Conversion rate optimization is one of the critical tasks of forward-thinking online store owners looking to increase their sales. And if you, too, manage your eCommerce project, follow their lead and do the same.
There are many ways to achieve the desired goal, including eCommerce visual merchandising tools. This solution has a lot of advantages, one of which is ease of use. Minimal efforts will bring you outstanding results.
Interested? Then take your time to read our article. We’ll tell you more about online retail visual merchandising and ways to reduce your bounce rate with its help.
Online Catalog Management: Main Challenges
Whatever platform you choose to power your online store, Magento 2, Shopify, BigCommerce, or another one, you must find the right approach to manage it afterward. And in doing so, remember to take proper care of your online catalog too.
This task is actually more complex and multidimensional than it seems. Catalog management involves many challenges, such as:
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Time-consuming operations. Your employees probably spend a lot of time managing the online catalog, which includes working on repetitive, routine operations. As a result, other critical business tasks are left without their attention.
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Not enough variety in product display. One of the common problems with online catalogs is that you don’t showcase the whole variety of your product range. For example, a user opens the catalog of an online jewelry store and sees only rings, while the assortment also includes bracelets, chains, earrings, and more. However, users must scroll down the page to see these items, which they’re usually too lazy to do. The same applies to the dominance of some brands or collections over others on a page.
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Poor product placement. A striking example of insufficient product composition is placing out-of-season goods at the top of the catalog (for example, if an online fashion store shows winter caps in the summer season). Also, one should move items with a high return rate down the catalog page and highlight low-selling products.
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No bright accents. A boring catalog reduces your chances of attracting and retaining new customers. So if you’re looking for ways to take care of conversion rate optimization, start offering customers matching product combinations, thus emphasizing the page and encouraging shoppers to make more purchases. Let’s say if consumers see a ring and earrings from the same collection side by side on the catalog page of an online jewelry store, they may buy both items at once for the set.
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No logic in the catalog structure. All of the above comes down to one thing: illogical, random placement of items on the online store page.
You now understand that you need a real catalog management strategy to increase your online store conversion rate. And we’re ready to provide a few valuable tips to help you create one.
How to Improve Your Catalog Management Strategy with Online Visual Merchandising?
Whether your online store is powered by Magento 2, Shopify, or, say, WooCommerce, you still have to manage your catalog manually… or use one of two solutions:
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Customizing your online store. Of course, this option gives good results and provides your online store with great flexibility, but it has its drawbacks too. The thing is, such a project is a complicated one, which translates into high time and money costs.
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Using ready-made eCommerce visual merchandising solutions. That’s a much simpler and more affordable way, both in implementation and in subsequent operation.
Let’s discuss the second option in more detail.
Ready-to-go eCommerce Visual Merchandising Solutions
We’re talking about special cloud-based services available anytime, anywhere, easy to install, and flexible to manage. And if you face any difficulties or problems, you can always contact the support service. At least, that’s the case with Sortler, a proven online visual merchandising tool.
Sortler offers cloud access to a virtual online catalog synchronized with the real one. Your task is to set up the so-called rules, which will explain to Sortler how you want to manage the placement of products on your online store page.
To be more specific, you can do the following with Sortler:
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Task automation. You create the rules for managing your online catalog, and the rest is up to Sortler. You just have to keep track of the growth in conversions and the decrease in the bounce rate.
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Smart prioritization. You can specify how many items of a particular brand, collection, or type to place at the top of the catalog and which ones to move down.
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Dealing with out-of-stock products. Similarly, you can deal with running-out items, indicating how to prioritize them in your online catalog.
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Promoting poorly selling products. Sortler will help you increase the sales of underperforming items by making them more visible on the page or offering a discount if other measures fail.
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Creation of matching combinations. Why not use Sortler to automatically generate impressive product combinations: say, a ring and pendant from the same collection for a jewelry store and a straw hat with sunglasses for a fashion one in the summer?
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Drag & Drop feature. You can also work with your catalog manually by moving the products around the screen with the mouse and immediately seeing the result of your efforts.
Best of all, Sortler is compatible with popular eCommerce platforms, including Magento 2, Shopify, WooCommerce, and BigCommerce, and requires no coding on your part. Everything is designed so that you get the maximum result with minimal effort and investment.
Feel free to learn more about Sortler right now.
