’s website. Many major appliance brands and marketplace platforms are leveraging these tactics to their advantage to increase cross-selling across product ranges and categories, while also providing a more personalized experience to customers.

Some brands uniquely use cross-selling techniques. For example, if you go to the laundry appliance section of Whirlpool’s website before you even click on whether you’re looking for a washer or dryer, the brand cross-sells washer and dryer sets. The brand’s message behind this tactic is that it enables customers to do laundry their way via a paired load and go system. This is an interesting selling technique from Whirlpool as it encourages additional purchases before a consumer even clicks on a product category.

Alongside the cross-selling techniques, is the upsell. Most major appliance retailers we found utilize upsell techniques on products in the low to mid-weight range. Messaging and offers such as ‘upgrade to [product] by 2025 for [%] off’ are very common and provide retailers with the means to encourage consumers to purchase a model higher than they were perhaps considering. This means more money for retailers and a better product for the consumer.

‘Complete the set’ type offers are also popular amongst retailers and consumers. The level of customization that major appliance brands now offer to consumers is far more than it used to be. Gone are the days of the ‘white’ goods, consumers can now often choose from a range of colors, energy sources, and power options. This increase in options has resulted in consumers now expecting to be able to purchase matching sets from a brand for greater uniformity in their homes.

All these types of offers and suggestions are offered based on data from personal preference, previous purchases, and items that consumers have often bought at the same time.

What about omnichannel?

All consumers have their personal preferences when it comes to how they make online white goods purchases. Regardless of whether a consumer wants to browse or reserve an item online and then pick it up in-store, browse in-store and complete a purchase online, or purchase a product on a social media platform, major appliance retailers must be prepared to cater to each possible variation of the purchasing journey.

Having a concrete omnichannel strategy at the helm is critical for retailers to target consumers on whichever platform they prefer and at any touchpoint. For consumers that prefer to spend more time browsing social media platforms such as Instagram, and less time perusing the aisles of Best Buy, personalized and targeted ads on social channels are a great way for retailers to reach them more effectively. This personalized approach also helps to improve brand awareness and loyalty as consumers are experiencing more familiarity with the brand as it’s appearing on their preferred shopping channels.

Many major appliance retailers have now also developed their own apps. We’ve already spoken about the IKEA Place app but it’s just one example of how some retailers are expanding their omnichannel strategy to provide an even greater level of customer service. Other brands including Amazon also boast easy-to-use apps that allow consumers to make purchases directly on the app. This can come with significant benefits for consumers as they often offer exclusive in-app deals and discounts.

Page navigation

Smooth and simple product page navigation is a must-have for all major appliance retailers.

Easy website navigation is key to keeping customers on-site. Consumers have now come to expect a certain level of quality when browsing major appliance products and services online, and all it takes is one clunky experience or slow-loading webpage to turn off a potential customer and for them to churn to a competitor that provides a better online experience.

One-way retailers are providing an improved experience on their websites is through the use of breadcrumb page navigation. This is a technique that shows a potential customer what page of the site they are on, and the previous pages they clicked to get to where they are now. Each stage of the journey is hyperlinked so customers can always get back to a previous page with a simple click of a button.

Another easy yet effective way that retailers can avoid a negative experience on their website is to ensure fast page loading speeds. Consumers aren’t going to sit and wait for a page to load to convert:

For retailers that are struggling to convert potential buyers into customers due to poor site navigation, getting in an expert team to conduct an audit and analysis of the site and distribution channels to see what’s going wrong and where is a good starting point.

Picture perfect

Research shows that content that is supported by relevant photos receives 94% more views than content that isn’t. For major appliance retailers, including images of the products they’re selling online is vital, consumers simply aren’t going to purchase a big-ticket item such as a washing machine or oven without seeing a picture of it first.

After looking at some of the big-name brands in the major appliances space, we’ve noticed that there are a few trends retailers are getting on board with when it comes to the imagery, they are using on their product pages. For the most part, most retailers are using big clear images with no background noise to market their products. However, these simple images are merely used to entice the consumer.

In line with the virtual showroom, 3D planning solutions, and AR technology trends we covered earlier, more and more consumers are looking for imagery where the product is placed in the home setting. Some retailers are providing these images in support of the simpler product shots, and some are using them front and center. We’ll use IKEA as another great example here, the brand doesn’t only set up complete rooms in-store, but they do so online too to show appliances in a home setting.

For consumers, the ability to view appliances online in a home environment provides greater familiarity, and it means they can see what the product looks like in a real-life setting, without the need to use a 3D planning solution or download an app – it’s instant gratification. To discover more profitable major appliance trends, look at our blog.

Conclusion

All-in-all, the majority of major appliance retailers across the board are adopting the same tactics and techniques and including a similar level of detail when it comes to the information, they include on their product pages. The biggest differences we found were predominantly regarding the format and structure of content, and the styles used for digital assets like images and video. The styles used here mostly differed between brands that were targeting different buyer personas.

For retailers that want to improve their product information further and get it 100% across all channels, encourage repeat purchases from consumers, and do so whilst providing a superior customer experience, a combined PIM (Product Information Management) and DAM (Digital Asset Management) solution is the key.

ECP offers major appliance retailers just that. Clear Quality Scores provide retailers with content scoring so they can see exactly where content is performing well and where improvements can be made. All product content is also made editable across all distribution channels, so information is always up-to-date and consistent across platforms. Features such as Asset Categorization and Brand Control also enable retailers to ensure assets such as photos and video are always readily available and in order, while also enabling multiple user access so teams can work collaboratively and consistently on assets across channels.

Are you a retailer looking to become the next top player in the major appliance market?

Contact an ECP expert

The post Major Appliance Product Page Analysis: Here’s What We Found appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

How Data-Driven Marketing Is Changing Online Sales of Major Appliances

Ankita Ingale — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 13:26:08 +0000

Data-driven marketing – it’s a phrase that’s become so ubiquitous within modern business that we barely stop to examine its meaning. In an age when data represents the lifeblood of business, the overlap of customer behavior and customer experience lies in the savvy leverage of this all-important recourse.

In the broadest terms, data-driven marketing is defined by the application of knowledge to action – we take what we know about our customers (their likes, dislikes, habits, and patterns of behavior) and use this knowledge to power a more effective, personalized, and impactful mode of communication. While this is a practice that has essentially been established since the 1950s, with the dawn of the digital age, and especially with the rapid growth of ecommerce, data-driven strategy plays a prominent role in modern marketing.

What impact has data-driven marketing had within the world of online major appliance sales in recent years? In this article, we’ll dig into a few emerging trends and examine the changes (and acceleration) that the sector is starting to see.

Big Changes Within Customer Behavior, Big Changes Within Data?

When attempting to understand the opportunity and effect that data-driven marketing is having on the major appliance sector today, it’s impossible to ignore the disruptive impact that the recent pandemic has had on consumer behavior. We’re living through a time of unprecedented and accelerated change – and this has implications for the data that we can gather as a result.

During the Covid-19 crisis, one in five consumers switched brands, and seven in ten tried new digital shopping channels. The way that consumers shopped changed overnight as stores locked down and brands scrambled to innovate via digital sales channels. For verticals that had traditionally seen the vast majority of their sales obtained through traditional brick and mortar retail (as with major appliances), ecommerce sales started to climb – in fact, more than 31% of all major household appliances were sold online during this period.

What does an intense period of behavioral change such as this mean for the data that we hold and gather? While some would suggest that data is the key to better understanding these more generalized fluctuations, helping us to predict future change, others argue that behaviors are simply changing too quickly for dependable patterns to emerge. And even if retailers can extract clear learnings from the data they amass, are they able to respond to them productively?

Ultimately, the answer lies in a company’s ability to hone its precision marketing – at pace. Data-driven marketing is still an important component for success within the major appliance sector, but today, it represents the most significant opportunity for responsive brands that can keep pace with this newly accelerated change.

More Online Sales for the Major Appliances Market Means More Opportunity

While customer behavior has, to a certain extent, always been monitored and accommodated – whether sales are occurring on or offline – digital customer journeys offer a particularly rich seam of data. Easily collected and interpreted, the data generated by online interactions enables more accurate personalization and segmentation, quickly evolving marketing strategies and determining new directions.

Mainly comprising of large, expensive, and infrequently purchased items, the odds may seem stacked against the sector when it comes to online sales. With longer purchase consideration times, and the desire to physically view and experience appliances before committing, it’s unsurprising that the major appliance sector has traditionally had less access to data generated by online sales.

Yet we are seeing the gap between on and offline closing, and even for sales completed in-store, the customer journey is highly likely to have been omnichannel up until that point. A decade ago online channels influenced almost half of all appliance sales – today, we can reasonably expect that the vast majority of final sales include at least one digital touchpoint.

Recent research from Statista suggests that home appliance purchases are driven by women between the ages of 30-44. This group is 37% more likely to use their mobile devices to research a new washing machine or dishwasher before making such a purchase (usually spending a minimum of £500 or more on a new appliance). Furthermore, according to Statista, within the household appliance segment, ‘41% of total market revenue will be generated through online sales by 2023.’

While in-store strategies are becoming more advanced, digital interactions and behaviors are much easier to track, so as more activity moves online, more lessons can be learned – and data-driven personalization strategies can be implemented with much greater success within the major appliance space.

Let’s examine three areas in which major appliances stand to make big gains linked to data-driven decision-making in their future marketing strategies…

Customer Engagement

A better understanding of how our customers are experiencing our major appliance brands – as the move between on and offline channels -– offers the opportunity to facilitate better outcomes for the customer journey and customer insights. AI and automation have important implications here – with so many considerations and comparisons typically being made when it comes to the purchase of a large item such as a refrigerator or dishwasher.

