The Hustler's Digest StaffThis article provides all the details related to what merchandising is and how one can apply merchandising techniques to promote sales in business.
Merchandise is a broad term that refers to anything for sale. You’ll find wholesale and retail products at the bottom.
Merchandise is available in a variety of tastes. This covers anything from antacids to zephyrs, as well as basic items. Then there’s liquidation merchandise, which means big discounts and big savings. Dresses and egg beaters come to mind while thinking of store products.
Apparel product is one of the most popular sorts of merchandise, and it can be sold wholesale, retail, overstock, liquidation, or closeout, but it is always for profit.
Merchandise is often made by manufacturers and sold for a low price, whether they work out of a garage or a factory that covers square blocks. This product is sometimes picked up by wholesalers, who buy in bulk and parcel it out to retailers, who then mark up the prices to make a profit.
Merchandise generates profit for the creator, wholesaler, and retailer before being passed on to the in-store customer, who completes the transaction to complete the cycle.
The difficulty and opportunity to make people along the merchandising chain aware of the merchandise in the first place exists all the way from the manufacturer to the sales floor client.
Important aspects to consider while merchandising
Merchandising is an important factor in determining how shoppable a store is. If your merchandising conceals or confuses the client, it won’t matter if you carry the best products; the customer will feel frustrated and depart. Without understanding the complexities of appropriate marketing, many shops simply stack it high and let it fly.
The shop has a wonderful potential to move merchandise inventory more rapidly and consequently enhance earnings by directing the customer through your store with their favorite products that are conveniently accessible. Potential clients will be frustrated if you fail to give the best products owing to out-of-stocks or cluttered merchandising together with their complementing products.
An overall merchandising strategy aims to make the customer’s shopping experience quick, efficient, and simple. While some consumers may want to browse the store and spend a long time there, this should be their option rather than being imposed upon them by poor merchandising. Let’s take a closer look at some details.
Display area
Customers are guided to distinguishable merchandising sets by a properly divided display space, which allows for easy shopping and, eventually, purchasing. Specific store designs and hand carts can be used to promote merchandise. Too often, businesses jam things onto shelves without rhyme or reason, expecting customers to figure out what they want. Make it simple for the customer to say ‘yes to the set and display.
Fixtures
Fixtures should be used to highlight rather than hide the merchandise. Choose fixtures that allow the goods to be displayed and stored easily. Fixtures that are excessively high cause a security issue as well as prevent enticing site lines. Fixtures that are dark, dingy, and filthy detract from the merchandise.
Merchandise
Choosing the most popular items among your customers is crucial to your store’s overall performance. For the highest-moving items and the premium position on the fixtures,
category management techniques ask for the proper number of SKUs. Out-of-stock items not only affect the current sale, but they also raise doubts in the minds of customers about the store’s ability to stock their preferred brands on their next visit. In some circumstances, a customer’s first out-of-stock encounter will cause them to never return.
Plan-O-Grams
Each product should be assigned to a specific location on the merchandising fixture. A plan-o-gram is a visual communication tool that shows the arrangement and price of products inside a category and/or fixture. When products are placed haphazardly, profits are left on the shelves rather than at the cash register.
Pricing
Pricing should be examined as part of a larger shop strategy. If various employees are making pricing decisions for products throughout the business, be especially careful to make sure “not everything in the store is on sale.” A merchant can use a collective pricing approach to promote volume with some products while protecting margin on others. The key to success is combining both of these tactics so that the store’s overall sales and profitability are maximized.
Signage
Signage is an important component that provides directional messaging as well as price points. It’s vital that the store’s signage doesn’t become a cacophony of messages because it’s too busy or too numerous. Rather than being overburdened with information, customers should be kept informed throughout the store.
Product Adjacencies
Putting complementary products adjacent to each other increases the store’s average ticket sales. If you’re selling shirts, merchandising ties next to them is a great idea. Many stores that fail to link products with adjacency placement miss out on sales and profit dollars, much like plan-o-grams and situating the best-selling items in the best spots.
Types of merchandising
Product merchandising
All promotional actions used to market a product are included in product merchandising. Both in-store and online products are included in product merchandising.
Product merchandising can relate to either physical or digital products and is frequently misunderstood as a synonym for service merchandising (promotional activities intended to promote services).
The notion of product merchandising, for example, applies whether you’re selling shoes in person or online, and even if you’re selling a digital product like an eBook.
Furthermore, because product merchandising applies to both in-store and online promotions, it encompasses all in-store (such as shelf displays and end caps) and online promotional efforts (such as web design and on-site search).
