What is product merchandising?

If you’re trying to sell something – whether that’s an item of clothing or a piece of furniture, an innovative kitchen appliance or a new type of breakfast cereal – it’s rarely enough just for that product to be available for it to be a success. Some sort of marketing or promotion will always be required. Some of it is in your face – adverts on telly and the like – while other kinds can be less obvious.

You may not be aware of it, but almost every time you go into a shop or browse a retail website, you’re being gently and very subtly led in a direction that someone has laid out for you. In fact, almost every time we shop, we’re all subject to some kind of product merchandising.

Product merchandising is the art of displaying products in-store or online, with the aim of drawing attention to the product in question, creating interest in it on the part of the consumer, and hopefully making a sale as a result.

However, we are all individuals with our own tastes and preferences, so it’s not going to work every time; nevertheless, the placement, method of display, in-store or online promotion and immediate surroundings of that product are rarely accidental, and have often in fact been deliberately created to make selling that product more likely. And it works more often than you might think!

Retail merchandising specifically applies to merchandising of a particular product carried out in a physical environment, whether that’s a traditional shop, a market stall or a traders stall at a music festival.

Tools available to retail merchandisers include things like window or stall displays, grouping of related products, signage and even encouraging a customer to take a designated route through the retail space, leading them to wherever you’re stocking the item that you want to promote and sell.

When you employ visual merchandising as a technique, you’re adding layers to your retail merchandising by throwing in more subtle yet often highly effective tools such as lighting and design to increase the visual appeal of your product. It can also include things like decluttering and cleaning the area around the item you’re trying to promote, stacking or hanging the product in a particular way, or even displaying plenty of stock to give the impression that it is a popular item you expect to sell plenty of.

In today’s world, of course, getting your products seen at their best online is just as important – if not more so – than in a traditional bricks-and-mortar shop. Digital merchandising is generally a more complex and technical discipline than other forms, but can often be even more effective. 

That’s because over time you can accumulate useful data to base your strategy on, such as understanding the words consumers use to search for particular products, and analysing how users navigate their way through a website. You can also use social media to build your brand and product’s profile.

Some of the things you need to do, however, have a lot in common with the way you go about merchandising in a store, such as making your site straightforward for people to find their way around and easy to use.

Here at Morplan, we can supply everything you need as a retailer to display your products at their best, giving you the best possible chance of selling more. From high-quality retail display shelving and lifelike mannequins to innovative point of sale items and practical window dressing supplies, we’re the one-stop shop for retailers everywhere. Call us today to find out more or browse our online store now to place your order.