Retail Dude

This post is not about fashion trend or i am not going to suggest you any dress to wear in this festival. But considering the worries of retailers, in this festive season when all the stores will stock the same merchandise relevant to occasion, how each one of them can differentiate and attract the customers to their store. The answer is Visual Merchandising, a way of presenting your offerings in a more arranged, attractive and optimized way, not only this; it’s also includes exterior presentation of the store. But in this season where all retailers will light their stores with colored lights and will fill their stores with glittering things, how can you do a little different to make yourself stand out of the crowd. I won’t suggest avoiding lighting and glittering thing because these are the call of the season and you have to become of them in this respect. But taking care of some small things that might the retailer next to you forgot to implement is what you need at this point of time where every retailer is fighting for the same pie with a customer and due to global impact customers is not willing to give that pie away.

 Visual merchandising is an art if we take the creative part of it into consideration, but there are certain rules also attached to it which make it a science in some sense. And thus you have to take care of color mix and match and you also have to think about a theme which should look beautiful to all of your stores in a region. Eighty percent of our impressions are created by sight; that is why one picture is worth a thousand words. Each customer has a mental image of a store and its merchandise; thus you should prepare a theme for your store keeping this in mind. A store should have an inviting appearance that makes the customer feel comfortable and yet eager to buy. And Believe me for this you won’t require any expensive software solution, just a common sense and good customer insight research will be perfect to do a job.

One more thing that most of the retailers ignore is their marquees, banners and signages. Check these for any unlit or missing lighting bulbs, flaking of faded paint or cracked or peeling background and repair them as these can hurt your store image badly.

Most retailers due to festive season stocks lots of merchandise inside store and their remains no place to walk and comfortable browse inside the store. Avoid these types of cluttering on walks/aisles and at the “Entry” of the store so that store appears to be inviting. Keep excess stock in the back room and create an effective replenishment system inside store.

Windows displays can be as important, if not more important, than advertising. As many as one in every four sales could be the result of a good window display. Window displays should attract attention, create interest and invite people into the store purchase goods. There is less than 11 seconds to accomplish this, as that is the average amount of time an individual will spend looking at a window display. Be careful not to crowd too much merchandise into a window, as customer will find it difficult to determine the message and what items are being promoted, and also check none of your merchandise is hidden behind your lighting or other props used for decoration.

For the interior you can chose to follow the principle of design used in display – balance, emphasis, proportion, rhythm, color, lighting and harmony. Certainly proper use of these will inspire as well as leave an impact on a customer.

Finally don’t forget to have a soothing music, controlled temperature and good fragrance. And a good display for the point of sale (POS) because that can add extra bucks to you pocket.

A pinch of creativity can do wonders…………………

Happy festive season to you all :)  

-Prateek Katiyar

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