The Logic of Layouts – A Guide to In-Store Displays

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When customers arrive at your store, it’s crucial that you present whatever you are selling in a way that will make it appealing to them and make them want to buy. Take a moment to put yourself in their shoes and consider how you can best display the product to highlight its features, show-off its unique selling point and make the consumer see why they need to make the purchase.

With in-store merchandising, you have the opportunity to do just this. You can design a display to present your products to the consumer, to offer information about the product and show how it can add value for the consumer. Effective in-store displays allow your customers to visualise themselves using the product, wearing the clothes or engaging with whatever it is that you are selling. It’s one of the most important marketing assets for any store owner to use and a very powerful tool but it’s important to take some time to make sure that you do it right.

Let’s take a look at just some of the ways you can make visual merchandising and product placement work to your advantage in-store.

Target Audience

In order for your in-store display to deliver, you need to ensure that you are designing your display for the right people. It’s not enough to target your customers based on age, income level, or education level, you need to go deeper into their behaviours as well as their psychological attributes. To get an in-depth sense of who your customers are, try sending surveys to repeat customers to get a true sense of what it is they want and expect from a store like yours.

Keep up with market trends to find out what’s working in your niche and visit some of your competitor’s stores to see what they are doing to successfully reach your same target audience. Armed with this information, you can create a display for your products that will entice and draw in your customers.

Focus On The Senses

Your customers experience your in-store displays, not just through seeing them but through other sensory stimuli, too. Visual merchandising tends to focus on the eye of the customer, as it is the easiest way to communicate with your audience. However, you can make a large number of sales for your product if you focus on the other senses as well.

For example, the music you are playing in the background of your store can be an influencing factor and useful marketing tool. You can slow customers down by playing softer, more deliberate, lighter music. If your product is for the younger generation, make sure to crank up the music and play upbeat dance sounds or hip-hop tunes to get the audience to browse in the store longer. You can accomplish the same effect with the other senses as well such as using different textures for touch and having different air fresheners and other smells in the air to have a positive influence on the customer.

Group Similar Items Together

When you have a product that is selling well, you can use it to your benefit by placing similar items in displays near your successful product. However, it’s important to keep similar products together as you need to ensure that your display still makes sense. Pair similar items together that will complement each other or are related in some way.

For example, if you have an electric store and one of your microwaves is doing great, trying to pair a TV with it on a display would not be a good idea. However, pairing a TV with a popular surround sound system would be a great pairing and will likely increase the number of sales for both items.  

Create Ambience With Light

A great in-store display will be lifted by the overall ambience you create. It’s important that you try to put your customers in the right mindset to encourage them to buy and to give your display more life. For example, mood lighting and soft music could be a hit when trying to sell high-quality lingerie, while bright lights and energetic music can create a “game day” atmosphere in a sports shop. Lighting can make a real difference in your displays so be sure to pay special attention to different types of soft and harsh lighting and experiment with different coloured lights to best highlight your products.

Use The Right Approach

Creating effective in-store displays to highlight your products is as much a science as it is an art. For positive results, it’s crucial that you take the time to understand your target audience so that you can take the right approach to garner their interest and appeal to that particular market. Experiment with different layouts, music choices, colours and textures until you find a design that works for you and your store. With the right display in place, you can be sure that your sales will increase, your customers will be more interested in what you are offering and you will be on track to a successful future.