The use of merchandising in e-commerce

The article analyzes the main tools and approaches of merchandising and assesses the possibility of their use in online trading. It describes the difference between the concepts of electronic merchandising and usability, as well as their relationship. The author draws analogies between the tasks of merchandising in traditional trade and online stores. The features of the formation of consumer flows in e-Commerce and electronic tools to solve similar problems in e-Commerce, taking into account its distinctive features. The paper describes electronic merchandising tools in such areas as inventory control (database systems), horizontal and vertical distribution (navigation and cataloging), pos-materials (text, graphics and multimedia elements), the atmosphere of the trading floor (elements of sensitive marketing) and contact staff (consultants and chatbots), describes the differences between them and their offline counterparts. Particular attention is paid to the importance of working with navigation elements on the websites of stores, creating an effective catalog structure, different types of electronic catalogs and placement of goods in them. The emphasis is placed on the need to provide customers with an extensive system of filters that allow you to structure the search results on the site, due to the specifics of buying behavior in online stores.