5 Principles of In-Store Retail Merchandising that Apply to Online Stores

The line between online and offline shopping is becoming increasingly blurred as shoppers use both in tandem to fulfill their needs. Smart retailers know that, despite the two being separate entities, shared merchandising principles exist between them. Here they are;

Principle 1. Think about product placement as the first item of importance. 

Bricks-and-mortar stores are familiar with the importance of strategic product placement, with supermarkets being especially savvy at this. Consider the last time you went grocery shopping: Produce is placed at the front of the store so shoppers will fill their carts with fruits and vegetables; this makes them think that once they’ve checked off the healthy items on their lists, it’s okay to throw some junk food—which is marked up considerably—in their carts as well.

Smart online retailers have learned this lesson well from offline stores, placing products that showcase their brand on the front page and drawing a lot of attention to it. They also tailor landing pages to their customers, offering a search bar and brand descriptions for newer shoppers so they can familiarize themselves easily and providing suggestions for returning customers.

Principle 2. Showcase product use by placing similar items together.

Walk into any bricks-and-mortar store and you’ll immediately notice that the retailer demonstrates how the product is to be used. In clothing stores, mannequins wear layered outfits; bookstores surround novels with blankets and candles; and music retailers arrange CDs with earbuds and headphones.

While mannequins don’t have the same efficacy online as they do offline, online retailers can still use the same concept by placing like-minded items together, showcasing testimonials and reviews and creating an “ideas” section where shoppers can compare items side by side.

Principle 3. Recognize holiday-targeted marketing as an opportunity.

At least one month before major holidays—or more than two for Christmas—offline stores start ramping up specialized marketing campaigns aimed at the holiday using a variety of colour schemes, buzzwords and themed sections. A furniture store will group chaise lounges, umbrellas and patio tables together with summer accessories for the May long weekend, while movie theatres will bombard shoppers with posters of hit movies around awards season.

This is a fairly common concept for online stores because it’s easy to code different images and layouts for holidays—for example, all that is required during the Christmas season is rearranging the coding to showcase Christmas wish and gift lists, shopping options and holiday-related themes. Another trick that online merchandisers use is sorting their products by price and category, with the former offering shoppers options for gifts under X number of dollars.

Principle 4. Recognize the habits of impulse buyers. 

Just about every bricks-and-mortar store features a selection of low-price items beside the till, with convenience stores being the best example. Colloquially known as stocking stuffers, impulse buys and till-side advertising, these value items have been shown to increase purchasing when placed in front of the customer when they’re paying.

Although it’s physically impossible to place actual objects beside a till in online stores, the essential concept remains the same: The final purchase is split horizontally in half, with the basket and checkout on one side and featured items on the other. Another incentive for using this strategy in online stores is motivating shoppers to add a few more items to their basket so they can meet the minimum requirements for free shipping, if offered.

Principle 5. Cross-sell low-margin items with high-value items.

Department-store retailers understand shopping psychology and know that buyers aren’t nearly as likely to act on impulse when it comes to higher-priced items. Therefore, they place lower-priced items in high-traffic areas in anticipation of drawing the customer deeper into the store and closer to higher-value items. Retailers also make a smooth transition between the two by sporadically placing a high-value item amid low-margin ones at the front and gradually increasing its appearance.

 
To transfer this strategy to online stores, retailers can research high-traffic areas on their site—landing pages are the most obvious example—and strategically place items they need to sell in these areas. Another way to use this concept is to place a “suggestion row” underneath a shopper’s current selection, with the idea of showing how two items work together so the customer will be more likely to pick up both.

 Although online and offline stores vary in their marketing and merchandising strategies, they actually have a lot more in common than what appears at first glance. By implementing the five key principles that in-store retailers use, their online counterparts can appeal to shoppers more efficiently and strategically. Take time to visit bricks-and-mortar stores regularly to see how they implement these principles, and adopt them in your online store accordingly. Some will work and some won’t, but never be afraid to try something new. After all, the most successful online stores are those that learned from the hits and misses of offline stores.

  7 Questions and Answers to Online Merchandising

As technology progresses and retailers increasingly make use of the Internet, there has never been a stronger need for excellent online merchandising strategies. But what are the most effective and efficient strategies? 

 1. How can I use images effectively? 

Avoid stock images and make high-quality, high-res photos your priority because images are what an online customer sees first. By showcasing your product in the most vivid way possible, you’re giving visitors answers in a visual, immediate way. For example, if you’re selling a couch, set it against a plain backdrop and show how it’s used by photographing a person on it in an audience-appropriate way (for example, a family on a large couch or a hipster on an egg chair). This creates context for your customers and allows them to visualize themselves on it instead of looking at a plain photo of a nondescript item.

2. Should I use mannequins or models? 

 The choice between mannequins and models is often a personal one, and each has its pros and cons. For example, Old Navy uses mannequins with goofy expressions, which are synonymous with the brand but largely ineffective because they distract from the clothing they’re wearing. Using a live model, on the other hand, helps visitors see exactly how a product looks on an actual person.

 3. What should my home page look like? 

Your home page should be as simple and streamlined as possible. When it comes to websites, the current trend is high minimalism (Google is an excellent example), so only the most basic, concise information is immediately visible. By not overwhelming visitors and giving them easy-to-see navigation options, you have an edge over your competitors in terms of stay rates and click analytics. One of the worst things you can do is present a home page that’s busy and difficult to navigate. With so many other options available, visitors won’t bother with your site anymore. 

 4. Once I’ve set up my home page, how should I arrange the merchandise? 

Categories are a highly efficient way of organizing merchandise and the next logical step in a minimalist home page design. A good way to categorize your merchandise is by use. For example, if you own a clothing store, create categories such as men’s and women’s, brand, upper or lower body garments and length of sleeve or leg. It also helps to cross-reference your products so that visitors won’t miss finding something, as your method of categorizing clothing may be different from theirs. 

 5. How can I sell more expensive items or items that need to be cleared to make way for others? 

Select the items you want to move and feature them alongside searches to cross-sell, upsell and downsell. Using the clothing store example, if a visitor searches for white T-shirts and you’d rather they spend twice as much on black T-shirts, upsell the latter as an alternative. However, if you have an excess of white T-shirts and visitors are searching for black T-shirts, simply reverse the process (downsell). As for cross-selling, feature a row at the bottom that lists the most commonly searched for and purchased items. 

 6. How can I urge visitors to buy “neutral” items?

Reviews are one of the most important, effective ways to help visitors make a purchase. And with today’s tech-savvy visitors being more discriminating than ever, you need to give them real-life proof of the quality of your product. In this way, reviews aren’t simply a nice-to-have option that will set you apart; they’re a necessity, especially since word-of-mouth marketing is the predominant way to spread buzz about your merchandise. 

7. Do I really need good copy if my site is well-designed and easy to navigate? 

Absolutely. While a well-designed site is essential for bringing in traffic, good-quality copy is vital for keeping it there. A clear, high-res image can only say so much about any given product; the copy has to fill in the rest. You should have a catchy headline, a brief yet informative short description, a fleshed-out long description that summarizes the main points and a bulleted features list that outlines all the specs. Each product’s copy should tell a story, but it shouldn’t be the main star. Rather, good-quality copy should seamlessly blend with the product image so that, together, the two create a fully realized guide, with everything the visitor needs to know.