This document discusses trends in e-merchandising and catalog organization for large online retailers. It covers topics like catalog structure, search features, cross-selling recommendations, and responsive design for different devices. The author provides examples from their work improving the catalog for a large home improvement retailer in Brazil. They achieved significant increases in traffic, online satisfaction scores, and catalog size through approaches like cleaning product data, adding search suggestions, and optimizing the site for mobile users.

1. Intro  1. catalog  2. search  3. micro merch  4. visual merh  5. organization
Latest trends in E-Merchandising
Usability and Information Architecture
on large e-commerce catalogs
12 Augusto 2014

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Gaëtan Belbéoc’h
Over 12 years on e-Commerce &Web
@ France
@ China (6 years)
@ Brazil (since 2013)
Laredoute.fr France no1 in e-commerce of Apparel
L’Oreal world’s no1 in Cosmetics
Adeo Group & Leroymerlin world no3 in DIY

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About Leroy merlin
mission: “Helping people improve their living environment
Constrution
DIY
Decoração
Gardening
 16 years in Brasil
 7.200 colaborators
 32 stores
 2 CD e 2 Platforms

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 Cross Channel approach / sharing the same resources with
the rest of the company
 100 K products and 1000 complex categories
1. Few product experts available
2. 25% product renovation / year
3. A very « low-tech » supplier base
4. Hard to get data and low quality pictures
Our main challenges

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with the maximum efficiency
 through automated rules, easy to operate by anyone
Capture knowledge and experience from experts
Less fully automatic
« big data » intelligence
More semi automatic
human-created algorithms

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A short history
01/ 2013 May Nov May 2014
V1
V2
Soon

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 X 3 - 60 000 products in 1 year
 largest online catalog in Brazil home segment
 70% of product range « cleaned » in 1,5 year
Catalog offering
Usability  Online customer satisfaction > 8.5 / 10 for 1 year
 Scored no 1 on 15 out of 16 items on survey
« revista REVENDA » june 2014 (2000 participants)
 One of the first responsive website in Brazil
Our sucesses 2013-2014

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 x 5 in 1,5 year
 healthy organic growth : Bounce rate 20%
 number one in home centers & decoration pure
players in Brazil (Alexa)
 from 6th to 2nd position worldwide in groupAdeo
Traffic
Our sucesses 2013-2014

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Shopping before 1920: ask the sales attendant!

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Self Service

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then it grew Largest carrefour 25500 m2 (1972)
Over 200 000 sku

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Clients: struggling to choose between similar products
Retailers: « Is such a huge choice really profitable ?

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Carrefour downsized his largest stores by 6000 sqm
to improve profitability
Lefigaro.fr 11/2008
Tesco finds its mega stores are a waste of space
[reduce size by selling to restaurants, gyms…]
the Guardian august 2013
Walmart US accelerates small store growth
news.walmart.com 2/2014

14. Intro  1. catalog  2. search  3. micro merch  4. visual merh  5. organization
Study on a leading grocery retailer
25% of its stocked items accounted for almost
2010
100% of its profits
(On a set of core categories)
By

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This is the origin of Merchandising
maximize profitability per square meter?
How do I
planning involved in marketing the
right product at the right
place, at the right time, in the
right quantities, and at the right price.

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From the 70’s to now:
Merchandising is improving profitability / M2

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What about theWeb?
 Few profitable e-commerce players yet
 Focused on growth first (profitability later)
 Increasing catalog size (Amz > 200 millions items)
 Launching market places

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Amazon (shampoo, yesterday screenshot)
 Isnt’t merchandising important for theWWW?

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3] Micro merchandising
1] Catalog organization [macro-merch]
4]Visual merchandising
Web Merchandising
2] Searchandising

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1] Catalog organization
A – Contents and products relations
C- Multiple depth classification
B - Multi exposition of categories
D- Multi – trees arborescences

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A – Content and products relations
Top level category:
generic subjects

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All contents about « ar condicionado »
2nd level of hierarchy: « ar condicionado »

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3rd level => produt list « ar condicionado split »

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Product content relations
Product tagging (like facebook face-tagging)

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[1]
[2]
B - Multi exposition of categories

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1
Case 1: 4-levels hierarchy
C- Multiple depth classification

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2

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3

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4

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1
Case 2: 2-levels hierarchy

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 By style
 For professionals
 By projects
 By brands…
 Landing pages for SEO
…develop multiple ways to access products and content:
D- Multi – trees arborescences

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1st level:
By room
2nd level:
By style
First test: navigation by style « inspire-se »

35. Intro  1. catalog  2. search  3. micro merch  4. visual merh  5. organization
 Navigation is mixed between browsing and searching
 Send visitors to hand-organized categories preferably
2] Search(andizing)
Better search
experience
Better catalog
organization

36. Intro  1. catalog  2. search  3. micro merch  4. visual merh  5. organization
A. Quick-search / suggest

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B. Shortcuts
Funnel and
guide visitors
through the
catalog

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> How it works
Categories
Products
Content
Customer data Search
Facets
Quick-srch
Main srch
indexes

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3] Micro merchandising
A - Facets
- Ordered / clean facets
- Visual facets
- Customer oriented facets
B – Cross / Upsell
- Hand picked cross-selling
- Big data automated cross
- Rule based semi automated cross
- Advanced case

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A – Facets > clean characteristics first

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visual facets : ideal when it’s hard to expressA – Facets >

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customer oriented facetsA – Facets >

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B – Cross / Upsell

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B – Cross / Upsell
- Hand picked cross-selling
- Big data (affinity analysis)
- Rule based semi-automated cross
- Advanced case

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hand picked cross/up selling
high value, small
product range
B – Cross / Upsell >

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Doing a pretty good job
at the start
Probably lower affinity score,
Should we display this?
big data, collaborative filteringB – Cross / Upsell >

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rule-based cross-selling
Rule: Same voltage
+
Similar power
+
With cable (no battery)
B – Cross / Upsell >

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Rule: Compatible drill bits

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advanced case
Specify the surface
needed
B – Cross / Upsell >

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4]Visual merchandising
A- Responsive-design
B- Differenciated merchandising

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A- Responsive-design
4 break points
- Big screen
- Computer
-Tablet
- Mobile

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Results:
 Very positive effect on mobile traffic ( + 60% )
 Better use of available sreen = Better usability !
 Optimize image size for mobile
 Standardise all your interfaces ( pattern labs )
 Test on real machines too ( touch screen )
Our learnings:

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24 products on 1 screen

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Only 4 products on the same
screen

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B - Differenciated merchandising

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1. Kitchen products (lm.br)

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1. Kitchen specialist website

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2. Category painting (lm.br)

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2. Category painting: specialist

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3. Hardware category (lm.br)

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3. Hardware specialist

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Our organization
Around 30 people including
- Product / supplier team
- WebTech/Marketing team
- E-Business team

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Working agile with a touch of Do itYourself ^o^/
Thanks you partner, too ;)