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Find answers to online merchandisers' common questions about using AI integrations to improve the customer's shopping experience. From smart collections to personalized recommendations, these expert insights will boost customer engagement, sales, AOV, and your bottom line.
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Adaptive vs. Responsive Design: Which Is Best for Your eCommerce Store?
Adaptive and responsive design, a feature of visual merchandising, can impact the user experience of your site on different devices. So, choosing which is best for your eCommerce store is imperative. To help you make your decision, compare the pros and cons of adaptive vs. responsive design and learn which additional factors to consider. What Is Adaptive Design? Adaptive design auto-detects a user's device and selects one of the multiple layout templates to best fit the screen. This ensures your website is optimized for a seamless user experience. Think about the following factors when deciding: ProsImproved performance on slower devicesBetter SEO alignmentFlexibility for future devicesConsTime-consuming to createComplex for beginners For example, BestBuy's adaptive design uses different templates that adjust the page elements to fit a smaller screen. Making the content easy to scroll through across devices can help encourage conversions. You can see (image on the right) that the navigation pane in this particular instance requires the user to scroll to see all options when using the site on mobile. » Discover these essential online visual merchandising strategies to drive sales now What Is Responsive Design? Responsive design uses one layout template and adjusts all design elements on your site to accommodate the user's screen size. This allows for more fluid site navigation and changes in appearance based on the user's device. Some aspects to consider include: ProsConsistent user experienceCost efficientEase of maintenanceSEO-friendlyConsRisk of poor performance on slower devicesComplex for some websitesFocus on content prioritization over screen-specific design This 401 Games example shows how responsive design adjusts to different screen sizes by shifting design elements of their site based on which device is being used. In the mobile version (on the right), the navigation pane is relocated to a collapsible menu on the top left, and the category blocks on the site are moved to a single column for easy scrolling. This user-friendly change can foster customer satisfaction and drive more sales. Which Design Should You Choose for Your eCommerce Store? The design choice for your eCommerce store depends on your specific circumstances and merchandising preferences. Several elements should be taken into account when making the choice, including: BudgetTarget audienceUser intent and behaviorProduct typesOverall store goals For instance, if you have a smaller budget and a predominantly younger audience, responsive design may be more beneficial. Or, if you have a larger business with bigger budgets and a very diverse audience in terms of age and device usage, an adaptive design could be best for you. » Check out the top eCommerce apps to optimize customer experience Fast Design Whether you prefer the layout adjustments of responsive designs or the template assortments of adaptive designs, the choice is yours. Selecting the appropriate design to best appeal to your audience's site search habits and your product offerings can help you achieve higher customer satisfaction, more engagement across a range of devices, and boosted sales.
Asked a month ago
5 Best Font Styles for Your eCommerce Store
It can be overwhelming to choose the right font style for your eCommerce store from the thousands of options online. But we've narrowed the list down to five: Lato, Merriweather, Montserrat, Raleway, and Roboto. All of these font styles are versatile enough that you can implement them to suit your brand identity, plus they maintain their readability on different screen sizes. Explore our list of the five best font styles for your eCommerce store, with examples for inspiration. 1. Lato Lato is a sans-serif font designed in 2010. It showcases a modern, clean, and inviting look that conveys professionalism. Lato is a popular choice for eCommerce stores that want to appear approachable yet trustworthy, so it's often seen in body text. For example, Homecamp sells camping equipment and accessories. It uses Lato for product descriptions, making any product information easy to read and digest (especially when it becomes lengthy). This helps boost their visual merchandising and eCommerce UI. » Implement these additional eCommerce merchandising best practices 2. Merriweather Merriweather is a serif font designed in 2011. Known for maintaining its readability even in small sizes, this font adds class and style to any eCommerce store. Merriweather is best suited for eCommerce websites that sell high-end products and need to present luxurious and sophisticated merchandising. For example, The Good Batch sells baked goods. Merriweather easily adapts to all font sizes, from bigger headings to smaller social media text, creating a natural visual hierarchy and uniformity in the eCommerce store. 3. Montserrat Montserrat is a modern sans-serif font designed in 2011. Its clean and legible features make it an excellent choice for headings and titles on eCommerce websites. Montserrat is best suited for creative eCommerce sites due to its contemporary appearance. For example, Jo to the World sells crochet gift ideas, including various patterns. The store uses Montserrat in its headings, product names, and call-to-action buttons. The readability of this font is particularly effective on the buttons because customers clearly understand what action they're encouraged to take next. This can help boost conversions and keep customers on the site longer. 