What are material items or products that customers will buy to satisfy want or need?

Product attributes are key to getting your brand noticed in the increasingly crowded ecommerce marketplace. 

Companies need to offer potential buyers what they want in a format that makes it easy for the average person to find. With the flexibility offered by modern headless ecommerce systems, it’s important to understand and take advantage of the opportunities within strategic product attribution.

Use product attributes to show up in search engines and speak to shoppers’ extremely specific needs and wants. When we match our classification of products on the product details page according to consumer behavior and habits, we’re in business.

Consumers look for and buy goods and services that have very specific product attributes. Marketers need to home in on their target market and build a product description that captures their customer's desires. Using product attributes in marketing is critical in attaining brand success. Each and every product attribute must be a positive selling point.

What Are Product Attributes?

Product attributes refer to the characteristics that define a service or product and influence customer buying decisions. 

SKUs are what a company uses to identify products, but consumers look for products in very different ways. They use natural language such as “large family tent” or “affordable jacket”. 

Attributes are defined as tangible (physical) or intangible (non-physical). 

• Tangibles are characteristics such as size, color, smell, product design, weight, etc.
• Intangible refers to things like price, quality, and aesthetics. 

It is a combination of these various product attributes that buyers use to make a purchase decision. They desire a product that meets their needs and wants. Needs are must-haves in a product and wants are desired but not critical. Buyers select a product that best matches these needs and wants.

Types of Product Attributes

When consumers are looking for a product they need to attain information about it readily and be able to easily compare and find the right fit among all the available options. It is important to list the product attributes that will matter most to your prospective buyer.

Product attributes must be accurate and informative. Listen to customer feedback, take advantage of reading reviews (these are gold dust), and understand how your product is meeting, or not meeting, customer expectations. 

Here are some aspects of products that different attribute categories can describe:

1. Quality

This should be the primary product attribute your brand focuses on when pushing for market placement. People are drawn to products they know and trust will work. Generating positive reviews and solid manufacturing data are two ways of demonstrating a product’s quality.

This requires work. Companies that ensure their chain of product development, production, quality assurance, and control, as well as customer service, are all consistent with producing a high-end product, will win reviews that validate its quality.

Quality is an attribute type that should not only be highlighted but one that is needed if the product is to be discovered by consumers and trigger sales. Examples of quality-related attributes include:

• Consumer choice
• Top-rated
• Long-lasting
• Made with ______
• Real _____
• Original _____

2. Marketing Claims

Marketing claims are those relating to your product's performance. They can be both objective and subjective. Examples of marketing claim attributes include things like:

• Cuts grease
• Increases volume
• Kills 99.9% germs
• Best in the universe

However, it's important to be aware that false claims, or statements modified to twist attributes, can cause marketing problems. A dishonest or weak claim can devalue your product and brand. It may capture a consumer's interest once but, if the attribute claim is false and the product does not live up to expectations, then loyalty and repeat business is lost and you'll miss out on positive reviews.

Extensive testing to verify and support marketing claims will help avoid the problem of misidentifying product attributes and strengths. Consumers will find your products through solid marketing claims and become return customers when those claims are verified through a great experience.

3. Innovative Attributes

There are some products and services in the marketplace that have been around for generations. Items like laundry or cleaning products are perfect examples. However, if your company wants to stay ahead of the regular market brands then developing new innovations can help reinvigorate sales .

Keeping products fresh, whether they are well established or new to the market, can be achieved through mining the data of a product category to analyze, assess, and rework products. This allows you to create next-generation products built on a strong foundation of tried and true products that have a base of loyal customers.

Focusing on attributes such as increased reliability, new look, extended shelf life, and other needed improvements can differentiate your product and attract new customers.

4. Verification

While color or size attributes can be important in triggering a customer purchase, another important tangible attribute is a product’s proven safety credentials. This is not a variant that should be ignored as consumers place a high value on products that are trustworthy and safe to use. 

Examples of verification-related attributes are:

• Organic
• All-natural
• GMO-free
• Fire-retardant
• ______ certified
• ______ approved

All these attributes are critical to making the consumer feel safe that the product can be trusted. Verification studies can be carried out at specialized labs to make sure all safety needs are met. This works in any area of product and service support. 

Catching product and service issues before a product hits the market also means fewer negative reviews and reduces the chance of product recalls. Verified safety attributes will help consumers find your products and feel good about buying them.

List of 15 Product Attributes

The list of tangible and intangible product attributes is near enough endless. Here's a comprehensive (but by no means exhaustive) list of product attributes:

1. Color
2. Size
3. Design
4. Weight
5. Content
6. Smell
7. Taste
8. Feel
9. Quantity
10. Material makeup or ingredients
11. Price
12. Reliability
13. Safety
14. Packaging
15. Marketing claims

Use this list is to make sure you are highlighting the right attributes and ensuring attributes are helping consumers not only find the product but are triggering them to buy as well.

Using this list can help marketers highlight a custom product’s attribute selection and make sure customers are seeing these positives in their online product searches. Products attributes should be easy to discover under an attributes tab, or through the main page.

Putting Your Product at the Forefront

Marketing a product or service needs to be something more than just promoting the same old highlights. Using product attributes that are strong, positive, and true can help you stand out in a crowded market.

Highlight your product positives, name a custom attribute that makes the product shine, and do everything possible to surpass every competitor's claim. Each online search should highlight not just a default value, but also the option to look beyond that basic answer.

Find this useful? Receive all the latest ecommerce insights and generous advice from industry leaders by subscribing to The Ecomm Manager newsletter.