L&M Fleet Supply
Drive Digital Success: Using Feed Management for eCommerce Growth
A high-quality product feed has many implications for a business, from increased conversions and revenue to improved competitive advantage and search visibility. On the other hand, a low-quality feed can lead to missed opportunities, negative reviews, wasted ad spend, and more. By focusing on feed management, one retailer was able to improve its feed file, opening new doors for growth and revenue.
Opportunity
L&M Fleet Supply is a retailer that “provide[s] quality products at discount prices with excellent customer service.” For over 60 years, it has proudly served Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Northern Michigan as a quality distributor of a variety of goods, including “sporting goods, home improvement and hardware, footwear, automotive, tools, farm and pets, lawn and garden, toys, and power equipment, as well as a growing line of clothing to meet a variety of fashion needs and interests.”
With such a wide variety of products, effective feed management has been crucial to L&M Fleet Supply’s success. However, the feed file at L&M Fleet Supply was not in its ideal state; long upload times and complex feed rules hindered its ability to compete effectively in the digital marketplace. L&M Fleet Supply recognized the problems with its feed file and engaged Br8kthru to improve it, ensuring it remained healthy for a competitive advantage in search.
Discovery + Analysis
A detailed analysis of L&M Fleet Supply’s feed file revealed several bottlenecks and inefficiencies.
When Br8kthru first began working with L&M Fleet Supply, we noticed the feed file took a long time to update — sometimes over 24 hours. We also noticed over 200 rules were in place to help support narrowing down the feed file when necessary. These rules were necessary because old products were left in the file, dead links were retained, and so on.
Combined, this led to slow performance of the feed file, causing problems when L&M Fleet Supply had product updates to share. An unhealthy feed file can have a domino effect, impacting sales and conversions, return rates, and ad spend, among other things.
Strategies + Tactics
We took a comprehensive approach to feed management optimization to address these issues. This systematic approach addressed the identified challenges, optimized feed management processes, and ultimately improved the performance and effectiveness of L&M's e-commerce operations.
To address the feed file issues, we had to get into the file and start digging around. Once we had a baseline understanding of what was happening, we were able to take a step back and start cleaning up the file.
We did this by paring back all the data and attributes in the file to the bare minimum: what Google required, and what L&M Fleet Supply required to be competitive in its industry. Once we had the file reduced, we were able to start adding back necessary attributes until we had an efficient — yet competitive — file.
Results + Measurements
After updating the feed file, we saw rapid results. These results ranged from a faster update time to improved processes, each of which has a positive impact on L&M Fleet Supply’s business as a whole.
- Reduction in Upload Time | Today, the L&M Fleet Supply feed file can update in a matter of hours, instead of a day.
- Improved Consistency in Product Placement | Thanks to the improved feed file, L&M Fleet Supply’s products are more consistently showing up on the first pages of search results, leading to improved sales and revenue growth.
- Enhanced Competitiveness | By optimizing the feed and ensuring timely updates, we were able to support L&M Fleet Supply in becoming more competitive against large enterprises in the online marketplace.
- Streamlined Processes | The optimization efforts resulted in a more streamlined and efficient feed management process. This allows the team at L&M Fleet Supply to focus on other aspects of their e-commerce operations without being burdened by long upload times or complex feed rules.
Feed management is an ongoing process; it requires consistent attention, not just to errors, but to new products and items. By staying on top of the feed file and keeping it updated regularly, we have been able to maintain these results for L&M Fleet Supply over a period of time.
Make Feed Issues a Problem of the Past with Br8kthru
L&M Fleet Supply’s journey to streamline its product feed management illustrates the importance of optimizing eCommerce operations for today’s online landscape. Given the interconnected nature of digital marketing, an opportunity to improve the feed file had ramifications on other areas of work, including search engine optimization (SEO) and paid media.
By identifying and addressing challenges in its feed system, Br8kthru helped L&M Fleet Supply to improve efficiency, enhance competitiveness, and ultimately drive business growth.
Is your feed working as hard for you as it should be? Not sure where it could be improved? Br8kthru’s subject matter experts (SMEs) can help. Contact us today to make feed issues a problem of the past.