Digital merchandising has become an essential part of online retail. Creating and implementing an effective digital merchandising strategy can increase sales and generate more revenue for your business. This guide will explore the basics of digital merchandising and provide tips on creating an effective strategy for your business. We’ll also look at some of the latest tools and technologies to help you succeed in digital merchandising. So if you’re ready to learn more about this important aspect of online retail, keep reading!
What is Digital Merchandising?
Digital merchandising is the process of promoting and selling products or services online. This involves creating an online presence for your business, developing a product or service offering, and then using digital marketing techniques to drive traffic to your website or online store. It is also called online merchandising.
We at Growth Hackers see digital merchandising like arranging a store window in the busiest street. When products are displayed strategically, more people stop and buy. For one of our e-commerce clients, improving product presentation and navigation increased conversions by 27%.
The goal of digital or eCommerce merchandising is to increase visibility for your products or services and, ultimately, to boost sales of your online store. In today’s online shopping landscape, a well-executed digital merchandising strategy is more important than ever. The visual merchandising of your website and the overall user experience will play a big role in whether or not potential customers make a purchase from your store.
As the number of online shoppers continues to grow, so does the competition. If you want your business to succeed, you must ensure that your digital merchandising efforts are on point. The digital merchandiser manages the online presence of a company’s products or services. This includes creating and managing product listings and developing and executing marketing campaigns.
The 7 Benefits of Digital Merchandising
When it comes to digital or e-commerce merchandising, people ask many questions, like, is digital merchandising important for my business? The answer is a resounding yes!
Digital merchandising offers numerous benefits for businesses, including:
1. Better control over product display
When you have a physical store, product display is important to catch the shopper’s eye and encourage them to purchase. But you can only do so much with the space you have. With digital merchandising, product display is no longer limited by physical space. You can showcase as many products as you want on your website or app, and you can change the display as often as you like to promote new arrivals or seasonal items.
Different online stores display their products differently, but some common methods include using high-quality images, product videos, and well-written descriptions. Similarly, you can use creative methods such as countdown timers or “scratch and win” games to add a sense of urgency and encourage shoppers to buy now.
One skincare client struggled to highlight new products effectively on their online store. Growth Hackers introduced dynamic displays with product videos, improved images, and promotional elements, leading to a 36% increase in product clicks and a 24% rise in purchases.
2. Greater flexibility in pricing and promotions
Another benefit of digital merchandising is that it gives you greater flexibility in pricing and promotions. With physical stores, you are limited to the pricing that you can put on tags or labels. And once these are printed, changing them can be costly and time-consuming.
But with digital merchandising, you can easily change prices and promotions as often as you like with a few clicks of a button. This is useful if you want to offer discounts or promotions on certain products or if you need to adjust prices quickly in response to changes in the market. You can also experiment with different pricing strategies in your digital merchandising strategies to see what works best for your products and your business.
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3. Improved customer targeting
Digital merchandising also provides a more targeted approach to marketing, as you can segment your customers and target them with specific messages and offers. For example, suppose you know that a certain group of customers is interested in a particular product. In that case, you can display that product more prominently on your website or app or send them targeted emails or push notifications about it.
This type of customer targeting is not possible with traditional merchandising methods. Even if you segment your customers into different groups, you cannot control what they see when they visit your store. In your merchandising strategy, you should also consider how you can use retargeting to reach customers who have already shown an interest in your products but have not made a purchase yet.
At Growth Hackers, we’ve helped a fashion store implement targeted digital merchandising strategies, increasing personalized product engagement and boosting conversions by 32% through smart segmentation and retargeting.
4. Increased sales and revenues
Ultimately, the goal of any business is to increase sales and revenues. And digital merchandising can help you to achieve this by making it easier for customers to find the products they want and encouraging them to make a purchase. When done well, digital merchandising can be a powerful tool for driving sales and increasing revenues. Suppose you’re selling clothes on your website.
If you have a digital merchandising strategy, you can use it to showcase the latest fashion trends and ensure that your products are always front and center. This will make customers more likely to find the items they’re looking for and make a purchase. In addition, you can use digital merchandising to upsell and cross-sell products.
Before Growth Hackers optimized their digital merchandising, an online retail client’s products were difficult to discover. After restructuring their catalog and introducing upsell and cross-sell tactics, their Shopify sales increased by 31%.
5. Increased customer engagement
Digital merchandising is all about increased customer engagement. Using engaging visuals, product descriptions, and other elements, digital merchandisers can encourage customers to purchase products they may not have considered before. In addition, digital merchandisers can use targeted marketing techniques to reach specific customers with personalized messages.
This customer engagement can lead to repeat purchases and loyalty over time. Consider how you can use digital merchandising to increase customer engagement in your marketing strategy. You may start by surveying your customers to learn more about their needs and desires. Additionally, consider using customer segmentation to target specific groups of customers with relevant messages.
6. Optimal return on investments (ROI)
Digital merchandising provides businesses with the ability to track customer behavior and preferences. This data can then fine-tune your marketing campaigns and product offerings. As a result, you can achieve a higher ROI on your marketing and advertising spending. Additionally, digital merchandising can help reduce costs associated with traditional methods, such as print catalogs and signage.
