Improve Site Messaging & Merchandising with Commerce Cloud Product Badges

One thing the current pandemic exposed is the need for brands and retailers to revisit their site messaging. Proactive, transparent messaging across the entire digital shopping experience has become more important now than ever.

The surge in online shopping for both essential and nonessential goods resulted in inventory outages and supply-chain challenges the retail and grocery industries could never have predicted. You may have experienced it firsthand. You went to a retailer’s site, searched for an item you needed, and clicked through to the product detail page (PDP), only to find the product was out of stock. A disappointing experience and a great use case for product badges!

Let’s take a look at how you can make product badges a permanent part of your merchandising and site messaging strategy.

What are product badges?

Product badges are the little callouts or “stickers” you see on or below product images on ecommerce sites. They are used to visually message unique product attributes and draw the customer’s eye to specific products. Typically they are used to highlight best sellers, new arrivals, gift ideas, special collections, sale items, award winners, pre-order items, staff picks, limited edition, or online exclusives.

In the case of the pandemic, brands and retailers expanded their usage of product badges to communicate limited stock, out of stock, unavailable for shipping, delayed delivery, store pickup, and quantity restrictions.

Why should I use product badges?

Our research shows that Commerce Cloud customers have seen a 9% improvement in add-to-basket rates when product badges were used. We have also observed an increase in conversion as high as 55% for products with badges.

The visual nature of product badges helps customers find what they are looking for quickly by providing an extra piece of information before the shopper clicks through to a product.

When used on the category page to proactively message shoppers about inventory availability and fulfillment options, before the shopper gets to the PDP, badges help build trust and a transparent shopping experience at the top of the funnel. Badges that communicate limited availability also drive conversion by creating a sense of urgency and scarcity.

“Best seller” badges act as a seal of approval from other shoppers and offer a form of social proof, giving shoppers more confidence as they consider a purchase.

Finally, badges can help you move inventory by calling special attention to sale items the price-conscious shopper may be interested in, product collections like seasonal goods, or gift ideas for the shopper who is browsing and may not know exactly what they are looking for.

Best practices for using product badges

Here’s a short list of best practices to keep in mind when using product badges.

• Design your badges to stand out while aligning with your brand standards.

• Keep the text short, simple, and straightforward.

• Don’t overbadge or use too many different types of badges. When this happens, badges become distracting and lose their influence on the customer.

• Test your badge placement, color, and size to maximize add-to-basket and conversion rates.

• Display badges on both the category and product detail pages. On the category page, badges help shoppers narrow their options and decide which product to click on for detailed information. Badges also provide value on the product detail page for shoppers who come straight from Google and land directly on a product.

• Remember to use special badges during the holidays to call attention to seasonal items and gifts.

How to execute product badges on Commerce Cloud

Executing product badges on Commerce Cloud requires the following five steps:

Step 1: Create a custom product attribute

A custom product attribute makes it possible for you to add additional data fields to the product record in Business Manager. In this video we will demonstrate how to create a custom product attribute to badge products that are only available for store pickup. The process would be the same for any type of custom product attribute you wish to create -- online exclusives, best sellers, gift ideas, etc.

Step 2: Assign the new custom product attribute to an attribute group

In order to keep your Business Manager product record well-organized, assign the new custom attribute to an attribute group. This only takes a couple clicks, as we’ll demonstrate in this video.

Step 3: Populate products with your custom attribute

In this step you are essentially flagging which products will be badged with your custom attribute. This can be done manually, via a bulk edit in Business Manager, or with CSV import/export. We’ll demonstrate each method in this video.

It is important to maintain product badge data as a part of your normal product setup and merchandising practices, or your badges will become ineffective. For example, new arrivals will become old at some point, and best sellers change over time. It’s important to update your badges on a regular basis. Product badges are only as effective as the quality of the data behind them and require regular attention.

Step 4: Design badges

In the previous steps you did backend product preparations in Business Manager. Now you have to design badge graphics to display on your storefront. Work with your creative team to design badges in accordance with your brand standards, and be sure to test different designs.

Step 5: Update page templates and CSS (developer or SI partner required)

In order for product badges to display on the storefront, development work is required. This involves making updates to your category grid and product detail page templates as well as your CSS. There are a few factors to consider and discuss with your in-house developer or SI partner as you prepare to execute badges.

Product badges can most simply be assigned at the product level, as we demonstrated in the videos above, or you can go a step further and do it at the promotion level. Doing it at the promotion level allows the badges to be scheduled, or assigned to customer groups. However, for permanent badges the promotion needs to be continuous and a $0 promotion, and your developer needs to think through how badge stacking would work if a product was part of, say, three different promotions.

Overall, custom product attributes for badges, whether executed via product or promotion attributes, need to be pulled into your page templates.

Keep learning with more badge resources

As you can see, product badges are a valuable tool in a merchandiser’s toolbox and can help increase site conversion and customer satisfaction. Product badges are often low-hanging fruit with a medium level of effort required to execute them.

If you aren’t using product badges, give them a try! If you’re already using them, think about how you might shift your strategy for different situations like the COVID pandemic, the upcoming peak holiday season, new store fulfillment options you offer, or other creative product callouts!

Already using Commerce Cloud product badges to enhance your customers’ shopping experience? We want to hear from you! Visit the B2C Commerce Community and share your experience using the hashtag #productbadgesuccess.

To learn more about Commerce Cloud product badges, watch our on-demand webinar recording: Searchandising: 5 Crisis-Era B2C Commerce Strategies to Make Permanent.