How you decorate your store and your individual displays can have a profound effect on your sales. The year-end holidays are a season of excess in many ways, making it harder than ever to stand out. The key is to use your retail display tables to establish your store as a place of wonder and an oasis of calm. Relatively calm, anyway.

Bob Phipps, otherwise known as The Retail Doctor, sums it up nicely: “The more you can decorate, the more energy and excitement you bring to passersbys. Go big, go early, and go to town.”

Amp up sensory engagement with shoppers.

Decorations can be visually fun and colorful, but when you add fragrance, a little music, and make it easy for customers to touch and try your merchandise, you’re putting a full-court press on the emotions that trigger buying.

So decorate with pine-scented votive candles (unlit unless the Fire Marshall approves), sprinkles, or bowls of potpourri. Offer hot spiced cider to weather-weary shoppers. Put a dish of peppermint candies or fresh-baked cookies at your cash wrap. And bring out the holiday CDs – but keep in mind that peppy music subconsciously speeds up customers. You want them to stay and browse, so choose music that is just a little more relaxing.

And, for heaven’s sake, go wild with sampling whenever you can. Open packaged goods so customers can smell and taste them. Open boxed toys, sports gear, kitchen gadgets, etc. so people can play around with them. Do short live demos on how to use or wear featured items. Or decorate retail display tables with video monitors that help you sell.

Use seasonal colors throughout your store.

Include lots of decorative lights that add twinkle as well as visibility. Choose functional props – red and green baskets or a tabletop sleigh to hold loose items, for example. Hang small items on faux green boughs or gold and silver twigs. Sprinkle “snow” among your displays.

Wrapped boxes celebrate the season and announce, “These items make great gifts!” The boxes needn’t be empty … pre-wrapped items, especially popular ones that move quickly, are a huge boon for retailers and customers.  

Go practical.

Augment your props with real merchandise as additional decorations. Using accessories that relate to your featured item is a space-saving way to dress up retail table displays and, at the same time, suggest additional impulse buys to shoppers.

And start building excitement with your windows or front door. No matter how spectacular your interior displays are, shoppers must venture inside to see them.

Above all, have fun! The holidays are a time when we treat ourselves and treat others with gifts. Retail display tables that transform your store into a treat for the senses will attract shoppers and inspire even the busiest among them to linger and buy.