Boost Sales with AI+ Merchandising Tools from Local Express

Merchandising is a key to success in the online food retail industry. You need to get your products out there so customers can see them, and you want to give your products the best show possible. That means spending lots of time on merchandising and marketing your products. 

As any store owner knows, that time adds up. There are countless things you need to stay on top of to keep your business running, and every minute counts. You want to save time wherever possible, that way you can focus your energy on the things that truly matter. 

At Local Express, we have two features that are perfect for store owners looking to save time and boost their sales—AI and manual merchandising. These features are a smart solution to help you more efficiently and effectively merchandise your products.

So today, we’re going to show you how our AI and manual merchandising works, what it is, what it can do, and why you don’t want to miss out on this great resource for your business. 

What Are AI and Manual Merchandising

First, let’s go over what AI and manual merchandising are. Merchandising can be defined as, “the activity of promoting the sale of goods, especially by their presentation in retail outlets.” However, there’s a lot more to these features than that definition. 

Manual Merchandising

Let’s talk about manual merchandising first. Manual merchandising can play a big role in your store and its sales, so it’s something you don’t want to overlook.

When you walk into a retail store, what do you see first? Typically, there are a whole slew of things featured near a store’s entrance—signage, promotions, products on sale, featured products, etc. This all serves a purpose. These carefully curated products and advertisements help sell products, create hype for new products, inform customers about sales, boost sales, and much more. 

Now, think about that in relation to an online store. Though you don’t have a physical entrance to fill with products and promotions, you can still do something similar. When customers load your online store, you can still curate the top of the webpage so it showcases your products, sales, deals, and more. 

However, many platforms don’t make that easy. Pinning products and curating your homepage can be a hassle that takes up lots of time. With Local Express though, you can take full advantage of the power of merchandising.

Our manual merchandising features lets you pin products where you want them within their respective categories. That means you can choose what products get the spotlight and are seen by customers first.

And when you combine that with the ability to make subcategories for things like sales and popular products, you’ll have more control over your store than ever before. With the power of manual merchandising, you can boost your sales and show your customers the products they want to see. 

Thankfully, this feature is easy to use as well. All you have to do is choose the products you want within the subcategory, and then you can place them wherever you want. It’s really that simple with Local Express. We have customer support as well, so you can always get in touch if you need help utilizing our features. 

AI Merchandising

Now that you know what manual merchandising is all about, let’s shift to AI merchandising. Everyone knows by now that AI means artificial intelligence, and we already covered what merchandising is. So how does AI empower merchandising, and what exactly is AI merchandising? 

As you’d guess, AI is used to streamline the merchandising process and save time. AI merchandising involves the AI using data to automatically organize and merchandize your products. This can save you tons of time and even improve your merchandising. 

So how exactly can the AI make intelligent decisions? Thanks to Local Express’ data collection features, the AI has lots of information about your customers, your products, what items sell well, which ones don’t, which ones people buy out of impulse, and much more. 

Using that data, our AI is able to effectively merchandise your products in a way that is optimized for sales. It knows which products should be shown first, which ones should be upfront and when, and how to best present them to customers. 

And even better yet, it’s simple to use. You don’t need to be a tech whiz to use AI merchandising. It’s as simple as turning the feature on, adjusting a few parameters, and letting it work wonders. You can rest assured while working on other aspects of your business that our AI is doing a great job with your merchandising. 

Best of all, you still have access to manual merchandising. If there’s a product you really want to make sure is showcased or just want to add a more personal touch to things, you’re welcome to do so. With both of these tools at your disposal, you’ll have no problem merchandising your goods. 

Why You Need AI and Manual Merchandising

We’ve already talked about what these tools are and how they work, so now it’s time to focus on why these two tools are essential for ecommerce businesses.

The online marketplace is incredibly competitive. Retail stores all over have been making the effort to go online, and there are countless other businesses that focus exclusively on online sales. Even if you have been running a brick and mortar store for years, you’ll have to work hard to stand out in the online space. 

Because of that, you need every advantage you can get. You should be using every tool at your disposal to promote your brand, and your products, and get a leg up on competitors. AI and Manual Merchandising are two of those tools that you can use to strengthen and better your business. 

The Power of Merchandising

As we already mentioned briefly, merchandising can be an incredibly powerful tool. Merchandising can drive sales, encourage customers to buy more, change their shopping habits, and so much more. When used correctly, it can help you increase sales and better meet the needs of your customers. 

Digging deeper though, merchandising can be make or break. Let’s say you run a seafood market. You just got in a shipment of incredibly fresh fish that is premium quality and hard to find at most stores. That can be a big boon for your business. If you merchandise it properly. 

But let’s say you just put the fish in with all the other products in your fresh fish category. That fish might end up on the third or fourth page of your online store. Instead of customers seeing it first, many of them might not even see it at all. Sales for that product are low, and eventually, you have to drop the price because it loses freshness over time. 

And now let’s say you instead decided to make that fish a featured item. It shows up right on the homepage when customers first go to your site, and it’s right at the front of the fresh fish section. Customers see it, and lots of them decide to splurge for something special. You sell out of the fish quickly, with customers already waiting for you to get it in stock again.

That’s the power of merchandising. It can help you make a product a must-have item, make it sell out, and keep customers coming back for more. Or it can hide a product, let it get ignored, and ultimately hurt your bottom line. 

As an online store owner, you want to make sure that you’re doing everything you can to help your products sell. And our AI and Manual merchandising tools can help you do just that. 

Save Time and Increase Efficiency

It’s also important to talk about the other side of AI and Manual Merchandising, which is how it helps you run and manage your business. 

Keeping an online store running can be incredibly time-consuming and stressful, especially if you have a physical store on top of that. You need every tool you can get that will streamline the process, increase efficiency, and save you time. 

However, you also have to make sure that time saving doesn’t come at a cost. Lots of tools and technologies help you save time, but the trade-off is lower-quality output. Saving time is great, but is it really worth it if it means decreased sales or providing a lesser customer experience? 

That’s why we work hard to ensure our features save you time while also providing the high-quality output that you expect. Our AI and Manual Merchandising features will not only help you save money, but they will also provide high-quality merchandising that can boost sales. 

With our service, efficiency doesn’t come at the cost of quality. You can get high-quality work done quickly, which is exactly what you need as a business owner. 

Merchandising with Local Express

As a business, you deserve the best tools and technologies possible that will make your life easier and your business more successful. AI and manual merchandising are powerful features that can help you boost sales, save time, and better market your store and products. Take advantage of these features and take your business to new heights. 

Stop waiting and get in touch with us today! We are ready to help you and your business thrive in the ecommerce space. And with a powerful suite of tools like ours, you can be confident you’ll have everything you need. So get started with Local Express!