With better leverage of data-driven insight, pre- and post-purchase brand interactions can be optimized and used as a chance to upsell, cross-sell or reengage. The growth of smart appliances promises to be especially important here, as interest in (and demand for) this segment of the market grows. With these more advanced and complex appliances there’s more to demonstrate, more to learn, and (hypothetically!) more to go wrong. The replacement cycle of smart appliances may also be shorted as customers choose to replace items as tech is superseded by new models. All of this adds up to more chances to engage with a customer over time.

Customer Trust

Trust comes from understanding our customers’ needs – and this understanding comes from attaining a consolidated view of consumer data. Being able to confidently convey a

For example, within the major appliances sector, consumer preferences can vary regionally. As a result, the drive to “design globally and adapt locally” is critical. Samsung archives this through its range of Global Design Studios. These labs go beyond product performance to assess the future needs and values of customers – “everything from how the family is evolving to work, education and wider societal and cultural trends.”

To gain and maintain consumer trust, there’s a growing need to deploy a joined-up approach to data-driven marketing, making sense of multiple brands sold across multiple channels, in multiple markets. Increasingly, this is achieved via specialist global or country-level dashboards, providing the kind of nuanced, location-specific insight needed to

Following the pandemic, there’s a real need to double down on trust following the supply chain issues and associated long waits, so this is a key area in which the application of data can help major appliance businesses gain crucial ground.

Customer Loyalty and Advocacy

Finally, with brand loyalty having been significantly eroded over the past few turbulent years, there’s a need to establish customer loyalty. Data-driven marketing has the potential to improve understanding of where loyalty lies – specifically in discovering which customer profiles need winning back, and which have remained loyal?

Customer data also has the potential to help brands leverage the power of advocacy more effectively – which customer segments are likely to become brand advocates, and how can they be amplified and courted in greater numbers in the future? Increasingly, social proof in the form of reviews and ratings can be sought and leveraged digitally – a great way to keep abreast of customer opinion, at the same time as integrating this valuable information into marketing and promotional campaigns.

By doubling down here, brands also set themselves up for greater success through digital channels, increasing personalization and intelligent retargeting to ensure that the right messages are reaching the right segments with ever-increasing, data-driven accuracy.

The Future of Major Appliance Marketing Is Data-Driven

There are so many opportunities on the table when it comes to the smart leverage of data within omnichannel marketing strategies in the major appliances space. Consumer behavior within this very specific market has just undergone a real shake-up, and the smartest businesses will now be investing in the technology and platforms that help them to get a profitable understanding of the way that the market is evolving as the dust settles.

By taking a data-driven approach to future marketing activities, major appliance brands can ensure that they’re meeting the rising expectations of their customers, via personalized messaging, carefully segmented targeted campaigns, and a heightened degree of relevance. A “one size fits all” approach is no longer sufficient, and with an ever-growing number of sales being made online, now is the time to double down on the data this provides.

The post How Data-Driven Marketing Is Changing Online Sales of Major Appliances appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

6 Business Processes that Increase White Goods Ecommerce Revenue

Ankita Ingale — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 13:26:08 +0000

The world of ecommerce is in a constant state of evolution and flux. From escalating customer expectations to optimized internal operations, new systems for ensuring ecommerce revenue growth are regularly proposed. How can your Major Appliance sector business ensure you’re accessing and adopting the best business processes, and seeing the best return on investment in these instances?

To be successful going forward, businesses will have to adjust internal processes to support the new trend toward digitalization. The white goods ecommerce industry is no exception. Having the internal structures to support a productive omnichannel experience is increasingly essential, and AI, digital transformation, and enhanced customer support provide the foundation for all future online revenue growth.

In this article, we’ll explore some of the business processes that can help accelerate ecommerce sales growth, through increased efficiencies and data-driven strategy.

Read on for our six top recommendations when it comes to increasing your white goods ecommerce revenue…

1. Digitally transform your Product Information Management

It’s a clichéd phrase, but one that exists for a reason – retail is detail. Customers are looking for specifics, and without the information they need, conversion simply won’t occur. This effect is amplified when we’re looking at online sales. No product to hold, view, test or assess? Without the reassurance of detailed product descriptions, digital assets, and supporting social proof, consumers simply won’t take the leap of faith. This effect is compounded even further in the case of expensive, attribute-heavy items like refrigerators and washing machines…

With the rise of omnichannel, and as retailers have come to appreciate the value and importance of product information, we’ve seen a marked increase in the adoption of dedicated PIM (product information management) systems. By leveraging a digital platform tailored to the specific storage, organization, and distribution of accurate product information, retailers can ensure they’re making optimal use of the data they own, and by extension, see optimal conversion rates from the PDPs they populate.

By digitally transforming their PIM with a platform that enables the automation of many time-consuming, manual tasks, retailers can manipulate and edit information across any sales channel, ensuring better accuracy, higher performance, and improved customer experience. PDPs that lack detail underperform – while those with incorrect or outdated information may lead to costly returns and damaging negative reviews.

When assessing internal processes that stand to boost revenues and deliver dependable ROI, PIM is a sound investment. By integrating a dedicated PIM platform, retailers can:

Increase conversion rates for PDPs
Identify and improve underperforming PDPs
Improve team efficiency and collaboration
Achieve a more consistent omnichannel experience
Reduce the burden on customer service teams
Minimize the expense and product wastage associated with returns

2. Centralize and standardize your digital assets

Hand in hand with product information, digital assets represent another critical component when it comes to ensuring optimized ecommerce revenue growth. For omnichannel retailers, and even in the case of Major Appliances (where the majority of final sales will be made in-store,) a consistent and comprehensive approach to digital asset management is critical. With so much product exploration, comparison, and consideration taking place online ahead of a sale being made, ensuring your customers have access to accurate, high-quality images, videos, manuals, guides, and more all contribute to healthy conversions.

Just as PIM has evolved to run more effectively over dedicated digital platforms, DAM (digital asset management) has also evolved to meet the demands of omnichannel and the modern consumer. In addition to improving the process of distributing and storing digital assets, a dependable DAM platform also helps to ensure better brand control – keeping assets aligned to brand standards and presentation guidelines.

As more sales channels emerge, brand control will become an increasingly important consideration for those looking to attain the best results and revenues. By working with a DAM platform such as ECP, businesses can benefit from dual syndication – a feature that allows digital assets to be imported directly from brand catalogs, ensuring that all assets are representative of the latest product variants or editions.

As with PIM, DAM is an area that stands to provide solid returns on investment. By leveraging a digital DAM platform, retailers can:

Boost conversion with more appealing and informative PDPs
Maintain brand control and consistency across multiple sales channels
Increase team efficiency and collaboration
Avoid the damaging impact of content degradation

3. Optimize Team Efficiency with AI, Automation, and Enhanced Collaboration.

When it comes to the opportunities offered by AI and automation, the spotlight within ecommerce frequently falls upon customer-facing solutions and software. While the advantages offered here are considerable, there’s just as much to be gained within the realm of back-office processes. By ensuring your business is benefiting from the latest developments in this area, you can optimize operation aspects and see the best returns on your team’s productivity.

Identifying the bottlenecks and laborious manual processes within workflows is the first step toward improved ecommerce revenues. For the Major Appliance sector, which deals with a lot of product onboarding, finding an automated solution to this time-consuming process carries many advantages. As well as freeing up your team’s time, an automated product onboarding process can also lead to a reduction in mistakes and corrections, thanks to a reduction in the chance of human error.

Similarly, AI-informed workflow management can help to ensure that your team’s time is put to the most efficient use. In addition to providing better whole-team transparency, and easing collaborative, multi-channel product management, ECP’s platform allocates every member of your team a unique user profile, enabling clearer individual objectives and intelligent “next best action” recommendations, to help ensure optimal use of everyone’s time and the best outcomes as a result.

In the same vein, automated content scoring is another valuable tool that can greatly reduce the need for manual investigation and monitoring. ECP works to continuously and automatically assess and score PDPs, across unlimited channels, to discover which may be falling below the threshold for content quality, allowing your team to focus their efforts on improving them for more conversion uplift.

When looking to improve ecommerce revenue, it makes sense to optimize the efficiency of the team that you rely on to bring all the moving parts of your online retail operation together. By giving them the tools and systems, they need to support an efficient and collaborative working environment, you empower them to chase and achieve the very best results.

4. Perfecting the omnichannel experience so customers feel fully supported

Omnichannel is the modern default when it comes to sales success. This is especially true for sectors such as Major Appliances, which see customers undertake a lot of product research and comparison across a wide range of channels before committing to a purchase. The modern consumer increasingly expects seamless and personalized omnichannel interactions, which deliver a familiar, functional, and consistent experience. By doubling down on omnichannel strategy and functionality, retailers can ensure that they are optimizing their chances of success, no matter where, when, or how a shopper interacts with their brand or products.

Omnichannel consistency impacts all aspects of customer experience – from product discovery and exploration to customer experience. By paying attention to the way that customers experience your offering – be that in the form of PDPs or interactions with support staff – you can ensure that your audience feels supported, and confident and maintains their motivation to purchase.

Data is key to success here – more specifically, access to and mobility of data. To deliver a personalized experience, consumers need to recognize as individuals at every touchpoint. This is especially true in the case of support – be this pre- or post-purchase. An omnichannel, personalized approach to customer support is the modern gold standard – and especially important for the Major Appliances sector – where longer purchase consideration phases and a higher cadence of post-purchase support (in the form of installation, repair, and spare part supply) are common.

