Text, Color Schemes, Images, Copy and Virtual Bundles

Text, Color Schemes, Images, and Copy

If people feel good, they typically purchase more. With the convenience of having multiple stores at a shopper's fingertips, an online store must be inviting and must ensure that the customer feels comfortable to stay and purchase. The web also has the potential of becoming more like catalogs and having a more recreational aspect versus a pure product hunt.

Effective online merchandising considers advertisement and newspaper techniques. They start with the most important attributes and put them in the headlines and sub-headlines. These same techniques must be applied online—with the most important customer benefits up top as the headline.

Some products are complex to describe, such as those with textures and other sensory attributes that would make the sale in retail. A silky, luxurious blouse in rich colors can be described with words and images, but subtle variations in the difference between sueded-silk and satin may not be easily described. Magnifying glass "close up" techniques can give a deeper view. This technique, coupled with appropriate copy writing and other imagery, can enhance product details and simulate the retail environment. For expensive items, such as a large line of name-brand quality clothing, you may consider providing a swatch sample for your shoppers to order prior to purchasing.

Virtual Bundles—E-kits

Special product bundles have been a retail strategy to stimulate sales. Bundles consist of two or more products or a product with a special offer. At retail, physical bundles are created by putting two or more products into the same box or by strapping the products together to form a "hard" bundle. A new SKU number is created and assigned to the new "package" so it can be stocked, inventoried, and merchandised.

Online stores have an advantage over retail because they can create "virtual" bundles. Virtual bundles put the products or special offers together on the product detail page—the online "package." The virtual bundle is also assigned a new SKU number. Fulfillment can be notified to "pick and pack" those items that make up the bundle. Virtual bundles save on production costs and labor, because a physical hard-bundled product is not required. A hard bundle is created virtually through putting the separate items into the same shipping box.

These elkits require special merchandising treatments, however, because they are mot physically bundled items in one package. New photos may be required to show the bundle contents. All product categories are eligible for bundling. Dresses with handbags, crafts with tools, printers with cartridges, and dog food with dog toys are a few combinations. Bundles are limited only by the imagination and distribution capabilities. Bundles provide you a competitive advantage by providing "new" exclusive items for your target customers.