Overseeing the creation, implementation and maintenance of an online product catalog doesn’t have to be an overwhelming experience. With the right resources and tools in place, designing and optimizing the best layout for your digital retail front can be a rewarding and seamless experience.
Here are the four main advantages of using a visual inventory management tool to manage your online catalog:
1. Track and Optimize Sales
You can’t afford to haphazardly position products in a catalog and expect optimum sales. With a visual eCommerce tool, you're able to track sales in real time and then make adjustments to inventory accordingly to reduce back order and overstocking scenarios that threaten your profit margins and drive up warehousing costs.
Knowing precisely which products in your catalog get the most clicks and which ones generate the most sales is one of the most powerful insights digital merchandisers can use when contemplating above-the-fold designs and top search results within product categories.
A visual eCommerce tool removes the need for comparing spreadsheets and printouts with what appears online. Integrating analytics and real-time inventory stats directly into the catalog backend makes optimization a breeze for digital merchandisers.
2. Streamline Supply Chain Management
With a robust visual eCommerce tool in place, you can accurately anticipate and manage the desires and demands of your customers. With a visual add-on tool like Smart Merchandiser you’re able to leverage more power from IBM WebSphere Commerce by optimizing processes in a more timely fashion based on trends and customer data.
Rather than having to print out reports and compare data from multiple sources, the Smart Merchandiser helps compile all of the pertinent information so that you can make swift decisions and streamline efforts.
3. Keep Customers Coming Back
An organized, visually-appealing eCommerce site boosts the chances that you'll see repeat business. A visual eCommerce tool provides merchandisers with the ability to select and tag multiple items with keywords that can be used to improve the search functions on your site.
With an SEO-optimized online catalog, your website will rank high in search engines and customers will be able to easily find items that meet their needs.
4. Key Into Customer-buying Behavior
Having real-time insight into sales data on your site is invaluable. If the results you're seeking aren’t being actualized, you can change how your catalog is visually presented. With a visual eCommerce tool, you can access sales data over each product thumbnail and make quick merchandising decisions.
With this data, you can stay ahead of consumer behavior and adjust inventory in the event of market shifts and flash trends. Just like you would design a brick and mortar store's front windows, you want the most sought-after items on display first—conveniently confirming for your visitors that “Yes, we have that product!”
Items featuring seasonal and popular colors and materials can be readily in sight, while out-of-season or slow-moving products can be removed temporarily, placed on a discount page, or relocated to a lower position in the catalog.
For more information on how to use drag-and-drop tools to handle attribute management in your catalog, download The Digital Merchandiser's Guide to Maximizing Margins with Visualized Data eBook.
