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The Top 10 Digital Shelf Metrics You Need to Monitor

Reading Time: 5 minutes

The Top 10 Digital Shelf Metrics You Need to Monitor

Brands should work to optimize every aspect of their online presence to secure their position on the digital shelf. Measuring and following appropriate digital shelf metrics empowers you to understand your product detail page efficacy and improve your PDPs for long-term growth. 

This article examines the top ten digital shelf metrics to monitor to engage better, sell more, and win the digital shelf.

1. Share-of-Search

Your brand’s share of search measures brand and product visibility in organic search results compared to your competition. A high share of search indicates a high volume of users are looking for your company, signaling they’re inclined to purchase from you. 

Brands continuously work to increase their share of search through running share-of-search audits, tracking page rankings, and optimizing retailer site search. 

Effective share of search optimization allows for the following: 

  • Understand your brand’s market penetration 
  • Understand product placement and position across retailer sites based on keyword search 
  • Brand and category performance analysis 

Your share of search directly informs your success on the digital shelf. Knowing, monitoring, and optimizing this metric positions you to win market share.

2. Average Order Value

Your average order value (AOV) is the average price of your customers’ purchases. The higher your AOV, the greater your profits. High AOV means you spend fewer resources to sell more items to your customers. This metric shows how well you engage customers and optimize your pages for conversions

Your AOV can provide insight into a few things: 

  • Product relevance 
  • Accuracy of product pricing 
  • Content strategy 

You can increase your AOV by providing comprehensive, engaging product data, selling add-ons, and strategically incorporating enhanced content, like rich product imagery and hot spots, in your PDPs.  

Engaging, informative product content is a primary driver of page traffic and conversions. Optimize your content and see your AOVs grow as a result.

3. Cart Abandonment Rate

E-commerce cart abandonment rates average roughly 70 percent. Seven of ten shoppers seriously consider purchasing your products but change their minds before completing the transaction. That’s significant revenue you’re missing out on. 

Many factors contribute to low cart abandonment rates, including effective product content management and seamless checkout. By setting the stage with informative, quality content and reducing friction in the purchase phase, you can keep abandonment rates low and increase your sales –– and revenue.

4. Consumer Sentiment

Knowing how consumers feel about your brand and products is crucial for your marketing, sales, and product development strategies. Your business relies on positive customer sentiment. With ratings and review monitoring, you can know firsthand the customer experience and how to improve it. 

Positive reviews and ratings are the lifeblood of an e-commerce business. Good reviews compel purchase more than any other single factor, while poor reviews will cause a potential customer to abandon your brand and site for good. 

Monitoring and managing your product reviews allows you to receive honest feedback that shapes your products and brand.

5. Store Sessions by Traffic Source

Where are your site visitors coming from? Monitoring store sessions by traffic source highlights the strengths and weaknesses of your product content strategy. 

Your online product content is expansive, crossing channels and platforms. Retail is omnichannel, and your product content should reflect this shopping reality. Analyzing your traffic sources provides insight into content that works and content that needs reshaping.

Content quality and consistency are paramount regardless of where your shoppers come from or how they find you. Customers expect the product content experience to be seamless and easy to consume wherever they interact with your brand, even if they come to your brand through multiple channels. 

Prioritize content creation and disbursement that caters to the shopper and their preferred shopping channel. 

6. Conversion Rate

Your conversion rate is simple: divide the number of site visits by the number of transactions. The higher your conversion rate, the more effective your PDPs, content, and marketing strategies are. A high conversion rate signals that you’re appealing to your audience’s wants and needs, providing the products and experience they expect. 

If your conversion rates are low, consider how your PDPs might be improved. Provide rich content that gives shoppers the information they want and need, then deliver a straightforward buying process that simplifies purchase. 

7. Inventory Status

Proper inventory management is crucial for customer satisfaction and effective resource allocation. Preventing out-of-stock issues helps you maintain authority and legitimacy in the eyes of your customers. 

Few circumstances are more frustrating for a shopper completing a purchase only to discover that their product isn’t in stock. If this happens, you must process a refund and then handle poor customer reviews. However, you don’t want excess inventory. This can result in higher storage fees or changing trends that affect product sales. 

Careful inventory management contributes directly to your digital shelf success. Tracking and managing your products’ inventory status allows you to sell more, preserve resources, and maintain a positive relationship with your customers.

8. Content Readiness Score

Selling products in an omnichannel market requires brands to properly manage content readiness. Every retail partner maintains various content requirements and standards. You must have the right content in the right place to meet your many trading partner standards. Otherwise, you lose visibility, confuse customers, and miss out on sales. 

Your content readiness score identifies opportunities to modify or upgrade content before publishing to ensure it meets all retailer requirements. It also allows you to optimize product launches by auditing your category, retailer, and competitive brand landscape. 

Monitoring your content compliance score enables you to ensure your PDPs have the data and information retailers want and shoppers need so you can secure your position on the digital shelf. 

9. Share-of-Shelf

Your digital share-of-shelf is the percentage of traffic your brand gets from a keyword inquiry – it indicates your category page rank, determining your position within the market. For example, when someone searches for “toothpaste” on Amazon, what percentage of the time does Crest appear as a return on that search?

 You can track your digital shelf analytics by examining your rank on the SERPs concerning specific category-based keywords. 

A top position on a category page puts your products in front of shoppers who know what product type they want. And they’re ready to purchase. However, understand that your share-of-shelf can vary drastically from retailer to retailer and market to market. Monitoring your share-of-shelf on each platform allows you to identify your competition and create more effective strategies for growth.

10. Share of Voice

Your share of voice (SOV) is the measure of the market your brand owns compared to your competitors. It acts as a gauge for your brand visibility and to what extent your products and brand dominate the online conversation.

Share of voice indicates the authority and popularity of your brand among your customers and shoppers. The more users are talking about your brand and products, the higher your share of voice.

Monitoring your share of voice allows you to segment your audiences and analyze other performance metrics. It enables you to determine the success of marketing campaigns and gives you insights to improve performance for future efforts.

Competing on the Digital Shelf

The digital shelf evolves every minute. If you want to compete – and win – your team must diligently monitor key digital shelf metrics. Keeping abreast of your performance and how you compare to competitors empowers you to strategically advance your brand and products through global channels. 

Content Status has the solutions to monitor crucial performance metrics and the tools required to optimize your digital presence. Connect with our team to learn how our resource can help you monitor – and win – your position on the digital shelf.