What Is Digital Merchandising: 5 Tips For Campaign Success
As a business owner, you know that driving traffic to your website is essential. But what’s the best way to turn browsers into paying customers? By using digital merchandising! Keep reading to learn what is digital merchandising and how it can benefit your retail business.
What is Digital Merchandising?
Digital merchandising is the process of marketing and selling products online. This includes activities such as creating and managing product listings, setting prices, and promoting items through digital channels such as social media and email.
The goal of digital merchandising is to bring in customers, similar to brick-and-mortar marketing. However, the strategies and tactics used are different because everything happens online.
What is digital merchandising and how does it work? Instead of physical product placement and display on storefronts, digital merchandisers focus on creating attractive images and branding that will appeal to customers. Everything happens online, so the tactics and strategies used differ greatly from those used in brick-and-mortar stores.
If you want to get shoppers to click that all-important “Buy” button, then you need to make sure all your digital merchandising elements work together strategically and cleverly. Keep in mind that modern consumers don’t respond well to the sleazy salesman approach, so make sure your strategy is on point.
Ecommerce sales are expected to reach 22% of worldwide retail by 2023, according to the e-marketer report. In the US, online sales made up 13% of overall revenue in Q3 of 2021, which seems to add up.
While online shopping is convenient for consumers, it can be difficult for brands. Online shopping makes it easy for consumers to compare prices and find the best deals, which can put pressure on brands to compete.
The digital merchandising battle is real, especially when compared with visual merchandising within physical stores.
People who shop online often do so because they don’t have time to go to the store. However, this can also be a disadvantage because you can’t physically touch or feel a product.
To make an impression in the digital age, retailers need to be creative and innovative in their merchandising strategies. In this article, we’ll take a look at some digital merchandising examples to help you build your brand.
Why is Digital Merchandising Important?
Seventy-five percent of consumers shop online at least once per month, so companies should focus their efforts on improving online product placement.
Digital marketing has changed the way product presentations are approached.
But creating a great customer experience is more than just making the site look good. It’s also about making it hard for customers to leave their shopping carts without buying.
Digital Merchandising can:
Display a wide selection of goods. You can put as many different products in front of your customers as possible. The more they see, the more they are likely to buy.
Get customers’ attention. Human attention span has dropped from 12 seconds in 2000 to 8 seconds in 2021. To keep customers engaged in today’s marketplace, you need strong merchandising initiatives. With so many distractions, it can be tough to get and keep customers’ attention.
Make buyers out of browsers. On average, 69% of shoppers abandon their carts. Shoppers who visit stores to browse do not end up buying. To boost retail sales, you need to convince them that your product is worth purchasing.
How to Create a Successful Digital Merchandising Campaign
Digital marketing techniques can help to influence your buyers’ buying behavior. Here are some ways to create a pleasant shopping experience for your customers.
1. Personalize Your Approach
It sometimes happens that people try to market their products to people who don’t need them. This often comes across as spammy, and you’ve likely experienced this yourself.
You’re constantly seeing ads for video games even if you don’t play them and bombarded with toy company marketing campaigns even if you don’t have kids.
Generic approaches don’t work. A personalized approach is key to success in today’s market.
Here’s why:
- More than 30% of customers say they prefer a more personalized shopping experience.
- 96% of marketers have seen an improvement in customer relationships with personalization.
As technology advances, it’s more important than ever for brands to create targeted campaigns. If you don’t, you risk dampening your customers’ shopping experiences and making them doubt your credibility.
You want your customers to have a positive experience on your website, and feel like they can find products that suit their personalities. If you fail to do this, it will reflect poorly on your brand and credibility.
For a shopper who is looking for luxury goods, it would not make sense to dangle an array of discount products.
Fitness and fashion brand Bandier does an excellent job of catering to its target audience.
If you scroll down the page, you’ll see matching and similar items to choose from.
2. Leverage Data to Serve Customers Better
You have a lot of information at your disposal as a digital marketer, but if you’re not sure how to use it, it can feel overwhelming.
