Nowadays, the competition among e-commerce stores is only becoming tougher, with new stores launching daily.
In fact, it’s no longer enough to simply display products. You must focus on merchandising strategies that create engaging, personalized shopping experiences, inspire users to explore, and drive sales.
We have compiled 12 expert strategies to enhance merchandising and help your store stand out. These tactics can boost sales and create an excellent shopping experience.
1. Optimize E-Commerce Site Search
Users using your website’s internal search function are more likely to convert because they are searching for something specific.
A study by Econsultancy found that visitors who interact with the internal e-commerce site search function converted at a rate of 4.63%, compared to the average conversion rate of 2.77% across websites. This makes site search 1.8 times more effective for driving sales.
This higher rate occurs because these users are typically further along in their purchasing journey and are actively seeking specific products, which indicates strong purchase intent.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
Investing in internal site search software allows you to serve these high-intent customers better by enabling them to find and discover relevant products quickly. Here are some advanced internal site search tools to improve conversion rates further by using features such as predictive search, autocomplete, and filters.
What Site Search Could Mean for Your Business:
Here’s how optimizing your internal site search can drive actual business results:
- Increase in Revenue Contribution: internal search users contribute up to 13.8% of total site revenue, making them a crucial segment to target.
- Improved Customer Retention: accurate search experiences build trust and encourage repeat purchases.
- Increase in Conversion Rates: users who use the internal site search feature are more likely to convert.
- Faster Time to Purchase: tools like AddSearch make online shopping easier with features like predictive search and autocomplete, helping users quickly find products. Predictive search can reduce search time and boost user satisfaction.
2. Leverage Social Proof and User Generated Content
Online shoppers tend to do extensive research before making a purchase, and they let social proof guide their decisions.
Social proof and user-generated content (UGC) are trending in marketing strategies, and for good reason.
Consumers trust peer reviews and authentic experiences more than traditional marketing, with 88% of shoppers trusting online reviews as much as personal recommendations. Online shoppers often research products before purchasing by reading user experiences, reviews, and ratings, which greatly influence their decisions.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
Incorporating UGC into your e-commerce strategy can improve customer trust and lead to more sales. Here are some simple steps to integrate social proof in your storefront:
- Display customer reviews and testimonials clearly on product pages.
- Feature user-submitted photos and videos to show real-life product use.
- Encourage reviews with follow-up emails after purchases.
- Use social media to collect and share customer content, fostering engagement.
Fun Social Proof Facts:
Almost 95% of consumers read online reviews before making a purchase. Having 50 or more reviews for a product can mean a 4.6% improvement in conversion rates. 44% of shoppers would simply not purchase a product with zero reviews when shopping online, highlighting the importance of displaying visible and credible user-generated content on your site.
What UGC Could Mean for Your Business:
Leveraging user-generated content can enhance customer trust, boost sales, and improve engagement.
Sharing authentic customer experiences fosters brand loyalty, while UGC makes marketing campaigns more relatable, increasing click-through rates and social sharing. Additionally, reviews and ratings are indexed by search engines, which promotes organic rankings and visibility.
3. Incorporate Personalized Product Recommendations
Personalized internal site search results improve relevance, enhance user experience, and boost conversions.
Personal recommendations are determined by the items that visitors have clicked on, purchased, added to their cart or previously abandoned. It can also include what other customers have bought if they’ve bought the same as you or something similar.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
You can use customer behavior data to personalize recommendations based on their search history and suggest complementary or frequently bought together products.
Advanced internal site search software like AddSearch’s personalization function gives you the tools to create a customized search experience. This gives your website visitors a user-centric experience.
What Personalized Recommendations Could Mean for Your Business:
This is what personalization in e-commerce can do for your customer’s experience:
- More Sales: personalized experiences can drive 80% higher purchase rates and increase the average order value (AOV) of the sale.
- Build Your Brand: 77% of consumers will choose, recommend, or pay more for a brand that gives them a personalized service.
- Support Your Clients: about 71% of shoppers will feel frustrated when their shopping experience is impersonal.
4. Create Dynamic Landing Pages
Dynamic landing pages can help e-commerce businesses deliver personalized content to specific customer groups.
With dynamic landing pages, you can improve engagement and conversions by customizing these pages for interests, campaigns, or seasonal trends.
These pages can highlight popular products, seasonal deals, or search-related content, ensuring visitors have an excellent product discovery experience.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
Implementing dynamic landing pages on your e-commerce store can be as simple as:
- Using Site Search Data: connect landing pages with site search to highlight relevant products customers are looking for.
- Segmenting Your Audience: create unique landing pages with tailored offers for different customer groups, such as first-time visitors and returning customers.
- Creating Seasonal Campaigns: update landing pages for holidays and sales events, showcasing popular items during peak seasons.
- Optimizing for Mobile: make sure landing pages are mobile-friendly, as a lot of e-commerce traffic comes from smartphones and tablets.
