Automate Your Online Merchandising in 5 Easy Steps

Why should you invest more to automate your online merchandising? 

Prioritizing automation lets you streamline how your products are displayed and instantly adapt to what your customers and potential shoppers want. This means a more personalized automated shopping experience that builds long-term revenue and loyalty. 

Here are two compelling stats: 

• Automating merchandising with AI-driven tools can improve profitability as merchants are able to deliver more personalized and relevant product recommendations​ 

• DTC brands have reported an 85% increase in transaction volume and average order values (AOVs) due to implementing the right automation tools at the right merchandising touchpoints 

Plus, it keeps inventory in check, so you’re not stuck with too much or too little stock. According to the Shopify case study, retailers who automate inventory management to improve their inventory accuracy also see up to 40% year-over-year growth.

Basically, the ROAS on adding more automation is promising.

The trick is knowing how to use it to upgrade your strategies to pro level.

This post will help you do just that by giving you the exact steps to automate your online merchandising. 

Step #1: Adopt AI-Driven Personalized Product Bundling

The first step in automating online merchandising should be to add AI-driven personalized product bundling to your strategy. This will not only increase the likelihood of upselling and cross-selling but also set a solid foundation for higher AOVs and improved customer satisfaction from the outset. 

For instance, a sneaker brand could use AI to automatically pair popular sneaker models with complementary items like socks and shoe care kits based on a potential customer’s browsing and purchase history. If the customer frequently views or purchases running shoes, the AI might then bundle these with performance socks and a moisture-wicking headband. 

In short, anticipating customer needs drives higher average order values. Additionally, promoting relevant add-ons that customers are actively looking for also improves brand impressions. 

This is something Stitch Fix has been able to execute well. Their AI-driven algorithms are so advanced that they have a whole AI-driven algorithms tour dedicated to their systems. 

[Source: Stitch Fix] 

Step #2: Automate Customer Emotion Tracking to Guide Merchandising Decisions

The next step in automating your online merchandising is emotion tracking. This is a relatively new term for monitoring and analyzing customer sentiments expressed through reviews, social media, post-purchase surveys, and direct feedback for brands to better understand customer emotions.

 And when you add automation, it also responds in real-time. 

Simply put, automated customer emotion tracking helps brands tailor their merchandising decisions on the spot by continuously analyzing customer sentiment across reviews, social media, and direct feedback. 

For example, a specialty coffee roaster who sells rare, single-origin beans might use automated emotion tracking to monitor customer feedback on taste profiles and freshness. 

• If customers start expressing disappointment about the freshness of a particular batch, the brand would then be able to immediately adjust their merchandising by promoting fresher stock, offering discounts on the affected batch, or highlighting products that have received positive feedback. 

To duplicate this strategy, you need to choose and integrate the right tools. For sentiment analysis, this could be Medallia (formally known as MonkeyLearn), Lexalytics, Hootsuite, or Brandwatch. 

[Source: Brandwatch] 

Step #3: Leverage Micro-Segmentation for Hyper-Personalized Campaigns

Next, you want to implement micro-segmentation to target-specific customer groups with campaigns that are more customized to a specific customer's interests and behaviors. Think 1:1 personalization! 

But to do that, you must: 

• Break down your audiences into smaller, more precise segments based on very detailed analytics 

• Then, implement marketing strategies that directly speak to each group’s needs 

• Finally, leverage advanced tools to automatically identify these segments and automate website content 

BarkBox, a subscription service for dog owners, offers a good example of this tactic in practice. They are known to use detailed analytics to segment their customer base into niche groups from the start of a shopping journey, based on factors such as the dog’s breed, size, and specific preferences, like toy types or dietary needs. 

[Source: BarkBox] 

This allows them to create highly personalized subscription boxes that cater to each dog’s unique characteristics, sending toys, treats, and accessories that are most likely to engage their customers in a meaningful way. This, in turn, means improved ROAS. 

For example, they avoid promoting chicken-based treats to dogs with chicken allergies, or suggest products like dental care items specifically to older-dog owners. This is a strategy that helped them lift their YoY revenue per user by as much as 97%.  

Step #4: Optimize Product Displays Based on Inventory and Marketing Parameters

When it comes to online merchandising automation, you need a multi-parameter approach. This means your automation strategy factors in inventory levels and marketing objectives to maximize sales opportunities.

Why? 

By dynamically shifting focus to products that meet your current inventory status and marketing strategies (such as promoting items with higher profit margins or those that need to be sold quickly due to limited shelf life), you: 

• Balance supply and demand more effectively

• Avoid stockouts or overstocks while still meeting customer needs

• Maintain customer engagement without sacrificing profit margins 

Let’s say you’re a Shopify store specializing in artisanal honey in various rare flavors. If the inventory of limited-edition lavender honey is running low, the right automation tool would automatically prioritize its display on the homepage and in email campaigns to drive quick sales before it sells out. 

Simultaneously, if you want to boost sales of abundantly available, high-margin wildflower honey, you could prominently feature it alongside recipes and bundle offers, effectively balancing inventory levels while maximizing profit margins.

This is a strategy that Alembika has had a lot of success with. By leveraging personalized product recommendations in their offsite online merchandising strategies, they increased their conversion rate by 29% in their email marketing alone. 

[Source: Alembika] 

Wrap Up 

The bottom line is that automating your online merchandising is no longer a luxury — it's a necessity for staying competitive in today's eCommerce landscape.

From AI-driven product bundling to real-time emotion tracking and advanced tools like Kimonix, each of the steps in this post builds on the last to create a cohesive, automated system that maximizes both customer satisfaction and profitability. 

Ultimately, this strategic approach ensures your brand is agile, responsive, and primed to turn insights into action, driving sustained growth and customer loyalty.