For retail stores to sell their products, they need to attract people inside and keep them interested as they shop. Promotion is the key, and the best way is by using store displays.
Humans are visual creatures, and most information we process is through sight. That’s why visual merchandising is so crucial in retail. Are you lost with how to promote your items in your storefront? Here are some of the best ways to set up retail store displays.
1. Create a Store Theme
You need to have a unique identity for your business and brand, and by having a consistent theme throughout the store, any displays you use will only add to the cohesiveness of the entire space. If you are going modern or industrial, you don’t want wooden crates to display your wares.
There is wiggle room to make your display shelving stand out, but make sure they fit your store’s layout’s general look and feel. If you are selling winter gear, emerge the customers in a frigid setting with paint colours and unifying elements. This immersive display environment draws people in and has a powerful purchasing effect.
2. Keep Your Displays Well Lit
The right lighting draws people to it like a moth to a flame. You can have the best products that everyone is looking for, but if it is presented in a dull, low-lit area, no one is going o to find them. You need to make your displays stand out, and great lighting is the key.
Accent lighting highlights a specific area and is much brighter than ambient lights. You can direct them from above or below to showcase individual products. LED strips and backlighting are versatile and flexible, so you can illuminate anything you need and lit display cases are a must.
3. Portable Displays
When setting up your products on display, you want to have flexibility. Portable displays allow you to move them around easily and change traffic flow to better use space. Do you have a small space? You can take advantage of the exterior of your shop by moving displays outside or into the walkway of a mall. This expands your marketing square footage and gets more eyes on your displays as people pass by.
Use banner stands to help draw attention and promote sales by placing them next to your product displays. They can be shuffled around your space as needed to draw attention to specific items. Garment racks can also be moved around the store, and it is a great clothing display that is portable. Mannequins also are mobile display props that can be shuffled around to different sections of your store and redressed for the seasons.
4. Encourage Interaction
While the eyes draw customers in, you want them to use all their senses when shopping at your store.
Create your displays to encourage people to touch and feel your products. Take some items out of their packaging so people can pick them up. Use scents in your display as well. You can run an essential oil diffuser or potpourri sachets on shelves to attract buyers with enticing smells. If you sell food items, give a little sample for people to taste. Have audio matches your themed display, so customers get caught up in the experience and need to buy your products.
5. POS Displays
When people are lining up at your cash register, you need to keep marketing to them. They are a captive audience, and if you have a great display at the point of purchase, you will capture impulse purchases before they pay and go.
Less expensive items work well in this area because customers don’t have to think too hard about spending a few more bucks. Make sure to display your items in easy to reach areas bedside the line up with a floor display stand or countertop unit.
6. Cross Merchandise
You build displays to attract people to them and make a purchase. As long as you got them there, why not sell them something else? People need to be catered to, and the easier you make it for them to buy your products, the better.
If you have a clothing store, along with your winter jacket display, include an area where you have gloves and toques. Add a few pairs of warm, woolly boots so they can visualize the entire outfit.
If displaying food, build the entire meal. Hotdogs need buns and condiments, and a deli platter pairs perfectly with crackers, pickles and cheese. The idea is to cross-promote your items to encourage people to see the value in buying them all.
Other display tips include:
- Dump bins for small packaged items
- Kids displays for toys and goodies
- Different colours that evoke emotions
- Endcap displays, so you use up all your real estate for promotion
- Creative signage and messaging that gets noticed
You need to use exciting retail displays to increase traffic flow and convert them into sales. Don’t let potential customers walk past your store. Use these ideas to level up your retail store display and watch how your sales increase.