What Dynamic Landing Pages Could Mean for Your Business:
Personalized landing pages can influence customer behavior by driving engagement and conversions. According to Reputation X’s 2024 online reputation management statistics:
- 48% of consumers are more likely to engage with a brand that delivers a personalized shopping experience
- Businesses creating customized landing pages experience a 27% boost in conversion rates.
- 66% of shoppers are more likely to make a purchase when presented with offers that align with their interests and browsing behavior.
5. Perfect Your Product Pages
A well-crafted product page does more than display items—it educates, informs, and persuades potential buyers to complete their purchase.
Your product pages are the backbone of your e-commerce store, and optimizing them is crucial for driving sales.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- Share Helpful Product Information: offer a brief, catchy product description for quick reads and a detailed explanation for those who prefer a longer read with more information. This approach attracts both impulsive buyers and careful researchers.
- Engage Your Clients With High-Quality Visuals: bespoke images, 360-degree product views, and demonstration videos can give customers the confidence to buy. Studies show that visuals influence purchase decisions significantly, as they simulate an in-store experience.
- Use Convincing Social Proof: again, customers respond well to products with many good reviews. Invest time into building social proof and prominently display customer ratings and reviews. This builds trust and answers common questions shoppers might have.
What Better Product Pages Could Mean for Your Business:
Since 85% of consumers state that detailed product content is a key factor in their purchase decisions, perfecting your product pages is a great e-commerce merchandising tactic that can get you:
- Faster Sales: effective product pages eliminate hesitation, guiding customers smoothly through the buying process.
- Reduced Returns: informative product pages decrease the likelihood of misunderstandings about product features, leading to fewer returns.
- Higher Engagement: accurate descriptions and authentic reviews foster credibility, encouraging both first-time buyers and repeat customers.
6. Optimize Your Checkout Process
A smooth checkout experience helps customers complete their purchases without frustration.
Checking out the cart is the last step to e-commerce shopping, and making it easy and secure can increase your sales by preventing cart abandonment.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- Make Things as Simple as Possible: implement a single-page checkout or allow guest checkouts to minimize the number of steps required to complete a purchase.
- Offer Multiple Payment Options: provide a range of secure payment methods, including credit cards, digital wallets, and buy-now-pay-later services, to cater to diverse customer preferences.
- Be Transparent: display a clear order summary with itemized costs, taxes, and shipping fees upfront to avoid surprises at the payment stage.
- Use Autofill Features: use tools that autofill customer details to simplify the process and save time for your shoppers.
What an Optimized Checkout Process Could Mean for Your Business
By optimizing your checkout process, your e-commerce store takes advantage of every sales opportunity, ensuring that fewer sales slip through the cracks.
We’re not just saying this either – the stats agree:
- Offering multiple payment methods can increase conversion rates by up to 30%.
- Sites with a faster checkout process see a 35% reduction in cart abandonment rates.
7. Lean Into Visual Merchandising
Visual merchandising is a cornerstone of e-commerce success because seeing a product is what often seals the deal.
High-quality images, videos, and 360-degree views help customers feel like they are experiencing the product in person. Using effective visual merchandising techniques in your e-commerce store can increase customer engagement and improve sales.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- Use Video Content: include videos demonstrating product use, features, and benefits. Creative, high-quality videos encourage purchases, as HubSpot found that videos on landing pages can increase conversions by up to 80%.
- Show Product Images From All Angles: provide high-resolution images with zoom functionality and multiple views, including variations for each color or style. This will improve the overall customer experience because 22% of returns happen when the product looks different from its online images.
What Visual Merchandising Could Mean for Your Business
Investing in visual merchandising upgrades your customers’ online shopping experience, ensuring they feel confident in their purchasing decisions.
Keep in mind that clear product visuals boost sales and lower return rates by managing expectations, and a professional presentation enhances brand perception.
8. Craft a Mobile-First Experience
Smartphones are an extension of our daily lives, and shoppers (and search engines) expect smooth e-commerce experiences on mobile devices.
With 65% of e-commerce traffic and 72% of global sales originating from mobile devices, having a mobile-friendly e-commerce site is essential.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- Optimize mobile layouts for easy navigation with thumb-friendly design and accessible filters.
- Focus on fast loading times and a user-friendly experience.
- Use mobile-specific features like push notifications and one-click payments to improve user experience.
What It Could Mean for Your Business
Adopting a mobile-first strategy ensures that your e-commerce site caters to the needs of today’s shoppers, leading to increased engagement and sustainable growth.
This approach will assist you with online store optimization by improving conversions, building loyalty, and giving you a competitive edge.
9. Use Behavioral Triggers for Product Discovery
Behavioral triggers help you understand your customers and allow you to give them a personal shopping experience.
Modern e-commerce relies on understanding customer behavior to improve their shopping experience. Actions like recently viewed items, items added to the cart, and frequent searches help show relevant products, improving product discovery and boosting conversions.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
Use User Data
Analyze customer behavior with internal search analytics and tracking tools to provide personalized product recommendations based on shoppers’ interests.
Show Real-Time Suggestions
Display dynamic product recommendations, such as:
- “You recently viewed” items to remind users what they looked at.
