Attracting consumers’ attention is one of the main challenges for those who manage physical or virtual stores. In this context, merchandising emerges as an indispensable technique for highlighting products, attracting customers, and strategically boosting sales.
With the aim of helping you, in this article you will learn what this marketing strategy is, how it works, learn about the different types, and discover the best techniques to increase your sales in a practical and assertive way.
What is merchandising?
Merchandising is a set of marketing strategies aimed at displaying and promoting products with the goal of attracting consumers’ attention and increasing sales. This includes actions such as organizing store windows, arranging items on shelves, promotional campaigns at points of sale, and much more!
This marketing technique aims to influence consumer purchasing behavior by making products more attractive and accessible to the public. Whether in physical or virtual stores, merchandising directly impacts the customer experience and their perception of product value.
How to structure a merchandising strategy?
Next, we will show you the main steps to building an effective merchandising strategy:
1. Know your target audience
Before you start designing a strategy, it is essential to understand who your customers are and what they are looking for in a product. Conduct market research to identify their preferences, needs, and purchasing behaviors.
This information will be key to determining the best way to present your products, whether in a display window, on a shelf, or at any other point of sale, ensuring that the display meets the expectations of your target audience.
2. Defines the objectives of the strategy
Next, set clear goals for your merchandising strategy, such as increasing sales of a specific product, promoting new items, or even improving the customer experience within your store.
Remember to also define performance indicators (KPIs), as this will allow you to track the results of the strategies that are applied.
3. Select the products to be highlighted
Now it’s time to decide which product you want to highlight with your strategy. There’s no rule here; it could be a new product, a special promotion, or any item that needs to gain more visibility at that moment.
However, it’s important that the chosen product is in line with your audience’s interests. Otherwise, it won’t generate good results.
4. Plan the layout at the point of sale
This is one of the most important steps, because organizing the space is crucial and can directly affect the performance of the strategy. In physical environments, organize products in a way that facilitates access and visual appeal.
Consider using techniques such as creating highlight zones, color combinations, and strategic lighting. In e-commerce, work on the layout of products on the pages in an attractive and intuitive way.
5. Create promotional campaigns
Crie ações de merchandising alinhadas a promoções e descontos para atrair mais clientes e estimular as vendas. Por exemplo, destaque produtos com ofertas como “compre 1, leve 2” em áreas de maior visibilidade na loja ou site, utilizando placas chamativas ou banners digitais.
6. Aposte na experiência do cliente#
As you probably already know, customer experience should be a priority both at physical and digital points of sale. Therefore, invest in training for your team if you have a physical store, and ensure that the virtual environment is easy to navigate and pleasant for consumers.
The goal is to create a positive shopping experience so that, in addition to providing convenience, you can make customers feel comfortable at all times.
7. Track results and adjust your strategy
After implementing the strategy, use analytics tools to monitor results and evaluate sales performance and customer response. Adjust your actions as necessary to ensure that goals are being met.
Different merchandising techniques
Existem diversas técnicas de merchandising que podem ser aplicadas para atrair a atenção dos consumidores e aumentar as vendas. Veja algumas das mais eficientes:
1. Exposição Estratégica de Produtos#
Here, the goal is to organize your store’s products so that the most important or profitable ones are in the most visible locations, such as display windows, eye-level shelves, or on a website’s home page.
2. Cross-merchandising
Another interesting idea is to combine complementary products to encourage additional purchases. For example, in a physical store, place pasta near sauces; in an e-commerce store, highlight suggested items on the checkout page.
3. Creation of Highlight Zones
Remember to set up specific areas within your store, such as islands, small counters, or themed display cases, to showcase new releases, promotions, or seasonal products, as this attracts the attention of potential customers and encourages purchases.
4. Use of Promotional Material
Including attractive signs, banners, stickers, and displays that communicate promotions, discounts, or highlight unique product features is an excellent way to capture your customers’ interest.
5. Lighting and Visual Design
In physical stores, lighting is crucial, as it helps highlight specific products and create a welcoming environment. In the digital world, website design should be pleasant, consistent, and structured in such a way that products are always highlighted.
6. Sensory Experience
Contrary to what many people think, sensory stimuli such as background music, pleasant fragrances, different textures, as well as high-quality videos and images, are effective strategies for activating mental triggers.
This is because these elements arouse emotions and create deeper connections with consumers, which helps to increase the chances of conversion and loyalty.
Types of merchandising
There are different types of merchandising that can be applied in various ways, varying according to the objective and sales environment. Here are the characteristics of each one:
1. Visual Merchandising
First, let’s talk about visual merchandising, a style that focuses on the visual presentation of products, such as window displays, shelves, lighting, and even the use of colors or decorations that catch the consumer’s attention.
For digital stores, this type of merchandising involves using high-quality images, attractive and well-planned videos, and a website with a visually appealing layout.
2. Editorial Merchandising
In the editorial format, the focus is on displaying and promoting products in a contextual manner across different types of media, such as magazines, blogs, TV shows, movies, series, or social networks.
This integrated approach to content seeks to inspire consumers by subtly presenting the product in everyday situations or attractive contexts, without appearing to be direct advertising.
3. Retail Merchandising
Next, we have the retail-focused approach, which focuses on highlighting products at the point of sale through various resources, such as promotions, attractive signage, and the creation of product islands.
The goal of this model is to direct customers within the store and increase the average ticket size. In addition, it can be combined with complementary strategies, such as cross-merchandising, which groups related products together to encourage additional purchases.
4. Digital Merchandising
Finally, we have digital merchandising, which involves the use of resources such as promotional banners, virtual storefronts, personalized recommendations, product organization by category, and much more.
This model uses data and algorithms to offer consumers a personalized experience, increasing the chances of conversion. In addition, actions such as pop-ups with promotions and social media campaigns are common in this format.
Have you learned what merchandising is?
We hope this guide has helped you understand what this strategy is, how to apply it, and the different techniques that can be used to highlight products and increase sales. With these tips, it will be easier to implement successful actions in your business, win over consumers, and improve results strategically.