Merchandising

Merchandising is the process of contributing to the sale of products to a retail consumer by displaying for-sale products in ways that enticed to purchase more items or products.

Terminology and scope

The term merchandising encompasses a range of practices used to present and promote products as they move toward consumers. In physical retail environments, it refers to decisions regarding the arrangement, pricing, packaging, and visual display of goods in a store. The word is also used to describe promotional items bearing a company's name or logo such as shirts, mugs, or small giveaways.

A more formal usage appears in licensed merchandising, in which characters, trademarks, or other forms of intellectual property are placed on commercial products under contractual agreements. With the expansion of e-commerce, the term also includes the ways products are displayed online, from image presentation to search and recommendation systems that assist customers in locating items without a physical shelf.

History

The principles of merchandising began to take shape in the 19th century, with the transition from small shops to wider sales areas and the emergence of modern supermarkets. Department stores in Europe and in the United States began to use designed display windows, conscious planning of the customers' movement in the store, and deliberately arranged shelves to attract buyers and emphasize products. These processes are considered the turning point in which the design and layout of the store changed from merchants' intuition into a systematic tool for increasing sales.

During the 20th century, with the spread of retail chains and self-service stores, merchandising developed into a recognized and studied field.