Framework for Ecommerce Merchandising

Merchandising is an ongoing process of presenting products to boost sales. Every ecommerce site merchandises its products either consciously or by default.

• Nike features in-season sports and products on its home page.
• Amazon reminds shoppers of their recent searches.
• Wayfair bundles and cross-sells complementary items.

Many ecommerce platforms have basic merchandising built in directly or in popular themes. These built-ins make merchandising easy, but not necessarily optimized.

Nike’s home page hero slide is seasonal. It features spots or products, such as this example of inspiring shoppers to dress like tennis star Carlos Alcaraz.

Strategy

Merchandising techniques vary. Some focus on visuals or product curation. Others use behavioral economics and personalization for maximum persuasion.

Still others think about merchandising as it applies to a buyer. The result can be a five-step framework, where each step defines a set of tactics that move shoppers from curiosity to purchase.

Inspiration

The first set of tactics aims at product inspiration. It seeks to stimulate the shopper, to help imagine a lifestyle or a need your products solve.

These tactics often manifest themselves as:

• Hero images featuring products or life situations,
• Category headers with aspiration images,
• Seasonal sections (think back to school),
• Editorial content.

For example, the recipes found on Le Creuset’s site help a shopper imagine making the meal for a special occasion and experiencing the joy of sharing food with folks you love. The content (merchandising) evokes a feeling and, ultimately, sells the enamel-covered cast iron cookware needed to bring that feeling to life.

Content marketing can be a powerful form of product merchandising. Le Creuset uses recipes to inspire shoppers.

Guidance

The second set of tactics in this merchandising framework aims to reduce friction and guide shoppers toward products they are likely to buy.

These techniques often take the form of:

• Straightforward or supplementary navigation like “Shop by Room” or “Shop by Activity,”
• Thoughtful search results with autocomplete, synonym mapping, and intelligent ranking.
• Sortable category pages with filtering by size, color, price, availability, or reviews.

Many ecommerce platforms include these sorts of navigational features, but they require optimizing so that a search results page is a thoughtful arrangement of relevant items, not a keyword-based SKU dump.

Origin allows shoppers to filter apparel for color, size, and activity, such as jiu-jitsu and hunting.

Persuasion

Next come the tactics meant to influence choices and encourage shoppers to make complementary purchases.

While a merchant will measure the success of these efforts in revenue and average order value, persuasive merchandising should seek the shopper’s best interest.

Don’t make frivolous recommendations or use tricks, but do describe your products in a way that encourages the sale. For example, persuasion merchandising might include:

• Editorial content in written or video format,
• Social proof such as ratings, reviews, or even “top seller” labels,
• Product recommendations, including up-selling and cross-selling,
• Indications of scarcity (“only 12 in stock”),
• Additional discounts or free shipping messages.

A low inventory count can be persuasive.

Conversion

On-site merchandising often culminates near the buy-now button or on shopping cart and checkout pages. Here, the aim is to reassure and close the sale.

Conversion messages might be:

• Clear return policies, guarantees, and payment security icons that convey trust,
• Suggested add-ons or loyalty perks,
• Product quality indicators.

A simple, well-placed message that removes a shopper’s final doubts or concerns effectively closes the sale.

These three small graphics — American made, easy returns, and free shipping — make a final argument to buy.

Retention

A final set of merchandising tactics enables retention marketing. It is the conversion after the sale.

Add AI

While each category of merchandising tactics in this framework requires human initiative and planning, AI can certainly help with execution, including content generation and personalization.

Thus for Inspiration, an ecommerce merchandiser might prepare a seasonal banner for back-to-school or the football season. Better still, AI personalization could select or generate dynamic banners to match a shopper’s personal profile and previous behavior.

Putting It Together

• Inspiration: Spark desire.
• Guidance: Help find.
• Persuasion: Help choose.
• Conversion: Help buy.
• Retention: Connect.

Merchandising shapes how shoppers discover, evaluate, and purchase products. A sound framework ensures that each step of the shopping journey contributes to sales and customer relationships.

Merchandising Lessons from Top Marketplaces

Ecommerce merchandising organizes, presents, and highlights products to maximize revenue.

The world’s leading ecommerce marketplaces offer powerful merchandising lessons for merchants great and small. From Amazon’s dense deal grids to Etsy’s lifestyle collections, these sites show how merchandising can guide shoppers and drive sales.

To this end, I took screenshots this month of the home pages of 10 marketplaces and used artificial intelligence to spot common merchandising traits.

Anchor with Clear Value

Top marketplaces make discounts, bundles, and price points instantly visible to drive conversions. I observed many such signals, such as:

• “From $10,” “Up to 20% off,” and similar value language.
• Feature deal grids, daily savings, and limited-time promos.
• Highlight bundles or multi-buy offers.

