The e-commerce product mix is the mixture, compound, family, portfolio, group or collection of products that a virtual store makes available for online commerce. That simple!
Such products may have different characteristics, such as:
– The specialty: brand superiority
– The frequency of comparison: some are more confronted than others
– The frequency of purchase: some are bought more than others
– The novelty: innovations in market launch
– Seasonality: which have higher output in certain seasons
– The trend: propensity to consume one type of product in an era
– Extensibility: number of collections (families) of products
– The depth: number of items in each product collection
Knowing this, it is possible to assemble a mix of products in different formats. Take a look at some of them below:
– Extensive: multiple families, each with many products
– Shortened: several families, each with few products
– Deep: a family with many products
– Shallow: a family with few products
– Shallow and on trend: group with few products that are in fashion
– Deep and seasonal: group with many products for a time of year
– Shortened with frequent purchase: families of products purchased a lot
As an example, a hypermarket works with an extensive product mix, as several families of products are sold on its premises, such as margarine, pasta, oils.
In addition to being extensive, the mix of a hypermarket is also profound, since it sells not just one, but several types of pasta, margarine, oils and other products.
So, note that, as with a color palette, you can mix the features until you get a mix with high sales potential. This mix, however, is never definitive. It changes as the market dances.
Let's say you're implementing an e-commerce platform for beverages. In that case, it would be possible to create a "deep and specialized" product mix, that is, a family of products from a segment recognized as "high quality," which could be "German beers," for example.
By selling only German beers, the public will start to remember your store whenever they want to have a “cold German blonde”. You will be seen as an expert in the field.
Once you dominate the German beer market, you can add another mix of products, which can be of the “shallow and on-trend” type, which will allow you to market some of the beers that are on trend (one or two of the best-selling market today).
Don't forget that, to create a quality product mix, you can use tools like Google Trends and the BCG Matrix, which will help you discover which products have the greatest sales potential.
