The online shelf layout determines whether a visitor gets inspired and completes a purchase. To structure your product listings for optimal commercial impact, Tweakwise uses a layered model. This model ensures the perfect balance: your webshop runs automatically on smart data, while you as a merchant maintain control at every level.
Below, we discuss the 5 layers of merchandising that guide you step-by-step from a solid store foundation to a fully personalized shopping experience.
Then, we will explain the hierarchy of those 5 layers.
The 5 Layers of Merchandising
1. Default Merchandising - Sorting Rules
The concept: The foundation of your merchandising strategy. Here, you define what is structurally important for your business and how products are sorted by default. This determines the automatic standard order of your catalog.
Comparison to a physical store: The basic layout of the store. Products are logically arranged on shelves based on sales, availability, and commercial value, ensuring the store always has a solid baseline presentation.
Concrete examples:
Steering on margin, stock, popularity, and conversion using general sorting rules.
Automatically promoting products with high stock levels and good margins.
Integrating Google Analytics 4 (GA4) data (such as popular or most-viewed products) to continuously optimize sorting.
Read all about sorting rules here.
2. Commercial Merchandising - Boost & Bury
The concept: The commercial layer. Here, you dynamically or structurally fine-tune the sorting based on commercial choices—both temporarily (campaigns) and structurally (for example, per search query, category, or brand strategy)—without altering the foundation.
Comparison to a physical store: Promotions and fixed commercial decisions. Think of seasonal feature displays, but also conscious choices like consistently presenting specific brands at eye level.
Concrete examples:
Setting up campaigns for sales, specific promotions, or the launch of a new season.
Temporarily pushing new collections (boosting) or moving end-of-life products to the background (burying).
Structurally steering on specific search terms to strengthen category or brand strategies.
Read all about the Boost & Bury module here.
3. Manual Merchandising - Product Push
The concept: The manual layer. Although the focus is on automation and data-driven management, this layer allows you to manually take control on selected pages whenever necessary.
Comparison to a physical store: A store manager who decides one morning to manually rearrange three specific items—for instance, placing them on a display table near the entrance because they need extra attention today.
Concrete examples:
Explicitly placing spotlight products or key commercial focus items at the top within the available space.
An incidental manual push for remaining stock that needs to clear immediately.
Read all about Product Push here.
4. Category Merchandising - Builder
The concept: The visual and structural layer. Here, you define how category pages and product listings are visually constructed and how different elements on the page interact with one another.
Comparison to a physical store: The full layout and architecture of the shelf and shop floor. This determines where brand partner displays go, where atmosphere visuals are hung, and how customer traffic flows through the store.
Concrete examples:
Defining fixed product positions in the listing (whether or not powered by data from your CDP or Retail Media tools).
Displaying branded product placements, banners, and visuals interspersed between products.
Utilizing dynamic product tiles to break up the presentation.
Read all about the Builder and personalization here.
5. Personal Merchandising - Personalization
The concept: The individual layer. Once your foundation, commercial steering, and page structure are solid, Personal Merchandising serves as the ultimate step. It personalizes the shopping experience for each unique visitor based on individual behavior.
Comparison to a physical store: The exact same store with the same layout and shelves—but with a personal shopper walking alongside the customer, subtly pointing out items that perfectly match their taste and size.
Concrete examples:
Displaying "Recently viewed" items and "Customers like you also bought" recommendations.
Applying personal product recommendations, personalized boosts (within the Commercial Merchandising layer), and personal product sequences on specific positions (within the Category Merchandising layer).
Important: How does the rule hierarchy work?
When multiple rules from different layers are active on the same product simultaneously, Tweakwise applies a strict order of priority where higher layers take precedence over lower layers:
The fixed order of priority
Builder (Layer 4) is always in charge: The fixed positions and grid layouts you configure via the Builder always take precedence over everything else. No Boost, Bury, or sorting rule can alter or override a fixed Builder position.
Product Push / Pins (Layer 3): Fills in manually pushed products into the available slots that have not been claimed by the Builder.
Sorting Rules + Boost & Bury (Layers 1 & 2): Exclusively fills in the remaining open spaces in the grid. Boost & Bury rules purely affect sorting rules and can never overwrite a Builder or Product Push position.
Concrete examples:
Example 1: If a green hoodie is placed on position 3 via the Builder, but a maximum Bury rule is active on the same product, the product remains on position 3. The Builder takes priority, and the Bury rule only applies to the remaining open spots within the standard sorting.
Example 2: The Builder has filled positions 1, 2, 4, and 5 with components (not including the green hoodie). A maximum boost is active on the green hoodie. The green hoodie will appear on position 3, as this is the first position not filled by the Builder.
Example 3: When both a Product Push and a Boost or Bury rule are active on the same item, the Product Push takes precedence over the Boost or Bury rule.
Example 4: If a green hoodie is set to position 1 via Product Push, but placed on position 3 via the Builder, it stays on position 3.
Example 5: The Builder has filled positions 1, 2, 4, and 5 with components (excluding the green hoodie). The Product Push has pinned the green hoodie to position 1. Because the Builder takes priority and Product Push applies to slots not filled by the Builder, the green hoodie is placed on position 3.
Exception
An exception to the rule that higher layers take precedence occurs when an item is placed even higher by the default sorting. In that case, the highest position takes priority.
Concrete example:
There is an active Builder where the green hoodie is placed at position 8. Positions 1 through 7 are not explicitly filled, so they are populated by the default sorting. Due to this default sorting, the green hoodie ends up at position 3. Here, the principle applies that the highest position takes priority, so the hoodie is assigned position 3.
Open spaces and duplicates
Filling open spaces: All positions in the grid that are not explicitly claimed by the Builder or a Product Push are automatically filled by your standard sorting (Sorting Rules including any Boosts/Buries).
No duplicates: Tweakwise maintains page integrity and never displays duplicate products. If a product is already positioned (e.g., placed by the Builder or a Product Push), it is automatically filtered out and skipped when regular sorting fills the remaining open spots.
💡 Tip: Want to see exactly which layer or rule placed a product? Open the Demo Shop, where icons will indicate whether an item was placed by the Builder, Product Push, or a Boost/Bury rule. No icon means the position was determined by regular sorting.
Summary
The five merchandising layers build logically upon each other:
Default Merchandising: Determines the reliable, data-driven standard order (e.g., using GA4 data).
Commercial Merchandising: Fine-tunes commercially using boosts & buries.
Manual Merchandising: Provides extra manual control where genuinely needed.
Category Merchandising: Defines the visual presentation and page architecture.
Personal Merchandising: Makes the overall experience dynamic and maximally relevant for every individual visitor.