As sales channels continue to evolve and expand, businesses are increasingly investing in ensuring the same consistent marketing and support experiences. 47% of ecommerce decision-makers in Europe and North America believed omnichannel strategies to be very important in 2021 and we can reasonably expect this figure to continue to rise. Within Major Appliances, the need to adhere to rising standards and expectations will be common within the sector – helping to create friction-free and seamless pathways to conversion.

5. Excel in digital customer experience. It starts with the underlying technology.

The method of delivery for customer support is just as important as its omnichannel nature. However, and wherever they choose to reach out, the modern consumer increasingly expects support to be available 24/7. While this level of support may not be possible around the clock, especially in the case of cross-border sales, automated processes such as intelligent chatbots are increasingly helping to bridge the gap between expectation and provision of instant answers and assistance. As standards within this technical field continue to rise, customers can access information in an intuitive and increasingly “human” environment, getting the updates they need in a manner that is both economical and scalable for the business involved.

Once again, the pandemic changes the playing field in terms of customer support trends, and today, consumers highly prize a fully digital customer support experience as their favored method of outreach to a brand or retailer. This trend can be observed across all demographics but is particularly evident within the millennial market segment. 89% of millennials surveyed expecting brands to use technology to shape their customer experience, and as this age bracket grows into homeownership, this trend can be expected to align closely the future of the Major Appliance sector.

What does this mean for brands and retailers? Now is the time to double down on a polished, well-considered digital support structure and strategy. Best-in-class service here will prove a valuable point of differentiation from close competitors and can help to ensure ongoing customer loyalty from a younger generation of consumers who are new to the market.

By taking an omnichannel approach here, businesses can triage questions coming in from a wide range of platforms. As a result, and in the case of attribute-rich lines sold within the Major Appliance sector, agents must have instant access to the product information that they need to answer queries quickly, accurately, and professionally, without needing to pass customers on to different departments. Again, this is an area in which a dedicated PIM system pays real dividends.

6. Personalize the interaction by collecting the right data.

71% of consumers report feeling frustrated when a shopping experience is impersonal, making this element of marketing and customer experience an increasingly critical consideration. Once again, millennials are leading the way when it comes to this preference, denoting a trend that is here to stay for the Major Appliance sector.

Personalized calls to action convert at a rate 202% times higher than their generic counterparts. To see success here and get the needle moving when it comes to white goods ecommerce sales, brands and retailers alike should be personalizing offers, experiences, communications, and recommendations.

AI technology is getting more advanced at encompassing emotions (for example, within sales or support calls) into the algorithms delivering these experiences, but to get the best results, brands need a solid base of customer data and analytics technology, held within and leveraged from a dependable CDP (customer data platform.)

While a dedicated and thorough approach to personalized interactions does mean an investment when it comes to both the acquisition and architecture of customer data, those who use personalization as a strategy has been able to drive 5 to 15% increases in revenue and 10 to 30% increases in marketing-spend efficiency — mainly by leveraging product recommendations and triggered communications.

Ready to increase white goods ecommerce sales?

The ecommerce playing field has changed dramatically in recent years — consumer experience expectations have risen in line with advancements in the technology designed to deliver them. Today, competing in the white goods market and reaching greater revenue goals will require businesses to look at their internal readiness.

Perhaps above all else, this means having the technology required to provide more enhanced and consistent digital experiences to customers across multiple channels. Individually targeted marketing driven by market research will require the support of an internal process that supports the accurate collection, centralization, and distribution of that essential data.

The future is bright for ecommerce sales in the Major Appliances sector. The supporting role that digital channels will play in offline sales will continue to grow in its significance, while final sales made online will also continue to climb, especially as younger, digitally native consumers enter the market. As new tech advances, businesses have a real opportunity to allow for more coverage of consumer sales points, leading to more opportunities to complete a sale and win those all-important digital conversions.

How ECP can help you tap into these trends quickly and efficiently – growing your ecommerce sales.

Book a Demo

The post 6 Business Processes that Increase White Goods Ecommerce Revenue appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

The 7 Most Profitable Trends Within the Major Appliance Sector

Ankita Ingale — Thu, 03 Mar 2022 13:26:08 +0000

The major appliance sector is constantly evolving to keep pace with changing consumer demands. Factors such as new appliances, innovative technology, the constant stream of new brands entering the market, new contemporary interior and design trends, or the latest channels that consumers are choosing to browse and shop on, all play a part in molding the sector.

With more than 668 million major appliances sold worldwide in 2020, the market is as competitive as it’s ever been, and retailers need to keep on top of these trends to ensure market share. Without the right approach, it’s easy to view these trends as challenges to overcome. In this article, we’re going to look at how major appliance retailers can shift their mindsets to start viewing trends – whether they’re here for the long-term or simply passing – as what they really are – opportunities.

By keeping on top of industry trends and adjusting strategies accordingly, major appliance retailers have the chance to raise brand awareness, gain loyal customers, increase profits, and reach new markets.

Trends within the industry come and go, so, which are the trends that are exerting a temporary influence on the market, and which are here for the long-term?

1. Smart appliances and interoperability

The demand for smart home appliances has risen sharply over the last few years. In the US alone, more than 10% of homes now have one or more smart appliances. But why has it grown so exponentially?

There are several reasons for the rise, which include the impact of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home guidance from global governments, which in turn, has resulted in many households having more disposable income due to less traveling and socializing. There’s also been a huge jump in housing construction as the worldwide population continues to grow at speed, alongside the millennial generation now starting to enter the housing market – but we’ll go into more detail about that later…

Consumers also increasingly want more comfortability and luxury integrated into their houses as they’re spending more time in the home environment, and generally want to live a more connected lifestyle with the help of smart technology and home appliances.

The global chip shortage is also ramping up demand for smart home appliances (learn more about how this is impacting the major appliance market, here ). Semiconductor manufacturers simply can no longer keep up with both retailer and consumer demand for chips. Chips aren’t only needed for laptops and cars anymore, they’re needed for a variety of devices including smart appliances like ovens, washing machines, and fridge freezers. This need for chips has resulted in a smart appliance stock shortage, and these appliances are in demand more than ever before.

For the consumers that do have these appliances installed, interoperability is key to ensure greater effectiveness and functionality within the home. The ability to connect a whole host of smart appliances and control them all via a simple platform or app is what consumers are looking for. Innovative features like Bluetooth and WiFi sync are just some examples of how retailers and brands are integrating smart technology into their appliances. Read the recent blog to discover more about how emerging smart technology is impacting trends in the white goods industry.

When it comes to delivering this information to the consumer, retailers need to include these specific information details regarding interoperability and technical capabilities on their product listing pages, to help entice customers with the latest tech and encourage purchases.

2. Reduced brand loyalty

Consumers are switching brands at unprecedented rates. The worldwide pandemic has impacted many industries and businesses, but it’s played havoc on supply chains on a global scale. Due to these ongoing supply chain issues, consumers are inevitably shopping around more than ever before making a purchasing decision – now, sometimes ‘quicker’ is preferable than ‘familiar. Brand loyalty is not as prevalent in the major appliance industry as it used to be – an astounding 75% of US consumers have tried a new shopping behavior in response to economic pressures, store closings, and changing priorities.

Consumers can no longer rely on their ‘old favorites’ to provide the goods they want, and as a result, once-loyal customers are more willy and likely to try new brands and retailers for the first time. This general change in behavior has also been reflected in a shattering of brand loyalties – with 36% of consumers having tried a new brand and 25% incorporating a new private-label brand into their routine. Retailers in the major appliances sector need to take note that this change in consumer behavior is not a passing trend, it’s set to have a lasting impact on purchasing behaviors, and it’s here to stay.

This is an important trend for retailers to address if they want to stand out amongst the competition within the major appliances market. As consumers become more and more fickle and more likely to churn, providing a superior customer experience can support a retailer’s chance of successfully securing a purchase and indeed, a loyal customer. While the market remains as competitive as ever, retailers should focus on streamlining the customer journey to improve CX and encourage brand loyalty.

However, providing a superior customer experience simply isn’t enough, retailers also need to get a handle on supply chain disruptions. One way to do so is by being earnest and setting realistic expectations for consumers surrounding things like product availability, and delivery and installation times. By ensuring this information is always to-to-date and including it on product detail pages in real-time, brands and retailers present themselves as more trustworthy, and in return, are more likely to attract and retain a loyal customer base.

3. Millennial market increase

Now, back to the increase in the millennial generation entering the housing market that we mentioned earlier.

This generation counts for an increasing market share of the major appliances sector. Why? Because they are starting to jump on and climb the property ladder worldwide. According to the latest research, there are now more millennials – those born between 1980 and 1998 – buying homes than any other generation, and their share of the home buying market is only set to continue growing, figures show that it’s up from 37% compared to 2021 already.

What’s more, whilst millennials start to buy new homes, they are also considered as the generation that is purchasing homes so that they can have pets. Whereas traditionally, people bought homes to start a family, the rise in landlords denying housing for tenants with pets and the increasing cost of pet deposits has resulted in millennials choosing to buy instead of rent, all to house their furry friends. This is known as the ‘DINKY’ concept – Double Income No Kids (Yet) – and it presents a very profitable opportunity for retailers in the major appliances space. This generation may be more willing to channel its disposable income into their homes. For example, a millennial couple working full time who own a house and a dog generally have fewer mouths to feed and more money to spend on big-ticket items such as major home appliances.

