Mars United presents the fifth edition of its cross-platform guide for evaluating product page content and sales enablement opportunities on leading retailer websites.
To download the report, fill out the form below.
The digital shelf keeps shrinking. The impact of your PDP is expanding.
Despite all the talk about the “endless aisle” in ecommerce,product visibility on the digital shelf has always beennarrower than it seems. Although the internet as a wholeoffers a near-endless array of options, shoppers are focusedoverwhelmingly on top search results. Relying heavily onthe search engine to deliver relevant offerings — or elsemoving on — shoppers click one of the top three productlistings 64% of the time (according to Amazon).
That’s why nearly two-thirds of U.S. retail media spending is devoted to search advertising (per EMARKETER), and why the maintenance of product detail pages on ecommerce websites is so critical to success. According to the ecommerce data experts at Profitero+ (a Mars United affiliate), 54% of shoppers say that product content influences their purchase decisions, and 59% say it has a strong impact on their overall brand perception. The PDP is also a foundational source of the content search engine algorithms use to form their results.
And now generative AI-driven search agents are poised to shrink the digital shelf even more, scouring product content from a variety of sources to narrow their results down to a single product recommendation (see page 11 in the report).
None of this is making PDP content obsolete. In fact, it’s more vital than ever now that content needs to convert both shoppers viewing the page and others who aren’t even visiting the retailer’s website — but are letting a commerce-enabled agentic search engine do the work for them.
Winning the digital shelf, therefore, remains the bedrock for brand success, as both the final checkpoint on the ecommerce path to purchase and an increasingly critical step in the brick-and-mortar purchase journey. (Profitero+ finds that 64% of shoppers are influenced by digital activity, regardless of where their purchase is ultimately made.)
From basic information about benefits and ingredients, to lifestyle images depicting usage occasions, to product comparison charts, brand content on the digital shelf gives shoppers and search bots alike the information they need to make intelligent and confident purchase decisions. Uninspiring content and outdated or missing product information, conversely, can turn away shoppers and keep the bots from ever recommending your brand.
EVALUATED ECOMMERCE PARTNERS: Ahold Delhaize USA, Albertsons, Amazon, DoorDash, Gopuff, Instacart, Kroger, Shipt, Target, Uber, Walmart
Maintaining an optimal digital shelf, however, has proven challenging for many brands because of the complexity involved in creating — and then maintaining — the vast amount of content that’s needed. Making the effort especially difficult is the fact that each retailer has its own set of guidelines and requirements for the type and amount of content that brands can present on their PDPs. And those guidelines change constantly. Each retailer’s requirements, as well as the content-mining algorithms that drive search results within their ecosystems, evolve continuously, requiring brands to conduct ongoing audits and updates of their pages.
The goal of this Digital Shelf Report is to help brands and retailers succeed in ecommerce by keeping them up to date on the opportunities available at leading ecommerce websites. In this edition, we’ve expanded that mission by adding more coverage of key industry trends, insights into effective strategies, and recommendations for bringing the digital shelf to life.
Welcome to the new and improved Digital Shelf Report from Mars United Commerce.
