Take a look around your store. Does what you see entice you to come on in and see what you have to offer? Or does it turn you off with its bland and boring displays?
Visual merchandising is about creating enticement, anticipation, and excitement. Use these tips to turn your store into an exciting shopping destination that customers will be drawn into:
Start with your storefront
If you're using handmade signs, poor lighting, and badly put together or nonexistent displays in your storefront, you're likely driving customers away.
To really entice customers to step inside your store AND spend according to the price points your products deserve, you have to step it up a notch. Your storefront is all about your image.
Storefront signage and displays should be of quality materials, well lit, and esthetically pleasing if they are truly to enhance your visual merchandising.
Set yourself apart from the competition
Too many retailers go for "same old, same old" concepts that other retailers also use. You need to set yourself apart from the competition.
Sit down and decide what defines you as a retailer. Who are you? Who are your customers? Why do they shop with you? What can you offer them that other "similar" retailers (including larger chains) can't? Use these and other questions to determine your own identity as a retailer. Be bold, be daring, and find your niche by meeting customers' needs uniquely, personally. When you can do that, you'll have a much easier time making your visual merchandising efforts your very own – not someone else's.
Use lighting judiciously
Just the right amount of product-accent and general lighting will highlight the products you want your customers to see and make their shopping experience more pleasant at the same time.
Display items so that customers can see how they'll use them
Mannequins can display clothing so that customers get a sense of how clothing items look together. Or, create displays that denote this, such as by artfully draping clothing items together in display cases to show how they look when worn.
Use focal points in displays
Displays need a focal point, or they can become "busy" and overwhelming. What display feature do you want your customers to look at first? Highlight that as your focal point and then build the rest of the display around it.
Pay attention to visual balance
The best displays use light and dark colors and large and small objects together for visual "texture." Put darker or larger items that appear "heavier" near the bottom of the display, and smaller, lighter-colored ones at the top for best visual balance.
Display complementary items together
Visual merchandising can have a great impact when you display seemingly unrelated but complementary items together. This makes the display more intriguing, and highlights otherwise overlooked products' usefulness at the same time.
Keep it simple
The best visual merchandising displays are always simple. Crisp, clean, and to the point, customers can take in your display at a glance.
Signage should "brand" you, be easy to read, and concise
Use the same sign font, graphics and background consistently throughout your store to create a brand. The messages they contain should be easy to read and concise... again, everything at a glance.
Remember the call to action
Calls to action placed in front of product displays create a sense of urgency that entices customers to buy. Keep them short, simple, and bold: "Today only! Clothing sale! Everything marked down 50%!" Customers never tire of these types of sales, so indulge them – and improve your own profits at the same time.