You can use the data you collect from customers to figure out which products sell the best, which marketing strategies work best, and which demographics are more likely to buy from you.
Social media is a great way to see what your customers want. You can look at the performance of different products on social media platforms, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. By looking at how many shares, likes, and comments are on each product, you can determine which products are most popular.
These popular items should be readily available or displayed prominently on your site. Stay ahead of your competitors by staying on top of trends and introducing products that your consumers may want.
The best shopping experiences are the ones where you feel like you’re constantly discovering new things. You never know what you’ll find around the next corner!
To keep your subscribers interested, you should remain relevant to them, be a trailblazer, cater to their preferences, and delight them every once in a while.
3. Content is King
High-quality, relevant and engaging content is integral to the success of your retail company. This is usually associated with search engine optimization and content marketing.
But did you know the same goes for your online marketing strategies? If you want to keep customers coming back to your site, you need to provide them with more than just product listings.
Give them reasons to come back, and that begins with providing them with valuable content that extends beyond just your product catalog.
Create interesting and useful content that your consumers will enjoy. Try incorporating different media types, such as images and videos, into your strategy.
This tactic works because it keeps your consumer occupied on your site, increasing the time spent on the page. This also increases the likelihood of an impulsive buy. This reassures your buyers that you are a legitimate business.
Pura Vida does a great job of providing a personalized experience for its customers. As you scroll down the page, you are shown different bracelets that are related to the one you are looking at. This is a great way to keep customers engaged and interested in the product.
Aside from their featured item, they also display their Instagram feed, recommended items, and customer testimonials. This makes for a user-friendly experience and builds trust with potential shoppers.
4. Make Shopping a Breeze
Your search tool can help shoppers find what they are looking for on your website. Since online shoppers can’t ask anyone for help, it is important to make sure your search tool is effective.
To improve your conversions, you need to look at how your target audience uses certain terms.
Make sure all the products you sell are easy to find so your customers can find what they’re after.
Visuals are key in today’s online world. Customers want to be able to see exactly what they’re getting when they search for something. It’s not just about predicting what they’ll type; it’s about giving them the results they want immediately.
This new feature allows you to quickly sort through your searches, making online shopping easier and more fun.
What’s the bonus? That some people would click on something based on its appearance, even if they’re not looking for that product specifically? We think that’s a great way to shop! You never know what you might find when you’re just browsing through products.
The advanced search options on torrid.com allow customers to narrow down their search results to exactly what they want. This allows them to shop efficiently.
5. Create Clear CTAs
Give your readers clear instructions by placing your call to action in strategic places. Your call-to-action is your sales closing tool.
Most marketers think it’s okay to just tell their visitors to buy now.
It’s easier to sell to people in a physical store because you know they’ve traveled there with the intention of buying.
While online shoppers can be anyone, from people who are just waking up to someone who is lying in their bed, half asleep and casually browsing through your site.
This means that they need more encouragement.
Placing your call to action above the fold or in other strategic locations throughout the site will help increase engagement with customers.
Use this opportunity to convince visitors that they’ve found the right place and that they’ll get something from the conversation.
One way to do this is to reduce the number of times that customers leave your site without making a purchase. When a customer leaves the site, they are effectively lost to your business, along with all of the marketing efforts you put into getting them there.
You want to make sure every action you take is worthwhile, and one way to do so is by using remarketing campaigns to gently remind people who visit your site what they may be missing out on. You can also do this with subtle pop-ups that appear when visitors are leaving.
If you’re anything like us, you love a good deal. And Scarletto’s knows just how to give their customers what they want with a pop-up reminder that offers an unbeatable discount.
Conclusion
What is digital merchandising? Digital merchandising refers to all activities related to marketing your products online. It is a great way to boost sales and conversions on your website. By personalizing your approach and using clear CTAs, you can turn more browsers into paying customers. So if you’re looking for a new way to increase revenue, give digital merchandising a try!
