Visual impressions are important for any business, they’re the first thing a customer sees. Thanks to the mysterious workings of the human brain, visual information registers at a higher level than other forms of information, like sound, or smell.
When a customer is walking through a mall or down the street, whether or not they’re visually attracted to your storefront display can determine if they’ll enter your store. Visual merchandising covers a range of factors including window displays, layout, mannequins, lighting, music, and ease of access to the checkout counter. Creating appealing visual merchandise is critical to improving your sales and converting store visitors into customers. But how do you do it? The 5 tips are crucial in enhancing your visual merchandise and creating eye-catching displays
1. Know your Target Audience
The first step is to know your target audience. When you run a retail business, you need to understand that you can’t cater to everyone. Find your target audience and only market your visual displays to them. If your target audience is teenage girls, use a lot of bright colors like pinks and purples, as well as catchy, quirky phrases. If your target audience is car savvy men, use metal textures and muted shades of red and blue.
Know who you want to walk through your door, then create a display that entices them to do so.
2. Choose a Minimalistic Design
It is not ideal to display your entire collection in your window. This can result in potential buyers feeling confused and overwhelmed instead of curious about what else you in store. Only show your best products in the display window to leave a little to your customers’ imaginations.
It’s also important to display both cheap and expensive items in your window to gain the interest of both budget shoppers and those with more expendable incomes.
3. Use Seasonal Displays
Who doesn’t get excited over an upcoming holiday? Play into your customers’ seasonal joy with themed window displays. Investing into merchandise with a pop of red and green for Christmas, or orange for Halloween is almost certain to pay off as holiday seasons are the most profitable times on the retail calendar.
Also include information on seasonal sales and promotions with large numbers and letters in the holiday’s colors on your signage.
4. Start Closest to Door
Many stores are able to attract their customers to step inside, only to have them turn around and walk back out. It’s important to prioritize displays closest to the door. This is where most stores promote new collections, but it’s also a good place to showcase customer favorites and “most purchased” items. Store layout is very important to visual merchandising.
5. Eye Level is Buy Level
Product placement within your store is key, as customers like to touch and feel items before buying. If they want to buy something they can’t reach, odds are they’ll think it’s too hard and walk over to your competitor. This is especially true for fashion items like clothing and handbags.
Similar items, like jewelry and hair accessories, should also be placed in the same place to give the customer more options and encourage them to buy more than they came in for.
