DIY Success: The Self-Service Advantage for Ecommerce Solutions

Revenue in the ecommerce software market is projected to reach US$8.14bn in 2024.

More spending on software platforms means more spending on services and resources to implement and maintain those solutions. But in the dynamic landscape of ecommerce, efficiency still reigns supreme.

So, how are software providers extending that efficiency to ensure cost-effective implementations and integrations? The answer is more self-service capabilities. 

The Future is Self-Service

For site search and merchandising solutions, the future is defined by user-friendly interfaces and intuitive self-service features that squarely place the power of integration in the hands of those who understand their business best — the users and their implementation partners. And there are good reasons why.

Keep reading for five ways that self-service features drive ROI faster for ecommerce businesses and enter them into the world of DIY Success.

Faster Implementation Times and Cost Savings

Self-service capabilities mean no longer waiting on vendor support services to respond to tickets and perform necessary tasks during integration.

Technical team members and implementation partners can access the necessary parts of the products themselves to integrate the search solution, reducing the time and resources required for installation and setup compared to traditional software solutions. This means faster implementation, shorter go-live times, and ultimately cost savings.

Use Case: An online retailer specializing in food and beverages is in the process of implementing a product discovery tool. During this process, its implementation partner is implementing the tracking pixel that collects event data for customers’ actions like viewing a product page, adding a product to cart, or purchasing. To ensure that the pixel properly captures all necessary customer behavioral data, the online retailer needs a way to monitor and troubleshoot its quality. Self-service capabilities allow the partner team to check the data in a dashboard directly without reaching out to the vendor’s professional services team. The partner team can instantly view and debug event data, without any back-and-forth communication with the vendor. This significantly decreases the time it takes to properly implement the pixel and go live, and reduces the amount of billable hours back to the retailer.

Autonomy and Independence

Users and their partners can independently perform integration and implementation tasks, navigate the product, and customize the software without relying on constant support. This empowers them to troubleshoot issues, change settings, and access resources independently, saving time and eliminating frustration. 

Use Case: An online electronics retailer is gearing up for peak season and wants to ensure there are no issues with the data being captured by their tracking pixel. Using a self-service events management dashboard, a technical team member selects a date range to see a feed of all the events captured during that time. They notice that some products have missing SKU information when being added to the cart by a customer. Missing SKU data degrades reporting, attribution, and search performance. So, they further investigate the issues and fix the problem without having to contact the vendor support team. 

Customization and Flexibility

Because users have more control over various settings, they can tailor the search solution to specific requirements of their business or industry. This flexibility enables them to customize the shopping experience on-site for their shoppers and adapt functionalities to align with the journey they want to create. 

Use Case: An online fashion retailer wants to emphasize its new sustainable clothing line and ensure that those products are auto-suggested to shoppers when they are using the search bar. Accessing self-service capabilities for catalog settings, the developer who supports the merchandising team adds a product attribute field for “sustainability.” This new attribute will be used to suggest sustainable products to customers as they search for products. As a result, a personalized shopping experience is delivered that not only meets customer preferences, but also aligns with the retailer's dedication to sustainability.

Scalability

Self-service features offer the benefit of adapting and scaling as companies’ needs change and ecommerce companies find themselves in a state of rapid growth. Setting up new sites by country and language becomes much faster and easier. Catalogs can be managed by product and language to maintain regional or country-specific content. 

Use Case: A rapidly growing furniture retailer is expanding into new regions and wants to add new localized versions of their site in different languages. Using self-service capabilities, they can easily add new sites in a few clicks, copying over content and translating that site content to the local language. This agility enables the company to promptly respond to evolving market demands while upholding a uniform, localized customer experience across all regions.

Transparency & Visibility

Self-service features expose the inner workings of the solution so that business and technical users can better understand how the solution powers the search experience, while allowing users to control features and influence how the technology supports their business. Merchandisers can see the impact of their actions and the effects of those actions not just for a certain product recall set, but for sales overall. 

Use Case: An online beauty company aims to fine-tune search results to boost sales. With self-service features, the company adjusts parameters like product relevance, pricing, and inventory visibility. However, a small tweak to prioritize pricing might push certain products to the forefront, inadvertently overshadowing other products that are crucial for cross-selling or upselling strategies. By providing transparency into the impact of these adjustments, merchandisers comprehend how changes affect sales metrics and adjust their strategies accordingly. This use of self-service features not only empowers merchants to optimize their offerings but also underscores the importance of balancing various factors for sustained business growth in a competitive market.

Bloomreach Self-Service Capabilities 

Bloomreach Discovery — our AI-powered site search and merchandising solution — offers self-service features to support our customers and partners in delivering and maintaining the solution in the easiest, fastest way possible. Here are a few examples:

Self-Service Catalog Features

With Bloomreach Discovery, users can manage and customize product catalog settings quickly and efficiently without over-relying on a support team. This saves time and empowers customers to customize Bloomreach Discovery to the unique needs of their business and further tailor the shopping experience. For more details, check out our documentation. 

Self-Service Events Management

The Events Management feature returns real-time performance data in an interactive, self-service dashboard to show the accuracy of event data captured for shopping actions like “add to cart” and “quick view.” This event data feeds Bloomreach’s AI-powered product recommendations, search results, and analytics. More accuracy means a better experience for the shopper and better insights for the business end user. Technical team members can validate the quality of the data and troubleshoot issues in real-time so they can better support their merchandisers and product search managers. For more details, check out our documentation. 

 

Self-Service API Diagnostics

API Diagnostics is a self-service feature that empowers developers, customer support teams, partners, and others to get visibility and access to critical debugging information for search recall via the API. This enables technical teams to see how the algorithm includes/excludes products and ranks those products in search recall sets. Developers use this data to debug the ranking, recall, and merchandising of products on the API. For more details, check out our documentation. 

Enter The Future of Self-Service in Ecommerce 

With the agility and control self-service features offer, solution providers are fostering a new era where control lies with the end-users and their technical support teams.

This seamless integration of self-service capabilities ensures platforms can flexibly meet the ever-changing demands of merchants and consumers alike. As we move forward, the fusion of technological innovation and user autonomy will reshape the online retail landscape, highlighting empowerment as a fundamental aspect of ecommerce evolution.

Learn more about what Bloomreach Discovery offers customers and how it can help your business succeed.