Retail merchandising
Merchandising begins with the sourcing of merchandise. This means that in order to secure the greatest rates on products and services, merchants must be able to maintain close connections with their suppliers. Negotiation abilities are a significant plus at this point because if you can get your things cheaper, you can make a greater profit margin on resale – and no store will turn down an opportunity to make more money.
It’s back to the store once the product selection and bargaining procedure are over. The approach that will be employed to make the sale is a big aspect of retail marketing. The pricing and positioning of the product within the store are frequently part of the plan. It is crucial that the product is easily accessible to clients while they peruse the store, also known as display merchandising, if they can’t find it, they are not going to buy it.
The importance of the aesthetic aspect of product merchandising can not be overstated. It is necessary for the customer to be drawn to, as well as engaged with, the goods on display. Some display units allow you to touch, feel, and utilize the product, which has shown to be quite effective, particularly in the electronics business.
When done correctly, retail merchandising as a process can reap significant benefits for your business or organization. The greatest place to start is with a high-quality product selection. When the product is priced correctly and displayed properly, it becomes tempting to the customer, and it may begin to fly off the shelves.
Digital merchandising
Digital merchandising is a word used in the place of retail merchandising to describe the sale of things over the internet. This refers to any activity that is utilized to promote products on the internet. It is also known as e-commerce or internet merchandising.
All actions such as website promotion, digital product display, email marketing, social media marketing, digital marketing, and so on are included. As more merchants move their work online to reach a larger audience, digital merchandising is becoming more important.
eCommerce, also known as electronic commerce, digital commerce, or internet commerce, is the purchasing and selling of goods and services through the internet, as well as the financial and data transfers required to complete these transactions.
eCommerce is most commonly used to refer to the online sale of tangible goods or services, but it can also refer to any type of business transaction that is made possible by the internet. eCommerce allows businesses to buy and sell things on a worldwide scale, 24 hours a day, without incurring the same cost as a physical store.
There are a variety of eCommerce models to choose from:
- B2B
- B2C
- C2C
- C2B
Business to business e-commerce
B2B e-commerce is the electronic exchange of goods, services, and information between businesses rather than between businesses and customers.
Business to consumer e-commerce
The retail aspect of e-commerce on the internet is known as business-to-consumer. Businesses sell products, services, or information directly to consumers through B2C commerce.
Consumer to consumer e-commerce
Consumer-to-consumer e-commerce is a sort of online shopping where customers trade items, services, and information with one another.
Consumer to business e-commerce
Consumer-to-business e-commerce refers to when individuals make their goods and services available for firms to bid on and purchase online. This is the opposite of the standard B2C business paradigm.
Visual merchandising
Visual merchandising is an aesthetic way for shops to ensure that their item sells quickly off the shelves. It is a technique for appealing to a customer’s visual and auditory senses. With the introduction of self-service in retail stores in recent years and the numerous changes in supermarket merchandising methods, there has been an increased emphasis on the type of store layout, store building, fixtures, and equipment, color displays, silent communication tools, window display, and final opinion building through in-store displays, which has taken the art of visual merchandising to a new level.
Visual merchandising aids in the following areas:
- a) Developing a creative medium for presenting items in a three-dimensional setting that has a long-term impact and memory value.
- b) Combining the product’s creative, technological, and operational components.
- c) Effectively and creatively or innovatively educating clients about the product/services.
- d) Getting the customer’s attention so that he can make a purchasing decision in a short amount of time, hence speeding up the selling process.
Omnichannel merchandising
Creating a cohesive customer experience across all conceivable touchpoints of the customer journey is referred to as omni channel merchandising.
Omnichannel merchandising is providing a consistent consumer experience across both physical and digital storefronts, even if the customer transfers from one to the other (as in the Bonobos example above).
Because physical stores are increasingly embracing digital, omnichannel merchandising (also known as omnichannel retailing) is a topic of growing interest and research.
Additionally, the term omnichannel retailing is frequently used to define all of the parts that make up a single consumer journey, regardless of where they occur.
Let’s look at an example:
A customer finds an organic piece of content via a Google search and enters a digital store. They then search the online site and fill out their shopping cart, just to abandon it at the last minute.
The digital merchant sends a targeted behavioural email to the consumer in the next 30 minutes, showing what’s in their cart and offering a 5% discount if they finish the transaction. Accepting the offer, the buyer completes their purchase.
Because the customer traveled from a search engine to on-site, to email, and back to on-site, this experience may be classified as an omnichannel merchandising experience.
Merchandising techniques
Retailers nationwide invest substantial time and effort into organizing and showcasing merchandise in their stores. An efficient, well-organized layout entices consumers, driving unplanned purchases and boosting sales. Merchandising services play a pivotal role in this process, offering retailers control over product presentation and invaluable consulting.