To tap into this trend, retailers need to analyze the preferred shopping channels and sales behavior of the millennial generation and adapt their marketing strategies accordingly to successfully target and capture potential buyers. But retailers need to stay mindful of the fact that they are courting a digitally native crowd who have higher expectations of the omnichannel customer experience. This means that retailers need to ensure a smooth, seamless, and consistent experience, regardless of which channel consumers choose.

4. Rise of the marketplace

When it comes to purchasing directly from a brand or utilizing a marketplace platform, 88% of consumers prefer to buy directly from the brand if given the option. However, when it comes to buying major appliances such as refrigerators and washing machines, fewer consumers are choosing to purchase directly from a brand.

Instead, consumers are choosing to leverage websites like Amazon and Best Buy. Major appliances are Amazon’s most lucrative category. According to new data, large appliances top the revenue list, with Amazon sellers boasting the highest average monthly revenue at £364,000. This trend is due to several factors, such as marketplaces tending to offer products at marginally lower costs compared to the brand’s own website. For example, Amazon has some of the cheapest prices for major appliances on the market – it’s such a huge global corporation that it can afford to sell a mass quantity of products at a lower price and still turn over a profit. The company also invests heavily in data tracking technology, so it can always ensure its prices are lower than market competitors. This also means that marketplaces can provide cheaper and improved aftercare services for the products it sells to keep consumers coming back time and time again.

Another key advantage of leveraging marketplaces for major appliance purchases is that they offer better comparisons with other products across sites. If you’re a consumer looking to purchase a washing machine, if you go to the Whirlpool website, you’re only going to be able to browse that brand’s product range. However, if you go to Best Buy to purchase a washing machine, that site is not only going to show you Whirlpool washing machines but a whole host of other brands too. This enables marketplaces to provide genuine comparisons across brands and product ranges, offering more choices to consumers and facilitating greater purchase volumes.

To address this trend, retailers can add greater functionality to their websites such as comparison buttons to allow consumers to compare products across sites and models. However, they also need to bear in mind that personalization plays a huge part here. Retailers should ensure the products they offer for comparison are relative to the consumers’ wants, needs, and browning history, as this is what marketplaces excel at. Offering appropriate targeted messaging and deals that are designed to appeal are just some ways that retailers can achieve this. But that’s not all, major appliance retailers also need to consider reducing any friction that might exist in the pathway to purchase. Retailers can alleviate consumer concerns that may be standing in the way to purchase by including detailed information about things like returns and guarantees and ensuring that information is consistent across channels and easy to find.

5. Renewed focus on sustainability

Now that the germ and cleanliness trend facilitated by the global pandemic is starting to subside, consumers are shifting their focus and attention back to sustainability.

According to a 2021 consumer survey from Deloitte:

Research shows that it’s clear that consumers want to do their part to ensure a more sustainable planet for generations to come. However, when it comes to the major appliances sector, there are some interesting findings surrounding appliance efficiency.

Whilst consumers are indeed seeking more energy-efficient appliances, the greater appeal of energy-efficient appliances isn’t a reduction in emissions, it’s a reduction in energy costs. A recent poll from Morning Consult found that 76% of survey respondents who said they have taken energy efficiency into account when purchasing electric appliances, cited saving money on their electricity bills as a major reason for doing so. Meanwhile, only 46% of respondents cited that lowering greenhouse gas emissions relating to their consumption has a major influence when considering the energy efficiency of an electrical appliance.

Supply and demand in the global wholesale market is the key reason for already rising energy prices. Whatsmore, the world bank has recently released a statement saying that global energy prices will soar by more than 50% in 2022 in the largest commodity shock since the 1970s.

However, ultimately it doesn’t matter what the reason is for consumers choosing to buy energy-efficient appliances over conventional ones. The result is that demand for them is high and will only continue to rise so, retailers and brands alike need to ensure they’re doubling down to capture market share. Including information such as the EPC rating is something that consumers want to see on product pages. But retailers can go beyond product-level best practices to ensure they’re also leveraging best-in-class ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies to support a healthy and sustainable planet.

6. Cross-industry collaboration

More and more retailers are signing M&A (Merger and Acquisition) deals to increase the value of their products, and the same applies to major appliance retailers too.

For example, Tovala, a smart oven and meal kit service startup, is a company that wants to help consumers cook a greater variety of healthy meals. Consumers who purchase one of its ovens and sign up for a meal plan can choose from a range of meals every week and simply scan to cook. Similarly, a multinational conglomerate company, LG, announced that its 2019 models and newer ovens will be able to recognize meal kits from Tovala and cook food based on the downloadable recipes. This is a perfect example of how retailers are taking part in cross-industry collaborations with huge benefits like increasing the value of their products and as a result, increasing sales in general.

This shift towards greater collaboration presents a significant opportunity for major appliance retailers. It’s a win-win situation for all parties involved as each partner can include their collaborations on certain products, online to the consumer. Presenting this information directly to the consumer may encourage a potential customer to complete a purchase, as the brand is offering more than just the product itself, they’re upselling through another industry or company.

It’s not just collaboration across products that are on the rise either, more retailers are choosing to also share data. Cross-industry data collaboration is fueling innovation across a variety of industries. Major appliance brands looking to develop new products need input and information from a multitude of sources. A recent research paper on cross-sector partnerships found that many of these sources are not only beyond an organization’s borders but also the organization’s industry.

For example, in manufacturing, companies are using AI to manage supply-chain disruptions. Using data from external sources on weather, strikes, civil unrest, and other factors, they can acquire a full view of supply-chain issues to mitigate risks early. Major appliance retailers stand to benefit hugely from this cross-industry data collaboration as it means they can set more accurate expectations for their customers and increase brand loyalty.

7. Omnichannel and D2C sales

In 2020, online sales of major appliances exceeded those made in physical retail stores for the first time. A few of the reasons for this include greater ease and convenience and people choosing to shop from the comfort of their own homes due to stay-at-home guidance and the global pandemic.

As consumers continue to choose to shop online over bricks and mortar stores for their major appliances, more retailers are choosing to work with marketplace platforms to make consumer buying quick and frictionless. Companies such as Alibaba, JD, and Pinduoduo are also partnering with retail chains to expand their offering. Pinduoduo has purchased 5.6% of Gome’s shares, giving it access to a wider brand range, while being able to offer products at the same price or cheaper than Gome’s stores.

Some large appliance retailers are even turning to live streaming on social platforms such as Instagram to sell their products directly to consumers. Statistics show that 10% of brands on Instagram use live video sessions to promote their products and services, almost 90% of the top brands regularly connect with their followers through live sessions, and about 36% of stories posted are based on product promotion. Although this trend is currently well-established and popular in Asia and the East, it’s becoming increasingly popular in the Western world. Beauty and apparel are just a couple of the industry’s leading the charge. In regard to the major appliances sector, they’ll need to create an additional wow factor to persuade consumers to purchase their big-ticket items via live streams, one way in which to do this is to offer limited-time discounts to followers that tune in.

To truly tap into this growing trend, retailers need to cover every platform that their target consumers are leveraging, whether that’s social media, marketplaces, or in-app purchases.

Conclusion

While some of these trends are here to stay, others will diminish in their importance or evolve entirely. The key thing is that retailers can pivot to keep pace with these trends and provide what consumers are looking for in the right way.

One-way retailers can do this is by implementing a PIM (Product Information Management) or DAM (Digital Assets Management) solution that takes care of all the product information for them, across all distribution channels – no matter how many of these open in the future and regardless of how complex or specific product information or assets need to become. A PIM/ DAM solution enables retailers to ensure they’re always prepared for the next big thing.

ECP provides major appliance retailers with all the tools they need to tap into new and growing trends. Its PIM Dual Syndication feature enables importing from supplier catalogs and exporting to digital marketplaces with ease and accuracy, while the Smoother Workflow function enables its DAM solution to seamlessly integrate with its PIM solution, so all content is synced, easily accessed, and updated – across any number of channels.

If you’re a major appliance retailer looking to tap into new and existing trends with speed, ease, and efficiency, contact one of our experts today.

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The post The 7 Most Profitable Trends Within the Major Appliance Sector appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

Great Expectations: How is Advancing PIM Influencing Consumer Experience in the Major Appliances Sector

Ankita Ingale — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 13:26:08 +0000

Let’s start by answering the question ‘what is a PIM?’ Standing for ‘Product Information Management’ in its purest form, PIM is the process of managing all the product information needed to market and sell products, across multiple channels.

For retailers, having a PIM solution is key to help ensure efficiency and consistency across their product catalog, regardless of the sales channel(s) they sit on. Why? To provide a unified customer experience. White goods retailers and brands in particular often look to implement a PIM solution due to the sheer number of channels and sites they sell their products on – which can often reach the 100s and even 1000s. As product lines continue to diversify and expand, PIM allows retailers to monitor, react and resolve any inconsistencies quickly, before they can impact factors such as CX.

For white goods retailers looking to stand out and provide a high-quality customer experience while also streamlining their internal processes, a PIM solution is a quick and surefire way to achieve this. The benefits are countless, from enabling a seamless customer experience across all touchpoints and channels, and seamless omnichannel delivery to providing a single source of truth and automating processes.

One of the reasons that PIM software and solutions have become so popular is that they help to ensure customers have everything they need to make an informed purchase decision online. The rise in demand for an omnichannel offering from consumers has driven this need for change as retailers fight to retain customers against their often many competitors. One way of differentiating their offering is to provide a superior CX. A recent report found that companies with weak omnichannel customer engagement retain 33% of their customers, whereas those with the right strategies in place retain on average 89%.

