As online grocery and health and beauty shopping continues to grow in popularity and profitability, so do shoppers’ expectations. As discussed in our ecommerce whitepaper, shoppers expect to be presented with accurate, complete product information, and when considering that the majority of shoppers are image-led, product images are an important component of online retailing.
Although many perceive product images to be more influential in the purchasing decisions of General Merchandise products, images are also hugely important to shoppers purchasing FMCG goods.
Despite shopper expectations and continued investment in the growth of online grocery retail, the reality is that the accuracy of product content, including the imagery, can be uncompelling and shoppers are left wanting more from their online experience.
Poor image quality, low resolution, or inaccurate product images can be damaging not only to the perception of brands, but also online retailers. A poor quality or low resolution image, although often a fault of the retailer for not using a brand’s preferred content, can be damaging to brand integrity. Although the shopper is presented with an image of the product, if it is of low quality, doubts about the credibility and authenticity may remain. A shopper may then turn to a competitor retailer that delivers a better shopping experience with higher quality product content.
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Sainsburys.com, January 2016
Sainsburys.com, January 2016
Although low resolution images are not ideal, incorrect shots displaying the wrong product and missing images must be corrected as a priority. In January 2016, 4 percent of listings on Tesco.com were missing product images.
In the worst case scenario, incorrect images are misleading and provoke shoppers to purchase the incorrect or unwanted item. This product may then have to be returned, at the inconvenience of the shopper and expense of the retailer. Negative experiences will greatly damage the shopper’s perception of the retailer and brand and may result in a shopper permanently switching to a competitor retailer. Shoppers often also leave negative reviews on retailer sites in these instances, which in turn can further damage brand reputation. IGD research suggests that a massive 41 percent of shoppers would switch online retailer after only ONE bad experience.
Boots.com, January 2016
Despite the negative consequences for FMCG retailers these mistakes are commonplace. On Amazon Pantry in November 2015, the incorrect image was displayed for a Cow & Gate product. Instead of the ‘Chicken Sunday Lunch’ variety, the featured image was the ‘Creamy Mushroom & Chicken with Noodles’ item. As a result, many shoppers may have purchased this based on the ingredients shown in the image and may have believed that they had received the wrong product in their order.
Amazon Pantry, December 2015
Similarly, in January 2016, a listing of Wall’s Sausages on the Sainsbury’s site featured an incorrect product image. The listing of Wall’s Thick Pork Sausages x 8 454g featured an image for a 12 pack of sausages.
Sainsburys.com, January 2016
The majority of grocery shoppers opt to purchase goods online due to the channel’s speed and convenience – when quickly scanning and adding products to a basket, shoppers may have mistaken this as a 12 pack and feel frustrated and annoyed when they receive only an 8 pack.
Sometimes, the mistakes are more obvious to shoppers, and although perhaps amusing at first glance, are still damaging to both brand and retailer in terms of credibility and authenticity. For example, on US etailer Jet.com, a Marinara sauce listing featured this image.
Jet.com, December 2015
Brand View Compliance
Manually checking thousands of SKUs across multiple retailers is an arduous and time-consuming manual task. Considering many brands and retailers still monitor online content manually, it is easy to see why there are so many mistakes.
Brand View Compliance automatically checks manufacturers’ preferred product content to that shown on retailers’ websites. This allows Brand View clients to monitor and audit the accuracy and presentation of their product information online.
Brand View produce a compliance score according to the number of content errors – in this case, the product listing is only 50 percent compliant to the manufacturer’s A+ content. The report clearly identifies the non-compliant content which needs to be changed, so that a Brand View client can alert their retailer contact.
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