Our visual merchandising workshop facilitator, Jennie Kelly from A Creative Space visual merchandising, has five easy tips to help make your store more appealing and effective to kick start sales in the new year.
1. Keep a window calendar
Plan your window changes for the next six months and stick with the plan.
Windows are free marketing which illuminate your products through the evening and generate a prompt and a reason to drop into the store during the day.
Regularly rotating your window stock and product offering will enhance your store image and drive sales. Time to get creative!
2. Change the traffic flow of your store
Reinvigorate your store with a new store layout. Customers will often track the same route through your store thereby missing key items and range.
For New Year, mix things up a bit and redirect them to different areas of your store.
Create displays which they have to walk around to move them in a different direction. You never know what they might see or find. It might be a piece that has been in your store for a while and missed. And to the customer it looks like new stock.
3. Update your key focal points
Walk into your store with a fresh lens and note how many display points you can spot. There may be some which are under-utilised or others you have not identified before.
Layers of various products will look harmonious together in the colour tones suggested thereby increasing appeal and desirability.
Use poster backdrops or colour to highlight the display.
Use risers to position the stock so that you can display large pieces at the back of the display and smaller pieces at the front. Use ticketing to make a statement or drive a key message.
4. Review your signage and tickets
Check that all signage is current and relevant. Turf out and reprint any signs which look faded, damaged or worn out.
Make sure all signage is uniform and written with the same design rules such as font, colour, size. Use signage that indicates “NEW for 2021” or “Enjoy the fresh new colours or Summer” or give them a prompt “The perfect gift for Valentines Day”.
5. Colour is king
With Christmas decorations out of the way, it’s time to launch new colour stories.
Try reorganising your stock by theme such as "Holiday essentials", "Back to school", or "New Year, New Me" and try grouping split complementary or analogous colours together.
A strong colour will draw your customer’s attention and keep them browsing longer if set out in a colour theme.