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I’ve recently seen great examples where customer searches have become the key factor and trigger for defining and launching a whole customer-oriented campaign. What’s more, there are some instances where demand has literally driven product, and my impression is that this is just the beginning. Listening to your searches and acting on the findings is an incredibly valuable tool, and one that all merchandisers could benefit from.
WAITROSE’S RESPONSE TO INCREASED DEMAND FOR VEGAN PRODUCTS
The famous British supermarket chain, Waitrose & Partners, recently saw a massive upsurge in queries on their site for vegan food. The supermarket revealed that searches on its eCommerce platform for ‘vegan burgers’ rose by 86%, with ‘seitan’ searches up by 148%.
In response, Waitrose just launched the first seitan burger in the UK market! I bet this summer UK barbecues will be sizzling with seitan burgers and what a great example of a retailer identifying a product gap and a new wave of customer demand through their search data. This has enabled them to respond by being the first supermarket to create the right and delicious product to meet the food trend.
WHOLE H&M COLLECTION INSPIRED BY LOCAL SEARCHES
The Swedish fashion group just released a new clothing line based specifically around the demand and interests of one particular city. As the starting point of the design process, H&M collected data using searches and geolocations for Berlin, so that the creative stage was inspired by the garments and trends that Berliners were searching for online. In fact, this is something Google Trends has also been helping with for a while, going even as far as to predict elections results.
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Additionally, this production model not only manages to create a local collection that is relevant but also succeeds in avoiding overproduction while reducing transportation costs. Quite incredible and inspirational. It will be interesting to see how Berliners respond to their tailored collection.
WHAT’S YOUR SITE SEARCH TELLING YOU?
With these clever data-driven strategies we can see how useful the data from an eCommerce search box can be for understanding customer needs and market trends, while providing the insight to then be able to respond.
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