The smarter you are about how you arrange your retail display space, the more merchandise you will sell. It’s all about eye appeal – the kind that attracts attention from window shoppers, entices them inside your store, and shows them items they simply must have. Using your retail display space effectively is part creativity and part practical science.

These tips will help you whether your retail store is a mall kiosk, a small boutique, or a large “presence” in your community. But while there are some universal tenets to effective use of retail display space, it is also true that you have to be extra resourceful if your space is small.

“Retail display” involves more than how you stack sweaters or show off cell phones.

It is the composite package you offer prospective shoppers – everything they can see: not just your merchandise, but your store’s décor, individual items on display, fixtures, and signage. And although they may not consciously “see” your lighting, they most certainly will respond to it.

Bring all of these elements together, and you will have created retail display space that sells.

Try these tips:

• Effective retail displays give customers a “road map” of your store that functions both consciously and subconsciously.
  You want to give them obvious visual cues with signage and merchandise presentation, but you also want to use your physical layout to provide a travel path that leads them from the entrance through your store so they can see everything you have to offer. Effective physical layout requires making the most of your free-standing floor fixtures.
• Help customers visualize owning your merchandise.
  Have employees wear the clothing you sell. Display colorful lighted posters of people using your products in real-life situations.
• Play up the fact that asymmetry encourages the human eye to look at more things.
  Instead of displaying one item, show three. Vary the height of displays so the eye can “step” up or down, but put your strongest items at eye level.
• Never underestimate the power of carefully selected and positioned lighting.
  It can set the mood, lead your customer to a display, or highlight a specific product.
• Consider going beyond the visual to reach customers’ other senses.
  Sounds, smells and taste can give them an even more enticing experience.
• Reward repeat customers with frequently refreshed displays.
  When there is always something new to see, touch or taste, there is always reason to come back.
• You don’t have to be a creative genius.
  There are numerous resources online to help you learn more and get valuable inspiration.

Keep detailed notes about how you organize your retail display space – your overall store layout as well as individual displays you create – and sales figures that show how each display performs at the cash register. That way, when you’re ready to create your next display, you’ll know what resonates best with your customers and you’ll have the wherewithal to repeat it.

Palmer Retail Solutions strives to offer our clients the absolute best combination of innovation, quality, service, and value for our diversified custom store fixtures and merchandising displays. For more information about our designs, retail fixtures, cash wraps, kiosks, or point of purchase displays, visit our website at: http://www.palmerretailsolutions.com.