The rise of omnichannel

The omnichannel approach has evolved significantly over the last 20 years. After its inauguration in the dot-com boom era of the 2000s, retailers have gradually separated the physical and digital aspects of their business.

Now, an omnichannel retail strategy isn’t just a nicety, it’s a necessity, and it’s key to reaching many generations of consumers, not just the digital natives, and providing the customer experience consumers now expect. Fast forward to 2022, and retailers that aren’t including omnichannel in their offering are losing out. It’s now actually going the other way entirely. Digital-first brands are starting to branch out to physical stores as the world tries to ‘go back to normal since the onset of the pandemic in 2019. Blending online and offline experiences with an effective omnichannel strategy is something retailers should take into account to cover every possible consumer eventuality.

Changing industry standards and consumer demand in the white goods sector in recent years has also meant that once traditional brick and mortar brands have had to pivot their focus to keep pace with demand and satisfy new trends. Customers want to have the same high-quality experience regardless of their purchase journey, whether that’s researching online and buying in-store or buying online and returning in-store, and they want all the information at their fingertips to facilitate this. Without a watertight omnichannel strategy, it becomes almost impossible for retailers to provide this in an efficient, effective, and profitable manner.

For retailers that have developed and implemented an effective omnichannel strategy, they have been able to reap the rewards. Not only are they providing their consumers with a more unified and intelligent shopping experience, but they’re encouraging repeat business, and in turn encouraging greater brand loyalty.

So, what’s this got to do with PIM?

Well, PIM is the key to unlocking rapid growth. The ability to target customers at various points of the purchase cycle across channels is reason enough to implement an omnichannel strategy. With PIM, this can be achieved while also ensuring a compelling and consistent CX via a centralized environment.

Deliver a superior customer experience

As we’ve already mentioned, consumers purchasing white goods online expect a seamless and consistent experience. Imagine you were shopping online and found a great product that was missing the measurements you needed? You’d probably take your business elsewhere. Or, you found the product on one site and the measurements or description were different on another site? Again, you’d probably churn to another site or brand. Now, imagine that’s a big-ticket item such as a fridge, or washing machine. How much more time and effort are you going to put into your initial purchase? Inevitably, you’re going to conduct more research, triple-check the measurements are right, and more. That’s why a consistent customer experience is so critical to white goods retailers – one tiny error or inconsistent detail can mean the difference between a successful purchase and a lost customer.

But it’s not just consumer demand that has changed. Purchasing behavior has evolved too. Since the start of the global pandemic, there has been a stark increase in consumer spending online as a whole, as people couldn’t visit physical stores – this includes everything from grocery shopping to large appliances. The good news for omnichannel and online retailers is that this trend is here to stay (find out more about how consumer behavior has changed online versus offline in this blog ). A 2021 study found that 91% of consumers plan to continue purchasing online post-pandemic. Other research found that consumers are exhibiting less brand loyalty, with more than 48% of those surveyed replacing products previously regularly purchased at physical stores with online alternatives. Whatsmore, 54% of consumers said they read online reviews before every purchase.

This means that more consumers than ever before are sometimes conducting hours of online research before making a final purchase. It’s easy to see why when sectors such as the large appliances market have so many players in the game to choose from. This means that retailers in this space must ensure the information they do provide is accurate, up-to-date and above all else, consistent, regardless of the touchpoint and the sales channel being used.

By nature, humans are creatures of habit and we often thrive off of familiarity and consistency. This is why implementing a PIM solution is key for retailers to provide what consumers want in terms of unified information, which in turn, encourages more conversions and returning customers.

Facilitate greater purchase confidence

While showcasing consistent product information across distribution channels is great, it’s counterintuitive if that information isn’t useful. Displaying better – and more importantly, the right – product information can enable consumers to have greater confidence in their product purchases. For example, if a consumer is looking to purchase a fridge, they’re going to want to know all the measurements beforehand, how many drawers the freezer compartment has, how heavy it is, any technological capabilities, or if delivery includes a man with a van bringing the item into the house and installing the item. These are all important factors and differ depending on the product in question.

Interactive features are another factor to consider to encourage greater purchasing confidence. Retailers that invest in tools such as digital showrooms and 3D planning solutions enable consumers to see the product either digitally in-store or within their home environment in a virtual way, without having to leave the comfort of their homes. These tools offer next-level consumer personalization. Again, offering these tools upfront only improves the CX and instills greater confidence in the consumer – all your cards are on the table as a retailer, which in turn, also encourages fewer returns as all the relevant information is provided.

Whatsmore, these value-added features encourage greater brand awareness. A consumer is more likely to remember and return to a brand if it was the time they used X retailer’s cool new 3D tool to see the dishwasher they want in their home, digitally. Having the right product information also helps improve brand awareness. If a consumer finds a brand or retailer that provides all the product information they could need to make an informed purchase decision upfront, the likelihood of that consumer choosing that brand again increases. Why? Because if they want to make a future purchase, that’s the brand that had all the info on their preferred channel last time, and they didn’t have to find more or the correct information on other channels.

Likewise, having all this information front and center means quicker purchases. Consumers don’t need to look around for additional information, whether that’s via chatbot, email, reviews, or social media platforms. They already have everything they need to simply click ‘buy now.’

Improve in-house processes

While providing a superior CX should be at the top of every retailer’s to-do list to encourage conversions and repeat customs and place themselves above and beyond the competition, there are other advantages to implementing a PIM solution…

The internal business benefits associated with PIM are plenty.

Automate processes

The whole idea behind a PIM solution is to identify and evaluate product data and information across every channel that the product is featured on, so you don’t have to do it manually. Once the solution has done this, it then automatically manages and distributes that information across platforms. This means that you can modify all the information a consumer sees across channels in one go. Even if you’ve got several product information formats and character lengths across channels, the solution will find the best fit for each.

Ensure regulatory compliance

Another business case for PIM is the fact that it helps retailers to ensure they are and remain regulatory compliant regardless of which jurisdiction their product is being sold in. Having inaccurate information can also lead to legal compliance issues in many countries, resulting in greater operational costs for the retailer. By providing a single source of truth, it means that only accurate product information is published, so, where product information compliance is essential, PIM is the answer.

Improve version control and access for teams

Another great benefit of a PIM solution is the idea that it facilitates a single source of truth for any given information on a product. This means that retailers no longer need to worry about which version of that information is used on which platform, as the solution ensures the most up-to-date information is used across all channels. It also offers the ability for internal team leads to provide or limit access to certain product information, so only those who need to work on that specific piece of information or product can edit it if changes are required, reducing the chances of human error.

Facilitate greater efficiency

Adding new products to a catalog is often time-consuming. A PIM solution enables retailers to streamline the product onboarding process by automating workflows that then free up internal time and resources and reduce the margin of error, all via handy integrated product information tools.

Conclusion

To reap the benefits outlined, white goods retailers and those in the large appliances sector need to adopt a solution that offers everything they might need from a PIM solution. ECP offers a solution that provides retailers with the consistency they need across every product and accuracy across every channel to enable a high-quality customer experience that will keep customers coming back for more.

The all-in-one PIM solution also shares clear quality scores so retailers can adjust and improve product information as required, and dual syndication enables easier importation of product information from other supplier catalogs. Moreover, retailers can benefit from improved product ownership through greater taxonomy, which can be auto-categorized with metadata or tagging enabled. Intuitive reports provide the optimal next action based on every individual user of the platform, so you and your team can focus on driving value.

If you’re a retailer looking to stand out above the competition and provide a truly transformational customer experience,

Book a demo with an ECP expert today to learn how PIM can help.

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The post Great Expectations: How is Advancing PIM Influencing Consumer Experience in the Major Appliances Sector appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

Digital Transformation: Everything the Major Appliances Sector Needs to Know

Ankita Ingale — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 13:26:08 +0000

Digital transformation matters to modern business more than ever before. The smart integration of even smarter tech into all aspects of a business – be it operational or experiential – is increasingly seen as an inevitable component of all ambitious business plans.

The statistics speak for themselves. The global digital transformation market is projected to grow from $469.8 billion in 2020 to $1,009.8 billion by 2025, at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16.5% during this period.

The sentiment is clear – digital transformation is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s an essential aspect of business success. And not just big business – to give just one example, 46% of small businesses are already using BI tools to get an edge on the competition.

In this guide, we’ll explore some of how the Major Appliance sector is being impacted by advances (and the associated growing expectations) connected to the rise of digital transformation.

Digital Transformation: The Accelerating Impact of Covid-19

Let’s start by examining the general state of play. It’s impossible to talk about digital transformation without first considering the huge impact that the pandemic has had on its recent advance and acceleration. Although this impact was certainly felt within the major appliance sector (so heavily dependent upon complex supply chains), the uptick in digital transformation for businesses of all shapes and sizes during Covid was unprecedented.

At the start of 2020, 67% of US CEOs expressed concerns about migrating all of their business to the cloud – but soon, necessity would sweep in to remove all remaining hesitation. As a result, the leap forward in terms of the progression of digital transformation was described by President and CEO of Thomson Reuters Corp, Steve Hasker, as looking like “three to four years of progress in just three to four months, in terms of acceptance of what the new world needs to look like.”

The meteoric rise is comparable to the acceleration of ecommerce in the same time frame, which was said to have lept forward by 5 years as a result of the conditions imposed by the pandemic. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main area of impact lies at the intersection of these two advances – the creation of a seamless digital customer experience, with 75% of CEOs interviewed also agreeing that this had been accelerated by a matter of months or years.

