Let’s say you sell skincare products on your Shopify store.
You have the perfect formulations, wide coverage for different skin issues and conditions, and at reasonable prices. Ideally, you’d assume a great product should do the talking and that should be enough to get more sales.
However, commerce today is more complex than that.
Consumers today have so many options to choose from - both online and offline. And each of these ‘options’ - your competitors - is competing to get the consumer’s attention. It’s noisy and difficult to be heard.
So, how do you stand out and get those sales? That’s where product merchandising can help.
In this blog, we’ll look into what product merchandising is, its importance, and how you can leverage it easily with a few examples of strategies by renowned brands.
What is Product Merchandising
Simply put, product merchandising is the process of intentionally displaying, marketing, and selling products to consumers.
Kevin Stirtz, the author of More Loyal Customers once said, “Every contact we have with a customer influences whether or not they’ll come back. We have to be great every time or we’ll lose them”
Product merchandising involves presenting the product that entices consumers to make a purchase.
With effective product merchandising, you can easily enhance the shopping experience for your customers, providing them with a smooth and seamless process. Through creative and user-friendly displays, your customers can easily find products that capture their interests and are more likely to complete a purchase.
TL;DR - Product merchandising aims to showcase products in a manner that encourages and motivates customers to make a purchase.
Why is Product Merchandising Important
“We are experiencing history’s highest rate of change. So push harder, act sooner and never give up”
- Ray Kurzweil, Founder of Singularity University
- Product merchandising serves as a strategic tool to highlight your unique selling points and differentiate your products from competitors, helping to attract and retain customers.
- A well-executed merchandising strategy can enhance the perceived value of your products, leading to increased sales and higher profit margins.
- By showcasing products in an appealing and organized manner, product merchandising can create a sense of urgency and drive impulse purchases among customers.
- Effective product merchandising can lead to increased customer satisfaction, as it enables shoppers to easily locate desired items and discover new products that meet their needs and preferences.
- Consistent and visually appealing product displays create a strong brand identity and enhance brand recognition, making your products more memorable to customers.
Product Merchandising In The Digital Era
Product merchandising obviously plays a very important role in guiding a consumer toward completing a purchase. However, with time product merchandising has also had to evolve.
Earlier, retailers could only do merchandising within their stores. These in-store strategies usually involve displaying for-sale products in a creative or displaying the best products in the big display windows.
In today's digital age, product merchandising extends beyond physical displays to also include our online interactions.
Brands now need to replicate the immersive in-store shopping experience through digital means. This includes providing interactive tools to address customer queries, facilitating filtered searches, and enabling seamless transactions.
Key strategies for digital product merchandising involve -
- Creating curated and detailed digital commerce pages with user-friendly navigation and filtering options
- Offering personalized recommendations based on customer behavior and preferences
- Providing real-time customer support to address queries promptly
- Streamlining the checkout process to prevent cart abandonment
- Ensuring a unified shopping experience across various channels, including websites, mobile apps, and physical stores
- Offering flexible payment options such as immediate, deferred, or installment payments
10 Product Merchandising Tips
- Consider customers first: Prioritize the needs and preferences of your customers when implementing product merchandising strategies. Understand their shopping behavior, preferences, and pain points to design a user-friendly and seamless shopping experience. Tailor your product displays, categorization, and recommendations to match their expectations and make it easy for them to find what they are looking for.
- Utilize high-quality product images: Invest in high-resolution product images that showcase your products in the best possible light. Clear, visually appealing images can significantly enhance the appeal and perceived value of your products.
- Optimize product descriptions: Write compelling and informative product descriptions that highlight key features and benefits. Use persuasive language to engage customers and help them make informed buying decisions.
- Implement product categorization and filters: Organize products into relevant categories and apply filters to make it easy for customers to navigate and find what they are looking for. This improves the overall shopping experience and increases the chances of a potential purchase.
- Leverage customer reviews and ratings: Showcase customer reviews and ratings on product pages to build trust and provide social proof. Positive reviews can be influential in convincing potential customers to make a purchase.
- Cross-sell and upsell related products: Use product recommendations and bundles to entice customers to explore additional products or make a higher-value purchase. Highlight related products or offer discounts for additional items to increase order value.
- Create visually appealing product collections: Curate visually pleasing product collections based on themes, trends, or customer preferences. This helps customers discover new products and increases the likelihood of them adding more items to their cart.
- Implement scarcity and urgency tactics: Use techniques such as limited-time offers, countdown timers, or stock availability notifications to create a sense of urgency and encourage immediate purchases. This can help increase conversions and drive sales.
- Optimize mobile experience: Ensure that your product pages and overall store design are optimized for mobile devices. Mobile shopping is on the rise, and providing a seamless mobile experience can significantly impact conversion rates and customer satisfaction.
- Monitor and analyze customer behavior: Utilize analytics tools provided by Shopify to track customer behavior, such as popular products, time spent on pages, and conversion rates. This data can guide your merchandising decisions and help you optimize your product offerings.
Product Merchandising Examples
Let’s take a look at a few tried-and-tested product merchandising strategies that Shopify stores around the world are already using to get more sales -
Bundle Deals by Conscious Chemist
Conscious Chemist is running a campaign where consumers can choose any 4 products for a fixed price of INR 1299.
Bundle deals help present your customers with deals they simply cannot resist.
Strategically bundling up a few mix of products together convinces the consumer this is a bargain they cannot miss. Even if the bundle contains products they generally would not voluntarily add to cart, the offer makes it too difficult to let go of.
The idea is here to highlight the value and savings one simply cannot and should not miss. You can do this by -
- Bundling similar products - For instance, if you were a tea brand, you could create a neat bundle of Chamomile, Hibiscus, Mint tea. The products are very similar to each other and make an interesting combo!
- Bundling complementary products - Now, continuing with the example of a tea brand, if you could add in a few tea snacks in the bundle, it is going to be a great deal as well.
- Themed bundles - Create bundles that appeal to certain sections of people. If we take the tea brand example again, you could create tea combos for stress relief, weight loss and so on.
Also read: eCommerce Trends To Optimize Your Product Pages For More Sales
Collection Pages by Fenty Beauty by Rihanna
Fenty Beauty has used a very well-categorized menu in their Shopify website design. With the use of negative spacing to keep each menu item well-segmented and the featured collections, this menu is sleek and user-friendly.
Each of these menu items leads to individual collection pages which is an excellent way to help users navigate, search, and find the products that they need. Each of these collection pages also has filtering and sorting capabilities which is again a great way to help consumers find exactly what they need.
Also read: Ecommerce Web Design Inspiration from Fenty Beauty by Rihanna
Need Help With Product Merchandising For Your Shopify Store?
Setting up a high-converting store design is no easy task. To build and design an impressive store, you need to work with Shopify design experts who understand what you are looking for and have industry knowledge of the changing trends and consumer preferences.
Also read: Why Your Shopify Store Design Is Important to Increase Conversion Rates
We help you bring your ideas to life with Shopify web design, development, marketing, and support services from experts. Our team of Shopify experts works with Shopify merchants like you to design a store that reflects the personality of your brand and caters to the functionalities you require. Whether you want to revamp your existing design or build a new one from scratch, we will help you create a positive shopping experience on your Shopify store design.
Reach out to us at info@xgentech.net and we’ll help you with product merchandising strategies and execution.
