VISUAL MERCHANDISING FOR RETAILERS

Simply stated, visual merchandising is presenting products
in order to sell them! 

The initial point of interaction with a potential customer is in the window displays of your storefront.  Good displays shout to the world that you care about your image and merchandise and, most importantly, about entertaining, informing and educating your customers.  They count upon seeing new things in the windows. 

Likewise, the interior of the store deserves the same attention as the windows   Frequent changes encourages your customer visiting his normal section to wander about to discover additional novelties.

The importance of visual merchandising is to:

• highlight merchandise to sell it

• introduce and explain new products

• give ideas on how to use it

• encourage the customer to enter and shop

• create ambiance and thus a positive image of the store

Display concepts can be based on:

• seasons

• special occasions or holidays

• color

• trends in activities (fishing, scrapbooking, etc.)

•  themes (Victorian; children, etc.)

• events of the community

There are many locations within a store where displays can be set up:

• front windows

• small platform at the entrance

• end caps

• display or product cases (for particular types of merchandise such as jewelry)

• behind the check-out counter

• on counters or ledges

• designated display areas (assigned levels of prominence due to traffic flow)

Now with a theme of the display determined and the location for it, let us examine the components of a display. 

• merchandise: use product of similar design or theme to help sell each other

• props: items should be used to enhance the product for sale or help in furthering the story or theme        

• lighting:  use proper lighting to make the product “pop” in the display.     Incandescent spots are very effective here.  Lighting needs to come from more than one direction for a balanced presentation.

• signage: use professional, never handwritten, signs regardless of the size

There are five design tools employed to stop busy people in their tracks and cause them to really look at an eye-catching display.

• Color is the number one element that attracts attention in a display.  Choose the combinations carefully considering the color of the product and the lighting environment.

• Angles direct your customer’s eyes where you want them to go!  Varying heights of props and merchandise, angles of mannequin arms, free hanging graphics, light, or plants all create angles.

• Motion always creates interest and can be achieved by a fan, an electric train, the small motors of motorized displays, or blinking lights.

• Simplicity of the display sends a message of higher cost. (A large window filled to the brim suggests low prices.)

• Repetition of an item says that the store really believes in that product and usually has a strong influence on the customer!  If one of them is slightly askew or if an unusual prop is incorporated, even more interest is created. 

Imagination sets the great apart from the good!  Go with highly unusual approaches and watch the traffic increase.

My ten years’ experience of owning and managing a gift and book store equips me to help you with your merchandising challenges.  I reconfigured a large multi-cubicle space into a new retail store and designed everything from the work flow layout to the general décor.  Merchandising was a major part of growing a tiny mom-and-pop store into a very successful retailer participating in two national trade/marketing groups.  Let me share my knowledge and together we can grow sales!