“Looks do count. Deliver visually stunning merchandising. Engage at the point of sale. Help consumers shop with eyes,” said Michael J. Silverstein, who is known for his expertise in consumer behavior. How do you do that for your e-commerce venture? Through a powerful online merchandising strategy.Almost 40% of the world's internet users have bought products online - which means there are about 1 billion people that use e-commerce for their shopping needs. To make the most of such a massive target audience, having a growth-oriented online merchandising strategy can drive up sales and improve revenue.
Your app and the website will create the first impression in your user's mind. Make sure it's a good one. Curate visually-appealing landing pages, filled with photos of your most attractive products. This will encourage the user to explore other products. You can also feature the best-selling products. Invest well in your app and website's UI/UX design.
Make sure that the photos of the products on your e-commerce website are programmed intuitively for mobile. If they stretch, pixelated, or do not display correctly on mobile, it will affect your overall revenue as this will discourage buying. By 2021, 54% of mobile commerce will dominate the online sales market. Are you ready?
The conversion rate for your online store speaks volumes about what's working for your store and what's not. Segment the conversion rate and look at conversion by product. There will be a few products that will sell more than the others. These products are the benchmark. If they are selling a lot, it means they are merchandised well. Follow it for the rest of your products.Also, read the analytics to understand audience demographics as you can and tailor your products to suit your buyers (for example, if your buyers are more women than men, increase women-centric products).
Product photography is serious and a must-have. Because e-commerce heavily relies on product photos and videos, your merchandising strategy must focus on product photography. Make sure it is done by an expert, edited well, and does justice to the product. For example, a product photograph in weak lighting will not look appealing to a buyer. Good photographs long way in encouraging a user to 'buy now'.
Your eCommerce search function should also include related synonyms as sometimes people might call the same thing differently in different regions. You can also add the top items sold in the search results to boost the conversion ratio (Footmart improved its on-site conversion ratio by 82% by doing so). Also, include the auto-correct feature, not everyone is a great speller.
In the heavily competitive e-commerce arena, knowing what your competitors' merchandising strategies are is a plus. For instance, you can always have the lowest price - this way, customers will turn to your website. For this, you can try dynamic pricing to automatically lower the price of your products and increase sales.
Show similar products to a user at a similar price level (cross-selling) and at the same time, show products that are priced slightly higher than what they are looking for (up-selling), below the product they are looking at. Show products that are frequently bought together with the product they are looking for to drive up the total sale value for your e-commerce store.
Along with your products, display the reviews. This inspires confidence in a buyer and supports a product. Another interesting strategy used by major e-commerce players is ribbon overlays on your product photos. These enhance a feature of your product like by creating overlays such as 'limited edition' or 'bestseller'. This adds value for a buyer, boosting your conversion rate.Quick Tip: Create omnichannel product listings. Apart from your website, make sure your products are listed on major e-commerce websites like Amazon. This helps sales and increases brand awareness.
Always curate your online merchandising strategy based on your customer's preferences. Use digital marketing to promote your products. It is important to update this strategy with the changing times and assess whether it is working for your e-commerce brand or not. Keep experimenting! We hope these online merchandising strategies help you grow, evolve, and expand your business.
Vanja S
Sheike
"Tagalys makes merchandising effortless. Their data driven sequencing and sorting drastically improves our effectiveness. Tagalys takes the guesswork out of merchandising and product recommendations."
Ryan R.
Camilla
"I love that Tagalys listens to customer needs and has an innovative + agile team around them which can support addressing those needs and adding improvements to the roadmap."
Rafaelle C.
Blue Bungalow
"Tagalys is the powerful and reliable data-driven solution that we were looking for when it came to search & merchandising for our Shopify Plus store. There is no limit as to how custom you can get with your merchandising, which is exactly what we were after!"
Tiarne Warren
Meshki
"The dedication of Tagalys team is evident from the feature developments. I appreciate their effort in understanding our business needs and feedback. We have saved numerous working hours and achieved great performances."