Even though product matching in e-commerce is a newer trend, it is an important one — it can make or break a product’s success.
Whether done manually or with the help of an algorithm, most users price compare before making purchasing decisions.
By the end of this article, you will understand:
- The importance of product matching in e-commerce using deep learning
- How price matching works
- Why product matching is relevant to your e-commerce business; and
- More
What Is Product Matching in Ecommerce?
E-commerce portals provide detailed information accompanying products so that buyers can make a buying decision based on that information. For the average customer, the entire retail world now fits into their laptop or smartphone.
Product matching is driven by the desire for customers to compare the prices of a product before purchasing from a specific vendor.
By implementing machine learning algorithms for e-commerce and processing huge data sets, it is possible to analyze the online interactions of hundreds of millions of users. Using it, you can generate product recommendations tailored to a specific customer or group.
Product matching in e-commerce using deep learning is backed by algorithms and machine learning, and it can either:
- Compare similar products produced by different competitors; or
- The same products offered on other websites
Let’s say you need a new laptop for personal use. Odds are, you will be shopping online.
- You will search a favorite online store to see what laptops are available.
- You will then filter the different types of laptops by models, attributes, etc.
- Next, you then narrow your search to one or two choices.
- You then search other sites to find the best price and reviews on your selected laptop.
- Once you’ve made your decision, you purchase a new laptop.
From a customer’s perspective, it looks easy, but for an e-commerce owner or seller, it can make or break a business.
The e-commerce product matching process can solve many of the problems that customers have when sorting products across various channels for a better shopping experience.
Today, e-commerce product matching is necessary due to the large number of websites that offer goods from multiple brands.
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At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
How Does Product Matching Work?
Comparing similar products today uses a variety of features and machine learning algorithms.
The process of matching products identifies …
- Products
- Their attributes
- Prices; and
- Other features
… across different resources using deep learning technologies. It is essential to consider product matches when analyzing competitive data.
Listed below are some elements of today’s product matching.
Product Title Similarity
The title similarity module is built using deep learning algorithms. In this way, it is easier to identify contextually similar titles, even when the compared title strings are very different.
There may be semantically similar tokens in the titles of matching products, but they may not be identical. In contrast, mismatched products may differ by just one attribute, so their titles may be as different as one character.
In some cases, very similar products may have very different-looking titles, making matching difficult on exact string comparisons and even similar tools.
Price Comparison
Comparing prices is one of the features used when matching products in a more extensive algorithm. Often, two data analysis algorithms are used to do this:
- Price outlier detection — Outliers help identify similarities in prices between items that are otherwise comparable.
- Clustering — Clustering algorithms can help determine the size of the market for a similar product based on price, and the learned information can be used in a more comprehensive match of products.
Image Similarity
Image similarity is one of the most powerful and important deep learning algorithms used to find similarities between two products.
Image similarity can be used when matching e-commerce and retail products.
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Deep Learning Attribute Extraction
It is possible to match products based on product attributes.
A few examples of product attributes are:
- Branding
- Sizing
- Condition
- Product number
- Available colors
- Detailed description; and
- More
These attributes can further be divided into two different categories:
- Limited Range Values — Product attributes with a fixed range of available values (color, sizes, etc.)
- Endless Values — Attributes do not fit into the limited range value category
UGC Analysis
There is an abundance of content on the internet containing the opinions of subject matter from others. These are opinions that we can possibly trust; these opinions, despite their excellence, are influenced by their experiences.
Also, nowadays, it can be difficult to distinguish between honest opinions and sponsored content. Trust is easier to elicit from user-generated content (UGC) – material produced by one’s peers.
As part of product matching solutions, user-generated content (UGC) analysis is used to analyze product reviews as part of product matching solutions.
By comparing two products, you can see how they are perceived and then how they are marketed. It comes in handy when product matching becomes more customer-centered than strictly presentation-based.
Inspire and Engage
At Pretty-Impressive, each client is unique. Which is why we create strategies tailored to the needs of each company. Reach out and we’ll help you get your brand exactly where it needs to be — ahead of the rest.
Why Is Product Matching Relevant to Your E-Commerce Business?
80% of consumers price compare before making a purchase, regardless of whether they use an algorithm or manually.
Your conversion rate can either be helped or hurt by product matching.
An example of a win for your business is if a user compares your product to a competitor’s and finds it superior. On the other hand, if a user is comparing the cost of your product on your ecommerce site and another vendor, you could lose out on profits if the user chooses the latter.
How to Win With Product Matching and Increase Your Profits
In order to defend themselves from a market collapse or a price war, companies use product matching.
To be successful, you must understand your:
- Products
- Prices
- Market conditions; and
- Current market position
Optimize Your Product Listings
A product listing page acts as a virtual catalog on your e-commerce site, often taking the form of a category page or search result. However, it can do more than improve users’ shopping experiences.
Your listing pages act as a gateway to your product pages. When optimized right, these listings can lead to sales.
To improve your chances of the product matching algorithms comparing your product with competitors, make sure that your product listings are optimized to include:
- Detailed product descriptions
- Title tags; and
- SKUs
Implement Multi-Channel Marketing Strategies With Pretty-Impressive
When all is said and done, you want your ecommerce website to be the place where customers buy your products directly.
Whether you need digital marketing or e-commerce solutions, Pretty-Impressive can help. Building integrated multi-channel marketing campaigns that attract and retain your ideal customers is what we do best.
As a business owner, you have to make a lot of decisions. With our help, you can make the right choices about your digital presence every time, and increase your ROI.
Tired of wasting money on marketing that does not produce results? Contact Pretty-Impressive for a free strategy session today!
