Key insights
Visuals do the selling online. Shoppers can't touch, smell, or sample your products, so photos and video are vital to your merchandising strategy.
Smooth user experiences online help with conversion. Intuitive browsing, clear filters, and a frictionless checkout path keep shoppers moving through your store. Friction causes people to leave without buying, and most of it is preventable.
Your homepage is your window display, so edit ruthlessly. Shoppers make fast judgments. A focused, identity-forward homepage that reflects who you are does more work than one packed with every product and promotion.
Personalization doesn't require complicated tech. Surfacing recently viewed items or category bestsellers makes your store feel attentive to each shopper. Small signals like these build trust and nudge people toward a purchase.
Think about the last time you visited a retail store. There are things that likely made it more appealing to you as a shopper. Maybe there was a colorful window display, clear and helpful signs, cozy lighting, or a thoughtful and meticulous arrangement to the space that made you want to browse there the entire afternoon. That's the power of retail merchandising.
When people shop online, that expectation of a warm, welcoming experience doesn't go away, and there's plenty you can do to create a great shopping journey. This is called ecommerce merchandising.
The tactics for ecommerce merchandising might be different from that of a brick-and-mortar store, but the goal is the same. You want to draw people in, encourage them to stay awhile, and help them discover their next favorite product.
With nearly a quarter of global sales estimated to take place online by 2025, it's more important than ever for retail brands to get ecommerce merchandising right.
What is ecommerce merchandising?
Ecommerce merchandising is the art of presenting your products in the best possible way so that online shoppers can't help but click "add to cart." Your ecommerce store should celebrate your brand and encourage discovery. All the decisions you make about how you organize and customize your site must be deliberate, from the colors you use (neutral or bold?) to the product photos you pick (lifestyle or studio?) to prices, descriptions, site architecture, and more.
Ecommerce merchandising looks different from brick-and-mortar merchandising. For the in-person shopping experience, you can use all five senses to play with. You can introduce your brand through touch, smell, or even taste. For ecommerce, you rely heavily on sight. You want to create a streamlined visual experience for shoppers. Here's how:
The ecommerce merchandising checklist: 10 tips to improve your online store
1. Embrace your brand's identity
Brand identity is how your brand looks and feels to shoppers. Developing a strong identity is the first step to building a beloved brand. Consistency is key: your brand name, logo, color scheme, typography, and writing style should all be cohesive.
2. Prioritize ecommerce product photography
Great product photography and strong product descriptions are essential to selling your items. Crisp, high-quality images make it easier for shoppers to imagine how the products might fit into their lives. Photos should be well-lit, have high resolution, and clearly show the item you're selling. Keep your shoots uncluttered, with simple backgrounds that don't detract from the focus of the photo. Product descriptions should be written in your brand's voice and get shoppers excited about what you have to offer.
3. Use video to show off your products
Video is a great way to give your shopper a fuller picture of what it would be like to hold or use your product. You could shoot product close-ups to show fine details of items, use a video to answer frequently asked questions about a product, or even do a product demonstration. Makeup tutorials are a great example of how video can bring an item to life on-screen. You might already be creating videos for social media, so you might consider embedding them on your website as well.
4. Curate and categorize your best products strategically
The same way you would curate the space in a physical store applies to your ecommerce store. Online stores often use filters or collection pages to group similar products together, so shoppers can find what they're looking for quickly and simply. If your ecommerce shop sells home goods, perhaps you might create collection pages for living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, and so on. Careful curation, whether it's online or offline, can build stronger connections with shoppers and strengthen your branding.
5. Ensure your site is simple to navigate
UX design, or user experience design, is about making a journey online as intuitive and easy as possible. You never want a shopper to be unsure how to purchase something on your site. Good UX means that your navigation bar is easy to find, your categories are clearly labeled, and your "buy" button is impossible to miss.