Why was this impact so significant? Because customers were also being forced to adapt alongside the businesses they supported. When it came to digital transformation, all barriers and blockers were down – consumers and colleagues alike were being asked to adapt, try new methods, and adopt new (digital) habits.

The major appliance sector felt this impact keenly, thanks to a sharp rise in demand that coincided perfectly with the need for digital transformation – on both the consumer and supplier side of the equation. As a result, buyers and brands broke new ground together – setting the stage for a digitally transformed future.

Let’s explore some of the key areas where digital transformation is aiding, improving, and opening up opportunities for the major appliance sector.

1. Supply Chains

For all the chaos and tragedy that the pandemic ushered in, it also served as an eye-opening opportunity for reflection for many. The alarming rapidity with which many supply chains came crashing down was an eye-opening (and alarming) reality check for many. With the fragility of supply chains fully exposed (and no doubt exacerbated by panic buying once the rumor of shortages spread) our dependence on this complex and precarious system was well and truly highlighted.

Supply chains within the large appliance sector were already being pushed to the limit, thanks to the growth of the smart appliance sector (carrying with it component scarcity, shorter appliance lifespans, and complex legacy support requirements.) When global shipping contracted, pushing up prices and delivery times, the dependency of the sector upon certain economies (namely major exporter China) was fully exposed.

Whether created or exaggerated by the pandemic, supply chain issues are still being felt throughout the major appliances sector. Most significantly, the global semiconductor shortage and tin surge, post-pandemic, continue to pose problems.

Digital transformation can apply the guiding hand of AI to future “shockproof” supply chains. Intelligent procurement and AI-powered supply chain data management with intelligent automation and analytics have the potential to highlight opportunities, at the same time as mitigating the risk businesses feel increasingly exposed to in a fluctuating and crisis-prone global environment.

2. Inventory Management

All business depends upon supply and demand – but with the storage and shipping of bulky, easily damaged major appliances having such an impact on profitability and margins, inventory management is especially important for the major appliances sector.

In the wake of the pandemic, many major appliance retailers are still struggling to rebalance their inventory – with backorders, more costly shipping, and the continuing impact of disruption in the early manufacturing stages of the supply chain.

Selling larger, heavier items, more prone to damage, and with more logistical hassle and cost associated with returns, inventory in the major appliances space needs to be very effectively handled and managed. With the dawn of digital transformation, the need for a “pile it high” approach to inventory management is well and truly over. GE Appliances is a great example of a business taking giant strides here.

“In our old world” says Mark Shirkness, vice president of distribution, “we stacked product high and blasted it out in truckload or LTL quantities to our retail partners, or overnighted it to the contractor channel.” Today, thanks to a fully redesigned network, processes, and technology stack, they have a digitally transformed system that ensures they can meet scaling sales with a scaling distribution.

Learn more about the revolutionary impact of digital transformation on GE Appliances here. From AI-informed distribution to network rationalization, digital transformation represents a much-needed response to the challenge of modern multi-channel fulfillment. Allowing digital technology to facilitate the smoother, smarter passing of appliances from warehouse to last-mile delivery can be achieved by (as GE Appliances describe) “creating a digital thread, or the electronic genealogy of a product, that accelerates responsiveness.”

3. Product Launches

So many forms of traditionally “IRL” interaction moved online during the pandemic, and industry events were certainly not spared from this necessity. Within the competitive and fast-paced major appliance sector, new plans needed to be made – and quickly. New product lines might be on adjusted timelines, but launches still needed to be planned and delivered.

It quickly became apparent that digital product launches would need to become the new normal – and in reality, for an industry as reliant on international import and export, this evolution of product launches and new line announcements didn’t feel wildly out of place – helping showcase products on a truly global platform.

The pandemic represented something of a paradox in terms of opportunities for product launches – traditional routes needed to be abandoned, but there were still some advantages, including the opportunity to double down on brand control, the chance to get truly creative with innovative digital experiences and a chance to double-down on a strategic approach, rather than following a tired, templated formula.

Trade shows and conferences – a mainstay of the major appliance scene – were also canceled. As the world opened its doors again, many big players like Samsung were notably slow to return to the trade show circuit.

What are the takeaways when it comes to the digital transformation of product launches and demos? Ultimately – future contingency is key. Now that the “unthinkable” has happened (and could conceivably happen again) creative, digital launch strategies have never been more important. The industry is now much more receptive to this approach, and expectations will have shifted.

4. Internal Operations

Although, as this guide aims to highlight, digital transformation can be applied to so many aspects of business, is perhaps most commonly associated with internal operations. The opportunities that digital transformation holds for internal operational efficiency are truly staggering. It will come as no surprise to learn that 40% of executives reported that the top benefit of digital transformation was operational efficiency.

What does digital transformation of internal operations look like in practice? Commonly, we’ll see AI-assisted (or even VR-assisted) processes to boost worker productivity. At GE Appliances, for example, warehouse operators who want to qualify for that highly skilled work train and then demonstrate their ability in a VR simulator that screens them for specific qualities, helping them be assigned to the most appropriate roles.

Another big benefit is the reduction of siloed data. Digital transformation helps to boost connectivity and integration of various systems, meaning better accessibility of data (and as a result, more applicable insight to inform business decisions.) Digital transformation can also help businesses achieve better leverage of IoT and mobile technologies, again, all contributing to a better connected and cohesive working environment that optimizes efficiency.

Again, the pandemic poured gasoline on the growth of digital transformation when it comes to internal operations. Major appliance sector businesses at all stages of the supply chain had to face (and solve) huge logistical challenges when it came to their day-to-day operations. The need to future proof internal modes of collaboration and communication – especially teleworking and cloud-based software – is ongoing. For a sector with supply chains as complex as major appliances, collaboration and communication should work both internally and externally, amongst channel partners, suppliers, distributors, and retailers.

5. Demand Forecasting

By increasing necessity, demand forecasting will play in the huge future of the major appliance sector. The significant shortages of many major manufacturing components, coupled with increasing demand for these supplies from other competing sectors, means that there’s never been a more important time to understand and predict fluctuations in demand within the sector.

The impact of the pandemic is still being felt and things are a long way from being “back to normal” – there’s a distinct advantage to be gained from being able to predict future demand with a greater degree of accuracy (this plays alongside inventory management, of course.)

Digital transformation can help unlock big data and the insight it holds. As the major appliance industry expands to encompass an ever-growing range of channels, access to data is increasing in parallel. Machine Learning and AI play a central role in demand forecasting, and increasingly those operating within the consumer products and retail space. Demand-Driven Predictive Forecasting (DDPF) is proving popular as demand is monitored in real-time to shape an appropriate response.

DDPF is said to boost forecast accuracy by 30% to 35%, reduce inventory by 20% to 25% and increase revenue by 3% to 5%. Of course in the case of major appliances, accurate prediction is only half the battle – retailers also need to ensure that their hard-pressed supply chain can flex to meet this accurately predicted demand.

6. Effective PIM

As this guide has so far uncovered, one of the most important and impactful aspects of digital transformation for the major appliance sector is the ability to take confident, effective control of data – getting this rich seam of opportunity working at its maximum potential. While operational data is important, without a solid understanding and easy command of product data, those working at all stages of the major appliances supply chain will struggle to see the true impact of digital transformation.

Product data provides the bridge between all stages of the supply chain but is especially important when it comes to laying the foundations for exemplary customer experience, and optimized digital conversions. Without close control of product data (dubbed the “electronic genealogy” of a product by GE Appliances) supply cannot be met with the demand that meets modern consumer expectations.

Product Information Management (PIM) does more than simply help describe and convey the attributes of various products – it also prepares a business for rapid response and adaptation to opportunity – i.e. to emerging sales channels, or a need to switch to digital-only showrooms during the pandemic. Those retailers with a digitally transformed PIM system in place can quickly launch new products or populate new sales channels, with insightful, consistent product information, with little manual input and a much higher level of accuracy.

Intelligent, digital PIM solutions can also help improve customer service and bolster brand trust, making it easy to ensure that all channels accurately reflect the latest information for a specific product, including detail such as fluctuations in waiting times for delivery, or any changes made to the specifications of established models – particularly useful for the major appliance sector.

Additionally, with more information freely available to customers, many will be able to find answers to their questions independently. This removes barriers to purchase, and as the major appliance sector starts to sell to digitally native, younger generations, who are starting to graduate to homeownership, this kind of “self-service” interaction is increasingly preferred.

For those operating a RevOps sales model, where product, sales, and marketing teams are closely connected, a digital PIM solution ensures easy collaboration and facilitates clear communication. No more chasing answers or specs – every team member can quickly access the product information they need to tee up a conversion or help a customer make a purchase decision.

Digital transformation of PIM is already highly advantageous to any business operating within the major appliances sector, but its impact and importance is only set to scale with the rise of smart appliances. As these complex products rise in popularity, we can expect to see two challenges: firstly, a higher purchase frequency (as models are quickly superseded by advancing technology and replaced) leading to increased demand (and hence the pressure on customer service teams.) Secondly, a need to convey a greater amount of product information – new features, compatibility, the ability to integrate with other smart devices… The need for easy, accurate, and impactful management of product information has never been higher.

7. Digital Catalogs / Digital Showroom

Ecommerce is booming and the way that we shop has become truly digitized. While the average shopper on the street might not be conscious of the fact that they’ve happily embraced an omnichannel approach to their shopping strategy, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a modern consumer who doesn’t check multiple online sales channels for the best price or compare brands online before heading to a physical store.