On Walmart’s home page, a large and colorful block promoted “Sandals for the fam, from $10.” The banner cites Reebok, a prominent brand, presumably because $10 may be lower than shoppers expect.

Walmart’s home page banner cites Reebok, a prominent brand.

Setting a lower-than-expected starting point helps Walmart draw attention to this banner and the products it links to. StockX used a simple label, “Below Retail Price,” to anchor attention and communicate value.

StockX’s label, “Below Retail Price,” anchors attention and communicates value.

To signal value, Newegg used a combination of sales banners and deals, each labeled “Shell Shocker.”

Newegg’s home page displays several value anchors near the top.

Several marketplaces employed implied social proof with phrases such as “best,” “most popular,” and “trending” to suggest the value to other shoppers.

Many shoppers likely scan ecommerce home pages looking for just these sorts of signals, which match intent and product selection. Even smaller merchants can apply the tactic by adding price callouts on category pages, using badges such as “Best Seller,” and promoting limited-time offers.

Themes and Collections

Leading marketplaces organize products by season, lifestyle, or occasion due to their large SKU counts. StockX and Newegg, for example, each had 90 product slots on their home pages. Even Overstock, the marketplace with the fewest home page products, had 40.

Mercari, for example, had relatively few product category groups, which serve as secondary navigation and can be easily personalized for returning shoppers.

Mercari’s category groups are a second form of navigation, easily personalized.

Target had several seasonal home page sections, including one dedicated to the Fourth of July, while Wayfair included a banner promoting products for college students.

Target featured seasonal collections.

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Back-to-school (or college) is another theme to encourage shoppers, such as this example from Wayfair.

Themes and collections have several merchandising benefits.

• Align with shopping behavior. Consumers often shop for occasions (e.g., back-to-school) or needs (setting up a home office). Themes sync with real-world motivations.

• Encourage shoppers to buy more. Collections help shoppers who might need a rug to match the sofa, shoes to complement the outfit, and a set of red, white, and blue grilling tongs to pair with a Fourth of July apron.

• Reduce decision fatigue. Some merchandisers believe that thematic groupings minimize cognitive load. Instead of dozens of isolated SKUs, shoppers see cohesive options.

Merchandising with themes and collections makes a site feel curated and helpful, guiding shoppers from browsing to buying.

Match Buyer Intent

A third insight from these marketplace home pages is to consider the target shopper.

For example, Newegg organizes its 90 home-page product slots in rows of six items each. High-density, price-first merchandising works well for shoppers who are ready to purchase now.

Newegg displays a wide range of products to match shoppers’ interests.

Compared to Newegg, Etsy’s home page focuses on thematic groupings and lifestyle inspiration. The design is feminine. The merchandising targets discovery-minded shoppers who browse for ideas.

Etsy’s home page is relatively more inspirational and encourages browsing.

Amazon’s home page contained both collections and (dense) product grids. And more than other marketplaces, Amazon personalized the page to match buyer intent. Personalization is one of the most effective ways to convert shoppers. Even smaller shops can use personalization tools to mimic Amazon’s approach.

Amazon offers dense grids of personalized items.

More Inspiration

My study revealed three actionable merchandising ideas: demonstrate value, organize by themes, and match intent. Yet merchants can glean much more from walking the virtual aisles of the internet’s most successful stores.

Ecommerce Benefits of Dynamic Pricing

Dynamic pricing is a tactic wherein sellers adjust prices to reflect real-time market conditions.

When a competitor’s prices change or when supply or demand shifts, a store reacts. When inventory expands, prices contract. An item that delivers more value sells for a higher price.

Prices Communicate

Imagine a direct-to-consumer brand that sells two water bottles. The first has a charcoal filtration system, and the second has a “no-spill” lid.

The bottles cost the same to manufacture. Since both are essentially fancy water containers, the brand sells them for the same price — $59.99 — and earns about $25 per sale.

Yet the filtration bottle outsells the “no-spill” bottle 20 to 1.

The water bottles cost the same to produce but deliver different value to shoppers.

A bottle with a filtration system has a different use than one with a “no-spill” lid. Hikers and campers purchase the filtration bottle for safe drinking water — to dip the bottle in a steam and drink without the fear of ingesting microbes or chemicals.

In contrast, the market for a “no-spill” lid is almost certainly larger than for filtration bottles, but it also provides relatively less value. A shopper might not pay a $20 premium to avoid spilling water.

Thus the price of the “no-spill” bottle doesn’t fit the market. Sales will leap if the brand lowers its price to $39.99, earning $5 per item. Suddenly, “no-spill” water bottles will outsell filtration bottles 50 to 1.

Prices should reflect an item’s value, not the cost of production.

Dynamic Prices

Market-based prices have natural benefits. Let’s consider a few.

More revenue. Our imaginary DTC brand increased the sales of “no-spill” bottles when it lowered its prices. Similar scenarios are widespread in practice.

