Merchandising is a key function for any brick-and-mortar retailer, and successful merchandising can make or break a retailer’s sales potential. When it comes to eCommerce, merchandising is just as important, although it can be overlooked by some retailers. Some merchants may figure that as long as people can navigate or search for an item, their job is complete.

However, there is a world of difference between the online retailers that simply make items available and those that merchandise well. Here are two tips that can help sellers improve their eCommerce operations and merchandising efforts.

1. Make everything as easy as possible
People are perfectly capable of navigating a website and finding all the items they need, but that doesn’t mean they should be forced to do so. Retailers can make life significantly easier for customers by selling multiple similar products in collections and displaying them all on the same page. Most eCommerce platforms and eCommerce management systems like SalesWarp, provide easy functionality for creating product groups and collections so make sure you are taking advantage of this functionality in your current systems.

SmartInsights points to Dunelm as an example of success in this practice. Dunelm sells bedding accessories such as pillows and sheets, and when customers head to the collections page, they are easily able to browse entire collections of bedding supplies. This allows them to craft an entire set all in one place, ranging from the various products to sizes and colors (or they can simply buy what they need and complete the purchase).

Taking these steps makes life easier for customers, who can make entire purchases in fewer clicks and are less likely to forget something. But it can also benefit retailers by bringing more sales and profits.

“Don’t make them think: the customer can’t buy the entire range if they can’t see it and they more than likely won’t go looking for it,” SmartInsights added.

2. Offer product recommendations
Product recommendations have become commonplace on most retail websites, so if merchants already haven’t been using this strategy, they should consider doing so. Offering relevant product recommendations is an extremely effective way to improve merchandising and increase product exposure.

That being said, it’s important for retailers to make meaningful product recommendations . Merchants have access to more information than ever before, from browsing history to previous purchases across multiple channels, and this data should be leveraged to make good product recommendations to customers. Similarly, product bundles and personalized offers can also be crafted utilizing past data of the customer’s behavior.