We can continue to wax lyrical about why product lists are important every day of the week, but the best way for you to see their value is to get an idea of how real-world brands are putting them to use.
Below we’ve showcased three leading brands that go beyond just the traditional wish list. They’re not only collecting valuable zero-party data but are also optimising the unified commerce experience for their customers.
Woolworths supermarket combines its web store data and its Everyday Rewards loyalty program to bring its product lists to life.
Customers can scan their Rewards card in-store at the supermarket or add it to their account within the app or the web store. This helps the brand consolidate all transactional data within one customer profile. The data is then put to work.
The Lists section within the Woolworths website is a dashboard of various product lists for each customer. It includes all transactional lists, such as previously purchased products and a summary of past shops, organised by shopping date.
It also allows customers to save their own lists, such as favourite products and suggests pre-curated lists of products (e.g. vegan or gluten-free products) that customers can easily browse and shop.
The supermarket also uses its product list data to personalise the customer experience. For example, customers receive emails with opportunities to earn bonus Reward points on products they’ve previously purchased or are likely to buy.
The Specials list shows customers weekly discounts available specifically for their favourite products or those they have purchased before — in-store or online.
The Quick Reorder list is also a personalised list based on data from a customer’s past shops. It can be further filtered down to the “most favourite”, and customers can bulk add these items to their cart.
Finally, on each individual product page, the supermarket also suggests other relevant products the customer may be interested in buying. For example, when purchasing a can of black beans, customers will see different brands as well as other kinds of beans in The ‘People Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed’ suggestions.
For the same black beans, within the ‘People Who Bought This Item Also Bought’ suggestions, customers will see related products such as a Mexican taco kit and perhaps tomatoes, coriander and limes to create a salsa.
Both these lists are likely based on overall customer behaviour data that Woolworths has collected over time.
Overall, the brand puts its product lists to use in various ways to fuel sales in multiple ways and create a seamless in-store-to-web shopping experience for its customers.
As an online-only fashion retailer, The Iconic makes excellent use of its various product lists to deliver better shopping experiences.
To start with, the brand requires customers to create an account that allows them to save their wish lists for future use. Customers can also specify their shopping preferences (e.g. Womenswear) within their account, allowing the brand to put the data to work and create backend product lists.
When browsing products, it’s easy to add items to wish lists with a simple click of the heart icon. When customers save an item, they also see a prompt to subscribe to wishlist alerts which allows the brand to send them updates on sales, in-stock alerts and more.
The retailer further enhances the shopping experience with its ‘See Similar’ function, which filters down products to similar products—a great example of product lists functioning in the background to create better front-end experiences for the customer.
Within the Wishlist page, customers can further filter their choices by category, brand etc. Plus, customers can also create Pinterest-style Boards to organise their Wishlist items as they please. These boards are easily shared, so they can be useful for gifting when customers want to share their preferences with family and friends.
There are other lists too. The Recently Viewed page does exactly what it says. This list allows customers to see any products they’ve recently looked at but may not have saved yet—just in case!
The Brands page allows customers to save their favourite brands and gives the retailer more data to gauge which brands its customers most prefer.
Like Woolworths, The Iconic’s product pages also make great use of their product lists. Underneath each product, it’s common to see a ‘Wear it with’ list of products where the brand suggests other items that pair well with the customer’s chosen product and would complete their outfit.
Each product page also includes ‘Similar items’ and ‘You may also like’ suggestions.
As a retailer with thousands of products, The Iconic makes excellent use of its product lists’ data to simplify and personalise the shopping experience for its regularly returning customers.
Our final example is from makeup and skincare giant Sephora.
Like The Iconic, Sephora makes it easy for customers to add to their wish lists while browsing with a simple click of the heart, but customers must be logged in to do so. Similar to Woolworths, the brand combines its web store data with its Beauty Pass customer loyalty program.
Customers using the Beauty Pass in-store, in-app or on the web store allows Sephora to collect more data about their overall shopping behaviour. This data then comes in handy for creating an enhanced unified commerce experience along with personalised product recommendations, sale alerts and more.
On its website homepage, Sephora does a fantastic job showcasing curated product lists that may be interesting for its target audience. For example, the ‘Ready, Set, GLOW’ list links to the masks and treatments category page. These lists effectively draw customers in and promote a purpose-oriented list of products to them.
Sephora collects zero-party data within the customer account via its Beauty Profile feature. Customers provide information about their beauty and skincare preferences. The brand can use this information on the backend for various purposes, but they are also helpful for providing tailored product recommendations.
Within the customer’s account on its website, Sephora provides a dashboard where they can easily see a variety of lists that may be useful. This includes their wish list and also a waitlist for products currently out of stock, a list of current orders, previously purchased products and products reviewed by the customer. Underneath its Order list, the brand showcases some of its bestselling products to prompt further purchases.
While browsing products, customers see a bright red prompt to Waitlist products currently out of stock. This allows Sephora to gauge future customer interest in out-of-stock products. It’s also a great way for the brand to draw customers back to shopping by sending out a notification or email when an out-of-stock product is restocked.
Finally, Sephora showcases similar products within its ‘Recommended for You’ list on its individual product pages.
The brand also uses each product page as an opportunity to showcase products from its own line by suggesting products within ‘The Sephora Collection’ list.
Sephora can easily store all customer product list data in one location by prompting customers to sign up for their Beauty Pass. This helps the brand create a seamless and personalised shopping experience that keeps its customers coming back.
Modern customer engagement is built on data. For companies to achieve true data agility, they need to be able to access the data they need, when and where they need it.
Product lists provide an opportunity for retailers to collect relevant, actionable data to deliver better, unified commerce experiences to their customers.
Contact us today to learn how Omneo can help you maximise the power of product lists and agile data to fuel growth and impress your customers with a better retail experience.
