The Power of Visual Merchandising: Creating an Unforgettable In-Store Experience

Visual merchandising (VM) is an integral part of retail merchandising and marketing. It influences consumer behavior from the point of entry to the point of sale. And the job of a visual merchandiser is to capture the consumer’s attention. They achieve this through various display techniques, merchandise styling, or in-store lighting. 

All these elements evolved into department stores with in-store displays and window designs. 

Le Bon Marche, in 1852 France, would take the first step towards VM. As the world’s first department store, it boasted a large window space and a variety of products on display. This first gave way to the idea of in-store visual design. 

But it was Harry Gordon Selfridge who brought visual merchandising into the world of retail in 1883. He altered the displays at Marshall Fields to increase merchandise accessibility for customers. He put tables in place of the counters and added window decorations to draw in customers. 

Today, VM is considered an effective marketing tool that sets your brand’s image. Maintaining consistency in the brand image and voice is essential. The visual merchandiser establishes a brand identity through lighting, displays, and layout.

Visual merchandising is not just a tool for decoration but a powerful marketing tool to enhance sales.

What Is Visual Merchandising?

Visual merchandising is an essential retail marketing tool. It uses display strategies like window displays to entice consumers to enter the store. 

Retail accounts for 10% of India’s GDP. The country’s growing middle class is one of the main drivers of retail growth. And each brand has exactly seven seconds to grab the attention of this rapidly growing market. Visual merchandising is important to encourage consumer interaction with the brand.

Understanding VM’s primary goals can help you figure out how to catch your audience’s attention.

Optimizing Store Layout 

Visual merchandising allows you to plan the store layout efficiently. By utilizing each space to its full potential, you will be able to boost sales and walk-ins. Accessibility is one of the key components in layout optimization. For example, displaying impulse-buy products near the counter. 

Highlighting Features of Products

You can use video displays, wall decorations, or signage to illustrate the features and benefits of the product. In a department store, for instance, signage makes it easier for customers to find their favourite brand.

Driving Revenue Growth

Visual merchandise is also known as a ‘silent salesperson’. An effective visual display will help boost sales by highlighting revenue-generating products. Neuromarketing strategies like strategic product placement and a strong visual presentation help boost a store’s sales.

Types of Visual Merchandising

A visual merchandiser is skilled at capturing attention and enticing the customer to enter the store.  You can look into implementing numerous strategies to make your space interactive and user-friendly. There are various types of visual merchandising in retail.

Exterior Display

Exterior store displays often consist of window displays, banners, and signage. It serves as a customer’s first impression of a business. Frequently, seasonal displays advertise new arrivals, promotions, and limited edition arrivals.

Interior layout

Did you know that visual appearance influences 93% of purchasing decisions? The interior design is intended to make customers feel comfortable and at ease. Planning each component accordingly is crucial, including the colors of the walls, the lighting, and the flooring. 

Interior display (Point of Purchase)

The interior fixtures display merchandise throughout the store’s focal points. These points are scattered through highly noticeable areas across the store. To drive sales, the placement of In-season products or high-earning products is around such focal points.

Cross Merchandising

You must have seen shorts displayed with t-shirts, or watches displayed beside suits. In department stores, you might find baby wipes next to Pampers. Complementary products are displayed beside each other to subconsciously encourage customers to buy both products.

Point-of-Sale (counter) display

Have you seen socks displayed beside the cash counter at a shoe store? This is the store’s final point of sale before customers check out. These POS displays beside the registers encourage customers to add low-cost items to their final purchase.

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10 Steps to Create an Unforgettable Visual Merchandising Display

The primary goal of VM is to engage and encourage potential customers to visit the store. Follow these 10 simple steps to design an unrivaled display.

Research

Gathering insights into your target audience’s interests and pain points is essential as a retailer. Understand what your competitors are offering to the consumers and their marketing tactics as well. Use their marketing “negative space” to your advantage to connect with your target demographic.

Incorporate these insights into elements of your visual merchandising plan.

Ensure Safety

Visual merchandising in retail involves the use of various heavy fixtures. It’s important to ensure the security of these fixtures. If installed incorrectly, it might seriously injure customers and retail employees.

Interactive Elements

Encouraging customer interaction and sparking their curiosity can help boost brand engagement. Let your customers actively engage with your brand. It’s important to appeal to their sense of curiosity and wonder when planning your display visuals. For example, augmented reality allows your customers to interact with your brand.

Track New Trends 

Fashion merchandising trends are continuously updating. You must stay on top of these trends to remain relevant in the market. Everyone is fighting for the same seven seconds of attention from consumers. Utilizing current trends will keep your brand at the forefront of customers’ minds.

Examine your Space

Before you finalize a VM plan, first analyze your space. Improved space understanding will enable better customer experiences. A well-designed space will help set a positive brand image in the mind of your consumer. 

