Traditional Merchandising vs eCommerce Merchandising

Showcasing your services or products in such a way, that attracts customers and results in increased sales and profit is known as Merchandising. It is this process of retailing, that includes creativity and different skills to catch the customer’s eye.

Merchandising involves strategies for marketing the product or services.

It is important to know your target audience or customers, as to what they want from the product and why they should use it. Keeping these two pointers in mind would make the process a lot easier and better for marketing the products.

There are different types of merchandising techniques and all are beneficial in their own way.

Continue reading the article to learn more about Traditional vs eCommerce Merchandising.

Table of Content

  1. Why Merchandising is Important?
  2. Methods of Merchandising
    • Traditional Merchandising
    • eCommerce Merchandising
  3. Traditional vs eCommerce Merchandising
  4. Strategies for Merchandising
  5. Which method is the Best or What is Trending?

1. Why Merchandising is important?

People look for new and unique items to complete their shopping. Products can also be the same as before; however, the presentation can add a lot of value to it.

Presenting your products with different strategies will engage customers’ attention and buy the products.

Products without strategic display, are just items, and customers might not be aware of their presence in the market.

Projecting those products with a discount offer, creative display, and other strategies will increase the value of the products in the market.

2. Methods of Merchandising

Following are the two ways merchandising can be done:

Traditional Merchandising

There was a time when there was no internet and every business had to be done offline and so was merchandising. At that time, products could only be sold in shops and stores and the way that was done is known as Traditional Merchandising.

Assembling the products on the shelves, presenting the best quality product in front of the store, and hanging banners with discount prices have been followed for years now to attract customers and make sales.

These are the few ideas to follow for Traditional Merchandising. To dig deeper, follow along, and find more information.

Traditional Merchandising

image source: reflektion.com

eCommerce Merchandising

After the introduction of the internet, it opened up a wide scope for merchandise products. This way, reaching a huge amount of audience in less time became easier than ever.

The creative side of merchandising has so many options to gain customers’ attention. Products can now also be sold online via apps like Amazon, Flipkart, Blinkit, etc.

Online merchandising has made it easy for customers to compare prices and different aspects of products.

ecommerce  Merchandising

image source: smartmerchandiser.com

3. Traditional vs eCommerce Merchandising

  • Traditional can only be done offline, whereas eCommerce is done online.
  • Traditional needs a physical store, whereas eCommerce needs websites and apps.
  • Traditional merchandising requires stuff like shelves, hangers, banners, etc, to present the products, whereas eCommerce requires high-quality photographs and videos of the products.
  • Traditional allows customers to touch and try the products, whereas eCommerce is done online and due to that customers cannot touch the products till they buy and it reaches them.

4. Strategies for Merchandising

  • Use of organic material (ecofriendly)
  • Affordable price
  • Attractive packaging
  • Testing (if needed)
  • Discounts and offers
  • Attractive display and photographs
  • Giveaways
  • Customer Service (live preferably)
  • Advertisement on social media and banners
  • Keeping Stock as per sales
  • Detailed Product Descriptions
  • Quality check assurance
  • Reviews and feedback for customers
  • Customer needs analysis
  • Improvements over time

5. Which method is best or what is trending?

Most of the brands first go for digital Merchandising or eCommerce Merchandising, as it is the fastest way to reach the world. It involves marketing through television advertisements and social media.

Then comes their traditional marketing through banners and stores (if there are any stores of brands) that again follow the above-listed strategies to make sales.

Engaging customers and convincing them to buy a product is still not easy, even though the technology has evolved. It is important to inform customers of the key points about the products. Every description is equally essential to make the sale and increase profits.

Get reviews from customers to constantly improve your services and products; this will also build trust in them. It will help to create and maintain goodwill in customers’ hearts.

Nowadays, people use great creative ideas to attract customers but also, keep the actual need for the product intact. The purpose of the product should not go away while advertising. Losing track may mean a decrease in sales, and therefore to retain it, surveys are the best way to keep yourself updated regarding customers’ needs.

Competition is another aspect of losing sales, and that’s why the idea of eCommerce merchandising comes in handy to think more creatively and retain customers.

Always try to go with fresh ideas for merchandise as it will help the audience to decide where to go and what to choose. Original is always better.

Customers are now aware of the market and other strategies as well. The Internet can answer almost every question to clear customers’ doubts. It plays a major role.

Putting your best design forward will attract customers. Also, themes are helpful during festive seasons. Merchandise is open to numerous strategies as the main purpose is the get customer’s attention, increase sales and make a profit.

Conclusion

The digital aspect is the major difference between Traditional and eCommerce Merchandising. Digitization has connected us very well that helps to reach people in different countries for merchandising and is trending as well.

To learn more about eCommerce Merchandising, check out the below links.

eCommerce merchandising strategies

Digital Merchandising