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How To Employ Visual Merchandising To Enhance Your Company’s Profit Margin

Is the digital age starting to put the high street out of business? That’s what some people believe — and considering a survey found that more than 1,000 Australian are moving to digital shopping, it seems that physical shops need to do more to weather the storm.

Visual Merchandising

With visual promoting, you can help drive your image in front of your rivals. However, there’s a skill to doing this properly. To help, check out this step-by-step guide  brought to you by Where The Trade Buys Print, specialists in providing printed banners for your business for tips and advice on executing a flawless visual merchandising strategy.

Visual Merchandising – what is it?

Visual merchandising is the act of rearranging a shop floor to create a shopping space that’s nicer to look at and more ‘exciting’. Overall, the aim is to boost sales and profits for the company, as well as give the consumer a better in-store experience.

How likely your customers buy will be determined how well you rearrange your store. A strong visual display can raise revenue and even encourage customer loyalty.

Earlier this year, worldwide brand, Gap, closed its final Aussie shop due to poor sales. If you want to avoid this fate, maximise the potential of visual merchandising at your retail store using the tips below.

Decompression areas

Decompression zones are deployed to ensure a customer’s mood is lifted and ready to buy from you.

Make sure customers don’t receive negative connotations from your store. A good decompression zone will take them from the hustle and bustle of outside to a calmer, nicer environment that encourages browsing — perfect! Remember, your decompression zone should be a minimum of 10-15 feet, built at the shop entrance with a view of the shop, and well-lit with furnishings that contrast it from the outside.

Assembling your displays and stands

To ensure your visual merchandising strategy reaches its potential, you have to place the right products together. Showing off plenty of products is, of course, beneficial from your point of view as a vendor. But be careful not to make your displays look cluttered. Use a mix of mannequins, racks and shelves to neatly display items and remember — a focal point boosts sales by a reported 229%, so ensure that you effectively direct your consumers when they enter your store using pull-up banners and other promotional products to highlight a section.

If you’re struggling, read up on the ‘Pyramid Principle’ or ‘Rule of Three’ methods. The Pyramid Principle revolves around triangular displays, with the biggest item in the middle and the smallest on the outside. This formation is eye-catching to a passer-by, so is good for advertising.Then there’sthe Rule of Three, where you create a display that focuses on ‘attractive asymmetry’. Shoppers typically engage well with this, as symmetry is ‘standard’ while asymmetry is ‘imbalanced’ and more interesting. There are many promotional items you can get from these embroiderers that will suit your budget and your brand.

Opting for colours

According to Kangan Institute, the use of colour in visual merchandising plays a big part in influencing a customer’s decisions. If you use contrasting shades, like blue and yellow, you can easier catch the eye. However, be careful not to throw too many different shades in a single display —this looks messy and unprofessional.

What does your customer want?

Global retail saleswill reach USD 27.73 trillion by 2020 — make sure your brand is still a part of the sector. Before almost anything, you want to plan which products you want to promote. And we recommend going for what people want, not need. According to a study by Raj Raghunathan and Szu-Chi Huang, emotional responses are influential in our purchasing choices,so focus on items that will let customers treat themselves.

Cater for your customer’s senses

Despite this guide being about visual merchandising, it’s wise not to neglect the other senses. Reportedly, three-quarters of emotions come from smell. Plus, our mood apparently improves 40% when we identify nice smells. If you run a food, perfume or soap store, then use smell to sell merchandise!

Certain smells can trigger certain memories, use this to your advantage to try and influence a customers decision, but be warned, its subjective and may not always be positive! For example, if you run a bakery letting the smell of food cooking waft into the dining area can create a sense of warmth and cosiness. Similarly, soaps placed strategically around the shop can be a good way to sell a product without the need of a promotional sign — just don’t let smells clash. For example, put all the citrus soaps together to evoke a sense of rejuvenation and keep these far from lavender scents, as these are relaxing.

Changing your stock

Keep things fresh by changing your visual merchandising strategy. This could be done seasonally, so it keeps loyal customers on their toes. By changing your main displays, you can give the impression that you’re consistently changing stock and moving with new trends — even if you aren’t.

We say amend your visual merchandising strategy every month to look as innovative as possible!

In 2018 and beyond, shopping will become more and more about ‘the experience’, according to predictions. Begin planning your shop’s visual merchandising campaign today!

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