The Importance Of Omnichannel Merchandising

Brands that consistently bring relevant omnichannel experiences to the table on average retain 90% of their customers. Omnichannel eCommerce has been proven to work, and ensuring that your ecommerce merchandising strategy stays consistent over all channels is crucial. Keeping consistency means that brand image will stay intact and customer loyalty will increase.

Omnichannel eCommerce

Omnichannel marketing involves creating a consistent experience over all customer touchpoints.

This includes:

Brick and mortar stores
Ecommerce online store
Social media platforms
Influencer campaigns
Mobile phone apps
Third party sellers

Even if your business doesn’t have a physical store, it’s still important as there are many channels that aren’t physical. The important thing is that your brand is presenting a consistent image no matter where the shopper enters from. This will create a seamless brand experience for your customers to connect to.

Omnichannel Merchandising

Omnichannel eCommerce is growing, as are the expected capacities of merchandising across these channels. Think to include more storytelling and emotive imagery. The brand image that your merchandising presents needs to be reflected across all channels to make your brand recognizable and leave a lasting impression.

Merchandising in store can feel more whole; as it is a 360 surround of sights, smells and touches. People feel safe in brick and mortar stores as they can sense, feel and reason. However, merchandising online can be much richer in communication and interaction. Online you can reach people in a faster and more flexible way, whilst even offering personalized experiences.

Visual Merchandising

Visual merchandising is the art of presenting and displaying products in a way that catches the shoppers attention and interest. Items need to be presented in a visually appealing way in order for people to want to buy the products. When done well, this can help promote brand identity and boost sales. This makes sense, as people see with their eyes before anything else.

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Visually, there must be consistency throughout the omnichannel experience. What the customer sees on the online store must also be represented in the physical store, the mobile app and the social media. If not, customers can be confused about who you are as a brand.

Things to stay the same include:

Colors
Fonts
Tone of voice
Pricing
Images

Consistency Across Channels

Visual merchandisers need to work together to create omnichannel merchandising that best suits the channel it’s made for. What’s shown on social media will be different visually from what’s seen on the online store. However, there must be concepts and atmospheres that resonate across all channels.

For example; the models shown on the online store should be wearing the same products as the mannequins in the physical store. This kind of creativity will allow concepts to cross the borders, weaving your whole business identity into one.

Similarly, featured products should be the same on all channels. If someone sees that a picnic set is featured on your online store, they should be able to find the same feature easily in your physical store. This applies to any products, deals, or special offers.

Test To Optimize

An advantage to omnichannel is that you can collect data over a number of sources. Social media engagement gives great cues as to how well everything is doing. Same for analytics through website click-profile data, or sales figures from the physical store.

Online, you can use A/B testing in order to make sure that your merchandising strategy is working. By trying different variations, you can land on the strategy that works best for you. This can then be applied over all channels. This can help you to know your customers better than just through one channel alone.