March 27, 2024

Best Visual Merchandising Extensions for Magento

Nadya Bakhur

Researcher, Technical Writer

Magento (Adobe Commerce)

Best visual merchandising extensions for Magento

Nadya Bakhur

Researcher, Technical Writer

Magento (Adobe Commerce)

Best visual merchandising extensions for Magento

As soon as you have all the core Magento functionality installed on your website, one of the main points that need consideration is your web store visual merchandising.

In our article, we will define visual merchandising ideas and discover the most effective visual merchandising techniques and tools to help improve your online merchandise display.  

What Is Virtual Merchandising?

The share of ecommerce in global retail sales grows exponentially. According to Statista, in 2021, 19.5% of global retail sales were made online. By 2024, this figure is predicted to grow up to 21.8% of retail sales worldwide.

With new ecommerce businesses popping up every day, online stores strive to remain competitive and attract customers. One of the most important components of catching the customers’ attention is retail visual merchandising.

So whats visual merchandising? Visual merchandising meaning for ecommerce is practically the same as for offline retail. It is a set of techniques and tools of product presentation aimed at creating an incentive to make a purchase. The visual merchandising definition also includes correct goods grouping and using engaging advertising in your web store.

Displaying products in a simple yet aesthetic way has become real art, and many website owners experiment with visual merchandising in retail to grab the customers’ attention.

However, an experienced visual merchandiser can not only make a web store look neat and accessible. With strategically placed call-to-action (CTAs), abandoned shopping cart reminders and ‘order again’ buttons, ecommerce display merchandising can impact consumers’ shopping habits.

Visual merchandising benefits include:

  • Attracting customers;
  • Showcasing a variety of products;
  • Driving traffic to your website with SEO-focused listings;
  • Special deals promotion;
  • Converting your website visitors into customers.

How To Merchandise Online Effectively?

In offline retail, a merchandiser is responsible for the presentation of goods on the shelves, their promotion, stock availability, and advertising materials distribution. In ecommerce, visual merchandising helps to make products visible on the pages of a website and distinguish them from others in the catalogue.

eCommerce visual merchandising product display ideas aim at grabbing and holding the customer’s attention. They can be divided into three key groups.

1. Home page merchandising

Every time a user visits your website, the first thing they see is the home page. It can be personalized depending on the country the user is visiting from. It will be helpful so customers don’t have to worry about calculating conversion rates.

The home page of an ecommerce website should include:

  • Your company presentation;
  • Images of your bestsellers;
  • Details of any special deals;
  • CTAs to encourage customers to make a purchase;
  • Link to your “About Us” section.

2. Product pages

Product pages are created specifically for each product. They can be grouped on a category page to make it easier for the buyers to find what they want.

When a customer searches for a specific product on Google, your web store will appear in search results if it is SEO-friendly. Product pages should include:

  • Product images: a 360-degree view will be a bonus;
  • Detailed product description;
  • Product characteristics;
  • Videos and product demos;
  • Links to the pages of products selected for cross-selling;
  • All product colour options;
  • CTA, for example “add to cart”.

3. Merchandising by category

Category-based merchandising is used to rank products in their category. It can also be useful when you only sell a few key product categories. For example, you can offer your customers to filter the goods by size, price, weight, recent arrivals, and more.

Merchandising by category should include:

  • Product images;
  • The best-selling product in the category;
  • Product ratings;
  • Products to compare.

What Are The Best Merchandising Extensions for Magento?

Over the past decade, Magento has gained a reputation as one of the most flexible, feature-rich, and popular ecommerce platforms available for online merchants. It has gone way beyond from what we have discussed at Meet Magento in 2014.

But what is a visual merchandising experience with Magento like? To help online retailers attract the customers’ attention and improve a web store design, various extensions can be used. We’ve selected the most useful ones.

