Brick-and-mortar retail stores still have a role to play in the digital age. They offer shoppers a unique experience that can’t be replicated online. A key part of the enhanced physical store experience is the window displays that entice shoppers inside and in-store displays that encourage customers to explore products and then bite the bullet and buy. So to succeed in retail on location, be intentional with your store space by setting up your visual merchandise in a way that engages shoppers and drives sales.
The Impact of Effective Product Displays
Why put so much effort into how you display merchandise? Ultimately, it impacts your bottom line in various ways.
Increase in Sales
Visually compelling displays capture attention, garner interest and promote the value of products. It gives items an oomph that helps convince customers to buy.
Engaging Customer Experience
Intentional displays make your store more interesting and entice customers to explore your store and what you have to offer.
Clear Differentiation from Competitors
It’s an easy way to establish your brand and differentiate it from competitors. We know the Apple Store for its clean aesthetic and IKEA for its winding displays you can get lost in.
Effective Brand Communication
When customers visit your store, you want to leave a memorable impression with the hope of winning loyal customers. Communicating what your brand is all about through visual displays creates a loyalty-building impression.
Elements of Successful Product Displays
When putting together product displays, consider these key factors.
Visual appeal: Importance of aesthetics and visual arrangements
A retail display that looks good by default makes the product it is displaying look good. Make the display visually interesting and compelling for your target audience.
Interactive displays: Engaging customers through interaction
A display is immediately more attractive if it engages multiple senses. Give customers the opportunity to interact with products.
Storytelling through displays: Communicating brand narratives
There is an emotional element to making purchases as well as a logical one. Show you understand the wants, desires and aspirations of your customers by telling stories through your displays.
Utilizing technology: Incorporating tech for enhanced experiences
Create a hybrid shopping experience by adding a technological element to in-person shopping. Digital signs are one example of this. Instead of a stagnant message, it could display a compelling brand video.
10 Product Display Ideas To Try
Would you consider using any of these product display ideas to enhance your store space?
Take customers on a journey
Storytelling is a great way to entice customers and can be easily communicated through retail displays of visual merchandise. A shopper might not know anything about your business but if they see an eye-catching window display that they connect with because it emulates their vision of their life, they’ll step in-store to explore your products. Sell items by setting up store displays in a way that communicates your brand and what your customers want.
Choose colors wisely
Colors alone send a message to shoppers about who you are as a brand and therefore can attract the right kind of people to your business. For example, retail displays with a neutral color pallet will attract minimalists while displays that include bright and poppy colors will entice a completely different audience. What kind of people are you looking to sell to? What kind of colors will capture their interest?
Bundle and theme products
How you set up your store space impacts how customers engage with products. Make it easy for customers by bundling merchandise in thematic displays. The theme could be a category of products that are often bought together. Clothes shops do this by displaying clothing items that look good as an outfit on mannequins. Or the theming could be seasonal such as grouping Christmas merchandise together.
Create an immersive and interactive experience
Good retail displays engage customer interest. One way to do this is to make it immersive and interactive. Again, fashion stores do this well as they usually have fitting rooms where customers can try on and experience products before buying them. Alternatively, you could use technology to your advantage. Digital catalogs on screens around the store allow customers to look up the item, an interaction that eases the shopping experience.
Clarify through signage
Don’t rely on customers to ask questions. A lot of customers will walk away if they are unsure about something instead of finding a store assistant to ask. Use bigger signs to direct customers to different sections of the store. You can also provide details through signs. As well as including the product name and price on individual product signs, add an extra touch by explaining the benefits of the product. You can use signage to secure a sale!
Set the mood with lighting
Colors and smells create an atmosphere in retail stores. So does lighting. Of course, you want everything to be well-lit so customers can see what they are buying. You can get creative with it too. The lighting choices you make depend on your branding and the lifestyle your customers want to buy into. You could use spotlight fixtures to highlight top-selling items to draw attention to them. You could use neon signs as another way to create a focal point. Your lighting could simply be decorative and set the mood. Consider what would be most attractive for your customers.
Let shelving do the talking
Traditional shelving, clothing racks and other display items are, well, a bit boring and predictable. Why not get creative with shelving and display pieces? Repurpose items that aren’t initially thought of as display pieces or redesign shelves with a twist. Using an unconventional shelf is another way to draw attention to certain areas of the store.
Spotlight bestsellers and promotions
If you only do one thing to elevate your store design, let it be using a visual merchandise strategy to highlight bestsellers and promotional items. Why? If a customer is only going to buy one thing from your store, it’s probably going to either be a bestseller as it’s such a popular item or a promotional product because they have the bonus of getting a good deal. Use eye-catching displays to spotlight this kind of inventory.
Add multimedia elements
A simple way to make retail displays more compelling no matter your retail merchandise or target audience is by adding visual interest through multiple textures. Instead of using a single material like wood or metal on all displays, mix it up with different materials that complement or contrast.
Keep it simple
You don’t need to use every single visual merchandise strategy to improve your retail displays. Usually simple works best. You don’t want to overwhelm and confuse customers or take away from the products you are selling. Focus on what makes sense for your business and customer base.
Adapting to Emerging Trends In Product Display
The Importance of Staying Up To Date With Trends
What works in product displays does change with trends coming in and out of style to meet changing customer demands. To keep your store design fresh, up-to-date and optimized to create a great customer experience, keep an eye on trsends in merchandise displays.
Keeping Your Product Display Flexible To Match Customer Preferences
Generally, it’s a good idea to change up your store displays every month or so to align with trends and keep up with new customer preferences. As well as considering trends and preferences in display design, consider trends and preferences in the products you want to highlight. Bestsellers vary by season or as a result of wider retail trends throughout the year.
Recent Product Display Trends
A trend to keep in mind at the moment is omnichannel retail shopping. This is when shoppers browse online and buy in-store and vice versa. Therefore, there should be consistency between online stores and in-store displays. We are also seeing in-store displays that are particularly aesthetically pleasing making their way onto social media through customer posts. It could be worth considering visual merchandise as a marketing opportunity.
How To Create a Creative Product Display
When getting started with creative product displays, follow this step-by-step checklist for success.
- Take the customer’s perspective. As they are walking through the store, what is going to stand out to them and create a visually pleasing shopping experience?
- Choose your bestsellers to spotlight. Decide on the products you want to build your displays around – your top-selling products.
- Section the store logically. The flow of the store should make sense to customers and make it easy to find different types of products.
- Include a section for new products. They are items that could be of interest to your customers and as the most recently produced merchandise, you’re probably going to want to make some money off it soon!
- Embed visual stimulation. A variety of products, colors, textures and designs keep customers engaged and in-store.
- Decide on your signage. Product signs help customers to make purchase decisions so signage should be a well-considered part of your store design.
- Bundle impulse-buy purchases. The displays at the till are a great opportunity to boost sales. It works best with small, lower-priced items that customers buy on impulse while waiting in line.
How you present your products matters in the digital world too. Use Podium’s streamlined tools to improve how you connect with customers through your website, online review sites, text marketing and more. See what Podium’s omnichannel retail strategy could do for your retail store.
