If you've ever wondered how to increase your sales in your e-shop and how to make your brand and all your products better ranked in search results on the Internet, there's recently been one response to these questions - the GS1 SmartSearch.

To clarify, GS1 SmartSearch is the latest GS1 standard known worldwide for introducing the concept and standards of the barcode to world trade. In addition, GS1 SmartSearch is also the first, officially accepted an external addition to the popular set of instructions for marking structured data in web pages called Schema.org.

This extension recently began to officially function as a new and improved markup scheme for products sold online, and it is noticeable that from the outset it has affected the ranking of online stores in the results search.

Namely, the implementation of this standard can bring more relevant search results for your online store, and for each of your products in particular, and therefore contribute to increasing sales.

HOW GS1 SMARTSEARCH CAN INCREASE SALES

The GS1 SmartSearch standard, in particular, allows retailers to increase sales by means of:

• more relevant search results
• more detailed and precise product information displayed in search results.

The GS1 SmartSearch standard and the guidance it points to, as explained on the official GS1 website, achieve these benefits for companies that sell their products on the Internet by allowing structured product data to be incorporated and linking this data with the identification number of products in the global trade ( Global Trade Item Number, GTIN), which was also assigned by GS1.

These structured data about a particular product are then recognized by Google and other Internet browsers as well as mobile and web applications to provide consumers and potential customers with much more productive information about the product, as well as a better personal experience in online shopping, which in large The measure can be rated positively by the user.

Products covered by this standard include all products from the category of footwear, clothing, food, beverages and tobacco products.

If your e-mail store deals with the sale of some of these categories, continue reading, because we will soon indicate which structured data is being implemented in the site's schema.

UP TO 30 PERCENT BETTER SALES

The statistics GS1 has come up with in their research, for the GS1 SmartSearch standard, as well as during the duration of the pilot project in the UK in 2015 and 2016, show that as much as 70% of sales of consumer goods precedes information on products on the Internet, whether the purchase was eventually made online or in the store.

The following is a brief video showing the implementation of the GS1 SmartSearch standard, posted on the official GS1 website on YouTube.

In addition, the official website of the online dictionary for GS1 standards explains in detail what the GS1 SmartSearch standard allows companies by bringing them:

• better visibility of their products in online searches
• Better search results on the internet, ranking them for three and more positions better than before, so that potential buyers find the products and information they need
• enhanced, accurate online product information
• product information is equally presented on all devices for better customer information, which ultimately leads to an increase in online sales up to 30 percent.

There is still no description of this standard on the GS1 official website in some countries, or changes to the global site are not yet localized. We believe that this will happen soon, and in this case, you will be able to find a more detailed explanation of the standard page on the local version of the site.

HOW TO USE THE GS1 SMARTSEARCH FOR MARKING THE CONTENTS

Internet browsers and mobile applications are very often used when shopping planning. As research has shown, potential buyers in almost two-thirds of cases first search for offers and products available on the Internet.

If structured data based on the GS1 SmartSearch standard is included within your program's code or your online sales platform, browsers and apps will be able to easily identify them and show relevant data to users.

This means that you can use the GS1 Web Markup Tool Instructions to improve the SEO optimization strategy and increase the chances that your products will be recognized by the search engine and are much better ranked than before.

This standard will make it easy to add structured product information to your website so that a much more detailed description will be presented on the Internet, and this is very likely through improved search results on Google, or in so-called Google rich snippets.

In addition to Schema.org, the GS1 SmartSearch standard includes much common microdata and already established schema elements, but also advanced ones. Depending on the product, data will also be entered, and GS1 provides a detailed free guide for all product categories and element types for Schema.org.

As explained in Schma.org's official blog, the GS1 SmartSearch initiative has been synchronized with communities on W3C and GitHub platforms, creating a completely new dictionary for more complete product information.

The recommended format of the code for the GS1 SmartSearch standard is JSON-LD, and as with standard labels, the description of the Shema.org product must be inside the page and the content must be displayed on the page where users can see it.

CONCLUSION

Since the structured data does not stand out on the web page that users see in Internet browsers, web designers and front-end developers can create visually rich pages, in which structure the data will be readable to Google and other search engines on the basis of which index sites.

Therefore, when implementing the GS1 SmartSearch standard, it is not necessary to raise a completely new e-commerce platform, but rather enough in existing online stores, or descriptive pages for products on the websites of the brands themselves, to add data structured based on this standard.

As GS1 has recently highlighted in the UK, the results of their research show that even half of the sales come online, while in 80% of cases Google's search engine is in use. The results mentioned above also support the fact that using the GS1 SmartSearch standard of the sales page of the product, they moved for three or more positions in online searches, while the sale itself increased by an average of 30 percent.

Such results, you agree, should not be ignored.

Growth in sales and better positions in online searches will always be good, and with the help of the GS1 SmartSearch standard, e-store owners may have some influence on it.