At the sales end of the spectrum, when it comes to major appliances, the focus has traditionally been on in-person showroom experiences. But while 92% of large appliance purchases are made offline, the online space is thought to influence almost half of all appliance sales. When stores closed during the pandemic, and all trade moved online, the focus was instantly shifted – and while confidence in shopping in-store is now returning, the potential that digital catalogs and showroom experiences hold (for both consumers and retailers alike) was glimpsed during the pandemic, is a genie that cannot be put back inside its bottle.

The rise of digital showrooms (also known as virtual showrooms) holds great promise for B2B appliance sales, as well as the B2C space. According to McKinsey research, around 70% – 80% of B2B decision makers prefer remote human interactions or digital self-service. Similarly, 70% of U.S. consumers think self-service technologies that reduce the need to interact with retail staff improve the retail shopping experience.

At this point, we’ve largely seen the booming apparel sector making the best creative use of the digital showroom experience – but there is so much potential on the table when it comes to the major appliance sector. With the endless potential for product demonstrations and discovery, digital showrooms can also help improve the sustainability of a business (increasingly important to demonstrate) by reducing the impact caused by physical tradeshows or stores.

8. Customer Support

Finally, let’s consider the impact of digital transformation on customer support. We’ve already seen the benefit that access to improved product information through a wide range of well-maintained digital channels can offer. The major appliance sector must remain mindful of the fact that, although our capacity to provide a wider range of assistance is increasing, so too are the expectations of customers when it comes to the omnichannel shopping experience.

What does this mean before, during, and after the sales process for large appliances? At the top of the funnel, the discovery and consideration stage customers are looking for easy side-by-side product comparison, reassurance about compatibility, and potentially even advanced information about likely wait times or delays – all of which may influence their purchase decision as they narrow down their selection.

As previously mentioned, access to “self-service” product information can go a long way to helping here – but a commitment to ensuring ongoing access to the very latest information is essential. Letting the customer solve their problems is preferable (for them, and your own support team’s ticket backlog) but it can – and will – backfire if product information is not meticulously maintained and monitored.

Similarly, digital transformation is offering some real opportunities for improvement in the area of post-sales support. The Chris Dunn consultancy gives a great overview of the way that contact strategies are evolving to meet the modern expectations of omnichannel shoppers. Instead of processing the customer through an ineffective “one size fits all” approach, informed by limited data, new digital strategies build upon multi-channel touchpoints, where a brand’s digital presence is nurtured for impact beyond a single sale, laying the foundations for a future of more personalized relationship building.

For the major appliance sector, which often has to allow for a complicated after-sales support strategy (factoring in everything from installation, spare part replacements, and ongoing maintenance) this holds great potential. In an age where we know brand loyalty is being tested (as price and availability become key decision-making factors,) a digitally transformed approach to customer service and engagement allows for much greater advocacy.

Additionally, a move towards the “open all hours” culture that ecommerce encourages has necessitated the accelerated development of “always-on” communication channels. Unsurprisingly, when major appliances fail or need urgent replacement, customers do not appreciate a business dictating when and how they may get in touch to seek help! Increased access to digital tools such as “click to call” buttons, AI chatbots, and live chat functionality are all helping to close the gap here.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that the benefits improved digital support brings to B2C consumers are equally applicable to the B2B market. With major appliance supply chains under ever-increasing pressure, easier communication, resolutions, and collaborative problem-solving promise to help improve and strengthen relationships between product manufacturers, retailers, and channel partners alike.

Are you ready for the Digital Transformation of the Major Appliance Sector?

Following a challenging couple of years, the major appliances sector has seen a real revolution – adapting to logistical problems, global crises, component shortages, and huge fluctuations in supply and demand. The digital transformation that this struggle has accelerated has – without a doubt – produced an industry that’s more resilient, capable, and better prepared for the future.

In an increasingly competitive world of large appliance sales (and with the ever-increasing pressure coming from external factors beyond the control of manufacturers, brands, and retailers) every advantage should be taken to keep ahead of the game and be prepared for the twists and turns of the market. As digital transformation becomes the norm, those who’ve failed to adapt will quickly start to experience the impact.

The statistics being reported by major appliance businesses that have already taken the plunge and committed to true digital transformation are more than encouraging. ApplianceCo’s recent transformation generated $30M savings in the first year of implementation, driving a 1-3% increase in their margin. The transformation is expected to generate $200 million in the next five years, coming from savings and revenue across the company’s customer, supply chain, and manufacturing capabilities.

After the disruption of the last few years, from pandemics to international conflicts and grounded shipping containers, it’s impossible to predict what challenges might be coming down the line to great the major appliance sector. One thing is for certain though, those businesses who have doubled down on digital transformation will be the best prepared to weather the storms, reacting to remerge with the clearest competitive advantage.

Digital transformation starts with PIM. Book a demo with ECP today, to see how we can help you take control of your product information – the lifeblood of your business.

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How is Emerging Tech Impacting White Goods Consumer Trends?

Ankita Ingale — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 13:26:08 +0000

The US smart home industry is set to reach an impressive $46.77 billion by 2025. But what exactly is ‘smart living’? In a nutshell, it’s a trend that’s seeing consumers increase their standard of living through integrated technology in the home. How? By having greater control of their homes than ever before through increased efficiency, productivity, and integration – all alongside improved sustainability.

This progression has been made possible thanks to advancing technologies, such as AI and IoT. This emerging technology has allowed once ordinary home devices and appliances, – from doorbells to dishwashers – to become ‘smart’ and as a result, more helpful for consumers.

In this article, we will explore the impact that the new age of tech is having on consumers when it comes to buyer behavior and purchasing patterns for large home appliances, such as white goods.

Smart Home Tech Trends

As we’ve already outlined above, the smart home market is set to reach new heights by 2025 in terms of both expenditure and exposure. Why are more consumers choosing to live smartly?

One reason for this increased spend is the globally-observed rise in home improvements and renovations over the last few years. Whether consumers are looking to completely retrofit their kitchen or utility space, or simply upgrade aspects of what they already have, the home improvement industry has seen significant growth in the last couple of years. According to recent research, the home improvement market will surpass $762.9 billion in 20202 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of more than 4.3% from 2021 to 2027.

Consumers are placing more importance and emphasis on higher living standards, comfortable homes, and luxury , which is accelerating the rising demand for smarter living and by extension, smart appliances. Pair this with the increased number of consumers spending more time at home due to the worldwide pandemic, and it’s clear to see why expenditure has risen so sharply.

These devices and appliances are packed full of value-adding features, designed to make our lives easier in every way possible. Increasingly, the ability to connect and integrate separate appliances is driving interest in the acquisition of complementary or compatible products. Control panels to help facilitate easier and unified management of your connected devices for example are increasingly popular. The ability to easily integrate new devices into an existing home system removes more barriers to purchase and helps drive an improved ongoing user experience by removing the need to control devices at a modular level.

Other smart living benefits include things like improved home security. Home security systems have been around for years but products such as smart doorbells have ushered in real transformation within this space, with motion-sensor images, soundtracking, and integrated emergency services functions.

Increased energy efficiency and sustainability factors also have a huge role to play in the rise in smart goods’ popularity. For consumers concerned about their global footprint, smart appliances are a great way to reduce it. They are inherently more energy and water efficient as they only use exactly what they need to operate, and they typically function at a much higher level than their predecessors. These greener products also come with the bonus of cost savings, greater comfort, and greater health benefits – it’s a win-win.

The technologies that will come out on top

When it comes to making a household appliance ‘smart’, the technology underpinning the device in question makes all the difference and ultimately dictates the intended outcome and functionality of the appliance. The most commonplace connectivity technology used for smart appliances are AI and IoT and with good reason. There’s a whole host of smart living use cases for this innovative tech.

IoT home automation provides consumers with the ability to control domestic appliances such as dishwashers, washing machines, and even vacuums, all via electronically-controlled, internet-connected systems. If you’re at work and want to put a washing load on, all you have to do is simply click a few buttons via an app on your smartphone and you’ll come home to freshly washed clothes. This tech enables more than simple commands – devices can be interconnected and paired together to increase functionality. Integrated IoT sensors within a refrigerator can send alerts when certain products are running low or about to expire, and a connected voice assistant device can then add that product to your online shopping list. The possibilities are endless – the opportunities for accessibility, as well as simple convenience, are significant.

AI is the other technology inherently integrated with the smart appliance world. This is mainly because they allow for voice activation and recognition, which facilitates a completely in-house, hands-free experience for consumers. One small voice assistant device sitting on your kitchen counter can do everything from order clothes online to play music – and their scope will only increase over time.

Once these devices are integrated into the home, consumers can then control them all seamlessly via a central hub, whether that’s in the form of a wall-mounted control panel in the home or a smartphone app.

In the not-so-distant future, all large appliances and white goods will inevitably be internet-enabled, and emerging technologies will allow for even greater functionality and consumer benefits. Retailers will need to ensure they’re offering the goods and services in line with this growing trend, or risk losing market share to competitors.

So, we know why consumers are choosing the smart living life and the technologies that are facilitating the trend, but how are these factors measuring up to white goods consumer trends?

How is all of this impacting white goods consumer trends?

Consumer buyer behavior has changed substantially over the last few years, especially when it comes to goods and services purchased for the home. Taking into account the emergence and involvement of smart white goods and it’s easy to see why purchase patterns might have changed.

Increased overall spend

We know that consumer expenditure around home tech trends in terms of improvements and renovations rose dramatically in relation to the global COVID-19 pandemic. This resulted in consumers spending less time and money on things like travel and socializing and more time and money on home improvements. Shelter in place instruction from governments also meant that consumers were spending more time at home, so it stands to reason that they’d want to make that time as comfortable and luxurious as possible.