Drag & Drop Visual Product Sorting

Visual Merchandasing in Retail

With the right extension, the process of product sorting may influence your sales greatly. Visual Product Sorting has been created exactly to make easy sorting from the admin panel, allowing you to see the products exactly how your customers see them in your store.

Put all the items you want to promote like “Featured Products” or “On Sale Products” in the first place and increase your sales. Show products your customers may find interesting and catch their interest right after they have entered your web store. This is what our development team was intended to deliver with this tool.

Visual Retail Merchandising

Visual Product Sorting is a good example of visual merchandiser software. It offers the following benefits:

  • Allows to adjust the product grid in detail

You can set the number of rows, columns, and items on the Category pages. Every product has its own image, so setting everything in the correct order is easy;  

  • Shows the product sorting right in your admin panel

Visual Product Sorting displays all the products in your Admin panel, so you can see the sorting exactly the way your clients do;

  • Hides out-of-stock products

With this extension, you can automatically hide all the out-of-stock products in your store. You shouldn’t constantly track your stock manually anymore;

  • Allows the drag & drop function

There is no need to code anything or set special options to sort your products. This extension makes arranging the display by simple Drag & Drop possible;

  • Saves changes in grid automatically

The grid saves all the changes made in it, so there is no necessity to press a special button every time you have to leave the Admin panel. All the changes are implied to the front end and saved in your store;

  • Allows to pin up the products you want

Some products may be too popular to break their position, but you still may have to change the sorting. In order not to lose the place of this item, pin it up. Now it won’t move anywhere until you make it.

Visual Product Sorting is the extension that gives you full control over your content. Make navigation easier, create easy sorting, and increase your sales by simply changing your products’ display. The extension is available for both Magento versions with almost the same functionality.

In addition to Magento modules, NEKLO experts suggest applying effective selling techniques. In Digest #6, we have collected all the necessary information about cross-selling and upselling to help you increase conversions in your web store.

Infinite Scroll Extension

Some clients prefer to see all the products on one page without pagination. To make it so you can install the Infinite Scroll extension to display all the products at once. This extension reduces the load time, giving customers easier navigation and a better user experience. Your customers will now be able to purchase with fewer efforts.

Exploded View Product Extension

Some products are better to show with schemes or explanatory images. Even if it is not a complex mechanism, a razor or a laptop becomes more interesting if displayed in detail.

Exploded View Product helps you to show your clients how your product is designed from the inside. Or you can add another picture if you want – the extension is fully adjustable.

PDF Download & Print-Out Functionality Extension

What if your customer wants to have an offline version of your product page? PDF Download & Print-Out Functionality offers a good solution for such cases. The extension allows you to make a PDF file of your product page. The file is customizable and you can set the content block it will be displayed on. Besides, you also can download the PDF file from your admin panel with one click.

Easy Slider Extension

To notify your customers about recent events right in the store you can use the Easy Slider extension. It provides you with an opportunity to post a huge slider with information concerning discounts, special offers, or any other information. Thus you will get an easy tool for quick notifying. Moreover, there are some unobvious advantages like SEO improvement with the text on the slider and a decrease in bounce rate with captivating images.

UB Content Slider Extension

UB Content Slider allows you to add various additional features like videos or image sliders. It gives you a convenient way to distinguish your products and in such a manner to increase sales. You can showcase your products and add an unlimited number of sliders to any place in your store. With this extension, you can personalize any slider and create different types of them for different products. It is an easy way to manage the visual representation of your items.

Smart Related Products Extension

This extension allows you to create blocks with related products based on specific conditions you can set in the admin panel. You can set the displaying rule, the number of products, add the “Add to Cart” button, and regulate the display of out-of-stock products. An easy way to use up-selling and cross-selling techniques.

Wrapping Up

Today having just a product card is no longer enough to attract customers to your web store. Visual merchandising displays the goods in your online store in the most appealing way.

If you are running a Magento-based web store and wish to promote your goods or increase sales, you may need expert help and support. Contact us through the form on our website and together we will find the solution for any ecommerce challenge.