What is Merchandising? Definition of Merchandising, Merchandising Meaning and Concept
Merchandising is the set of actions or activities to stimulate purchase by customers at the point of sale. It is sometimes known in Spanish simply as marketing.
Merchandising activities began at the end of the 19th century with the establishment of more modern establishments that included techniques to rotate products and bring them closer to the public. It was demonstrated with these techniques that up to 75% could be influenced in the purchases that the consumer ended up making.
Types of merchandise
The types of merchandise are the following:
- Presentation merchandise. It is responsible for studying the layout of the products in the establishment so that access by customers is as simple as possible. The objective is to guide and influence the customer's purchasing behavior in order to increase so-called impulse sales in which the customer buys impulsively when he sees an item even if it does not respond to a need in the first place. An example of this type of merchandising occurs in pharmacies, where they use displays, for example, so that the customer has priority access to the items.
- Management merchandising. With this type of techniques, the aim is to achieve the highest profitability and satisfy the needs of the consumer. To carry out this strategy, the establishment must know what its competition is, the type of clientele it has and what its needs are. Based on all this, it will articulate the products into categories and lines without ever losing sight of the research data that it is carrying out and transferring them to the management of the product assortment.
- Seduction merchandising. It is mainly focused on the consumer. To attract customers through the senses, establishments have had to develop a series of techniques that appeal to them. Sections have been established for the different consumers (men or women, for example), lighting, music, aroma, etc. are taken care of. All with the aim of not only promoting sales, but also making it a rewarding experience for consumers and repeating it in the future.
Benefits of merchandising
These are the main benefits of merchandising:
- Buying time for consumers is reduced.
- Leveraging the entire point of sale to provide consumers with greater access to products.
- Sales increase.
- More rewarding buyer experience.
- Promotion of the most outstanding products that the client wants.
- More direct access to products that the establishment wants to put on sale and that otherwise would not have as much sale.
- Increase impulse purchases.