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

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Our main challenges
 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

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

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

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Our sucesses 2013-2014
 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
 One of the first responsive website in Brazil
 Scored no 1 on 15 out of 16 items on survey
« revista REVENDA » june 2014 (2000 participants)

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Our sucesses 2013-2014
 x 5 in 1,5 year
 healthy organic growth : Bounce rate 20%
 number one in home centers & decoration pure
players in Brazil (Alexa)
 from6th to 2nd position worldwide in group Adeo
Traffic

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Shopping before 1920: ask the sales attendant!

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Self Service

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then itgrew 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.com2/2014

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Study on a leading grocery retailer
2010
25% of its stocked items accounted for almost
100% of its profits
(On a set of core categories)
By

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This is the origin of Merchandising
How do I
maximize profitability per square meter?
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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Fromthe 70’s to now:
Merchandising is improving profitability / M2

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What about the Web?
 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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 Isnt’t merchandising important for the WWW?
Amazon (shampoo, yesterday screenshot)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2

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3

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4

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Case 2: 2-levels hierarchy
1

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

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

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2] Search(andizing)
 Navigation is mixed between browsing and searching
 Send visitors to hand-organized categories preferably
Better search
experience
Better catalog
organization

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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
indexes
Quick-srch
Main srch

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

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A – Facets > customer oriented 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
B – Cross / Upsell >
high value, small
product range

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

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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 !
Our learnings:
 Optimize image size for mobile
 Standardise all your interfaces ( pattern labs )
 Test on real machines too ( touch screen )

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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
- Web Tech/Marketing team
- E-Business team

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Working agile with a touch of Do itYourself ^o^/