- “Customers who bought this also bought” suggestions to promote related items.
- “Trending Now” or “Recently Popular” sections to create urgency and highlight popular products.
What It Could Mean for Your Business
- Improved Product Discovery: real-time triggers help customers easily locate what they’re looking for, reducing the need for extensive searches.
- Increased Cross-Selling Opportunities: intelligent recommendations encourage customers to add complementary items to their carts, with 83% of shoppers more likely to buy when seeing product suggestions based on their browsing history.
- Enhanced Customer Experience: personalization based on behavioral insights creates a bespoke shopping journey, promoting customer loyalty and satisfaction.
10. Prioritise Your E-Commerce Store’s SEO
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) brings organic traffic to your e-commerce site, and optimizing for SEO can attract high-conversion traffic.
Ranking higher in search engine results helps ensure your products are seen first by shoppers, increasing the chances of clicks and, ultimately, sales. People also tend to trust organic search results more than paid ads.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- Target High-Value Keywords: use keyword research tools like Google Keyword Planner or Ahrefs to identify terms your audience frequently searches for. Focus product pages and dynamic landing pages focus on high-intent keywords, such as “buy [product] online” or “[product] near me.”
- Create Quality Content: publish blog posts, buying guides, and FAQs that address user queries. For instance, a guide titled “How to Choose the Best [Product]” assists users and enhances your site’s relevance in search engine results.
- Optimize Product Pages: incorporate target keywords into titles, meta descriptions, and image alt text. Well-structured content improves Google’s understanding and ranking of your pages.
- Build Backlinks: collaborate with reputable blogs or influencers to create backlinks to your website. This strategy signals authority and trustworthiness to search engines.
Note: SEO is a long-term process that may require the help of an SEO agency or seasoned marketer to help you reach your goals.
What It Could Mean for Your Business
- A good SEO strategy can increase your online visibility by making your products more accessible to find in search results and reaching more customers.
- More organic traffic can improve sales without a significant paid ads budget.
- High organic search rankings can build brand authority and credibility with your audience.
11. Analyze and Iterate with Data
In e-commerce, data is your most valuable asset for understanding customer behavior and improving your store’s performance.
Using site search analytics helps you discover trends in products and user behavior. This information lets you improve your strategies to meet customer needs better.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- Use Site Search Analytics: look at what customers search for, what gets no results, and which products are popular. This will help you improve your inventory and merchandising.
- Conduct A/B Tests: make two versions of a page with small changes and see which works better. This will help you understand what your audience prefers.
- Try Unique Strategies: to make your store stand out, test new ideas, like changing product placements or showcasing unexpected bundles.
- Refine Based on Data: use analytics and test results to continuously improve your store layout, product pages, and promotions.
What Accurate Data Could Mean for Your Business
Analytics and testing will improve your e-commerce store by increasing user satisfaction and loyalty. This data-driven approach can boost conversion rates and improve decision-making, aligning your e-commerce store with customer expectations.
12. Incorporate AI for Smarter E-Commerce
Artificial intelligence (AI) is changing e-commerce by making customer experiences smarter, faster, and more personal.
AI tools improve how customers search for products, customize recommendations, and help businesses make better merchandising decisions.
How Can You Improve This for Your E-commerce Store?
- AI-Powered Search Optimization: you can use advanced internal site search tools with AI to give users a smarter search experience. AI can give relevant results faster by analyzing user intent and context, ensuring customers find what they need with little effort.
- Improved Search Relevance: AI-powered site search will improve search results by using smart algorithms that adjust based on user behavior. This keeps the results in line with changing customer needs and business goals.
- Personalized Content Delivery: AI helps provide personalized recommendations and search results. This boosts engagement by showing customers products and content that match their preferences and past interactions.
What AI Search Could Mean for Your Business
AI tools like AddSearch AI can empower your e-commerce store to stay competitive by combining advanced search capabilities with a focus on personalization and relevance.
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Begin Your Strategic Merchandising Success With AddSearch
Strategic e-commerce merchandising can transform your customer’s online shopping experience from bland and frustrating to engaging and memorable. This change could be the difference between e-commerce success and failure.
AddSearch can help you harness the power of advanced site search and personalization to understand and serve your customers.
Read more about how you can use AddSearch to elevate your e-commerce store, or get in touch for a free demo.
Online Store Optimization FAQs
How Does E-commerce Merchandising Improve Online Shopping?
E-commerce merchandising involves presenting and promoting products effectively in online stores to enhance the shopping experience and increase sales. By understanding customer behavior, it actively engages shoppers and helps drive sales growth.
How Does Internal Site Search Software Improve E-commerce Merchandising?
Site search improves e-commerce by making it easy for customers to find relevant products, which increases sales. Advanced tools can track user behavior, offer personalized recommendations, and highlight top-selling products.
Can I Use Site Analytics to Improve Merchandising?
Yes, analyzing site data helps you understand customer behavior, such as which search terms are popular and what items are viewed most often. You can use this information to improve product placement, optimize landing pages, and adjust inventory.
