Important Elements of Visual Merchandising
Visual Merchandising is the art and technique of displaying the merchandise in an attractive manner so that it will entice customers to purchase it. This will help in increasing the sales and profitability of the retail store. Most people think Visual Merchandising is rocket science, but it very creative and satisfying job to be done. They know it is very important in retail, but don't know what is it exactly and how it is to be done.
Strong Visual Merchandising has a big impact on the customer shopping experience in the retail store. By using the below 5 strategies you will be able to achieve desirable and impactful Visual Merchandising.
1) Colour is King in Visual Merchandising:
Colour is a very strong metric and it will definitely make or break your Visual Displays. The display can be very good if the colors are coordinated well or else it might create an erratic display. We should always use contrasting colors while displaying the merchandise like black and white, red and green, yellow and purple, blue and orange to create an attractive display. Many time we lose the sight and colors has the ability to attract the eyes.
Always remember one principle - Wherever your eyes go, the feet will follow. So we have to use the colors to catch the eyes of the customers and it will make them check out the display and products displayed.
2) Always remember to Create a Focal Point:
Focal Point in Visual Merchandise is the area to which your eyes are immediately drawn towards the display. Focal Points are the hotspots that can increase sales by 200%. We have to examine the display from the customer's point of view - the top, floor, and from all angles. Usually, focal points are positioned high so that the customers can see them easily.
The focal point of your store is the first thing you want your customers to see when they enter the store. In a retail store, the Mannequins acts as a focal point that draws the attention of the customers. Customers should always see the clothes on the mannequins and not the actual mannequins. So here the merchandise is the focal point.
3) Create a Story in Display:
Always communicate to customers that what is there for them in the store. It has to be non-verbal communication through Visual Merchandising. Always use the powerful and sales enabling signage to show the advantages of buying the product. The signage should always focus on explaining the benefits of the products and it should tell how the product will be useful for them rather than just communicating the price through signage.
Remember this has to be done in brief by communicating the price proposition. By creating the story or theme we are helping the customer to understand the product and help them in their buying decision. A classic example is that lifestyle graphics are very popular and useful in telling the story. Here the images speak or communicate more than the words.
4) Expose Maximum Merchandise to Customers:
The above sentence means that we have to display a maximum number of options to customers without compromising on the display standards or without spoiling the Visual aesthetics. The display should be well-designed and impactful. The more merchandise customers see they are more likely to buy them. Consider the loop layout store which is used by many retailers, this kind of layout will expose customers to the maximum number of merchandise. We have to make sure that the display is clean and crisp by having as many displays as possible.
5) Use the Empty Space Very Wisely:
In most of the retail stores, there will be space that will be underutilized. One such example is the space between the merchandise displayed and the ceiling which can be used for things like signage providing information about the products and brands. Also, empty spaces can be used for displaying the lifestyle graphics that will help customers to associate with your products.
One important thing to display in the empty space within the customer's sight is that we should display impulse merchandise so that it will help in incremental sales. Also one can use empty space by keeping exclusive brand fixtures - for example in Apparel store small empty space can be utilized by keeping perfume counters or jewelry counters. This will help in space utilization and it will also give some revenue to the retail store.
Photo by Tembela Bohle from Pexels
Aesthetic pleasure for customer and eye catching right placement is win win shopping experience. Fashion retailers need to more focus this aspect .value retailer certainly use visual display in section fresh produce ,grocery .
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