The price of an item is essentially an agreement between buyer and seller, a mutually beneficial exchange of value. Sellers seek more profit, and buyers want to save money. The price is where the parties agree.

But buyers differ. For example, at $59.99, perhaps one shopper in 100 buys the “no-spill” water bottle. But at $49.99, it’s 20. Finally, at $39.99, 60 shoppers purchase.

Hence lowering the price from $59.99 to $39.99 increases revenue per 100 visitors from $59.99 for one sale to $2,399.40 for 60.

More profit. Dynamic pricing improves bottom-line profits.

Recall that at $59.99, the DTC water bottle maker earned $25 in profit per sale. As the price moves down, so does the per-unit profit. Thus, at price points of $49.99 and $39.99, the brand earns the same profit: $300.

A good dynamic pricing strategy shifts the price to maximize overall profits.

Adaptability. Real-time, dynamic prices can move prices by pennies or dollars in response to fluctuations in demand, competitors, and even seasonality.

Ideal pricing for a water bottle might be $39.99 on a winter day and $55.99 in August.

Product development. Dynamic prices reveal consumer preferences and needs. The data can refine marketing strategies, customer experiences, and product development.

AI-powered

Dynamic pricing has existed for decades, but artificial intelligence makes it easier. A merchant in 2025 using a modern ecommerce platform will have multiple AI-powered real-time pricing solutions from which to choose.

Once implemented, dynamic pricing helps sellers and buyers.

A Better Ecommerce Landing Page

What if there was a simple formula ecommerce marketers could follow to improve conversions from digital ad campaigns? It turns out there is.

MECLABS Institute is a research firm devoted to understanding how folks make decisions, such as for purchases. Several years ago, the institute bundled its data and produced a formula for a high-converting landing page.

C = 4M + 3V + 2(I-F) + 2A

Whereas:

• C = conversion.
• M = motivation.
• V = value.
• I = incentives.
• F = reduced friction.
• A = addressing anxiety.

The idea is that if it’s going to convert well, a landing page should mention:

• Shoppers’ motivation four times,
• Value to shoppers three times,
• Incentives to buy twice,
• Shoppers’ anxiety twice.

Testing the Formula

Ecommerce landing pages are often different than, say, those of information providers. An ecommerce ad has a clear goal: sell a product. Thus many such ads point to an existing product or category page.

But those pages are not necessarily a good way to convert an ad-driven visitor.

As a test, consider building a campaign-specific landing page using the MECLABS formula. The page doesn’t need to be an advertorial or anything exotic. Simply apply the formula.

Linking ads (at left) to category pages may not produce strong conversions.

Motivation

I learned about the MECLABS formula from Chris Misterek, a user-experience designer at Showit, a creative agency. Misterek was giving a presentation at a conference on what motivates shoppers to buy a t-shirt or anything — the M component of C = 4M + 3V + 2(I-F) + 2A.

A business that knows its customers’ motivations can address them in landing page copy and position the product’s value accordingly.

Businesses that have not yet identified why customers buy should do a bit of research. If nothing else, ask an AI to summarize each of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Self-Determination Theory, and the Theory of Needs.

Theory of Needs

In his presentation, Misterek zeroed in on the late Professor David McClelland’s Theory of Needs.

McClelland argued that everyone needs a sense of achievement, affiliation, and power.

• Achievement. Folks with a high need for achievement want to excel in relation to a set of standards.

• Affiliation. These folks want to feel like they belong to a community wherein they can build friendly and, sometimes, close interpersonal relationships.

• Power. These individuals want to influence, teach, or encourage others.

For a landing page, motivation can be positive or negative. For example, the need for affiliation can be a positive motive (“be part of the community”) or negative (“don’t miss your chance to connect”).

Imagine you run marketing for an online shop selling science-fiction-themed t-shirts. You might develop a YouTube ad and landing page based on customers’ need for affiliation.

The ad shows a male standing alone at a party. He looks a little nerdy and doesn’t seem to fit in, but he is wearing a sci-fi t-shirt. He spots an equally nerdy female from across the room wearing a similar-themed top — instant connection and affiliation.

Focus the ad and landing page on shoppers’ motives to buy.

The landing page features an image of the male and female from the commercial and employs the formula C = 4M + 3V + 2(I-F) + 2A.

The headlines and subheads tell a story in various ways. Wearing a science-fiction t-shirt is a conversation starter, allowing sci-fi fans to connect with like-minded individuals, thus fulfilling their need for social interaction and friendship.

The body copy could state, “When you wear our t-shirts, you join a community. Our designs follow iconic sci-fi themes that resonate with fans worldwide. Share your passion, make new friends, and feel the camaraderie. Follow us on social media to connect with others, participate in discussions, and display your latest purchases.”