It’s Not All Price and Promotion. What’s Driving Sales with Top Performing Suppliers on the Top eCommerce Retailers? MERCHANDISING!

What is product content exactly? It is the combination of all 3 plus more: excellent imagery with a great product title, in depth copy, and a compelling price. The next level product content involves videos and 3-D renderings. This is what the customer is now demanding and expecting.

But, do not take it from me, take it from Wayfair. This past week I went to Boston with a client for a planning meeting with Wayfair. It was a 4-hour meeting. Guess what we talked about for 3 hours? Yep…merchandising.  We are doing some things really well, but, we planned for 3 hours about how to be better. With some pivots and adjustments to our copy, content and imagery, we will increase our sales by 20% on an already huge base of several million dollars. Because we have the basics mastered, we are now doing videos and 3-D renderings.  You get the point? Wayfair is not talking about fun stuff like promotions and new products. They are laser focused on pushing their partners to be elite at merchandising!  

How to merchandise your products for success to the millions?

Eighty-eight percent of all shoppers rank product content as their #1 purchasing factor. Followed by reviews and price. A good photo with a title will not work and copy and price alone is not enough.  

Basic elements of eCommerce merchandising:

1.    Product Title

2.    Product Romance Description

3.    Bullet point selling features & benefits

4.    Product Specifications

5.    Imagery

An effective product title combines SEO search terms with a unique name. A good title will elevate your items in the search pages and quickly educate the buyer. Once you grab the customer's attention you want to build her interest with a compelling romance description. 

Product romance descriptions and bullet point selling features need to be specific and describe the product in a way that is speaking directly to what the consumer wants. The key is of course to include features, but, more importantly, how the product is going to improve, enlighten, simplify and make her happy. She cares more about the how the product will benefit her than the features. Use more verbs than adjectives in your copy.

Let’s take an example of a decorative throw pillow from one of my clients. I am going to show you how we initially launched the item compared to what it looks like now and the corresponding results.

Old Merchandising

 Title

Decorative Floral Throw Pillow

Old Descriptions and Selling Points (only had 1 white background image)

Decorative and colorful throw pillows that can be used in any room in your home.

·     Polyester

·     Blue

·     No Zipper

·     Made in USA

New and Improved Merchandising Plan

Can you see the difference? The customer agrees with over 600 reviews and the item has sold over 50,000 units in the last few years. Take a look at any category on any website and you will see countless examples of the old pillow. In many cases these products do sell because they are good quality products. But, imagine the opportunity if they were optimized!

Granted, there is an investment in time and money to get it right. This company now does over $2 Million on Wayfair alone with pillows. The Merchandising plan followed the simple formula.

·     SEO Optimized Copy and Content

·     Descriptive and engaging descriptions

·     Advice and suggestions on how to use the product

·     Detailed product information

·     Multiple Product Shots: Silhouette, Angles, Close-Up, Lifestyle, and Video

As Wayfair said last week, we sell images and product content. Effective online merchandising will grab your attention, stimulate your interest and convert to an order.

Is it worth it? Do you want to build a multi-million-dollar eCommerce business, then yes, it is!