If you’re like most e-commerce sellers then there is a disconnect between what customers are buying and the products that make you the most profit.
As we approach the holiday selling season it’s important to maximize your profits while still selling your highest volume products.
If your brand new to e-commerce in this article and accompanying video is not for you.
However if you do have good sales on a number of key con excuse then read on.
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What is Merchandising in ecommerce?
Just like when you go to the store to buy something everything has a logical layout that you can easily understand. This is merchandising. Shoppers have an implicit expectation on the arrangement of products at a store. It would not make sense if next to the cereal there was meat or deodorant. On your own web store it doesn’t make sense to put unrelated items next to each other, either. Making it easy to shop through merchandising is just as important as any other store.
Once basic merchandising is taken care of, now you need to maximize placement. That’s where the merchandising for increased profit comes in. Taking the grocery store as an example again, stores increase the margin by merchandising in a very particular way. For example, the milk is always at the back of the store. Milk goes bad rather quickly, causing you to return to the store regularly. Grocers put it at the back of the store so that you have to pass by other products on the way there and perhaps pick up some products you didn’t originally intend to buy. Do you have a product that is purchased regularly? Might make sense to merchandise it this way.
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Margin Enhancements in merchandising
At a retail store the main walkway that you take around the stores is called the race track. At the end of every aisle or was called into caps. In caps have merchandise on them that are usually comprised of just a few products there riband meaning they are in a horizontal or vertical line and they’re always stocked very well. As a shopper you should avoid these at all costs because these are high margin products the retailer wants to sell to you. Just walking the five or 10 feet into the aisle will save you lots of money by buying competitive products. For your ecommerce store you should follow the same idea. High margin items that you want to sell need to be very easy to purchase, highlighted with banners, in the skyscrapers on the side or cross merchandised with similar products.
Want to save a few dollars next time you go to the store? Pay attention to products that are below your knee when you’re looking at an aisle and anything above your eye height.
Those items are usually the cheapest. Products that are in your viewing sweet spot between your knees and your eyes are the highest margin items that make the retail or the most money. Remember most people never scroll below the fold on your screen. Below the fold is just like below the knees and above the eyes it’s an area where you were going to put the lower margin items that people have to seek out versus making it too easy for them.
3 Ways to determine the best products for your ecommerce merchandising plan
This is just a start. Below is a video on how to find the products you want to focus on.
Want to Talk to an Ecommerce Expert about Merchandising and Strategy?
Have Some Ideas on Ecommerce Merchandising? Share Them Below.
Damon Didier
Data-driven performance digital marketer with 20 years’ experience expanding and scaling B2B and B2C businesses successfully. Develops and supports insightful customer-centric sales and marketing plans and processes with application of complementary technology.