6. Make the most of your homepage
As an ecommerce store, your site's homepage is your window display. It's that first impression that piques a shopper's curiosity. With a cursory scroll, shoppers should be able to easily discern what your brand is about and why your products are appealing. Don't clutter up your homepage with too much information. Instead, prioritize clarity and simplicity. Be sure to choose images, colors, and copy that align with your brand identity.
7. Use cross-selling and upselling strategically
In a brick-and-mortar store, you could upsell products by running a two-for-one special on scarves. Or you might place inexpensive impulse buys like lip balm or nail polish near the register. In ecommerce it happens a little differently.
Ecommerce brands use interstitials (a fancy word for pop-ups) to remind shoppers of deals and specials before they check out. You can also feature additional products on the checkout page that complement the item the shopper is buying. If someone is buying face wash, perhaps your site recommends a facial mist as well. The Shopify experts at Aeolidia recommend designing a long-form product detail page to help convert your customers using upsells and other features.
8. Improve your ecommerce site search
The search function of a website allows shoppers to find what they're looking for quickly. Your search function should be accurate and capable of sorting by price, relevancy, customer ratings, or other characteristics.
For high-intent shoppers (shoppers who know exactly what they want to buy), being able to pop a search term into the bar makes all the difference. If you want to take search to the next level, use predictive text that autocompletes with a recommendation as the shopper types their query. Here's a deep dive into strengthening your site's search functionality.
9. Use AI and personalization to show shoppers what they'll love
Artificial intelligence can help create a unique, personalized experience for your shoppers. Think of your favorite streaming service: apps like Netflix or Spotify use AI algorithms to curate personalized recommendations for you based on your past behavior and preferences. Ecommerce sites can harness the same technology, and many retail brands use software tools like Lindy, ViSenze, Constructor, Dynamic Yield, and Google's Vertex AI Search to better personalize shopper experiences. AI tools sift through user data and present shoppers with product recommendations that are most relevant for them, creating moments of delightful discovery.
10. Don't overlook the mobile experience
More and more people are making purchases on their phone: in fact, 76% of adults in the United States buy items online via their smartphone, according to Pew Research. This number will skew even higher if your target demographic is under 50. So be sure to optimize your site for mobile viewing.
According to Google, nearly half of all visitors will leave a mobile website if the pages don't load within three seconds. That means that you definitely don't want any wonky page loading or annoyingly large images showing up on your shoppers' phones. Optimizing could mean simplifying your navigation menu, using touch-friendly buttons, and ensuring your screen automatically adjusts to fit whatever size screen it's being viewed on. This is known as responsive design. Google has some more helpful tips in this guide.
Final thoughts
Thoughtful merchandising can take a shopper from casually browsing to making their first (of hopefully many) purchases. The better you do it, the more your site will resonate with shoppers. You have stellar products and a brand that matters, so use ecommerce merchandising to showcase that in the best way possible.
Frequently asked questions about ecommerce merchandising
How do I know if my ecommerce merchandising is working?
Keep an eye on metrics like conversion rate, average time on page, and bounce rate. If shoppers are staying longer, clicking through to product pages, and completing purchases more often, your merchandising changes are likely making a difference. Testing one change at a time makes it easier to see what's actually moving the needle.
How often should I refresh my product pages and homepage?
There's no single schedule that works for everyone, but a good rule of thumb is to revisit your homepage with each new season or collection launch. Product pages deserve attention whenever you get new photography, update a description, or notice a drop in engagement on a particular listing.
What's the difference between ecommerce merchandising and digital marketing?
Digital marketing helps get people to your store, and a strong omnichannel retail strategy connects channels like email, social media, and search ads. Ecommerce merchandising is what happens once they arrive: how products are displayed, organized, and recommended. Both matter, but merchandising is specifically about the on-site experience that turns a visitor into a buyer.
Do small online stores really need personalization tools?
You don't need enterprise-level software to start personalizing. Even simple touches, like showing recently viewed items or highlighting bestsellers in a category someone has browsed, can make a store feel more tailored. As your product catalog and traffic grow, more advanced tools become worth exploring.
