10 eCommerce Visual Merchandising Tactics to Boost Sales
- etaily Team
- May 31, 2022
- 7 minutes reading
Brands follow virtual merchandising practices to grow their audience.
Having a strong visual appeal plays a big role in running a successful business. Since consumers value visual aspects of a product or service initially, how you choose to present your brand is crucial in getting their attention. This happens because the brain registers visual information 60,000 times faster than plain text.
When it comes to reeling in customers, every brick and mortar has its unique strategy to introduce products. A lot of this involves knowing what items to put on display, presenting new products accordingly, optimizing the overall customer experience, and more. But while every tactic can have some benefits, not everyone will achieve the same results.
The same issue applies to eCommerce stores, as brands follow virtual merchandising practices to grow their audience. Some businesses pick up these strategies based on what’s popular and in-demand while others have a dedicated creative and brand content team to develop the best solutions to attract and serve their customers. But what exactly does visual merchandising do?
What is Visual Merchandising?
Visual merchandising focuses on how you organize and display your products in a specific space to capture a customer’s attention. This helps attract customers to your brand in a more engaging manner, influencing their buying decisions. While this strategy is normally used in physical stores, many digital storefronts also apply this practice.
Why Should Visual Merchandising Matter to eCommerce?
Using effective visual merchandising strategies can give you a lot of benefits that can help your business perform better. Below are some of the reasons why it can make all the difference for your brand:
It invites users to explore and shop from your site
A well-designed webpage exposes your customers to the maximum number of merchandise you are offering without overwhelming them. This gives them more initiative to explore your site according to the different categories that pique their interest.
It promotes brand awareness
Visual merchandising helps send your brand’s message to your customers and lets them know the objective of your brand. This serves as a way to tell your story and help your customers better understand your products, which can be an added factor in making a purchase.
It establishes customer loyalty
Highlighting your brand through visual merchandising shows your focus on improving your customer’s shopping experience. The positive effect on them can drive more sales and allow you to retain buyers.
10 eCommerce Visual Merchandising Tactics to Boost Your Sales
Keeping up with the latest trends in visual merchandising can help you identify what strategies to use. These tactics will help elevate your brand today:
1. Tell a compelling story on your homepage
Give a clear idea of what your brand is about and the products you sell. Use the right amount of storytelling to keep your customers engaged without overloading them with too much information.
2. Provide optimized search and navigation
Generate functions that allow customers to easily search for products using keywords and related descriptions. Remember, your page should always be user-friendly and easy to navigate.
3. Update collections and featured products
Change your featured products feed regularly to provide more variety to your customers. This can be updated to highlight different promotions so that visitors always have something to look forward to when visiting your eCommerce website.
4. Feature user-generated content
Most online shoppers would want to view user-generated content to see if a product is worth buying. This can be customer feedback in the form of written reviews, images, and videos that are shared by previous buyers, which help add more authenticity and credibility to your brand.
5. Utilize relatable images
Customers want to visualize how they can use or wear a product by viewing photos that show the item’s features and details. Stick with images that aren’t overly edited to capture the item’s natural look. Additionally, when demonstrating how a product is used, be sure to create a photoset that is easy to understand.
6. Invest in personalization
Use a recommendation carousel to suggest products based on customers’ activities on your site. People mostly want to gain a more personalized experience with brands that make them feel understood and cared for.
7. Offer image search capabilities
Some customers may be unfamiliar with the right retail terms when looking for a specific product. Allowing them to search for related images can help them track down certain products and other similar items they might also want.
8. Take advantage of videos and animation
People retain more information from videos and animations. Rather than using mere text on your site, incorporate well-produced and engaging footage of a product demonstration to show off its key features.
9. Make it mobile-friendly
Today, more users rely on their smartphones to access sites when browsing and shopping for products. Optimizing your web pages for different mobile devices can help improve your customer’s overall shopping experience.
10. Organize your themes
Group similar products in thematic categories based on styles, uses, or occasions. This helps shoppers look through your online shop more systematically, giving them a better idea of the types of products you have in your collections.
Complete Your Mission with the Right Vision
Like physical stores, your eCommerce business also needs to set good visual merchandising strategies to help you better connect with your customer base. This will play a major role in helping you boost your sales and improve your brand image in this highly competitive market.
In some cases, making the transition to digital strategies can be daunting for large businesses. When this happens, you may need a professional e-tail partner to help you sort your visual merchandising needs and more.
With etaily, you can get high-performance eCommerce services that will simplify your daily operations while gaining innovative advice from experts in the field to help grow your business.
To learn more about what we can do, get in touch with our team today!
etaily Team
etaily is an e-commerce enabler committed to helping emerging and established brands build their online store and presence. We provide end-to-end e-commerce solutions—from content creation to warehousing and fulfillment—to enable brands to meet their goals, whether that’s attracting customers, enabling online transactions, or delivering products.