Invest in Merchandising 

Efficient visual merchandising has the power of enhancing brand recognition and recall. Your goal is to improve the buying experience of your customer by understanding their requirements.

Adapt your strategy

The success of each campaign depends on how you optimize it. Once a campaign is live, track its performance by measuring your product sales against footfalls. You can boost your sales by making changes when required. You can choose to change either the layout or the product colors in the display to better the consumer experience.

Keep your Visual Elements Balanced 

It’s important to understand how much of your display visuals are needed. While the visual elements need to draw attention they must be balanced. After all, the purpose of visual merchandise is to improve the purchaser’s experience. Be selective when choosing the colors and themes for your display.

Focus on a Theme

A thematic display will help differentiate new season products, sales, and other promotions for the consumer. It gives each launch a personality that sticks with the consumer. Analyze the emerging trends and combine them with the idea of the product to finalize a theme.

Consistency is Key

Themes may change with trends and each new product. But the brand voice and image must remain consistent. Once your brand image is cemented in the consumer’s minds you can build on it with consistency. It’ll help establish trust in your consumer base.

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The Role of Technology in Visual Merchandising

The landscape of visual merchandising is transforming with new and emerging technologies. Fashion merchandising, for example, uses AR Tech to demonstrate the product without a trial. Some of the technological advancements helping enhance customer engagement and repaving the landscape of VM are –

Augmented Reality

More businesses are using augmented reality to draw in customers. The AR display at Tilly’s in California is among the best instances of how to draw attention and get people to stop. The store’s augmented reality display showcased products floating mid-air alongside other animated characters. 

Virtual Trials

Thanks to virtual try-on, customers can now experience merchandise without trying it on. Saks Fifth Ave partnered with Rock Paper Reality to create a virtual reality experience. Customers could check out the Saks clothes rack through their phones or smart glasses. Additionally, the experience included recommendations for related clothing and accessories.

QR Code Integration

The Starbucks Reserve store in Mumbai is one of the finest examples of QR integration. All you need to do is to scan the QR code at the entrance. The store’s surreal painting comes to life on the phone screen as you move your camera over it.

Interactive Display

Visual merchandisers are coming up with innovative ways to interact with customers. In 2013, the team at Nike installed interactive displays in various stores around London to promote their new products. The displays were powered kinetically and some encouraged passersby to jump high to emulate a basketball dunk. 

Visual merchandisers’ biggest challenge today is to generate interest from prospective audiences. Integrating technology into the store experience can enhance the customer experience. But there are a few benefits and drawbacks of utilizing such technologies in VM as well.

You can increase your reach by implementing new innovative technologies. The 3D try-on technology from Lenskart is one illustration of this. Their 3D try-on tech enables customers to test out their many offerings from their homes.

But integrating these technologies might be very costly. These are still emerging technologies and maintaining and updating them may be expensive.

Measuring the Success of Visual Merchandising

Maintaining a retail space is costly. Every retailer tracks their performance to ensure that their store is performing well. It can be challenging to measure the impact of visual merchandising on store sales. 

Some of the KPIs a retailer tracks to measure sales include walk-ins, units sold, and transaction values. You can use these same metrics when tracking the success of your visual merchandising efforts. Incorporate trackers for product sales and returning customers too to measure the success of your VM.

For example - 

The weekly average number of units sold per transaction is 2.23. While your weekly average transaction value is 4176 against 131 invoices.

A new running shoe with a price tag of 3000 INR is currently on display on the storefront. Socks, mobile armbands, and additional running accessories are displayed at the POS. While the product is featured with a matching set of t-shirts and shorts in-store. 

To measure the impact of your VM efforts look at the number of bills with the running shoe. Additionally, look at the add-ons that were frequently purchased along with the shoes. You can sort these invoices using price filters.

Consider your campaign a success when a large number of customers purchase the shoes with the apparel displayed beside them. Even POS display merchandise can be analyzed similarly. Your VM is optimized well if they are bought with the shoes displayed at the storefront.

Visual merchandising is an Important Element of Marketing

Visual merchandising in retail is essential to establishing a brand image. Initially, visual design was used to enhance the customer’s experience. It has since developed into a way to increase sales through the use of visuals. As a result of this, visual merchandising is a highly effective marketing technique. 

With emerging technologies, visual merchandising is taking on a new life. Visual merchandisers are actively integrating augmented reality elements, and mobile and QR activations in their designs. These new emerging trends can help you encourage customers to engage with your brand in real-time. 

An efficient VM strategy will help you establish and maintain your brand image in the market. While planning your store layout consider window displays, color schemes, themes, fixtures, and lighting. An efficient VM strategy will boost your brand’s visibility and improve sales.

Frequently Asked Questions

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