Walmart Rich Media & Enhanced Content

By now it’s clear that in the previous year eCommerce experienced unprecedented growth. But simply because customers care about shopping in larger numbers now doesn’t exactly mean that every eCommerce program will benefit.

For example, in the same period, customer loyalty dropped in massive proportions because of unforeseen supply shortages. Buyers also want to deal with businesses with clear values and that give purpose beyond their offer’s quality.

There’s more, as a result of the global crisis in 2020 in-store marketing strategies lost their effectiveness temporarily, which means that consumers now have to depend more on the product pages of the top online retail platforms such as Walmart for guidance at all stages of the marketing funnel. From the awareness phase to evaluation to purchase.

So as Walmart’s Marketplace continues to expand and grow due to the numerous factors that we’ve just seen, more and more shoppers will visit the online retailer’s product pages. But this doesn’t just create more opportunity, sellers can expect more competition. A Feedvisor study shows that sellers on other platforms are looking to move to a second marketplace with Walmart being their first choice for expansion.

So how can you stand out as a seller on Walmart in the face of all of this? Enhanced content.

Walmart’s enhanced content offers sellers an edge over their competition by crafting listings that are unique due to additional rich media like banners, extra images, videos, comparison charts, interactive product tours, and much more.

With the accelerated conflux of the current shopping trends brands have to change how they engage with consumers via the web. And a vital tool at their fingertips to ensure this is enhanced content. Also called A+ Content or termed Rich Media by Walmart.com. This type of content assists businesses in standing out from the competition by offering the kind of shopping experiences consumers desire.

From 360-degree image spins, photo galleries, and comparison charts to graphics and video, offering enhanced content experiences helps sellers connect better with buyers to deliver a much more powerful brand value and story, all from the product page.

This content type is incredibly effective in capturing the consumer interest to driving increased purchases. A study conducted in 2019 discovered that about ⅓ of the leading 10% of products that are sold on Walmart utilize Walmart Rich Media. And the leading products used about 2 times more images than the standard product page and attracted 17 times more reviews

While you may have already seen why enhanced content is beneficial to not just the seller but buyers let’s see some more reasons:

Customer Engagement

In an era of social media-driven communication, we all know that consumers are influenced directly by the content they come across or are served. And on Walmart.com this is especially true as 88% of shoppers engage with content on the platform before purchasing.

Sellers have a short time frame to get the shopper’s attention and pass across the “why” behind the business before they click elsewhere. With enhanced content, your business can serve consumers with valuable content that they’re searching for in a format that’s easily accessible.

Increased Conversions

Walmart states that including enhanced content generally boosts conversion from 10 to 20%. This happens because placing captivating content on your product listings doesn’t just attract shoppers but keeps them engaged, which means that listings get an increased engagement and longer page dwell time.

The result of this is that from a search engine optimization perspective (SEO) enhanced content will impact your position on the search engine results page (SERP) and will elevate your listing, placing it before more people. So not only do more shoppers see your product listing and click through but shoppers are staying much more longer when they land and since they get deeper information they purchase more often as well.

As with other fresh eCommerce initiatives, when you’re starting with Walmart’s Rich Media, it’s best practice to test first, then iterate and scale. You need to consider the number of SKUs you want to test first and then decide if you want your new content to be designed with an agency or in-house.

Note that there are so many varying formats for enhanced content like enhanced FAQs, carousels, 360 spins, and lots more. Choosing the ones which would be perfect for starting the process will assist your business to learn its way around the waters of Walmart’s Rich Media before going all in. You must always remember that shoppers will be using many devices to shop and search on Walmart.com. So the content you create must render properly on a smartphone as it would on a 30-inch monitor.

Once your business is set to get started with Rich Media, a great research resource to consider for inspiration is your competitors. Do an audit of the leading 50 seller brands that are your competitors and look for opportunities and create gaps in your category, decide how to position your brand creatively to snatch the fresh market share discovered, identify trends with regards to product offerings, and determine how to separate yourself from the leading performers without resulting in a price-war.

As you begin to test and repeat the process on Rich Media, you need to identify certain valuable data sets available to you and one of the most important is consumer feedback. Give priority to communication from consumers for Rich Media by taking heed to insights generated by consumers with regards to what they value the most.

Both negative and positive feedback will disclose what motivated the shopper to use or skip your product. For instance, negative reviews provide insight into the discrepancies between what your listing communicates and common questions that aren’t addressed in the listing, and the overall experience of the consumer on your product page. These insights will help you know where you’re lacking effective communication.

How can your brand measure how effective your Rich Media initiative is? Well, there are several key performance indicators (KPI) that you would want to take a look at, but it’s recommended that you check out the below business-benefit metrics:

Improvement of Search Rank

If your Rich Media is effective the outcome would be increased conversion rates. This is because with more product conversions comes higher rankings on Walmart. So the higher your product rank, the more shoppers search and find the product. You can measure and improve this cycle.

Sales Growth

A higher conversion rate for each product page translates to a rise in your overall sales. Walmart has pointed out that Rich Media converts shoppers between 12-36% more frequently.

Shopper LTV Growth

In the era of brand activism that we live in, Rich Media is an opportunity to increase your company and its values to prospects. This should result in a rise in repeat purchases and customer loyalty.

Rich Media or enhanced content on Walmart goes a long way in captivating and converting shoppers with quality content that gives consumers a detailed insight into the purchase they’re about to make. Use the tips in this piece to guide you in crafting an amazing enhanced content strategy that yields quality results.