The concept of visual merchandising has become a trendy concept in e-commerce. We will learn about its meaning, the connection of effective impact with the sense of sight, the importance of visual merchandising, and practical recommendations to improve your online store.

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Introduction to Visual Merchandising

Thinking back to your last experience visiting the mall in your city, and passing by the stores spread across its corridors, do you remember the contrast of your feelings with every store you stepped into? Those feelings were never a coincidence, but rather a systematic guidance by targeting your senses, and this primarily includes your sight as it is an informational receiver that cannot be underestimated. You may wonder how? The answer is simply “through the magic of visual merchandising”; from planning the sales floor and how products are displayed to the color schemes used, and even the subtle scents that waft throughout the store, the merchant took care of all these details to increase the impact on the consumer and push them to make a purchasing decision willingly.

In fact, visual merchandising has always been a field associated with traditional stores, while the technological shift has refined this experience across the internet corridors, becoming an effective psychological tool on online stores as well, which made merchants make strategic “visual” decisions that are not limited to the attractiveness of the website only, but start from there; as the website should be responsive, visually comfortable for the user, and work well on both mobile and desktop alike, which is the minimum prerequisite for entering any online work from home business.  

The Sense That Controls 80% of Impressions

Several studies and researches have found that “humans are visual creatures by nature”, as it was shown that 90% of the information absorbed by the brain is visual. Looking at the internet worlds, consumption of everything starts through the screen, through the perceived image, and therefore the sales process is dependent on the way the products are displayed visually. As long as this is the case, studies indicate that 38% of people will leave a website if they find the design unattractive. In fact, it takes visitors about 50 milliseconds to decide whether they like a site or not, and to approximate the idea, the blink of an eye takes about 300 milliseconds. Do you now realize the limited time you have to catch the attention of a potential customer?

As a retailer, a visitor who does not like your online store translates their initial behavior as follows: they will not turn into a buying customer. This is where the role of visual merchandising stands out; as it helps you determine how shoppers view you.

The demand for visuals has been increasing significantly in recent years, as a result of the qualitative shift in the field of technology; where the user has become obsessed with watching their phone screen all day, making them more addicted to visual materials than textual counterparts, and this is what companies must focus on, especially if they want unique positioning and targeting customers, which visual merchandising provides - i.e., using visual content to promote the brand. What is digital marketing more precisely?

The Meaning of Visual Merchandising

Retailers - in physical stores - use carefully selected marketing methods to attract as many human senses as possible and create an engaging experience that leaves a lasting positive impression on the consumer, by engaging them in the purchasing experience from the moment they enter the store until the moment they leave. On the level of online stores, the term visual merchandising refers to displaying products in a visual way that arouses the interest of shoppers and drives them to buy, as it relies on the visible part appearing on the screens; to promote the brand (Branding) through images, videos, and other visual elements that aim to deliver the brand message visually rather than in textual form, based on the fact that humans respond more efficiently to communication that is devoid of words, and is directed through tracking images and visual compositions as a whole, which include the following:

• Choosing powerful display colors

• Employing spaces in an effective and visually comfortable way

• Displaying products in an attractive and innovative way consistent with the brand identity

• Observing customer movement within the store, and setting up signs in a way that guides the path

Visual merchandising helps boost brand identity and brand loyalty, contributing to increased sales, and generating innovative and repeat business.

Visual Merchandising in E-Commerce Stores

While the physical store experience is largely driven by satisfying curiosity through (discovery), visual merchandising within e-commerce aims to guide customers - through the buyer's journey - in record time towards the final destination, which is making the purchasing decision, by presenting the best experiences, products, and offers to shoppers before moving to the final step, and it includes the following:

• Image | Images are one of the most prominent visual means that attract consumer attention and prompt active interaction with the store; the more attractive the image is to the potential customer, the quicker they turn into a buyer in the blink of an eye.

• Video | Video surpasses images in that it gives the consumer more space to see the fine details of the product through movement, and it is naturally influential on the purchasing decision, which depends on accuracy, clarification, and the attraction factor with sound and image.

• Textual Selections | Smart and carefully targeted text quotes for the target customer can attract attention and increase responsiveness and spread, and thus affect sales.

• Infographics | Users tend to extract data in a matter of seconds, and this is what infographics, which rely on simple and attractive templates, provide.

• Memes and Reactions | One of the newly developed tools in the process of attracting attention is dealing with events with a sense of humor keeping pace with what is trendy in the social networks arena, which facilitates the sharing of content among people, and thus increases the opportunity to acquire a wider segment of potential customers eager for your store and your products, in addition to your friendly interaction.

Based on the above, your e-commerce visual merchandising strategy should cover all the basic requirements that customers expect from your site, in addition to enriching it with something extra that makes you prominent and unique compared to thousands of other similar e-commerce sites they can navigate to with a click of a button. 

Finally; the appearance of your website, your homepage, the site search mechanism, the clarity of product data, and the inclusion of product recommendations are the basics, while a little creativity and intelligence can be helpful in delivering product recommendations to customers and presenting a different level from competitors. Do you have a store on the Salla platform? We recommend you take a look at the unique display options we offer to merchants.

Why is Visual Merchandising Important?

