How does a Product Attribute Scheme Design work as a competitive advantage?

by contenteCommerceProduct Data EnrichmentblogProduct Data Management

Steve Jobs very well quoted “design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation”.

Product attributes refer to physical features, quality and design of a product that helps to attract customers to make a purchase. Physical nature, uses and benefits of the product, makes it unique and different from other competitive products in the market. Attributes include size, color, price, flavor etc., product attribute differs from product to product. For example, attributes which affects food product selection are taste, price, nutritional value and flavor. On the other hand durable products like shoes are influenced by cost, brand, color, usage, quality and durability.

Product attribute scheme design helps in describing your products, based on an understanding of your users. Designers study consumer behaviour – how the customers are making decisions about purchasing products. This will help them to design the product as per consumer taste. If the consumer gets what they are searching then they will end the purchasing cycle by purchasing the product.

Need for Product Attribute Scheme Design :

  A poor product attribute design has a very bad impact on your e-commerce business. Customers find difficulty in searching for your product due to poor product attribute this will lead to low sales and low conversion rate. For example, if visitors are coming to your landing page and leave the site before purchasing your product, it may be because they do not see the specified details that would help them choose the product they want. If customers cannot find what they need, they will move on to your competitor’s site. Such type of customer behaviour reveals which attribute needs to be given priority in the scheme design. Correct attribute design requires expert advice on user experience, PIM and taxonomy.

Competitiveness :

Products that are similar, usually are the products that are competing with one another. For example shampoo bottle. The goal of product attribute is to impress consumer enough that they pick your product over the rest. In order to stay competitive, a company needs to take it one step further and actually convince the customer to purchase their shampoo over the other shampoos. This is where companies need product attribute scheme designs by making the product look attractive, add some creative slogans and highlight the quality which other products can’t offer. To seal the deal – companies might offer competitive price, making their product simply irresistible.

Changes :

Changing product labels, and offering great price doesn’t always attract customer to buy your product. We live in a dynamic world, everything keeps on changing, so are the demands of the consumers. One year consumer may like shampoo that enhances the 9shiny texture of their hair, next year they may like a product that adds volume and increases the length of their hair. A successful product design, make changes quickly to adapt to the new customers demand. To be a competitive product attribute scheme design, need to keep up with the growing trends. To reap the benefits of the competitive market, your product attribute scheme should be more creative, add new varieties to your products, of course, competitive price is a must.

Advantages of Product Attribute Scheme Design:

  • Product attribute scheme design works as a competitive advantage as it helps you to know the changes in the consumer demand and accordingly to make changes.
  • Secondly attribute scheme helps in designing the product that matches with consumer expectations.
  • A good attribute scheme design, differentiate the company’s product with other products giving the company a competitive edge.
  • Product attribute scheme design helps in improving profit margins by increasing sales and also increases your market share.
  • A well product attribute scheme helps in easy manufacturing and distributing the products.

Conclusion : 

Product attribute helps you to identify gaps in the market, areas for improvement in product development and methods to better serve your target market to boost your sales. Consistency in attribute scheme across the entire product range will improve the customer experience leading to increased conversions and sales. Excellent product attribute scheme design is a gateway to business success. A well-designed product attribute will help you in exploring your organization’s capabilities.

Product Attributes

Meaningful Analysis using Product Attributes

by contentblog
Product Attributes

Product attributes are considered to be a concrete means of analysis of any product. For an eCommerce business, this plays an important role in analysis since the attributes define the product qualities in a meaningful way. It also describes the inherent characteristics and qualities of a product; which consumers tend to give importance to.

Attributes are what distinguishes products from each other. It includes product aspects like color, size, flavor, package type, and so on. Attributes hold significance for the consumers because it determines their purchase decision. For the business, it offer a structure and help in creating product categories. Many times, it defines the products’ competitive set as well.

In an eCommerce business, if we take products as an example, then the largest level is a category and the smallest is an item. There are several levels between category and items which are defined by them. Different attributes allow you to define various product segments and helps you to stay updated as per trend. This also makes it easy to identify the potential growth opportunities.

All the product database items are coded with different attributes. Some of them are unique to the products, for example – food and beverage products have flavor as an attribute, while personal care products have a scent as an attribute. These attributes are generally not interchangeable. Some of them are applicable to all products, such as manufacturer, brand, category, size, and so on. Once you are sure of the list of attributes, you can analyze their performance depending on what holds importance for the business and for the consumers.

Some examples of meaningful analysis using product attributes include:

1.  What is the performance of the different brands and manufacturers?

2. What is the relative pricing between sizes?

3.  Are multi-serve packages more famous than single-serve packages?

4.  What is the competition between different types of containers? E.g. cans or bottles

Product attributes are generally available at the item level only. They do not apply at the level of total products. Although attributes are important, one cannot rely completely on them. This is because of keeping consumer behavior in mind. They might not necessarily be what the company wants. In addition, not all categories use the same unit of measure for an attribute. For example, for size attributes, different manufacturers may use different units of measures.

One must remember that attributes are related to product values and consequences. The combination of consumer behavior and sales patterns helps the business to determine this framework.