There is very little information available online about how to rank highly on NOTHS. The only snippets we could find directly from NOTHS were the . However, this was limited to a two page PDF with not a huge amount of detail.
So, here at NOVOS, we did our own research, and this is what we found.
Methodology:
Using a python script, we scraped three popular gifting categories: gifts for him, gifts for her, gift sets & hampers.
Each categories’ page one PLP was analysed on:
- The no. of results
- How many results offered free UK delivery
- How many sponsored posts there were
- How many listings included “Personalised”
- How many listings included “Gifts”
- The average price of each listing
- The average rating of each listing
- The average number of product ratings
We then scraped each of the page one listings (across all three categories) for the following information:
- Personalisation available
- Made in Britain
- Exclusive
- Eco-friendly
- Gift wrapping available
- Free gift wrapping available
All of the above was then collated into a Google sheet for analysis. Here were the results:
For HimFor HerNo. Results60No. Results63Free UK Delivery52Free UK Delivery56Sponsored0Sponsored3How Many Include “Personalised”37How Many Include “Personalised”43How Many Include “Gifts”7How Many Include “Gifts”9Average Price£34Average Price£28Average Rating4.74Average Rating4.73Average No.Rating326Average No.Rating493Product Listing CharacteristicsProduct Listing CharacteristicsPersonalisation available43Personalisation available53Made in Britain38Made in Britain39Exclusive24Exclusive30Eco-friendly24Eco-friendly18Gift wrapping available12Gift wrapping available11Free gift wrapping available2Free gift wrapping available3
Gift Sets & HampersNo. Results63Free UK Delivery49Sponsored3How Many Include “Personalised”12How Many Include “Gifts”32How Many Include “Build your own”3How Many Include “Letter Box”1Average Price£36Average Rating4.75Average No.Rating82Product Listing CharacteristicsPersonalisation available31Made in Britain40Exclusive25Eco-friendly23Gift wrapping available8Free gift wrapping available5
NOTHS Analysis:
1. Product description attributes
- Out of the 186 results scraped:
- 68% of results offered personalisation.
- 63% stated that their products were made in Britain.
- 42% claimed that they were exclusive to NOTHS.
- 35% were listed as eco friendly.
- 17% offered gift wrapping, 5% of which offered it for free.
- Whilst these product attributes aren’t explicitly mentioned in NOTHS’ SEO documentation, it is clear that these factors are favoured by their algorithm (and users).
- NOTHS refer to these as ‘special features’ in their product filtering options.
2. Product listing imagery
- Unlike Google (for now) NOTHS rely on imagery to encourage users to click on product listings, just as much as the product name.
- Therefore it is vitally important that the product image is interesting, high-quality, and shows the product in the best way possible.
3. Product page imagery
- Optimise your images with clear alt text, accurately describing all product attributes.
- Utilise the image carousel option to add in any additional information like:
- Awards won
- Press coverage
- Seasonal lifestyle examples (e.g. dinner parties, festive period, Valentine’s Day) shots.
- To display more information on how the product is used/ poured/served/ looks like on a model.
- The packaging – especially for gifting items.
4. Free delivery
- Of the 186 results scraped, 157 of these results offered free delivery.
- This works out as roughly 84% of the listings.
- If a product does offer free delivery, it has a graphic on the product listing – likely to affect the click-through rate.
- There is also the option to filter searches by free or express delivery.
5. Product reviews
- Customer reviews are important, but not vital.
- The vast majority of listings on the first page had an average score of 4.74.
- There were a few exceptions to this rule. However, these tended to be sponsored posts, paid for by the retailer.
- Average customer reviews are shown next to the product title above the delivery options – likely affecting the conversion rate.
- The average number of reviews in the ‘gifts for him/her’ section was 410, whereas the food and drink category average was 80.
6. Personalisation
- Personalisation is a key factor that kept appearing again and again – particularly for gifting terms.
- Competitors who do offer personalisation are able to add these into their product listings that get pulled through to the main search results page.
- This will likely encourage a higher click-through rate for gifting searches – particularly birthdays and anniversaries etc.
- Users also have the option to filter by personalised and non-personalised gifts on the search results pages – showing this to be a prevalent feature in these types of listings.
7. Sponsored posts
- In the initial launch stages, we recommend applying for a set of sponsored posts across different categories to raise visibility and awareness of the brand.
- These sponsored posts sit right at the top of the search results, so are likely to gather more traffic and conversions than the organic listings below the fold.
- This will also, hopefully, help your brand gather more reviews in a shorter time period, and before the lead up to Christmas.
8. Corporate gifting
- Consider contacting NOTHS about their corporate gifts team to discuss larger order opportunities.
- From what we can see, NOTHS actively offers a customer help service for corporate gifting and offers 10% off for those who directly contact them.
- This isn’t something we were able to gather more information on as it is on a case by case basis. owever, we recommend visiting the corporate gifts page and seeing if there are any partnership opportunities to explore there.
Actions and recommendations
- Review all products and list as many relevant product attributes in the product description as possible.
- Look at your competitors’ imagery – what types of images are appearing on the first page? And do they entice users to click through?
- Actively pursue customer reviews.
- Consider offering free delivery.
- Consider running sponsored posts to get product visibility up, raise your brand’s profile on the marketplace and hopefully result in more product reviews.
- Personalisation is big. Can your product be personalised? If yes, then definitely include this in your product name and description.
- Use the product description to shine. Does your company have a USP? What is it? Are you an expert in your field?
- Explore the ‘fast delivery’ option. The ‘super speedy gifts’ banner ad kept appearing when we were doing the research, suggesting it’s an angle they really hope to push as a company.
- If it’s a food or drink product, clearly describe each product in the box, the flavours and what they taste like.
To conclude:
- Think like a customer.
- Use fun, enticing images.
- Offer free delivery
- Consider running a sponsored post
- Refer to and guidelines.
- Utilise the product listing characteristics.
Not only will these help the algorithm navigate through your product listings, but they also widen the opportunities for customers to find your products through a variety of different searches.