Retailers Turn To New Webcollage Engine To Fight Amazon

Big US retailers battling to compete up against Amazon, have moved to expand their content offering using a significantly expanded Webcollage content engine that now delivers a treasure trove of consumer data using a new C.O.R.E engine.

Retailers such as Walmart, Staples, and Lowes have consolidated their SKU content offering using the Webcollage system which is also used by Amazon and retailers such as Costco, Office Depot, Sears and CVS And Walgreens to build out content on their web sites.

Worldwide more than 1,000 manufacturers use the Webcollage platform to syndicate rich product content to a network of global retailer partners that includes more than 600 ecommerce websites. including the likes of John Lewis and Tesco in the UK.

During a recent visit to New York several major retailers who are battling Amazon in a game of survival said that “the most important element after price is having rich media content in a SKU’.

Research from Deloittes claims that more than 68% of consumers visit a retailers web site at the start of their purchase journey.

In Australia JB Hi Fi along with several other leading retailers use the Webcollage system which allow Companies such as Sonos, Netgear, Sennheiser and Belkin to improve the level of information available in a SKU.

According to retail experts, ‘without well managed product data in a SKU, the functionality of a retail web site will be poor and the investment in any online multichannel strategy will not be realised, especially when it comes to compete up against Amazon who use Webcollage delivered content to enhance their online content experience for visitors to the Amazon portal.

Last week Webcollage announced the addition of predictive content optimisation to its product content syndication and analytics platform.

C.O.R.E. provides manufacturers with a layer of predictive analysis – driven by psychographic and demographic data – that analyses how content will perform. This analysis helps manufacturers create optimized product page content that connects with and informs target consumer segments effectively.

Webcollage CEO John Federman says: “C.O.R.E. helps you evaluate and optimize your content before that content ever goes live, giving science-based answers to the ever-important question: “What is good content?” Using audience and retailer alignment, and competitive analysis, C.O.R.E. delivers in-depth reporting on the effectiveness of product page components.

C.O.R.E. is available immediately alongside a comprehensive suite of new rich product content syndication and analytics tools.

A content comparison engine used by the likes of Sonos is driving to consumers to the more expensive products loaded into the comparison engine while allowing brands to show the difference between models in their range.

C.O.R.E. gives Webcollage clients access to a layer of predictive analytics that match their product page content to millions of data points, leveraging anthropology, linguistics, mathematics, neuroscience within an ever-evolving database tracking over 20 years of consumer interactions.

“C.O.R.E. uses millions of data points that are continuously updated and representative of all demographics and personality types, to offer cost effective, predictive analysis of product content; while also benchmarking it to its competitors” said Federman.

This provides manufacturers with prescriptive, actionable feedback that tells them how they are doing at communicating their unique and actionable product features and offers clear, concise suggestions on how content can be improved.”

C.O.R.E. was developed in partnership with Joseph Carrabis, a world-renowned neuroscientist and research fellow at the University of Southern California’s Annenberg Centre for the Digital Future.

He said “Manufacturers s need to understand how people think and react to product content, and then leverage that information to exponentially improve that content. C.O.R.E. enables brands to analyse and react to how people’s postures and statements reveal their motivations and decision making, enabling them to optimize their product content effectively.”

4Square Media has a commercial relationship with Webcollage.