This case study provides clear evidence supporting the importance of data tagging. The results consistently indicate that tagging increased the exposure of products by 8%, generated 14% more sales, and improved conversion to sales by 5%. Tagging also protected the products during the period of reduced traffic, making them more resilient to downturn, compared to untagged products.

INTRODUCTION

Studies show that almost all online shoppers begin with a basic search in order to find the products they are looking for. The vast majority of online shoppers then follow the search up with navigation refinement, in accordance with the specific attributes of the desired product. The difference between the number of shoppers who use only the search function, and number of shoppers who use both functions is dependent on the variety of products listed in the store and the level of tagging performed on the products.

In order to better understand the significance of navigation tagging, Lisuto conducted a four-months case study in cooperation with one of its clients. The purpose of the case study was to examine the effects of navigational tags on the volume of pageviews, sales and conversion rates.

The results of the study indicate that tagged products perform significantly better in terms of pageviews, sales and conversion rate, compared to the products that are not tagged and listed on site during the same period of time.

METHODOLOGY

The main focus of this case study was to examine the changes in pageviews, sales and conversion rate due to tagging. Lisuto cooperated with Shirohato, a major Japanese online retail lingerie store that lists tens of thousands of products. For the purpose of this study, several hundreds of random listings were selected and tagged by Lisuto.

In order to have a sufficient sample size, the study followed pageviews, sales and conversion rate data for a period of four months - one month prior tagging, which served as the benchmark for later months, and three months after tagging. For consistency, only the top 1,000 most viewed products that consistently appeared throughout the test period have been taken into account and were analyzed. The test period began in December 2019 and ended in March 2020.

Untagged products that appeared in the top 1,000 viewed products throughout the test period served as a control group for this case study.

THE STUDY

Page views

Total Page views

Reviewing the results of the total number of pageviews, we can see that overall, the tagged product performed significantly better than untagged products. During January, the first month during which products were tagged, tagged products pageviews increased significantly, while untagged products experienced a slight decrease in pageviews.

While February has been less than optimal for both, the results indicate that even in a worse case scenario, tagged products still outperformed untagged products. Finally, the March results show us the resilience of tagged products, whose pageviews remain almost unchanged, while untagged products pageviews decrease. 

Sales

Total sales

The test results for total number of sales align well with the test results for the total number of pageviews. The results indicate that in January, while the total number of sales of untagged products decreased sharply, the sales numbers for tagged products actually went up.

In February, both tagged and untagged products experienced a dramatic decrease in sales numbers. However, there is a significant difference in the decrease of sales numbers - tagged products still outperformed untagged products by a wide margin. Same as in pageviews, and even more so here, the results show that tagged products are much more resilient to decrease traffic than untagged products.     

The decreased traffic continued into March, but the trend remained the same. Again, tagged products demonstrate resilience to decreased traffic and experience only a slight decrease of sales numbers, whereas untagged products experience a major decrease in sales numbers.   

Conversion to sales rate

Conversion to sale 

In this category, Lisuto examined the changes to the average conversion rate of tagged versus untagged products. The results again demonstrate tagged products’ resilience. While both types of products experienced a decrease in their average conversion rate throughout the test period, tagged products’ decrease was consistently less substantial than that of the untagged products.

In January, the results for both types of products decreased by about the same percentage, with tagged products slightly outperforming. In February, the difference extended, and tagged products once again performed better than untagged products by more than 5%. In March, the difference became more significant, when tagged products outperformed untagged products by more than 6%. The results also show that tagged products consistently improved their position compared to untagged products, evidenced by the fact that the differences in change percentage between the two types of products extended each month.   

CONCLUSIONS

This case study provides further evidence to the importance of tagging. The results consistently indicate that tagging increases the exposure of products, generates more sales, and improves conversion rates. Tagging also protects your products during periods of reduced traffic, as the test results clearly show the tagged products’ resilience to downturn, compared to untagged products.

Because tags represent product’s attributes, when used in the search index it allows for the product to appear in narrower, more specific searches and refined navigation, thus increasing its exposure. Increased exposure brings increase in pageviews and sales numbers, as demonstrated in this case study.

The positive impact of tagging on conversion rate is attributed to pre-qualification. Pre-qualification means that when a customer seeks for a product with specific properties, he will almost always use the navigation refinements relevant to the product in order to find it. Since tagging guarantees that the product surfaces in the process and the product has the specific property, the customer becomes pre qualified for the purchase and is more likely to convert. This drives the conversion rate up in comparison to untagged products, which usually disappear in refined searches.

Tagging gives products a substantial advantage. It increases the products’ discoverability in marketplaces, which in turn leads to increase in pageviews, sales and conversion rate, and this case study provides the data to support this claim. 

For more information on how Lisuto can help you increase amount of pageviews and improve product discoverability on your site or marketplace, please contact us at sales@lisuto.com