4. Raleway Raleway is a versatile and elegant sans-serif font designed in 2010. Its sleek appearance makes it an ideal choice for both body text and headings on an eCommerce website. Raleway is best suited for conveying dependability while retaining a user-friendly visual appeal. For example, Le Régal sells wooden cutting boards. The site uses Raleway only, thereby showcasing the diversity of one font. Headings and prices are bigger and bolded; body text is standard; stock levels and lead times are a different color; and call-to-action buttons are inverted. Using a single font creatively also results in cohesive visual merchandising and brand identity. » Find out what other eCommerce hiccups bust brand loyalty besides ineffective fonts 5. Roboto Roboto is a minimalist sans-serif font designed in 2011. While its features can be described as geometric, it can still give an eCommerce store a friendly typography. Appropriate for both headings and body text, Roboto is best suited for tech-related sites aiming to optimize their merchandising. For example, Discount Store sells a range of electronics. It uses Roboto as its main font for merchandising in "New Arrivals" and "Hot Sale" banners, headings, and descriptions. The font remains easy to read regardless of its size or background color. Let the Right Font Take You Forward Choosing the right font for your eCommerce store can be a stressful yet essential step to striking the right brand tone with your users. Selecting a font that's easy to read and aligns with your brand message can be extremely beneficial for your overall merchandising efforts and lead to a more positive and engaged experience for your customers. » Continue improving your merchandising with this ultimate guide
Asked a month ago
Visual Hierarchy: How to Create a Stunning eCommerce UI (+ Examples)
How your website is designed, including your merchandising efforts, greatly impacts customer behavior and sales. By implementing visual hierarchy, you can create a stunning eCommerce UI (user interface) for your customers that can ultimately help you enhance their experience, increase conversions, and drive sales. Boosting Your eCommerce UI Through Visual Hierarchy 1. Pull Focus With Size and Scale Size and scale are powerful tools for creating a visual hierarchy because they can help certain features stand out. Based on customers' reading behavior, they'll view the biggest visual element first. But size is still relative—without scale, your important sections may lose their impact. For example, while Targus's merchandising of this product splits customers' screens into two equal parts, their eye is immediately drawn to the main product image on the left. The image itself is large but appears more prominent because of the smaller scale of the other merchandising elements, like the smaller product images at the bottom of the screen. 2. Use Color and Contrast for Emphasis The effective use of color and contrast can help guide your customers' attention to the most important elements, such as calls-to-action, product images, and pricing. By limiting your color palette and using contrasting colors, you can easily improve your visual merchandising and eCommerce UI. For example, Staghead Designs makes an immediate impact with monochrome product pages. The black background of the main product image instantly makes it the focal point while simultaneously letting the blue pendant shine. Additionally, the bold, black "Add to Cart" button also draws attention, encouraging conversions. » Follow these eCommerce merchandising best practices to improve the UI more 3. Guide the User With Spacing Spacing, or the use of whitespace, can be a powerful tool for establishing a clear visual hierarchy and improving your overall eCommerce merchandising. By increasing the amount of whitespace around important elements (such as headings or call-to-action buttons), you can guide your customers' attention to those elements and create a more intuitive eCommerce UI. For example, Spiceology uses ample whitespace to place their product merchandising at the top of their visual hierarchy. The equal spacing between the product images also creates balance. Interestingly, the product images are placed in an inverted pyramid shape, which naturally draws the customers' eyes to the "All Ingredients" button, encouraging them to shop further. » Need to fine-tune your product layout? Use a product grid to improve your eCommerce merchandising Drive Your eCommerce UI Upwards Visual hierarchy principles are essential for creating refined eCommerce UIs that prioritize your customers' experience and drive conversions. At the same time, these principles can also help you improve your merchandising techniques, thereby simplifying your customers' overall journey and making it easier for them to find what they're looking for. » Explore further how visual merchandising creates an engaging eCommerce experience
Asked a month ago
Using Color Psychology on Your eCommerce Site: Expert Tips + Examples
Using color psychology on your eCommerce site is a visual merchandising method that impacts user behavior. A study shows that up to 90% of a consumer's initial assessment before making a purchase is based on color. Using color to ignite certain emotions and associations in the user can be a powerful tool for guiding user behavior. Follow these expert tips and examples to add some color to your eCommerce site. Consider Your Industry & Target Audience Certain colors can be used to attract target consumers. For example, red on fashion and retail websites creates a sense of urgency and excitement. This can help encourage conversions, which can increase profits. Additionally, personality types can also play a role. A research journal reveals that green can inspire creativity and is more associated with less urgent calls for action. For example, The Woolery uses green and appeals to those interested in the knitting craft. » Find out how visual merchandising can create an engaging eCommerce experience How Color Can Help Achieve Your Desired Effect With well-considered color choices, you optimize customer experience, communicate your brand's message, and even sway customers' actions. 