A Perfect Store Online is a webshop where customers can find the right products in the right place, presented in the best possible way to influence their purchase behaviour. How do you showcase your products perfectly in major online shops? In this article, we list the 10 most important components for Perfect Store Online in the food sector. It is written from the perspective of manufacturers who supply through wholesalers to the hospitality, catering, bakery and butchery sectors, for example.
The 10 components of Perfect Store Online B2B
1: Product information
Make sure your product information is accurate, correct and complete on the webshop, in line with the guidelines from your company. During this process, you should not only look at the core information but also at the longer descriptions: have they been optimised for findability and do they resonate with shoppers. We wrote an earlier article on product information: Why product information is essential for success in e-commerce
2: SKUs
In the Perfect Store Online, is used to sell your entire range – or at least the most relevant part.
Therefore, make sure the Perfect Store Online has a well-rounded range, including your top products. Identify which strong products are missing and show wholesalers the opportunities they are missing.
3: Pricing
Assess the pricing on the webshop. As a manufacturer, you will usually see the standard price. How does that compare with your recommended price, the price positioning you are going for and the pricing of the competition?
Of course, many of those buying your product have a different, lower price. This is very common nowadays. But in a lot of cases, those not buying your product do not have this kind of price agreement. So the prices listed for your product in the webshop are extremely relevant for attracting new buyers.
4: Brand messaging
If you always pay careful attention to your brand and its unique benefits everywhere offline, then you should definitely be doing the same in online shops. Is the brand messaging being properly conveyed?
Most importantly, look at the unique benefits your product has to offer. In the Perfect Store Check guide, you will find great examples of this from Coca-Cola. You can download it free of charge from our website.
5: Search results
Your sales results will be positively affected if your product frequently appears in the top 5 search results. For this reason, always devote attention to the texts placed with your product. These should include the correct keywords. You should get into the top 5 with the name of the product anyway. Always double check that, though.
You can do a simple follow-up analysis yourself, as follows:
– Determine the most important keyword you want to be found with, plus three derivations.
– Also include synonyms.
Example:
- yoghurt
- fruit yoghurt
- yoghurt with fruit pieces
- yoghurt with red fruit
- yoghurt with strawberries
Others:
Desserts
Modern wholesalers can also provide you with the most commonly used keywords that lead to purchases in your category. For example, ask about the keywords that lead to the most and least conversions in your category and keywords that lead to purchases of your product.
6: Product categorisation
Grouping products into categories is always a challenging task. Based on your own category vision, you will most likely have a clear preference for how items are grouped. Please remember that you have far more knowledge of the category than the wholesalers or e-commerce platforms.
7: Aspects (features, filters)
One popular way of searching is filtering according to characteristics. This could include labels, dietary requirements or allergies. In the Perfect Store Online for food, properly displaying that kind of information is crucial.
8: Availability
Check the availability of your products periodically: Can they be ordered at the normal lead time (order today, deliver tomorrow)? Are there any discrepancies that you can do something about?
Sometimes you need support from colleagues in supply chain management to help find solutions.
9: Category vision
You probably already have a category vision that you would like to see reflected in the wholesaler webshops or platforms that feature your products. And if you haven’t defined how your category vision looks yet, then you can certainly at least have a good look at the category 
Is your category vision being reflected adequately in the presentation of your products?
For example, Coca-Cola considers it important to push sugar-free alternatives in its category. So the company is keen to see Zero variants displayed as alternatives to sugary products.
A lot of A-brands want to put their premium products forward for instance, rather than their standard, basic products.
10: Promotions
Finally, it is good to keep a close eye on promotions in your category. By the way, we do not generally advocate frequent, indiscriminate price-offs and it is certainly not our intention to encourage them. But on the other hand, this could become problematic if other brands are more aggressive with their promotions.
One way or the other, we recommend checking if there are any competing product promotions before your promo week. If there is too much overlap between that promotion, the target audience and your own promotion, then we would definitely insist on a different slot. Also, watch out for other competing promotions during your promo week. Even better, this should be included in the agreements.
The GROUP7 Perfect Store Check Guide
Brimming with useful tips on your product information, descriptions, photos, alternative products and more. Available as a free download from our website. Take full advantage of this opportunity to make your product pages more complete yourself, ensuring that they become more profitable for years to come.