Let's agree first that recent studies have confirmed that the user retains 10% of what they receive through hearing, and 20% of what they read, while they retain more than 70% of what they see through visual commerce. On the other hand, identifying shapes is geared towards reading, as the brain recognizes distinctive symbols that leave a faster imprint on memory, while the brain takes longer to process textual language. This is precisely why textual content comes in third place, preceded by shape and color in creating the first visual impression and winning over the viewer (the consumer customer). The importance of visual merchandising can be summarized as follows:

(1) Establishing Brand Identity

We agreed early on that the sense of sight is very sensitive regarding the data that enters through it, as it is more influential and clingy to memory. Therefore, a smart merchant can invest in this aspect to establish their brand identity by embodying its message through images and visuals they deliver to the consumer customer, in a way that positively affects their purchasing decision and ultimately enhances their loyalty.

(2) Attracting Customers' Attention

In the visual worlds on internet pages, you are limited to a few minutes to make an impact on the passing viewer (the potential customer), and since the image has a faster impact, it is your winning card. Studies show that attractive visuals can raise purchasing decision rates by about 85%, thanks to the attention-grabbing factor provided by the image, making the delivery of features an available opportunity, which in turn will affect sales, conversion rates, and sharing.

 (3) Emotional Influences

It is no longer possible for the user to leave their phone screen, and therefore it has become easy to stimulate them emotionally through attractive, lifelike images, leading to a rise in immediate interaction rates.

(4) Increasing Clicks

Relying on an effective and interesting visual marketing strategy would help the merchant enhance customer engagement, and thus increase conversion rates and revenue by including call-to-action words and motivating images within the visual content to encourage them to take action willingly.

(5) Increasing Engagement

There is a strong correlation between visual content and user emotions, which leads to direct interaction - through preference, reply, and sharing - and thus benefits the brand as it is an effective marketing tool among crowds of acquaintances and friends. Naturally, just sharing raises the credibility of the brand, which leads to taking action.

3 Marketing Tips to Improve Customer Attraction to Your Store

No matter how many products are in your store, you still need visual merchandising to enhance attention-grabbing and increase sales, (why?) because customers are looking for a unique experience, not just a website that sells products! In fact, visual merchandising in e-commerce is about creating an enjoyable and engaging experience that makes visitors to your website want to buy from you. It's also about helping shoppers explore your site and discover the new products they want without putting in much effort.

1- Invest in Design and Structure

It is no secret that the internet thrives on visually appealing content. There are millions of designers around the world making the internet a more attractive and unique place, everyone is trying to make their Instagram page more aesthetically pleasing. This is what sells, and this is what will gain more likes and followers. The same applies to your online store; except that a more attractive site will lead to increased sales and revenue.

46% of consumers base their decisions regarding the credibility of e-commerce stores on their visual appeal and aesthetics. As trivial as it may seem relatively, the colors, fonts, and design elements in your store can be the factors on which you win or lose a customer, as 94% of first impressions are design-related. In fact, aesthetics should not conflict with the smooth transition between pages, but rather reinforce it, so it is easy for the customer (user) to navigate through ease, convenience, smoothness, and fast time, and in return, the website structure must be simple and easily understood by a first-time visitor.

Finally, all of this - design, layout, and structure - must be smartphone compatible. 85% of adults believe that a company's website, when viewed on a mobile device, should be as good as or better than the desktop website. Given that 79% of customers place orders via their mobile phones, having an unresponsive page is not an option on the negotiating table.

2-Make the Landing Page Exceptional

Your website homepage is often where shoppers land first, and it is also likely to be the page with the maximum amount of traffic. Therefore, all your chances of making a good first impression lie in the form of your homepage, since it is the page that makes visitors to your site decide whether they want to shop from you or not.

It takes 2.6 seconds for a user's eyes to land on a page that influences their first impression the most. It is up to you to design the page in a way that doesn't confuse them when entering your website so that it makes them want to stay and shop. The page should be informative and interesting, including: (who you are as a brand, what kind of products you sell, what value you offer, and an easy way to navigate through your website) and all these core details should be clear on the homepage.

Beware of information stuffing! You have to provide enough information to help them understand without overwhelming them. As shopper behavior expert Paco Underhill says in his book (Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping): “If you tell too much, you'll lose them. If you confuse them, they will ignore the message completely.”

This page is also the first opportunity to prove yourself as a reliable and human brand that understands its customers and cares about serving them. Apart from being attractive and easy to navigate, other aspects must also be taken into consideration, such as page load time. 39% of people will leave a page if it is not downloaded in record time - due to the lack of patience of browsers usually -, and often the homepage is where you will have to prove speed first. Well, speed and attractiveness, to be more transparent :)

3-Make the Experience Interesting: Enable Recommendations 

When visitors search for a product, they are 1.8 times more likely to convert. This is because when a visitor searches for something, they have a very clear intent. Displaying other products on a single product page helps shoppers discover products they might not have come across otherwise. There are different ways to do this; you can show other products that are similar, products bought by people who bought this product, and other products that complement it. Personalizing these recommendations improves your customers' experience. After all, 44% of consumers say they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience. Here are useful models:

Recommended for you | Product recommendations based on shopper preferences.

Products matching your cart | Products that complement the chosen product and can be worn.

Trending Products | Best-selling products (at the category level if the shopper shows affinity to the categories).

Style It (Complete the Look) | Personalized recommendations for different occasions.

Offering styling recommendations helps shoppers see the product they chose styled with other products they might want. Showing this on different occasions also helps you clarify how versatile the product is, providing more reasons to buy it. The “Style It” option can be the shoppers' destination for inspiration. This helps especially when shoppers find themselves in a dilemma of buying and pricing a product due to lack of ideas on how to consume it. Studies prove that 64% of women have their purchasing decisions influenced when seeing product images in their optimal context.