7. Improved mobility and adaptability
In today’s ever-changing marketplace, businesses must be flexible and agile to compete. And digital merchandising can help you to achieve this by giving you the ability to quickly change your product offerings. This is essential in industries where trends come and go quickly, such as fashion and technology. With digital merchandising, you can stay ahead of the curve and keep your customers coming back for more.
Suppose you are a sales associate in a clothing store. With digital merchandising, you can quickly check inventory levels and suggest alternative items to customers who are looking for something that’s out of stock. This can help you close more sales and improve your store’s bottom line.
Top 5 Tips for Creating an Effective Digital Merchandising Strategy
Now that you understand the benefits of digital merchandising, it’s time to start creating your own strategy. To help you get started, here are some tips for creating an effective digital merchandising strategy.
1. Know your goals
Before you start creating your digital merchandising strategy, it’s important to know what your goals are. Do you want to increase sales of a particular product? Drive traffic to your website or app? Boost customer engagement? Once you know your goals, you can create a strategy to achieve them.
Suppose your marketing campaigns are not achieving the desired results. In this case, you should consider using a tool like Google Analytics to track your progress and identify areas that need improvement. When you generate sales reports, look at the data to see what products are selling well and where you need to make changes.
One client selling supplements struggled with underperforming campaigns because their goals were unclear. Growth Hackers helped them define specific targets and track performance data, leading to a 38% increase in sales on their WooCommerce store and 16% from Amazon thanks to our proven merchandising strategies.
2. Identify your target audience
Another important part of creating a successful digital merchandising strategy is identifying your target audience. Who are you trying to reach with your message? What are their needs and wants? What are their demographics? Once you know who your target audience is, you can create content and campaigns that are tailored to them.
Before identifying their target audience, a food brand’s campaigns were unfocused and underperforming. After Growth Hackers guided them in creating audience-specific content, website traffic doubled and sales rose 34%.
Like, suppose your target audience is stay-at-home moms. In that case, you might create content about the best ways to save money on groceries or the best way to get kids to eat healthily. Or if your target audience is college students, you might create content about the best ways to save money on textbooks or the best way to get travel discounts.
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3. Create compelling content
Once you know your target audience, it’s time to start creating compelling content that will speak to them. This is where many businesses fail – they create content that is all about them, not about their audience. But if you want to succeed with digital merchandising, you need to create interesting, informative, and useful content for your target audience. Try to answer the question of what’s in it for them. Why should they care about what you’re saying?
Things that you should consider when creating content:
- The format of the content (e.g., blog post, video, infographic)
- The tone of the content (e.g., serious, funny, helpful)
- The length of the content (e.g., short and sweet or in-depth and comprehensive)
Suppose you want to write a blog post about the benefits of digital signage. Here are a few ideas for how to make your content compelling:
- Use statistics and data to back up your points
- Write in a clear and easy-to-understand way
- Use images, infographics, or videos to break up the text and add visual interest
- Share personal stories or case studies to illustrate your points
- Offer tips, advice, and resources that your audience can use
At Growth Hackers, we think of content as a conversation, not a sales pitch. When you talk to your audience about what matters to them, they listen. For example, a tech brand we worked with shifted from product-focused blogs to problem-solving guides, and their newsletter sign-ups doubled within 4 months.
4. Promote your content
Once you’ve created some great content, it’s time to start promoting it. There are several ways to do this; the best approach will depend on your audience and resources. But there are a few key things to keep in mind:
- Make sure your website is optimized for search engines so that people can find your content
- Use social media to share your content and connect with potential customers
- Use email marketing to reach people who have signed up to receive updates from you
- Advertise your content on relevant websites and online directories
At Growth Hackers we know from firsthand experience that creating great content is only half the battle. Indeed, promotion is what gets results. One of our pet products clients increased traffic by a whopping 67% in less than half a year simply by amplifying their existing content through targeted social channels and email campaigns.
5. Measure your results
Finally, measuring the results of your digital merchandising strategy is important. By measuring your results, you can determine what’s working and what’s not and make necessary adjustments to improve your strategy. As the shopping online experience continues to evolve, it’s important to keep up with the latest trends and best practices in digital merchandising.
Doing so can ensure that your online store is always one step ahead of the competition. All of your relevant products, services, and promotions will be placed in front of shoppers at the right time, making it more likely that they’ll make a purchase. Different merchandising strategies will work for different businesses, so it’s important to experiment and find what works best for you.
When a fitness equipment client came to Growth Hackers struggling with stagnant online sales, we mapped their merchandising performance and optimized their campaigns. What was the result? Within 5 months, their conversion rate jumped 39%, proving the power of tracking results.
Final Words on Digital Merchandising
With the eCommerce world ever-changing, digital merchandisers need to stay on top of the latest trends and strategies. It all starts with understanding the basics of digital merchandising. With this guide, you should have a strong foundation to build your business’s digital merchandising strategy.
At the same time, digital merchandisers play a vital role in eCommerce. They are responsible for creating and managing the online product experience for customers. This involves everything from developing product strategy and assortment plans to creating and managing product content.
A successful digital merchandiser is both analytical and creative. They must have a strong understanding of customer behavior and be able to use data to inform their decisions. At the same time, they must be able to think outside the box to develop innovative ways to merchandise products online.
So if you are a business owner with an eCommerce store or are thinking about starting one, invest in a strong digital merchandising strategy.
Growth Hackers is surely one of the best growth marketing agencies helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners create successful digital merchandising strategies, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales.
We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
