York – positive impact of tagging on sales, conversion and page views

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This case study demonstrates the positive data tagging impact on sales, conversion and page views on a marketplace. When done correctly, tagging contributed to over 98% increase in sales, over 61% increase in page view numbers and over 46% in average conversion rate compared to non tagged control group.

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Site navigation is already one of the most fundamental and essential tools sellers implement in the online stores to improve user experience. While setting up site navigation is the first step, what really makes this tool efficient is product tagging. Tagging is what allows the website to show to customers all the relevant results, according to their attribute selection. However, even if you have site navigation in your online store, the efforts you invest in tagging may be the deciding factor in whether the customers actually use it or not. In order to study the impact of tagging on product performances in an online store, Lisuto joined with one of its clients to conduct a three months case study.

 

This case study is consistent with the previous studies on Ryuryu, Shirohato and others and clearly shows how tagging contributes significantly to improved performance, compared to untagged products. Tagged products showed significant improvement in all categories over the test period, contrasted with the uneven performance of untagged products.

 

Methodology

 

In this case study Lisuto set out to collect data on the impact of tagging on product performance. Specifically, we wanted to see how sales number, page views and average conversion rate are affected by tagging. For this purpose, Lisuto cooperated with a company named York, a long established fashion store based in Japan. The customer selected to tag 500 random products from York’s online store in Rakuten called Varzy, which offers thousands of different products.

 

To obtain valid results over time, which contributes to the overall accuracy of the case study, we examined the tagged products performance (sales, page views and average conversion rate) over a period of three months - the first month serving as a benchmark month prior to any tagging and two months with tagged products vs untagged control group.

 

For consistency of results, only the top 1,000 most viewed products that appeared during each separate month throughout the whole test period have been included in the case study. Products that have not been tagged and also appeared during each separate month throughout the whole test period in the top 1,000 most viewed products were used as a control group. The test period began in August 2020 and ended in October 2020.

 

The Study

 

Sales

 

Total Sales

 

The test results for total sales over the test period tell the whole story. While the untagged products suffered a consistent decline in sales, the tagged products observed to have an even sharper increase in sales during the test period. As the numbers clearly show, there is drift of total sales to the tagged products from the untagged products.

 

Page Views

 

Page Views

 

The Page Views totals show a similar picture. Again, the number of page views for untagged products steadily declines each month. The tagged products, however, increase their total page views during the same period. And not only that, but after a rather small increase in page views in September, tagged products enjoyed an almost 50% increase in total page views in October, in only the second month with tagged products.

 

Average Conversion Rate

 

Average Conversion Rate

 

In the Average Conversion Rate category, Lisuto examined how tagging affects the average conversion rate, compared to untagged products. Once again, the performance of the tagged product leaves no doubt as to the significance of tagging.

 

As the table shows, in September, both tagged and untagged products enjoyed an increase in the average conversion rate. However, there is a significant difference between the increases each type of product has enjoyed. While untagged products’ average conversion rate increased moderately, tagged products’ conversion rate shot up more than 45%, which is impressive.

 

In October however, tagged products really demonstrated their superiority to untagged products. Untagged products’ average conversion rate decreased (more than its increase in September), while tagged products’ average conversion rate maintained almost the same increase from the month before.

 

Conclusions

 

The results of this case study confirm what Lisuto set out to study ‒ tagging improves the performances of products compared to untagged products, in sale numbers, total page views and average conversion rate. As the numbers above show, tagged products consistently outperform untagged products, and at times it seems as if tagged products’ numbers increase by about the same rate as untagged products’ number decrease.

 

The consistent improved performance of tagged products across all three categories is not surprising. Since the purpose of tagging is to increase products exposure by guaranteeing it will appear in refined navigation searches, it makes sense that larger exposure will lead to more page views and sales.

 

The positive impact of tagging on the average conversion rate may be attributed to pre-qualification. When customers know exactly what they are looking for, they will usually use site navigation to refine the search results. Tagging makes sure that the product the customer is after will indeed be shown to him, which of course increases the conversion rate.

 

This case study demonstrates the advantages that can be gained by properly tagging your products. When done correctly, there is an extensive positive data tagging impact on sales, page view numbers and average conversion rate.