This marketing tool consciously influences consumer activity - presenting an attractive, captivating offer, arranging stands in stores in a specific order and influencing customers' subconsciousness.
What does merchandising give you?
Customers buy more than they planned - if they came for bread and have to go through the entire store to get it, there is a good chance that they will be tempted by something else on the way. The appearance of the store may be so attractive that people who did not plan to buy suddenly find themselves inside the facility.
Merchandising is also directed at regular customers - it shows the benefits of cooperation with the company and emphasizes the appreciation of loyalty. The ultimate goal of this activity is to increase the value of a specific assortment in the consumer's imagination and translate this into an increase in sales income.
Can merchandising be used in an online store?
It turns out that yes. More and more people pay attention to the appearance of the website where they make online purchases. A visually attractive website can both encourage and discourage shopping. And it is not mainly about the subjective appearance of the store, i.e. whether it is nice or not.
It is about other elements of the store - no one will be forced to make purchases on a website where the navigation is incomprehensible and the description of the assortment leaves much to be desired. It is therefore worth using the principles of merchandising also to limit customers leaving us for the competition. The way in which items in the store are presented also applies to online companies.
How to use merchandising in an online store
Make sure that the home page of your website evokes positive associations . It is based on this that Internet users form their first impression of the online store. Just as the appearance of a traditional store can encourage people to enter and make purchases, a website can be associated with professionalism and inspire trust.
The home page should attract attention, but it cannot contain an excessive amount of content. All types of graphic elements, colors and text should be purposeful and cannot be on the home page by accident. The menu of the page and subpages should contain specific and factual information, thanks to which the consumer will quickly find their way around the structure of the page.
In relation to the home page, the following issues will be particularly important:
an original look for your website that is memorable and sets it apart from the competition
placing the most important content and links on the website where the customer expects them
clear presentation of the store's offer and comprehensive information about the products
opinions and comments about products from other store customers.
Use the power of visual reception - this applies to both writing in a font that does not strain the eyes and creating divided, formatted texts, as well as using graphics, the possibility of posting photos and visualizing products.
The sense of sight has a very strong impact on consumers and it is an easy way to interest a potential customer. There is a lot of information in cyberspace and these dry messages are often difficult to decode. Usually, Internet users want to see a specific thing - they cannot see it in person, touch it or try it out, so it is not surprising that photos and images somehow replace this. Even the best prepared description of the assortment can be omitted if we do not see what it concerns.
The same applies to articles and text messages posted on the web - it is worth adding an illustration referring to the topic to each text - this increases the chances of interest of a potential reader. First, let's interest the recipient's eyesight, and attracting them to the e-shop will not be so difficult.
Build a positive brand image on the Internet - a brand must be associated with individualism and differentiation from the competition. You can emphasize its specificity on the website in many ways - both with the colors of the website, graphics, and approach to consumers. E-marketing tools will be helpful in this regard, which will allow the company to exist on the Internet, gain visibility and establish itself in the minds of recipients. Read more how to build a brand image .
Post articles/advice about your business or products you offer - the reader can trust a company that "selflessly" provides them with its advice and knowledge. Additionally, the rule of reciprocity can work here, saying that you should return the favor for what you receive. If a customer is convinced that they want to buy a specific product, but do not know in which store - there is a greater chance that they will make a transaction with us if we gain their trust. A good idea is to run a company blog .
Allow consumers to evaluate your product range and store - Internet users review comments before making a transaction and attach great importance to them. It is worth trying to ensure that sales activities are at the highest level, because appreciating this in comments will certainly attract new customers to us.
Show recently purchased products and goods related to the currently viewed one - this works very effectively on the subconscious of the recipients of the message. They suspect that a specific product must be good, since it often sells. Related products are in line with what Internet users yemen b2b leads are currently interested in, so they can also be noticed. The condition for the effectiveness of this merchandising technique is to present goods that are actually in line with Internet users' preferences and that are a complement to what they are currently buying.
Try to encourage the customer to see different parts of the online store - they may be interested in more products than they initially decided to buy. This extends the time the consumer spends on the site and the chance that they will find something worth buying. A properly constructed global menu is of great importance here - it should be clear and specific enough for the Internet user to be able to move to any part of the online store without any problems and quickly.
Analyze, test, react - there are no perfect pages, so you should analyze the page, make modifications and test how it affects the results. On a website, its individual areas focus more or less the attention of Internet users. Owners of e-shops who want to use merchandising effectively should familiarize themselves with the principles of eye tracking, which will give us many good tips on tracking the path of sight. Read more about what eye tracking is and how to use it.
Organize promotional offers - both traditional and online shoppers like to have the impression of buying a product at a bargain price. Promotions may not only concern increasing sales of goods that are not purchased, but also increasing turnover in general or promoting new products in the online store. The specificity of the Internet allows for directing discount offers to specific groups of recipients, and even individually preparing a discount for a specific buyer.
What negatively affects the perception of an e-shop:
unattractive website design, lack of eye-catching elements
inappropriate content layout, unclear assortment arrangement
lack of clear information on product prices and delivery rates for each product
a home page that does not evoke positive associations or trust among internet users
omitting the importance of the product search engine on the website
lack of specification of the total purchase costs during the transaction
no option for buyers to add comments
unclear privacy policy
no connection of the e-shop website with social media.
Summary
The aim of e-merchandising is to increase financial profits by using appropriate techniques and tips to attract customers. Both the proper presentation of goods on the website and the creation of the right environment for the e-shop translate into how Internet users perceive it and whether they decide to do their shopping there.
Owners of e-shops, just like owners of traditional stores, must take care of such aspects as: the development of the sales area (in the case of an e-shop, this will be the website), the proper presentation of the goods and the benefits associated with their purchase, or the creation of an atmosphere in the store that encourages staying there.