In recent years, these services have evolved beyond meeting basic consumer demands. Effective organization, display strategies, and strategic store placement significantly impact sales. Merchandising services, therefore, serve as catalysts for both product and store success.
Navigating the vast array of products in any store, large or small, demands meticulous sorting and execution for retail. Merchandising services streamline this process, employing proven strategies honed through years of testing and research. These strategies are essential for ensuring seamless product display transitions, enhancing the overall appeal and sales potential of every item.
In essence, merchandising services are the cornerstone of a successful retail experience. By optimizing product placement and presentation, they empower retailers to captivate consumers and drive sales.
Window displays
Window displays are a very typical way to boost sales. Basically, there are scientific ways to what this type of display should seem like for every given product marketing goal, and they have proven to be quite effective in attracting customers to buy that product. In reality, extremely specific writing sizes and colors are frequently used to ensure a seamless transition of bringing in customers.
Lighting
Lighting has proven to be extremely effective in increasing product sales. It creates the overall feel and attractiveness of whatever object it is utilized for by enhancing the mood. As a result, if applied appropriately, adequate lighting might genuinely allow for an extraordinary sales effort.
Light manipulation is a crucial aspect of all sorts of commerce. Modern merchandisers employ light to promote products, highlight certain promotions, and even impact the mood and energy of their potential buyers, just as a stage production uses light to convey moods and highlight characters and scenes.
Color plays a vital influence in purchase decisions, and lighting may be used to draw attention to specific directions.
Apple, for example, is known for having a pristine white background to display its steel grey machines, and they maintain this consistency whether you visit their actual store or shop online. This contrast in color and lighting indicates modernism as well as mechanical or technological accuracy, which many people connect with the Apple brand.
Lighting can also be used to make customers feel a variety of sensations that may influence customer intent or otherwise create a memorable brand association, similar to how casinos in Las Vegas create a well-lit, diversely colored experience that makes you feel like you are outside and don’t need to leave.
Display of items
Merchandising services are concerned with the storage and display of merchandise in a store. The odds of selling them rise when they are grouped and all oriented in the same direction. In relation to height , other products have been shown to have a significant impact.
Making a good first impression in merchandising is important, whether you are trying to captivate window shoppers in a real store or visitors to your website’s main page.
In-store experience
Retail merchandisers aim to manage as many variables as possible, knowing that the first few moments are what will determine whether or not a consumer will stay and browse.
While physical first impressions do have an impact on that initial step into the store, first impressions are increasingly being generated digitally. For example, through a television commercial or an Instagram post.
Similarly, in digital retailing, generating a good first impression requires managing a number of elements. Take, for example, site speed. According to Google research, if sites take longer than seconds to load, 53 percent of mobile site visits are dropped. When it comes to customers searching on your site, speed is also crucial.
Because site search is frequently one of the first ways a potential consumer interacts with a website, providing a good first impression can lead to a better customer experience and potentially increase revenue.
Unfortunately, many online merchants still need shoppers to type in their product search, submit it, and then hope to find something relevant.
Site search is becoming increasingly important to retailers. Intelligent site search is one area where exceptional retailers are distinguishing themselves from the pack, according to our research.
Traffic
Traffic has an impact on all types of retailing. This might range from clients strolling into your store to potential customers accessing certain product pages on the internet.
Traffic includes both: the foot traffic of the customers that visit the store and the online customers that visit your website for buying or browsing.
Search engine optimization, social media, and other digital marketing strategies can all have an impact on digital traffic. End caps, floor plans, and product displays can have an influence on physical traffic.
Metrics
There are numerous merchandising metrics, and which merchandising metrics are deemed the most significant can influence merchandising strategies. One typical efficiency statistic, for example, is sales-per-square-foot. It establishes the sales-to-floor and shelf display space ratio.
Other indicators include CAC (cost of gaining a new client) and RPV (revenue per visit).
These techniques can be taken into consideration while running a successful merchandising.
Examples of merchandising
There are many examples that can be taken into consideration for merchandising. Some of these include:
- Fashion merchandising
- Toy merchandising
- Grocery merchandising
- Technology merchandising
- eCommerce merchandising
Top 3 benefits of Merchandising
Of the many benefits of merchandising, the top three are as follows:
- Merchandising helps in boosting sales
- Attract passerby
- A well-managed and well-kept space
Conclusion
Merchandising encompasses all the actions taken to promote and sell products once a potential customer enters a store. It involves showcasing items available for purchase, typically in a retail setting.
Marketing revolves around presenting products in visually appealing ways to stimulate purchases, recognizing that the buying process often begins with what the eyes see.
