As you read through these tips, consider them in terms of your own clientele. Learning how to visual merchandise successfully requires appealing to your specific customer, whether you sell auto parts or jewelry or toys.
Appeal is emotional as well as practical, so play to their lifestyle by displaying merchandise in entire “ensembles.” When they can picture themselves wearing or using your products, they’ll be more likely to buy. And showing related items together is a tried-and-true method of suggestive selling. Customers will not only buy, they’ll buy more.
Just as white space makes a written page more welcoming, a feeling of comfortable roominess welcomes shoppers into your store and encourages them to stay and browse. Generally, the higher-priced your merchandise, the more "empty" space you should allot around displays. Use restraint in your displays, too. Clutter in the form of over-filled displays is visually confusing – the eyes don’t know where to land, so they just move on, away from your display.
That’s also why each display needs a deliberate focal point. To create a focal point as you visual merchandise, use:
When you visual merchandise effectively, you create a holistic experience for customers. You’re attracting and pleasing the eye. You’re enticing shoppers to touch your merchandise. But you should intrigue their other senses as well. You don’t have to run a bakery or a music store to do this – subtle sensory appeal can be equally effective.
Don’t neglect your cash wrap counter. If you think it’s there only to hold up your cash register, you’re missing out on multiple opportunities to visual merchandise your store effectively, right down to that last shopping minute.