Ecommerce merchandising encompasses all decisions about how products are presented, organized, and promoted on a website. This includes category organization, product sorting algorithms, featured product placement, cross-sells and upsells, and visual presentation including photography and descriptions.
Effective merchandising guides customers toward products they're likely to buy while maximizing order value. This involves understanding customer behavior, A/B testing different presentations, and continuously optimizing based on data. Search merchandising—how products appear in site search results—is increasingly critical for conversion.
Analyzing competitor merchandising strategies—such as which products they feature on homepage, how they organize categories, and what cross-sells they show—provides insights into their priorities and what's working for them.