Conquer the Digital Shelf: A Commerce Search Strategy

In today’s dynamic world of online shopping, simply ranking high on Google isn’t enough. Consumers are taking diverse paths to purchase, often bypassing traditional search engines altogether.  

This new reality has given rise to the digital shelf: the online space where consumers discover, evaluate, and ultimately purchase products on retailer websites and marketplaces. Winning on the digital shelf means ensuring your products are visible and compelling wherever your target audience is looking. To maximize product visibility and drive conversions, brands need a comprehensive commerce search strategy that optimizes their presence across all relevant platforms.  

The digital shelf is adapted based on user and platform and is 
in constant change, while the physical shelf remains static, 
offering a uniform experience regardless of the shopper.

What’s so Groundbreaking?

The increasing importance of the digital shelf represents a groundbreaking shift in how brands should approach online commerce. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has long been, and continues to be, a critical component of driving traffic and building brand awareness. However, with an evolving digital landscape, we’re now seeing a significant shift happening. More emphasis is now placed on optimizing product visibility on retailer websites and marketplaces, where purchase intent is demonstrably higher.

Consumers are increasingly bypassing traditional search engines, starting their product searches directly on these platforms. This shift demands that brands not only understand general SEO principles, but also the unique search behaviors and ranking algorithms of each specific platform, including individual e-tailers and marketplaces, in addition to Google. Mastering these nuances is critical for elevating product visibility and driving conversions in today’s evolving online landscape.

Considerations

The digital shelf is more than just a retailer’s website; it encompasses marketplaces like Amazon and eBay, and even classic search engines like Google. Consumers use these platforms differently, so understanding this interplay is crucial. While the digital shelf seems vast with numerous platforms and product listing pages, “eye-level” shelf space is actually shrinking compared to physical retail. This means brands must fight harder to ensure their products are displayed and easily discovered across this complex and competitive landscape.

Benefits of Winning

• Increased Discoverability and Engagement: Shoppers easily find your products on their preferred platforms, leading to higher engagement and consideration.
• Competitive Advantage: Outperform competitors on every platform, capturing valuable “eye-level” space and winning over new customers.
• Boosted Sales: Higher conversion rates and increased online sales, driving revenue growth.

To achieve these benefits and win on the digital shelf, the formula begins with audience-driven product content: strategically using the right attributes, benefits, and features in your product titles and descriptions. This boosts visibility, driving increased traffic to your product pages. Next, optimize your product listing for conversion, turning that traffic into sales. This includes investing in high quality compelling product imagery which is crucial for capturing attention and for converting browsers into buyers. Strong sales performance further enhances your visibility and relevance on several retail platforms thus creating a continuous cycle of growth.

The digital shelf success cycle: Relevance drives growth.

Making your Products Stand Out

While you have authority over your own website, how do you influence the visibility and relevance of your products on other platforms that you don’t own? Each platform requires a tailored approach, but a strong starting point is to understand how you can optimize your product feed based on how users are actively searching for your products. Building trust in your brand in general – and your products in particular – is another important aspect, primarily achieved through positive ratings and reviews. Understanding how your products appear in Google search results in paid & organic third-party listings is also key, while investing in retailer-specific paid ads and retail media can be another way to boost visibility and sales. Whatever way you choose to move forward, continuous monitoring of performance and adaptation to algorithm changes are essential for sustained success.

Find the right Platform for Your Product

Winning on the digital shelf does indeed require a targeted approach. A cosmetics brand, for example, should prioritize optimizing its product listings on key beauty destinations like Matas and Kicks. Similarly, a consumer electronics brand should focus on platforms like Amazon, where 64% of clicks go through the top 3 search results, which emphasizes the importance of ranking high, and Elgiganten, where consumers actively search for and compare tech products. A food brand, on the other hand, should concentrate on online grocery platforms like ICA in Sweden, nemlig.com in Denmark or k-ruoka.fi in Finland , where consumers are actively searching for groceries. The key is to identify the platforms where your target audience is most likely to shop for your specific product category and tailor your digital shelf strategy accordingly.

Given the widespread nature of product searches, brands must 
increasingly identify the platforms that are 
the most relevant to them.

So, are you ready to dominate the digital shelf? Your local specialist can help you with a comprehensive audit of your current presence and a tailored commerce search strategy to maximize your product visibility and drive sales.

Feel free to reach out to:

Sweden: Jon Karlsson, Senior Consultant, SEO & Content Engineering, at jon.karlsson@groupm.com

Norway: Monica Løkken, SEO Manager, at monica.lokken@essencemediacom.com

Denmark: Niels Lindegaard, Senior SEO Strategy Specialist & Professional Lead, at niels.lindegaard@groupm.com

Finland: Jon Ketola, Senior Digital Lead, at jon.ketola@groupm.com

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