Ecommerce Visual Merchandising Tips

Due to the pandemic, many furniture manufacturers and retailers have switched to eCommerce making it even more competitive than it was before. Today, it’s difficult for brands to stand out from the crowd and draw buyers to their website. Manufacturers need to learn effective eCommerce visual merchandising tips to capture the consumer’s attention and get them to stay.

However, even getting more visitors on the site is not a guarantee they will buy a product. Honestly, most of them will spend just a few minutes on the homepage, scroll it a little and leave. To make prospects interested in goods and get them to become leads, brands have to provide an inviting and branded customer experience.

As a 3D rendering company, we have been creating visuals for furniture makers for years. However, in our experience, manufacturers and retailers have to use CGI wisely to get the best results from it. Here are our 5 tips on how to boost your eCommerce visual merchandising with CG tools. Let’s dive in!

#1. Use Your Website Homepage as a Virtual Showcase with Eye-Catching CG Imagery

First and foremost, brands must make sure their eCommerce visual merchandising works right from the homepage and all the best sellers, new goods, and discounts are on display. Those could be individually standing objects as well as a slider or a carousel with CG images of the collections. With a website’s front page design being engaging and cohesive, homepage merchandising successfully moves prospects down a purchasing funnel so they find their way to product pages much quicker.  

With photorealistic product CGI, a brand will appeal to the website’s visitors as a trustworthy eCommerce seller of quality goods. For instance, close-up views allow buyers to evaluate the quality of materials, upholstery, and furniture fittings even without zooming. Also, when it comes to armchairs, beds and mattresses, a cut-out view would be the best visual proof of the top quality design. 

#2. Offer Buyers Product Recommendations with Related White Background Pics 

Collections and related goods are particularly effective eCommerce visual merchandising tools if one knows how the recommendation system works. As soon as a website visitor viewed or added one item to the cart, an e-store gives them tips on finding individual related products from the same collection to get a complete look.

The latter not only introduces the brand’s visual aesthetics but also highlights the best pieces and motivates customers to explore an e-catalog. With 3D room sets, sellers don’t sell just furniture but offer their customers certain lifestyles and experiences, which is exactly what they are looking for. 

Manufacturers can use a CG lifestyle pic with matching items and tag furniture, decor, and textiles so buyers can shop the whole collection. With such visual merchandising tip, they get inspiration for their home design using all the furniture and accessories to recreate it in real life.

#3. Provide Shoppers with Advanced Customization Options Using a 3D Configurator

One of the biggest advantages of eCommerce is the opportunity to personalize goods to your liking. That’s where online stores beat traditional ones — they provide digital configurators for instant customization. 

With a 3D configurator, buyers don’t have to wait for the actual piece being custom made to see the result. Instead, they are able to personalize the design of a furniture piece by selecting colors and textures from a customizer menu. This way shoppers can not only play with the design but also learn more about a product before buying it.

On top of that, a 3D model configurator is a visual merchandising element that can be easily integrated into any website. Manufacturers can add it to a product page or place it on the main page to capture the prospect’s attention at once. 

#4. Boost Ecommerce Visual Merchandising with Photoreal 3D Animation

Since shoppers can’t touch and test goods on online platforms, it’s really difficult for them to make a conscious purchase decision. After all, pictures alone are not enough to understand how an object works, right? So one of the most important eCommerce visual merchandising tips for brands is to use 3D product animation to show an item in action.

There are different types of 3D animation that work for various purposes. For instance, presentation videos with music, voiceover, and dynamic camera flythroughs are best for introducing new collections and goods. The other example is an explanatory “how to do it” 3D animation that showcases how a furniture piece works. It could also be an effective assembly instruction that shows how buyers can put furniture parts together into different configurations. 

Because 3D animation is not only an informative but also highly entertaining type of visual merchandising, it can be used for landing pages to promote new collections and enhance product listings. And if an eCommerce website has a marketing blog or video section in an online catalog, 3D animation would become a great way to capture visitor’s attention and make them browse pages for more engaging content.

#5. Make the Whole Experience not Only Visual but Interactive Incorporating a 360° View

While shopping in brick-and-mortar shops, buyers enjoy interacting with a product as it helps them understand its design and quality. Again, in web stores, they can’t touch or rotate goods. Therefore, it would be nice to provide customers with a similar experience while they’re browsing an online catalog. 

Our tip is to add a 360° view to the listing so buyers will be able to rotate a furniture piece 360 degrees to see it in detail. Also, sellers can provide them with a personalization option using the 3D customizer as mentioned above. For an even more immersive experience, they can adapt rotating 3D models for VR/AR apps that allow buyers to virtually place the item into their interiors.

Examine case-studies of CGI projects to see real examples of using 3D technology for marketing purposes.

See our case studies

There are many eCommerce visual merchandising tips on how to give your customers a better shopping experience with advanced CG tools. Firstly, you can add more interactivity and customization with a 360° view and 3D customizer. Secondly, you can use the best lifestyles and silo renders for related goods and recommendations. And last but not least, show items in action with 3D animation.

Can’t wait to try photorealistic CGI for your business? Reach out to us for 3D rendering services and get jaw-dropping visuals that will skyrocket your sales!

Irene Lewis

Content Writer

Irene is a content writer. She previously worked for interior and chess magazines. When not writing articles, Irene finds great pleasure in collecting Star Trek memorabilia, reading Medieval poetry and playing banjo.