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Merchandising

From shelf layout to brand experience

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Three situations we encounter every day with brands and online stores.

Why merchandising falls by the wayside

  • Your customer makes a one-time purchase and forgets about you

    After placing an order, your brand disappears from your customer’s daily life. Merchandise that people actually use keeps your brand visible outside your online store and turns buyers into brand ambassadors. It all starts with asking which item your customer would choose for themselves.

  • Your visitor can’t find what’s actually there

    Visitors who search have the highest intent to buy, but get zero results if they make a typo, use a synonym, or spell a brand name differently. Every blank search page represents a customer you’ve already lost. You can fix that without spending a single extra euro on advertising.

  • You’re stuck with the same products

    Slow-moving items get buried because no one sees them, while your bestsellers consistently take the same spots. By sorting by margin and inventory, creating bundles, and offering targeted recommendations, you can strategically allocate that attention. Then your margin—not chance—determines what’s featured.

Merchandising works both ways

Merchandising consists of two elements that reinforce each other. Brand merchandise integrates your brand into your customer’s daily life: a hoodie, a bottle, or a bag that someone chooses because it represents your brand. Visual merchandising determines what a visitor sees first, both in your store and in your online shop. The former builds the connection; the latter capitalizes on it.

Online, your system handles the shelf layout, and usually does nothing. Sort by margin instead of date, move sold-out items to the back, account for synonyms and typos in your search function, and make recommendations based on behavior rather than category. The technology handles this as soon as you tell it what’s important, so there’s no need for a manual list anymore.

You’ll be working with Steven Olde Hengel, Head of Seduction, along with Soraya and Sander. Every change is first rolled out to a subset of your visitors, and during the monthly meeting, we review the results together. Since 2004, we’ve been working with brands and online stores that offer extensive product ranges, and those 22 years of customer insight are the driving force behind every recommendation we make.

  • 22+ years of experience
  • 9,3 customer satisfaction
  • 55+ Kiwi Specialists

What does merchandising at Redkiwi entail?

Two tracks. On the brand side, we determine which items fit your brand, what they look like, and where you sell them, from a standalone fan shop to a category in your existing online store. On the store side, we set up what your visitors see: the organization of your category pages, the search function with synonyms and typos, the filters your customers actually use, and the recommendations below your product pages. Production of the physical items is handled by your own supplier or a specialist we bring in; we handle the concept, design, and sales channel ourselves.

From brand concept to a shelf that sells

Merchandising focuses on website traffic and your existing customers, which makes it the most cost-effective way to generate revenue in your online store. We start with the categories that drive the most traffic and the search queries that currently yield zero results. Every change goes live first with a subset of your visitors, so you can see the difference before it’s rolled out everywhere. If it doesn’t work, we roll it back, and you’ll know why. In the monthly meeting, we decide together what to launch next, so you always know what’s currently active.

Three services that make merchandising work.

What Merchandising Rests On

Tailoring what you display requires three things: content and visuals that your customers respond to, a way to vary the experience per visitor, and proof that the new layout sells better than the old one. We handle all three with the same team, so you don’t have to coordinate with three different parties.

From baseline measurement to monthly adjustments in five steps.

Here’s how we set up merchandising

  • 1. Baseline assessment of brand and product range

    We examine which categories are driving volume, where visitors find no results, and where your brand currently stands outside your online store.

  • 2. Choice: brand, shelf space, or both

    Together, we’ll determine where the profit lies. For one brand, that might be a merchandise line; for another, it could be the organization of three category pages.

  • 3. Product data and search function in order

    You can only manage by margin or inventory if those fields are filled out. We account for synonyms, typos, and brand names in your search function.

  • 4. Sorting, Recommendations, and Items

    Sorting by margin, inventory, or season per category; recommendations based on past purchasing behavior; and merchandise ready for sale.

  • 5. Testing, measuring, and adjusting

    Test every change on a subset of your visitors first. If it works, we’ll roll it out. If it doesn’t, we’ll revert it—and you’ll know why.

Three brands where presentation and discoverability make all the difference.

Merchandising in Practice

  • Universiteit Utrecht x Eco Giving

    Implementation of an Omnichannel E-commerce Platform with Shopify

  • Zuiver

    Zuiver's new webshop on the throne

View all our case studies View all our case studies

Independent advice, no preferential treatment.

How we approach merchandising

An online store you manage yourself, without having to maintain the platform

Search, filter, and target what you want to sell

Recommendations that learn from behavior rather than manual rules
View all our partners View all our partners

Get a one-hour merchandising review

In one hour, we’ll review your product categories, your search queries, and your brand’s visibility outside your online store: where visitors can’t find what they’re looking for, which sorting methods are costing you revenue, and how you can increase revenue from existing customers. You’ll receive the findings in writing, even if you plan to act on them yourself.

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Agreement 

Your dedicated merchandising specialists

Steven Olde Hengel
Head of Creativity
Soraya Stout
Creative Designer
Meet the whole team Meet the whole team

How much does merchandising cost?

Every partnership is tailor-made. What that entails for you depends on the size of your product range, the condition of your product data, and whether you want to establish a merchandise line in addition to your shelf layout.

What you’ll always get: a baseline analysis of your categories and search queries before any changes are implemented, every change tested first on a subset of your visitors, and an honest discussion if your product data needs attention first.

Want to know how much more you can earn from your existing traffic and customers? Schedule a consultation, and we’ll walk through it together.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Merchandising

01/ What is e-commerce merchandising?
Controlling what a visitor sees in your online store: the order of categories, search results, filters, and recommendations. Just as a brick-and-mortar store arranges its shelves, you organize your product sorting and search function. This means the same product selection can generate different sales.
02/ Wat is het verschil tussen brand merchandise en visual merchandising?

Brand merchandise zijn fysieke items met je merk erop, van een hoodie tot een drinkfles, en die vergroten je bereik en de band met je klant. Visual merchandising gaat over de presentatie van je aanbod: de indeling van een winkel of de sortering, filters en aanbevelingen in je webshop. Het eerste bouwt de band, het tweede verzilvert hem.

03/ Maken jullie de fysieke merchandise zelf?

We doen het concept, het ontwerp en het verkoopkanaal: welke items bij je merk passen, hoe ze eruitzien en waar je ze verkoopt. De productie loopt via je eigen leverancier of een specialist die we erbij halen. Zo blijft de kwaliteit van het item de verantwoordelijkheid van een partij die dat elke dag doet, en die van je merk bij ons.

04/ Is merchandising the same as improving your search function?
Searching and filtering are about visitors who know what they want; merchandising, on the other hand, determines what you show to those who are still undecided. So the search function is one part of the process, not a synonym for it. It often starts there, though, because searchers have the highest purchase intent.
05/ Do we need good product data for merchandising?
Yes, and that starts with your product data. Without filled-in attributes, a tool can’t sort by margin, inventory, or season, and a recommendation system can’t know what goes well with it. If those fields are missing, we’ll address them first. Otherwise, you’re running an expensive engine on empty.
06/ How quickly do you see results from merchandising?
Usually within weeks, because you’re working with existing traffic rather than new visitors. We test a new sorting method or recommendation on a subset of your visitors, measure the difference, and roll out only what’s proven to work. That way, you know the gains are real before rolling them out across the board.
07/ How much does e-commerce merchandising cost?
That depends on the size of your product range, the condition of your product data, and whether your search function and recommendations are already integrated. Every partnership is tailored to your needs, so we won’t quote a price until those details are clear. During a one-hour consultation, we’ll work together to identify where the first opportunities for improvement lie.