What is Digital Merchandising? 5 key facts

What is Digital Merchandising: 5 key facts

In today’s retail landscape, where online shopping is experiencing exponential growth, digital marketing has become an essential component for companies to stand out in an increasingly competitive marketplace. While many are familiar with merchandising strategies in physical environments, the evolution and adaptation of these strategies to the virtual world are aspects that are not yet fully understood.

What is digital merchandising and how is it applied? This is a question you should ask yourself if you own a small business, and for that, let’s start by talking about traditional merchandising.

What is Merchandising?

Under the concept of traditional marketing, it is a set of actions or activities that come out of a strategy to stimulate the purchase of potential customers. This technique is usually developed at the physical point of sale. Merchandising looks for different ways to display products in order to make them look more attractive and attract the attention of potential customers. The types of merchandising are:

Presentation Merchandising: It consists of studying the location of the products to make them more accessible.
Merchandising Management: Helps to make products more attractive in order to attract the attention of that potential customer.
Seduction Merchandising: It is used to attract potential customers through the senses (smell, touch, vision, hearing). The most used and effective strategy is through smell, where aromas are applied.

Today, with the digital revolution brought about by the Internet, traditional merchandising has evolved into digital merchandising.

In this article, we will explore the concept of Digital Merchandising, its application and why it is crucial for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and startups looking to stand out in the vast digital landscape.

1. What is Digital Merchandising?

Building on the foundations of traditional merchandising, digital merchandising represents the natural evolution of these practices adapted to the digital era. Its objective is to take advantage of all the potential offered by the various technological platforms and tools available to reach the minds of potential customers and encourage them to make purchases in virtual stores.

In an environment where consumers are increasingly curious and well-informed, a well-executed digital merchandising strategy is critical. It not only attracts the user’s attention online, but also influences their buying behavior.

2. Why apply Digital Merchandising?

Unlike traditional merchandising focused on attracting customers in physical environments, the application of digital merchandising is more complex in an online environment. This is where digital merchandising becomes crucial. By targeting users who browse online in search of products or services, this strategy seeks to increase sales, customer loyalty and brand reputation.

For companies operating in the digital realm, the effective application of digital merchandising is crucial to stand out in a crowded marketplace. Rather than relying on users randomly finding products, digital merchandising actively guides users through the online store, influencing their purchasing decisions.

3. Types of Digital Merchandising

Algorithmic merchandising: This type focuses on personalization, tailoring specific strategies for groups of potential customers based on their actions on the website. Information collected online helps to understand customer behavior.
Dynamic merchandising: Designed to create personalized promotions, this approach studies user profiles and actions to tailor specific strategies. For example, reminding users who abandoned shopping carts through personalized emails with discounts.
Visual merchandising: Focuses on the visual presentation of products online. It includes the design of attractive web pages, high quality product images and a visually pleasing layout to enhance the user experience.
Personalization merchandising: This is based on tailoring the shopping experience according to individual user preferences. This can include personalized recommendations, exclusive offers and personalized home pages.
Social merchandising: Take advantage of social networks to promote products, generate interaction and build a community around the brand. Platforms like Instagram and Pinterest are especially effective for social merchandising.
Email Merchandising: Use email strategies to send personalized offers, product recommendations and abandoned cart reminders, all designed to drive engagement and conversions.

4. What is the objective of Digital Merchandising?

The main objective is to highlight specific products within an online store. Capturing users’ attention is the first step to increase sales. To achieve this, it is essential to apply strategies such as highlighting new products, best sellers or those with good ratings. In addition, designing the online store in an intuitive and easy-to-navigate way is crucial to make it easier for users to search for products.

5. Techniques to implement in Digital Merchandising

The success of digital merchandising lies in the effective implementation of various techniques such as:

Promotion: Use pop-ups or pop-up windows to display special offers that capture the potential customer’s attention.
Personalization: Understanding user needs and preferences to tailor the online shopping experience. This is achieved by analyzing data collected on the web.
Detailed descriptions: Apply merchandising strategies on product pages, providing clear information on features and benefits. Integrate videos and images for visual comprehension.
Recommendations: Encourage product reviews and recommendations to leverage the power of word of mouth, as users trust the opinions of other buyers.
Alignment with other digital platforms: Digital merchandising goes beyond the online store. Ensuring that the brand has a consistent and engaging presence on social media and other digital platforms is essential to maintaining a holistic user experience.

CONCLUSION

While traditional merchandising seeks to attract customers through sensory stimuli and physical displays, digital merchandising has reinvented the way to attract customers in the online world. Brands operating in this environment must be able to create innovative and personalized shopping experiences.