Data Analysis of Amazon Fashion Pages Reveals Secrets of Success
After analyzing more than 89,000 fashion apparel product pages on Amazon.com, researchers at “product experience management” platform provider Salsify discovered the page content traits that can boost customer reviews, woo shoppers and drive sales.
The data analysts at the firm examined several price point ranges across clothing, shoes and jewelry on the site — which included men’s and women’s. After crunching the numbers, one thing stood out: “Regardless of the price point, product pages in the top 10 percent of sales rank had significantly more reviews and broader use of A-plus content than low performers,” the authors said.
Related stories
How Retail Reacts as Shipping and Snail Mail Gets Pricier
CEO Talks: Kohl's Michelle Gass Makes Waves
Amazon Hits Record Profits Again, But Wall Street's Still Worried
“There are differences in what else contributes to a winning product page depending on a product’s price point, along with whether the product is meant for males or females,” the firm noted. “For example, top-performing pages at price ranges below $30 feature significantly longer product descriptions on average than their lower-performing counterparts, while these differences become much less pronounced for products priced $30 and above. Meanwhile, top-performing women’s clothing had between 0.5 to 1.4 more images than top-performing men’s clothing in the same price range, with these differences growing smaller the higher the price point.”
For brands and retailers, the analysis offers insights for what works best. “Delving into this data at relevant price points and gender targets for your products will help guide your brand on how to make improvements that can ultimately increase sales and grow market share on Amazon,” the authors said.
The report follows a recent forecast from eMarketer that pegs online fashion apparel sales to reach $118 billion — securing it as the largest category of total e-commerce sales. Last year, as apparel sales fell 2 percent, e-commerce sales of shoes, apparel and accessories showed a 14 percent gain, according to eMarketer.
“For fashion brands, online is where the biggest opportunity for growth lies,” Salsify stated. “Amazon is a major source of this sales growth, and is a key way to reach this rising share of engaged consumers. By focusing on the product page elements across apparel products on Amazon, this benchmark data identifies what sets the top-performing product pages apart from the rest in this category — so you can understand where to focus in order to improve your sales and market share.”
In the $14.99-and-less basic women’s fashion category, researchers found that using images and descriptions were important to building trust. That includes using “romance copy language” in the product title to lure buyers. In this price-point range, shoppers respond to product pages that tout value “without needing to scroll with in-image text,” Salsfiy noted.
For the $15 to $29.99 women’s fashion price point segment, the researchers found that more visual content triggered sales. The authors said it was important to “use images to showcase the product’s look in multiple poses and environments.” Close-up images of products also helped drive results.
In the $30 to $59.99 segment, using “A-plus content” was described as “incredibly important” by the researchers. They suggested providing fit and material details in the product descriptions along with bullet points that were more marketing in nature. And having a sizing chart above the fold was also key. And for the higher-end, $60-and-above women’s segment, Salsify said it was critical to include detailed sizing information as well as marketing language that resonates with the target buyer.
For men’s wear, “laser-focused” content, descriptions and product quality were some traits that helped deliver the best results.
Get more from WWD: Follow us on Twitter, Facebook, Newsletter