Visual merchandising is something that we're all familiar with when it comes to an in-store environment. From shop window displays to the sweets around the checkouts, it's hard not to be influenced by careful product positioning. But when it comes to online visual merchandising, working out how to adapt in-store techniques and where to start can seem like a daunting task.

So where should you start? Here are my top five tips to help you ensure your online visual merchandising is as effective as possible:

Imagine you've got a physical store. Now imagine you don't bother to present any structure or implement any visual merchandising at all. Everything is essentially just thrown wherever it lands. It's the king of all jumble sales.

This would never happen in a physical store. Millions of pounds are spent carefully planning not just the journey the customer takes through the store using display furniture, but positioning the right product in the right places throughout their journey. This is essential to the success of a stores sales.

The absolute same is true when it comes to online visual merchandising. If careful planning isn't put into the journey your customer takes once they land on your site, your sales are certain to suffer.

The most frequent question I am asked by a client about to embark on an A/B test is, “How do we increase our conversion/revenue". If I could give you a 100% guaranteed to work answer to that question I would be writing this from the rooftop pool of my Manhattan penthouse, but I'm not! While an increase in conversion and revenue is always everyone's end goal, you need to look at it from the right perspective to hit your target.

So let's start with that and do the workings out: what do your customers actually want?