Importance of content in online marketplaces.
What are online marketplaces?
Online marketplaces connect buyers and sellers digitally and facilitate a transaction.
Broadly, marketplaces might be product-based (Amazon, Alibaba) or service-based (Airbnb, Fiverr).
Marketplaces drove sales worth $2.67 trillion 2020 and remain a popular model for new businesses.
Why is content important?
Trust is a key component of an online marketplaces.
Content contributes directly in building or breaking trust.
A solid content strategy helps not only in driving the first purchase but also sustains trust for future purchases.
Why is content challenging in marketplaces?
Low control over content.
Most content on marketplaces is user generated.
As marketplaces grow/diversify on both seller and buyer sides the content needs and checks become exponentially complex.
Influence:
User feels betrayed
In some cases, incorrect content can harm the well-being of your customers.
At best, they themselves try to verify the information; but most likely they will just stop using your products
Repetitional risks.
Investigation
High cancellations or returns
Post-transaction customer support tickets
Poor reviews
Customer churn - Low or dropping re-order rates.
Recommended actions - Startup
Manually confirm all data with sellers before publishing
Cross-reference important data points with other public datasets. Ex.Google Maps.
Periodically contact top sellers to re-verify data.
Monitor all tickets and reviews to (in)validate content accuracy as a cause
Post transaction surveys.
Recommended actions - Grown up
Automatically cross-reference with external & internal datasets
Deploy fraud detection models
Generate content accuracy/freshness score and engage sellers to keep improving it
Automated workflows to validate content updates
Request for specific content for critical information. Ex. images of certification
Analyze tickets and reviews
Conduct post transaction surveys
Create API integration with sellers.
Impact
User feels confused & frustrated
Incomplete information puts the burden of research on the user which they expect to be simplified by the product
In the best case, they take efforts to find the missing information; most likely, they will switch to alternatives.
Root cause
Inadequate understanding of user needs.
Seller is unable to provide all the information.
Seller is not motivated to provide all the information.
Investigation
High cart abandonment or listing page drop-offs.
Pre-transaction support tickets. Ex. live chat contacts or contacts to seller.
Browser searches on the page (Ctrl+F)
Recommended actions - Startup
Conduct user research to identify all important pieces of information
Deploy live chat & prominently display contact information so user can reach you easily with questions
Provide seller contact if you are unable to answer questions
Review all pre-transaction support tickets.
Post transaction surveys
Update seller interface to collect new info easily; add nudges.
Recommended actions - Grown up
Conduct user research
Deploy chatbots to capture long tail of information needs
Embed surveys on product listing pages to collect feedback
Analyze tickets and reviews
Post transaction surveys.
Impact
User feels stressed if important information is inconsistent
In best case, they spend additional time researching; most likely, they will drop-off.
Root cause
Inconsistent data sources
Inconsistent business logic
Sellers have multiple pages/places to update the same information
Teams add/remove information based on their area of ownership.
Investigation
Very hard to detect, low reporting
User feedback - support tickets, live chat, etc.
Increased friction in user journey - abnormal back and forth among pages.
Recommended actions - Startup
Startups are less likely to face this issue because of lower data complexity
Build a single source of truth for all information. Avoid creating multiple tables with same/similar data
Keep business logic centralized. Avoid re-writing business logic in several places.
Recommended actions - Grown up
Create single source of truth.
Avoid materialising information across multiple tables, if possible
If materialising is unavoidable, ensure consistent logic is used for materialisation
Wrap business logic in services to avoid duplication
Ensure seller interface does not have duplicate/similar fields
Conduct feature parity audits.
Content is a key success driver
Ensuring that your content is correct, covers all important aspect and is consistent is a basic expectation of your customers.
The right content not only helps customers discover you but it also guides them through the buying process.
Content needs evolve over time (new customers, new sellers), so its important to have feedback channels.
Keeping your sellers engaged throughout the journey enhances your chances of success.
Rahul Chidgopkar, Booking.com Sr PM.