1. Prompt Action With Red Red is known to be an attention-grabbing color. HubSpot ran an A/B testing study, which depicts how red is a suitable choice for CTAs, achieving a 21% conversion rate. Fragrance Buy: Red-y, Set, Buy Fragrance Buy, a brand-name fragrance wholesaler, encourages actions such as subscriptions and draws attention to sales, which can drive conversions. Additionally, pulling focus to a "Perfume Advisor" option can incite trust in the business, which can help boost sales. 2. Establish Trust With Blue Adobe notes that blue can evoke security, trustworthiness, and calmness. It can be a useful color to assign credibility, which can create customer loyalty. Mastermind Toys: Keep Your Peace of Mind Mastermind Toys is a toy and children's book store. By using blue throughout their site, parents—undoubtedly a large part of the target audience—can feel reassured and secure in purchasing products for their children. Pairing blue with red for the online shopping cart draws attention to the idea of completing a purchase. 3. Spark Enthusiasm With Yellow ColorPsychology.org points out that yellow typically expresses optimism, confidence, and problem-solving. Its boldness and warmth can be effective if your products or services focus on accessibility. Postmark: Say Yellow to Great Service Postmark's use of yellow and their reassuring copy can inspire confidence in their service. Because yellow is bright, using a less urgent color than red for the CTAs can encourage permission for action and prevent users from feeling overwhelmed. Also, blue is complementary to yellow, which can connote strong brand cohesion and polish. » Need help? Discover critical online visual merchandising strategies to drive sales now Using Color for Fast Engagement Leveraging color psychology in your eCommerce site design lets you choose the right color pairings based on your industry, demographic, and product offerings. This way, you can communicate your brand message clearly and drive desired user engagement, customer loyalty, and conversions.
Asked a month ago
Improve Your eCommerce Merchandising With an Effective Product Grid
eCommerce merchandising, particularly product layout, plays an important role in shaping the overall experience of your eCommerce store. A well-designed and intuitive layout can improve the navigation and visual appeal of your website. But where do you start? By implementing an effective product grid suited to your products and customers' behavior. Choosing an Effective Product Grid A product grid in eCommerce merchandising refers to how you present your product listings to your customers in your online store. The most effective grid will depend on the nature of your featured products. Its main goal is to showcase your products as efficiently as possible and help your customers compare different products. 1. Column Product Grid A column product grid is exactly what it sounds like: presenting your products in a column layout. This divides your customers' screens into equal blocks and creates uniformity in your store, making browsing so much easier because your customers aren't overwhelmed or distracted by other elements. Tip: Don't try to squeeze too many columns into your product grid. Keeping between 3-4 columns is the sweet spot. Spiceology: Spice Up Your Product Layout Spiceology sells various blends of seasonings. A column product grid is best suited for their store because the most important feature they need to showcase is the color-coded label. The product packaging is so straightforward that it effortlessly creates uniformity in the product grid and makes finding the ideal spice a breeze. Plus, any marketing banners like "Top Seller" and "Spicy" stand out immediately to persuade shoppers. 2. Modular Product Grid Modular product grids are versatile. They can span the entire width of your store, whether with one image or populating the space with different-sized images (or modules). This product layout offers a balance between product density and visual clarity. Zachys: Find the Best Blend Zachys sells various wines and liquors, meaning Zachys doesn't just sell a product but also an experience. Therefore, a modular product grid is a flexible option to best showcase their products with custom images and text to catch a shopper's attention, whether the hook is a product debut, seasonality, or price. 3. Hierarchical Product Grid A hierarchical product grid can be a combination of columns, rows, and modules. But your most important elements should either be placed at the top or take up the grid's biggest pieces. This product layout can present products more dynamically and highlight your most essential information. Tip: Use A/B testing to optimize your eCommerce merchandising based on data. Tonerbuzz: Set the Right Tone Tonerbuzz sells various toner brands for different types of printers. Their hierarchy is based on customer behavior. The biggest module on the product grid is the search bar, because it's the quickest way to lead the customers directly to their desired product. Also, instead of bombarding the customers with endless lists of toner and ink, they can search by brand in a simple column grid. Make Fast Changes to Your eCommerce Merchandising Choosing an effective product grid can be a powerful way to boost your eCommerce merchandising efforts. A well-designed product grid can improve customer experience, increase customer retention, and generate more sales. Investing time and resources into selecting the right product grid can pay off significantly in the long run, making it a critical element of any successful eCommerce website. » Discover how AI-driven merchandising can boost conversions
Asked a month ago
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