Seasonal Superpower: The Strength of Visual Merchandising

With the growing popularity of multichannel retailing, it has become increasingly important to make sure that bricks and mortar stores are actually going to entice people to walk through the doors rather than sit at home and shop online. Not only that, in-store displays go a long way as far as persuading people to buy, so a store’s visual merchandising must do this as well. Seasonal shifts represent an important opportunity to not only change things around a bit, but also take advantage of emotional triggers and tap into them with your merchandising plan.  

Most people respond best to visual stimuli so you have to cater to this. Still not buying into the importance of this strategy? Maybe this will change your mind: according to a recent study done by Retailworks Inc., “good visual merchandising can increase sales from 10 percent to 15 percent.” That is not an insignificant number, is it? We didn’t think so either. Clearly attraction goes a long way as far as beefing up your bottom line. 

Furthermore, the research suggests that displays that are poorly presented or just downright bad can negatively impact all of the other good things that are going on in the store. Is your in-store display lacking? You may not think it’s a big deal, but one poorly executed display can actually turn shoppers off the entire store. 

One of the biggest mistakes that stores make is keeping things static. Not changing displays, especially when the seasons change, is a big no-no in the retail world. In this case, visual merchandising can be a seasonal superpower. Halloween is now behind us, and most retailers will make the automatic switch to prepping for the upcoming holidays. And shoppers expect it; if you don’t have displays in place that showcase this, people will notice.

Other mistakes: too much going on (remember the KISS principle), no common theme or connections between display stock, and the mess caused by holiday shoppers – make sure that these things don’t negatively impact your visual merchandising’s effectiveness.

Don’t discount the strength of visual merchandising or linger when it comes to changing things around. Make sure that you are taking into account seasonal changes and customers’ expectations with regard to them.

Storesupport can help – contact us today to find out all about our suite of merchandising services including planogram and display set up to get ready for the holiday season. Call 1-877-421-5081 or visit www.storesupport.ca