Continued need for efficiency

As more of us spend more time at home, our desire to have a more efficient life within the home grows. Efficiency is a key driver for many consumers purchasing smart white goods as they take the hassle out of simple and mundane tasks such as ‘remember to put the washing on before you go out. In turn, this enables us to spend less time doing house chores and more time doing important things like connecting with family and friends.

The rise of e-commerce

This is a big one. The global pandemic had a huge hand to play in consumers purchasing goods online over visiting physical bricks and mortar stores. Worldwide e-commerce sales reached an eye-watering $4.9 trillion at the start of 2022. The rise in online purchases has also led to a rise in comparison research. Consumers now have everything they could need at the click of a button or swipe of a finger. Whether they’re using laptops, tablets, or mobile devices, consumers are conducting more initial research and digesting more content before making a purchase than ever before, especially when it’s a large ticket item like a washing machine, fridge freezer, or oven. The smarter the appliance, the more features, and integrations they’re likely to want to explore and research.

The white goods market is expected to reach $11,031.0 billion by 2027 and if retailers want to ensure market share and encourage consumers to spend their spend with them, then they need to consider every piece of content when targeting different buyer personas, to ensure they provide all the necessary information upfront.

Conclusion

To tap into these trends quickly and effectively, white goods retailers need to a) ensure they’re offering the products that consumers want, i.e. increasingly smart white goods and appliances, and b) ensure that these products are available on consumers’ preferred channels.

However, assuming the lingering supply chain issues of the pandemic have been mitigated, it’s not enough to simply provide the goods. Retailers need to ensure that they include all the relevant information relating to both Product Information Management (PIM) and Digital Asset Management (DAM) for every product.

The Effectus Content Platform offers retailers the chance to combine their PIM and DAM information in one simple-to-use solution. By having all information across every channel consistent, up-to-date and unified, consumers receive a better customer experience that is likely to result in loyal and returning customers for retailers. Smarter appliances with increased attributes, features, and settings to showcase? All handled with ease.

Retailers can also benefit from alerts for content scoring to see where improvements can be made, and AI-enabled preventive measure systems so issues or inconsistencies are flagged early on. Furthermore, dual syndication allows seamless importing from supplier catalogs and exporting to digital marketplaces with ease and accuracy for greater efficiency.

So, if you’re a retailer looking to grow your market share when it comes to smart white goods industry trends, schedule a demo with an ECP expert today to see how we can help.

Link to this blog once live – “High End / Luxury White Goods – How Are Consumer Purchase Trends Evolving?”

The post How is Emerging Tech Impacting White Goods Consumer Trends? appeared first on Digital Product Experience Platform | Effectus Content Platform.

High End Luxury White Goods: How are Consumer Purchase Trends Evolving

Ankita Ingale — Thu, 20 Jan 2022 13:26:08 +0000

Higher spends, greater brand loyalty, and the caché of offering industry-leading products? No matter the vertical in which you operate, cornering the luxury end of your market is an accomplishment worth striving for. The luxury segment of the large appliance sector represents a real opportunity for the modern retailer. An already profitable space showing continued expansion, North America is the fastest-growing region for the luxury appliance market and is expected to grow by a CAGR of 5. 31% by 2026.

In this article, we’ll examine how the luxury appliance market is shifting, and ask what kind of consumer demand or expectations this acceleration is bringing to retailers within the space. What can we predict for the future? What will be most important in terms of guiding these high-end sales?

The Finer Things in Times of Crisis – The Pandemic and Luxury Spending

Before digging into the specifics of the large appliance vertical, it’s important to examine some of the general drivers that have been influencing the dramatic uptick in luxury spending (and specifically, online luxury spending) since 2020. Online luxury sales reached over $56 billion at the end of 2020, an $18 billion surge compared to 2019, according to estimates by Bain & Company.

This increase hasn’t just been observed amongst the highest earners. Middle-income luxury buyers have also increased. In terms of generational influence, the biggest contributors to the global sales in 2021 were Millennials and Gen Z – two digitally native cohorts that are expected to make up 70% of all spending on luxury items by 2025.

Perhaps more interestingly, the allocation of online purchases for luxury goods reached almost 23% of total sales in 2020. This represented a doubling of its market share – up from 12%. This increasing acceptance of making expensive purchases, linked to perceived high quality, of goods that have never been physically experienced or examined is a telling one. The premium market is becoming increasingly enmeshed with the digital world. A combination of our increased trust and familiarity with the online retail experience? A reflection of the advances made in the digital showroom experience? Or a combination of both factors, working in tandem to secure the ongoing acceleration of the luxury online retail industry?

The Luxury White Goods Sector: Where Do We Stand?

Examining the white goods space specifically, what patterns are we observing? In short – steady, significant growth. From January through September 2021, year over year sales of luxury major kitchen appliances, including refrigerators, cooktops, and ovens, leapt up by 45% in the United States.

What’s driving this change in consumer purchasing behavior? While the pandemic had some undeniably disastrous financial consequences, for many it lead to a short-term boost in disposable income – no socializing, gym subscriptions, expensive holidays, or weddings to attend, coupled with a decrease in commuting costs and for many, the additional boost of a stimulus check. Kept apart from family and friends, the desire to indulge in the few creature comforts that were permitted during lockdown was understandable, and many turned to high-end home improvement as a mood-boosting and productive use of time during the pandemic.

By the end of September 2021, luxury major kitchen appliance sales had already overtaken the total revenue of the entire preceding year. Perhaps reflecting the instinctive need to “lay down supplies” in times of uncertainty and hardship, the biggest sellers within the luxury appliance space in 2021 were French-door refrigerators. These recorded nearly 72% revenue growth, which represented the highest absolute sales-revenue gains across all major kitchen appliances.

An uptick in homeownership is also thought to be a key driver to the kitchen appliance business more generally. There are 10 million more households in the United States than there were four years ago – or 77 million households in total – and they all need white goods. Covid boosted luxury home sales, which were flat pre-pandemic, with a Q3 2020 exodus from crowded cities driving demand (and then prices) up. High-end second home sales and new construction both increased, and quotes for remodeling projects skyrocketed.

High-End Large Appliances: Purchase Patterns

Having examined where the increase in demand for luxury white goods may be coming from, let’s dig a little deeper into the specific purchase patterns that we’re seeing in the space. The impact of “premiumization” – the persuasion of consumers to “trade up” – has been felt within the most competitive verticals. Retailers are increasingly encouraging their customers to opt for aspirational models, often within the high-pressure “time-limited” environment of sales season and the “golden quarter.”

Is this strategy paying off within the major appliances space? The desire certainly seems to be there within the customer base with significant proportions of shoppers saying it’s “important to indulge or pamper myself regularly” or that they “prefer to own fewer but higher quality items.” Combine this with a propensity towards impulsive spending and retailers are onto a winning formula – 10% of shoppers reported spending more than they planned to on their last purchase of a large appliance.

In terms of other purchasing behaviors, we’re also witnessing a steady increase in online research, which has become more familiar (and thus, widespread) as a result of necessity during the store closures forced by the pandemic. The use of online mediums to research appliances increased by 24% whereas sales increased by 15% after the onset of the pandemic.

The pandemic also arguably heightened interest in (and knowledge of) more experiential luxury and the enhanced well-being offered by high-end, technologically advanced appliances. Kept from their favorite restaurants, many gained confidence as home cooks during global lockdowns, experimenting with new kitchen gadgets.

The Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers reported that small kitchen appliances were the second-most common purchases in lockdown, with 32% of respondents making an investment, and nearly half (48%) of respondents reporting that they had cooked at home more often during the pandemic. It follows that both smart appliances and appliances that give multiple functions (i.e. self-cleaning ovens/sous-vide functions) were also popular, boosting the luxury end of the white goods market.

The pandemic also triggered higher interest in and demand for sustainability. This trend was witnessed across many luxury verticals (i.e. fashion) and certainly overlaps with the positioning of many luxury large appliance brands, which will often prominently showcase factors such as local manufacture and operational efficiency.

Finally, with prices inflated by supply chain issues and scarcity, it could also be argued that consumers simply become more accustomed to paying higher prices – or willing to pay more for a high-end brand to secure a purchase and avoid lengthy backorder waits.

Future Proof Your High-End White Goods Sales

With interest in the luxury large appliance market booming, what should vendors be considering to capitalize on the opportunity? Firstly – there’s a distinct need for retailers to focus on promoting the fine “premium” detail of their products (artisanal production, luxe design aesthetic, or cutting-edge tech features.) Consumer interest and demand are high here, and online research can be expected to increase in close correlation with higher product pricing.

Secondly – vendors of high-end white goods need to approach the market with an increased focus on their digital channels. The pandemic pushed everyone online, and while luxury appliances would usually command a more involved showroom-based experience, close rates are reported to have significantly improved, even with reduced “in person” sales time. Ecommerce is still a relatively small portion of total appliance sales (unaided premium and luxury appliances e-commerce sales are estimated to be 5-7% of the industry balance-of-sale) but this share will increase, and consumer expectations regarding digital experience have never been higher.

In short, a personalized, omnichannel approach will be essential to impress tomorrow’s customers. Product-featured video content, chat, and virtual showroom tours are becoming the norm – and to impress the top end of the market, they need to be delivered with strategy and finesse. Retailers must, as a result, keep sales channels functionality constant to deliver a high-end and consistent digital showroom experience, which does justice to the quality of the luxury appliances that tomorrow’s consumer is clamoring for.

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