With the right merchandising strategies, you can more effectively reach your target audience and encourage them to purchase your products or services. For example, Urban Decay saw a 16 percent increase in conversions and a 17 percent increase in average engagement rate simply by improving their site’s merchandising.
Each business is different, so the right merchandising strategies for one company may not suit another. The ideal strategies will be based on your company’s unique objectives. However, there are certain proven ecommerce merchandising tactics you can take advantage of to boost your ecommerce sales, regardless of what your company offers or specializes in.
Ecommerce Merchandising Tactics
Create a User-Friendly eCommerce Storefront
In today’s busy world, shoppers want to find what they need, make the purchase, and move on with their day as quickly as possible. That’s why it’s important to create a simple, user-friendly ecommerce storefront that can be easily customized as you see fit.
Fortunately, there are a number of affordable ecommerce storefronts that can be quickly configured so that you are up and running in no time. Make sure you have clear CTA buttons and an intuitive and easy-to-use search functionality to get the most of each customer interaction.
Make It Visual
In retail storefronts, the most expensive products are usually placed at eye level and contain colorful, eye-catching branding that’s hard to ignore. This is very strategically done to entice customers to purchase that item.
The same thing can be done with your ecommerce site. Take advantage of your customers’ line of sight by placing popular items at eye level.
Use planogram optimization diagrams to optimize where products are displayed for increased conversions. How products are displayed makes your site more visually appealing and engaging.
While planograms are typically used in brick-and-mortar stores, the concepts can be applied to ecommerce sites as well. Display multiple high-quality product images from different angles and use market research statistics to cross-sell unrelated items of interest to the same target demographic.
Download free international ecommerce calendars to time your seasonal or holiday campaigns, design themes, and event-based designs. Marketing towards specific holidays can be as simple as creating separate categories or as advanced as automatically offering holiday-related gifts during particular time frames when gifts are most likely to be purchased.
Offer a Wide Variety of Products
Shoppers like choices, so make sure to keep your merchandise fresh, with a wide variety of choices. If shoppers expect there to be new items on a regular basis, they’ll be more willing to visit your site and shop regularly.
Ecommerce stores which carry at least three price points for each type of product they offer will maximize sales. Having many highly related products increases average sale volume and the likelihood of converting any particular visitor.
If you don’t have new products or services to market, consider adding new offers and discounts so that your customers will visit more often to take advantage of new deals. In fact, many shoppers are swayed simply by the sale items and limited-time-only promotions.
Provide Detailed Product Information
It is important to answer any questions your customers may have about the products and services available on your ecommerce site. Providing comprehensive, high-quality information about the items available for sale will make visitors feel more comfortable shopping with your company and more confident in their purchase.
When buyers have questions, the do not act. Consider using live chat to provide instant answers and convert more visitors to immediate sales.
Make Product Recommendations
Use historical data to get to know your customers and apply this data to their future shopping experiences. This will allow you to make product recommendations and suggest complementary items. Oracle stated that “the most effective online merchandising techniques are uniquely targeted to each customer, based on that person’s needs at that moment.”
Along with increasing your conversion rates, cross-selling to your customers will help increase the value of each conversion. Amazon and Overstock have found enormous success cross-selling, up-selling, and down-selling products on each product detail page.
Consider using Unbxd to help seamlessly create personalized recommendations for your customers. Offering rewards programs can also reward your customers and encourage them to shop more frequently.
Encourage Customer Reviews
Cautious customers will feel better about their purchase if they know that it has worked well for another shopper in the past. Providing user reviews for each product or service on your ecommerce site can put your customers at ease and help in their decision-making process.
Make Your Business Mobile-Friendly
While this strategy may take some time and effort, the payoff is big. About 25 percent of all retail ecommerce sales take place on mobile devices. Even when a customer shops at a retail store, they frequently visit the store’s online shop first so they are better prepared when they make the purchase in-store.
By taking advantage of mobile apps, you can also encourage push notifications so your customers are alerted of new sales and promotions, generating repeat conversions. To get started, provide a clear search function, large mobile-friendly call-to-action (CTA) buttons, and one-step checkout.
Adjust Your Strategies Often
In most cases, nothing works perfectly the first time around. That is why A/B testing is such a crucial part of any successful marketing plan. It’s important to see how your customers react to your ecommerce site and adjust your merchandising strategies based on what they tend to gravitate towards.
As Johnny Carson so eloquently phrased success: “My success just evolved from working hard at the business at hand each day.”
Ecommerce Photo via Shutterstock
This article, "Top Merchandising Tactics to Boost eCommerce Sales" was first published on Small Business Trends
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