eCommerce merchandising best practices to boost online sales
In this article, you will learn about eCommerce merchandise and the difference between traditional and eCommerce merchandise. You will also understand the importance of strategies to be implemented on eCommerce merchandise to make the online store better.
eCommerce stores unlike brick-and-mortar shops (traditional stores) don’t use the strategies to hold the customers to their online shopping. Although they provide multiple offers and sales, traditional merchandising is gaining popularity due to their strategic techniques.
The importance of establishing strategies has gained a wide range of polls after the pandemic. According to recent reports, 60% of people prefer eCommerce shopping, a 20% increase rate compared to the previous reports. The increase in online customers has been increasing based on the personalized experience they receive from shopping websites.
What is eCommerce merchandising?
eCommerce merchandising is a combination of using both technology and art, to showcase how well the products are sold online to the customers. With an objective being increasing the ROI/sales.
When it comes to eCommerce merchandising, holding your customers onto your website is more challenging compared to traditional merchandising. Because to communicate and navigate, you will have guidance when needed. However, in an eCommerce store, you need to find yourself.
The ultimate goal of an e-commerce merchandise store is to make you buy the product by adding it to the cart. From when a user enters the online store until he leaves, the customer’s behavior will be studied to make them add products to the cart. However, only through the best clever practice, a business will achieve this.
Why is e-commerce merchandising so important?
Ever since the increase in eCommerce has been observed, the importance of eCommerce merchandise has been increasing. It is technology now and art to capture your customer's interest on your e-commerce website.
With eCommerce merchandising, you can persuade customers and help the business exhibit a variety of products. Also, you can generate website traffic with SEO and can entice them with products/special offers. With all these, you can easily convert browsers into buyers.
Elements of E-commerce Merchandising
The 3 main elements that should be focused on eCommerce merchandising are the homepage, product page, and category-based alignments to ease the customers' journey.
Home Page
It is the first page where the user lands soon after opening your eCommerce website. The home page should consist of all the elements that the business is aiming for. It should contain images of products, deals & offers, and an eye catchy CTA that makes them buy your products.
Product Page
When you are interested in a product from the home page, you directly land on a product page. The important elements a product page should hold are a detailed description, a 360-degree view of a product, videos, demos on how to use it, color options, a similar product list, and a CTA button.
Category-based selling
Category-based selling becomes an important part of eCommerce merchandise when a customer is looking for a particular product. This helps in ranking a product based on its available size, color, brand, star ratings, and best-selling products on your list.
While improving the appearance of these important elements, eCommerce merchandise can be improved. Let us see how we can technically implement eCommerce merchandise strategies to improve the goals of the business.
Strategies to Improve E-commerce Merchandising
Every day the growing interest in eCommerce store purchases has led to a rise in competition. To stand out from the competition, all you have to do is the implementation of eCommerce merchandising best practices.
Design your home page
The home page is the important page every user notices when they land on your website. Therefore, how you craft your home becomes significant. The first impression is what you leave on your customer’s mind, advise an eCommerce web design company in Bangalore - Webomindapps.
To make your homepage appealing you need to include large images and videos that align with each customer’s interest. Graphics, alignment of categories, color combinations, and everything that can capture customers' attention should be present on the home page. Along with appearance, user experience and interfaces also play a major role in grabbing users' attention.
Highlight major products that bring conversion.
Always promote currently trending products on the home page.
Provide easy access to menus with categories.
Facilitate the highest-rated products.
Products must be grouped into categories
How easy is it to find one product you want from a heap of products? It becomes important to categorize products for individuals' interests. Few might be interested in brands, few for colors and a few may go on budget-friendly products. Therefore, it becomes necessary to group products.
You can also create promotional offers on particular categories of products to keep your potential customers interested. Here are a few examples of products that can be grouped under categories of brand, product type. Color. size, style, features, and many more.
Include visuals
How do you plan to convince your customers that the products they want to buy have everything that they are seeking? Yes, with visuals. You need to add images and videos of every product including demo videos as well.
Visual merchandise is mandatory on all pages. The pages that don’t have visual representation are likely to end up with a high bounce rate. Also, make sure to add a 360-degree angle view to capture customers' attention to the fullest.
Read customers based on their data collection
One of the best ways to understand customers is to read the collected data from their existence on the website. By using data and analytics you can locate the customer and their interest. How much time did they spend on your website? And the average total bag amount made by customers and many more.
This helps businesses to understand the customer's needs and requirements. Also, with the help of analytics, you can get to know what your target audience's interest lies in and focus on converting them from the audience to your loyal customers.
Make sure to offer a personalized experience
If you are looking for formal attire in a section you like with the brand you want to buy, provide similar products and other products that go with the formal. This creates a personalized experience for the customer and they may end up purchasing the product along with their search.
Also, make sure to let your customers know that you are caring for their interests. Add a section like you love or things that are for you. These kinds of sections interest more customers, and most of the time you get your goals met.
Provide smooth navigation
If customers don’t like your website it is likely estimated that they will visit the site within 10 seconds . Always make sure to keep your bounce rate low. Provide a better user experience and navigation to every page and category from the home page. Therefore, your users won’t lose interest nor will you lose your customers.
Differences between traditional merchandising and e-commerce merchandising
Traditional merchandising
eCommerce merchandising
It is concerned with physical spaces, such as brick-and-mortar stores. It involves arranging products on shelves, displays, and store layouts to attract customers and encourage sales.
It takes place in a virtual space, on online platforms or websites. It involves organizing and presenting products in a way that optimizes the online shopping experience.
Product displays attract customers based on visual aesthetics. Strategies include window displays, mannequins, and creative arrangements.
Presence of digital visual presentation, including high-quality product images, well-designed websites, and user-friendly interfaces.
Have a space for face-to-face interaction between customers and sales staff. Sales staff will always provide personalized recommendations based on customer preferences.
With the help of algorithms and data analysis, eCommerce offers personalized product recommendations. This is often based on previous browsing and purchase behavior.
Traditional merchandising relies on in-store experiences, including physical touch and immediate access to products.
Focuses on providing a seamless online shopping experience, including easy navigation, secure payment options , and efficient checkout processes.
Traditional merchandising often involves local marketing efforts, such as flyers, billboards, and community events, organizing events, and running sales offers.
E-commerce merchandising takes the help of digital marketing channels like social media, email campaigns, and online advertisements.
Conclusion
While both traditional and eCommerce merchandising share the goal of driving sales, they require different strategies and approaches due to their unique settings and customer interactions. However, by using the eCommerce merchandising best practices listed above, you will be able to gain more success and turn your customers into regular, loyal customers.
