You don’t have to go to great lengths to persuade a shopper to purchase from you. Instead, you can concentrate on providing detailed information about your products. This includes specific legally required information regarding the item’s composition and use and product attributes that enrich its features in the eyes of potential shoppers and boost visibility on digital marketplaces.

Product attributes form a comprehensive product profile that can drive customer conversion across all sites. Want to know what is a product attribute exactly, how to use attributes to your advantage, and how to manage them in the most efficient ways on various platforms? Our guide has all the answers you need.

Meaning of product attributes

Attributes encompass all the details associated with a product. They help describe the product to potential buyers and provide objective technical information without obvious marketing tactics.

Product attributes can be categorized into two types: tangible and intangible. Tangible attributes are physical features that can be perceived by the senses, such as color, shape, or texture. Intangible attributes are qualities that can’t be directly observed or felt when interacting with the item.

The main purpose of attributes is to assist online shoppers in locating, comparing, and selecting a product that best suits their needs. To illustrate, let’s consider a scenario where a shopper searches for a backpack with multiple compartments. They may come across numerous products claiming to meet this requirement. However, the product attributes reveal that one backpack has two compartments while another has four, influencing the shopper’s purchase decision.

Product attributes example


How to benefit from product attributes

Although attributes have no obvious marketing prompts involved, they still help promote and advertise your product, differentiating it from competitors. Attributes provide customers with essential info about a product that may not be apparent from just viewing its image on an e-commerce site. Numerous online marketplaces offer filters that let shoppers narrow down their search results based on specific product attributes.

Maintaining a comprehensive and accurate catalog of product attributes is vital in guiding customers toward making the right purchase that aligns with their requirements. By effectively managing an up-to-date database of attributes, you can significantly enhance the following aspects:

Overall sales increase. Including a comprehensive range of attributes positively affects the customer experience. They ensure that your item not only stands out as a viable option for consumers but also boosts sales conversions and satisfaction levels while reducing returns and exchanges. This, in turn, enhances your brand image, reputation, and customer loyalty across all channels.

Product safety.By providing comprehensive info about the composition of your item, you can assure buyers that you’ve adhered to manufacturing procedures diligently. If you mention that your item is made from fire-resistant materials or the food you sell is prepared without cross contaminations, this will foster a favorable relationship between consumers and your brand.

Product value. Technical attributes act as a guarantee of an item’s quality for shoppers and contribute to its durability. For instance, smartphone cases that offer first-class protection or clothes crafted from organic fabrics are likely to attract buyers who prioritize sustainability and longevity when shopping online.

Product advancements. If your item has any technological innovations, you should draw attention to them when filling in attributes. For instance, highlighting OLED technology in a TV set or VR in a gaming system allows you or your brand’s marketing team to craft a more captivating narrative around the product that resonates with buyers.

Handle Product Attributes easily with M2E Cloud

Managing product attributes

Since attributes are the foundational elements of all product info, you need to handle and organize them efficiently. Your primary task here is to keep attributes in the precise and current state to facilitate product discovery, boost sales on channels, and elevate the buyer experience. The following steps will help you with productive attribute management.

Conduct thorough research

First, you’ll need to engage in market research to handle product attributes effectively. Check which product attributes are highlighted in competitors’ listings to borrow some ideas, and pay extra attention to customer feedback. Carefully examine your own and your competitors’ reviews, as both positive and negative feedback can be valuable.

If a negative review mentions a discrepancy between the item description and the actual item, use this information to improve the accuracy of your descriptions and attributes. Similarly, you can study competitors’ listings that receive positive feedback to identify areas for improvement in your product pages.

Ensure to indicate every attribute

Each item requires a comprehensive and well-rounded attribute list of attributes. Let’s say you’re selling a regular white t-shirt and have already listed attributes such as size, material, and color. But if you visually examine the entire list, you might realize that you’ve overlooked attributes related to the design and aesthetic of the t-shirt, which could significantly enhance its appeal. Remember to analyze other merchants’ listings to gather further inspiration and expand your attribute list.

When reviewing your attribute list, it is helpful to group them into distinct categories, such as technical, physical, logistic, and marketing attributes. Organizing your attributes into these groups lets you quickly identify any missing attributes and complete your list.

Product attributes groups

Categorize your attributes

If you offer a range of similar products, keep in mind that not all of them will share the same attributes. For instance, tea cups and tea bags possess different attributes despite belonging to the same general category.

To streamline the attribute management process, identify the specific product families within each product type. Once you’ve identified these families, create distinct sets of attributes required for each family.

Use automated tools

You can always handle attributes manually, especially if you have a small catalog or sell only on one channel. But when you list items across multiple platforms, attempting to manage attributes and other product info separately for each sales channel becomes challenging. In this case, using spreadsheets for attribute management may increase the risk of inaccuracies, missing information, and duplicated data.

Try a dedicated tool that automates the process to ensure streamlined and error-free attribute management. M2E Cloud will help you establish a centralized and reliable source of truth for your product information and keep attributes for your entire product catalog organized in one place. With M2E Cloud, handling product attributes across various platforms becomes effortless.

How to apply attributes on e-commerce platforms

When it comes to product information, each platform presents its way of filling in the basic attributes and expanding their list. Let’s see how you can provide and manage attributes on such well-known channels as Shopify and BigCommerce.

Shopify

Shopify provides predefined basic attributes such as title, description, SKU, price, weight, and inventory status. They cover essential product information that every online store needs to carry out sales.

Apart from standard Shopify product attributes, you can further expand your product pages’ info by using metafields. They act as custom attributes, letting you display additional product data to boost their value, for instance, indicate a color swatch or an expiration date of your item. You can set up metafields for your products in Shopify admin under Settings > Custom data > Metafields.

BigCommerce

BigCommerce offers default attributes similar to Shopify, including title, description, SKU, price, weight, and stock status, which are the foundation for product information. Still, you can create custom fields to capture additional product info that the default attributes may not cover.

To define custom fields, navigate to Products > View. When adding a new product or editing an existing one, scroll down the page until you reach the “Add Custom Fields” button and click it. Once done, custom attributes will automatically appear on the product page.

Using M2E Cloud, you can set Shopify & BigCommerce custom fields for eBay items in a couple of clicks. The app imports custom attributes from these stores, so there is no need to copy and paste them manually. Even if you update the custom fields in your store, the changes will be immediately reflected in the app and on eBay.

Shopify BigCommerce custom attributes

Final thoughts

The attributes you specify for your items can make or break a successful sale. They can captivate, inform, and deeply resonate with buyers, ultimately motivating them to choose your offer over that of your competitors. That’s why you should include attributes in your sales strategy and take your time to create complete attribute lists with our tips.

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