If you aren’t already, you should be using a mixture of eCommerce merchandising strategy options on your store. This will help to boost engagement, sales and customer satisfaction. You can use as many strategies as you want to, as long as you have the means to implement them. The more you use, the better the outcome will be.
Let’s take a look at some merchandising strategies that any eCommerce business can use, and you can see which of them seems most relevant to your needs.
Telling A Story On Your Homepage
Your homepage is your shoppers’ first portal to your eCommerce world. Their first impression and encounter is crucial in ensuring that they get the right impression of who you are, and what you are offering. It should demonstrate what your brand stands for, and why they should pick you over your competitors.
A homepage storytelling merchandising strategy means that you use the homepage to share your values and show off the products you want to sell. You should convey your message clearly and appealingly.
The visuals of the page should be high-quality, exciting and engaging. Limited text should be used other than to highlight key selling points and features. Overall it should seem uncluttered and simple.
Visual Merchandising
People purchase products online with their eyes. This is why the way you visually merchandise on your site is crucial. High-quality and definition images should be used, with more options for 360 images, zoom, video or interactive images the better. These images should be exciting, engaging and informative. They should entice the shoppers to buy just through the way the product looks alone.
Collection-Based Merchandising
Creating collections by grouping products together is a great way of encouraging shoppers to buy more than one thing at once. It also can help them find what they are looking for; if multiple products are placed together as one.
Therefore this strategy works for high-intent shoppers, and also just browsers. Breaking down products into categories that suit their purpose can have a great effect. It also ensures that shoppers don’t get decision fatigue and become overwhelmed.
Since they are looking at one category and products within that, they don’t have to scroll through plenty of items that aren’t relevant to them. This creates less friction for the buying process and helps shoppers with their buying journey.
Cross-Selling Products In Shopping Cart
Once shoppers have committed to making a purchase, often they can be enticed at the purchase point to add something to their order. Creating a cross-sell merchandising strategy helps to bring this to fruition.
Proposing cross-sell items that complement the product already being bought is actually helpful to the shopper. They may need accessories; for example, if they are buying a new phone, then a new phone case and charging cord will be great additions to their purchase.
Applying this theory of usefulness for the customer, and benefit for the merchant, is a great merchandising strategy to therefore use.
Leverage Collected Data
A great merchandising strategy is to ensure that you use data collected on your site to present your shoppers with the products they want to see. Using analytics and dashboard functions will teach you plenty about your users.
Information such as
- Common search terms
- Popular products
- Least popular products
- Visitor demographics
And more, can all be found via these data collection services.
Once you know what you are working with, offering merchandising that suits the needs of your shoppers is a great idea. This will boost customer satisfaction and increase sales. Once you’re no longer guessing what it is your shoppers want, but actually making informed decisions, you will see the benefits this brings to your business.
Use An Optimized Site Search
Site search is one of the most, if not the most important service of any eCommerce site. Especially for high-intent shoppers, they want to be able to access the site, find what they are looking for, and then leave with it quickly.
The goal in this merchandising strategy is to have the shopper needing to make as few clicks as possible to make their order. Using filters in the search can help to achieve this, as well as machine learning such as natural language processing and natural language search.
The one thing to avoid is the dreaded ‘no results’ page. Using an app that specializes in site search will ensure that you don’t lose any sales, and your search is up to the standard it should be.
Highlighting Social Proof
Using social proof is a great way of improving trust in your brand. Social proof is the new way that shoppers know they can trust your brand, and will feel comfortable making a purchase from your brand. Focusing on this as a merchandising strategy means that you want your shoppers to feel safe making a purchase from you.
Putting positive reviews on the product page is a great idea. This will build trust. Using UGC and Instagram influencers to promote your products is also a great strategy to encourage people to make sales. It’s also best practice to never filter or remove bad reviews. Let shoppers know that you are being honest with them, and that your products can be trusted.
Conclusion
There are many different merchandising strategies that can be used by any eCommerce store. All of them will help to increase sales, boost conversions and boost customer satisfaction.