How To Deliver Value With Visual Merchandising
MAY 24, 2019, VISUAL MERCHANDISING
How To Deliver Value With Visual Merchandising
What Is Visual Merchandising
From the moment customers walk through your door, they enter a visual, touchy-feely blueprint of your business.
Great visual merchandising in retail stores encourages your customer to move around that environment naturally and effortlessly and ultimately influences them to buy.
But we don’t just want them to make a purchase; we want them to feel enchanted by that decision and spread the word.
When executed correctly, visual merchandising influences purchasing decisions that move beyond the point of sale into the customer’s network of family and friends.
They become an advocate of your brand.
Why is Visual Merchandising Important?
Establishing an environment where your customer spends money is the difference between a healthy bottom line and closing down.
Emotive visual merchandising provides a greater chance that your business will accrue a healthy profit by inviting potential customers to see, feel and try your goods, making it easy for them to buy. A common downfall is missing a sale because customers didn’t find what they wanted.
But it’s not that simple. Clear brand values are paramount because your belief in your product works best when it’s conveyed rather than over-explained. What does that mean? When the merchandising visual aligns with your product, the retail store design will be alluring and profitable.
How Does Visual Merchandising Work?
How customers feel in your retail store is just as important as how things look.
Landscaping is one of the critical elements of great retail store design. Guiding the customer’s focus towards a particular product can be done in several ways, including lighting, colour and movement – collectively creating what we might call the product ‘pop outs’.
A well-placed spotlight, an enticing fragrance, right through to obvious ‘shelf wobblers’, coaches your customer’s attention towards their next purchase.
By applying sensory cues – what the customer can see, hear, smell and touch – you can make them feel more awake, alive, and happier to spend.
What Are The Principles Of Visual Merchandising Display?
Texture, lighting, landscaping, aesthetics and integration of those elements are fundamental to any excellent retail interior design.
Texture: creates contrast and encourages the customer to engage with the product through touch.
Lighting: from the retail floor to changing rooms to the service desk, correct lighting will create a feeling of inclusion and happiness.
Landscaping: great landscaping encourages retail meandering but is also about not making the customer reach too high or too low. You want to create opportunities to make a sale, not lose one.
Aesthetics: whether you’re a budget store or luxury retail outlet, the aesthetic needs to speak to your customer comfortably. Each retail store design element must also address your brand values.
Integration: ideally, the communion of all these elements will invoke an agreeable familiarity for your customer, making the sale natural and gratifying.
It’s More Than Just Interior Retail Design
More than just putting eye-catching images in certain spots, a potent visual merchandising display might involve updating the quality of your products and service. Untethering the layers of your business, including product quality, is part of my service.
Staying open to change is mandatory in the world of retail, yet, at the same time, it’s equally important to stick to your brand values. The sale arrives not because your customer has money to burn but because they’ve been delighted by the visual experience and want to feel part of your ‘club’.
In layman’s terms, well-executed visual merchandise makes us feel like we belong, and it starts with you knowing your brand.
When used well, retail store design solutions – such as colour, texture and landscaping – will convert into a silent but tangible conversation between your product and the customer. They’ll find their eye is drawn to that new product range, or they’ll find themselves picking up an item they may have previously overlooked.
The key to successful visual merchandising displays is to make suggestions in a way that somehow the customer feels compelled to take action, be it touching, tasting or going straight to the sales counter.
The art of retail interior design is partly subliminal, but the outcome – in this case, the sale – remains tangible.
Creating Visual Interest
With any luck, your products are already visually appealing, but if not, we’ll work on that first.
Eye-catching colours that either stimulate – e.g. racy reds, or those that invoke serenity – e.g. soft pastels and white, will assist your customer with making the purchase.
My final word on this may sound obvious, but it’s often overlooked. Please, please, please don’t leave a potential customer hanging. Ever.
If they’ve been diligent enough to find something they want to buy, return the favour by making it easy for them to pay. How many times have you been in a department store and been left wandering around asking for someone to serve you?
Remember that you need your customers more than they need you, even though you want them to feel the opposite.
Putting yourself in the customer’s shoes is the only way to stay on top of your game and ensure increased profits over time. Professional visual merchandising will make you far more likely to stay ahead of the game.
My greatest pleasure is assisting businesses in creating environments that invoke a sense of wellness. When it comes to retail stores, that means providing customer satisfaction which equals profit.
I’d love to discuss ways to upgrade your retail outlet so that you get a great ROI and your customers return repeatedly.
Delahrose Roobie Myer
www.awakendesigns.com.au
