What Is Merchandising?

This multifaceted discipline encompasses a wide range of activities and techniques to optimize product presentation, enhance brand visibility, and foster customer satisfaction in physical and digital retail environments.

It is everything you do to promote and sell a product (or a service) once you have a customer in-store or on the website.

1. Product Selection. The process of curating and assorting a diverse yet relevant mix of products that cater to the target market's preferences, trends, and demands. This involves carefully analyzing market research, consumer behavior, and competitor offerings to identify high-potential products.
2. Pricing Strategy. The establishment of optimal price points for products, considering factors such as cost, competition, customer perception, and profit margin goals. This strategic pricing approach maximizes revenue, stimulates demand, and maintains a competitive edge.
3. Promotion. The development and execution of targeted promotional campaigns designed to increase product awareness, generate interest, and stimulate sales. Promotional tactics may include advertising, public relations, sales promotions, and digital marketing initiatives.
4. Product Presentation. The intentional arrangement and organization of products in a visually appealing and accessible manner facilitate customer navigation, highlight key product attributes, and encourage purchases. In-store presentation techniques include shelf positioning, product grouping, and visual merchandising. In eCommerce, this translates to website layout, product imagery, and navigation optimization.
5. Inventory Management. Monitor and control product stock levels to ensure sufficient availability, minimize stockouts and overstocks, and optimize cash flow. Efficient inventory management involves forecasting demand, setting reorder points, and employing inventory control systems.
6. Store Layout and Design. The strategic arrangement of retail spaces, including physical and digital storefronts, to optimize customer flow, showcase products effectively, and create a visually engaging shopping experience. This merchandising aspect considers elements such as store layout, signage, lighting, and fixtures for on-location stores and tech stack behind online stores as well as best SEO and CRO tactics and practices on pages.
7. Customer Experience. The ongoing process of understanding and addressing customer needs, preferences, and pain points to create a seamless, engaging, and satisfying shopping experience. This includes offering personalized recommendations, excellent customer service, and implementing user-friendly interfaces.

Overall, merchandising is essential to successful retail operations, as it directly influences customer perceptions, purchasing decisions, and, ultimately, a business's bottom line.