How to Maximize Your Visual Merchandising
On the sales floor, it’s all about the customer experience, especially during the holidays. That experience determines how long shoppers stay, what they buy, and what they think about your store long after they’ve walked out the door. Let’s look at a few visual merchandising tricks of the trade you can use to set impressive displays and sell more product.
Fixturing. A fixture’s job is simple: hold the merchandise and quietly get out of the way. You shouldn’t see the fixture; you should see the product. Use a mix of basic fixturing, like wall units that maximize dollars per square foot, and specialty pieces that add personality and flavor to your floor.
Sight Lines. Shoppers make snap judgments about your store within the first ten seconds. They don’t know they’re doing it, but they’re deciding whether they want to stay or head for your closest competitor. Encourage them to stay by placing shorter fixtures near the front and taller ones toward the back. This creates open sight lines that let shoppers see into and through the store, guiding them naturally to different areas.
Speed Bump Displays. These are your “hello!” displays, the first thing shoppers see when they walk in. Small tables make great speed bumps. Use them to cross-merchandise related items, feature new or on-trend products, and tell mini product stories that grab attention.
Go Vertical. You can merchandise horizontally or vertically. Horizontal merchandising means displaying one product type per shelf: red sweaters on the top shelf, blue sweaters on the next, and so on. The problem? Limited exposure. If a shopper only glances at that top shelf, all they’ll ever see is red.
Vertical merchandising flips that. You place one facing of each product, every color, style, or pattern, on every shelf, creating a clean vertical “stripe” down the fixture. Picture a rainbow running from the top shelf to the bottom.
Vertical wins every time because it exposes shoppers to more of your assortment at every eye level. And since we naturally read from left to right, a vertical presentation pulls the eye across the entire display, encouraging customers to take in the whole selection. When you go vertical, every level is a buy level.
Throw ’Em a Curve. Visual Curve Merchandising uses slanted shelves or fixtures to expand the customer’s “strike zone”, the amount of product they can take in at a glance. Without realizing it, shoppers look up, down, and forward, giving your assortment more chances to shine.
Aromacology. Pleasant scents influence shopping behavior. It’s not magic, it’s science. Citrus energizes, vanilla calms, and the smell of chocolate chip cookies? That one boosts impulse buys, so put out the potpourri or try a diffuser. Companies like Aroma Retail and ScentAir offer just about any scent you can imagine, along with discreet diffusers you can tuck almost anywhere.
Merchandising your sales floor isn’t a job for “just anyone”, you need to know what you’re doing to do it well. Have fun with your displays, and your customers will, too!