visual merchandising

In a book / gift shop earlier this week I was impressed with how they display a small selection of jewellery. They have an upturned hard-bristled broom head onto which they place jewellery products. Such a simple idea yet so effective. We can easily copy this.

Newsagents have been selling photo frames for decades. Too often we place them on the shelves without care and this can deny us sales.

For inspiration, here is a photo of a frame display in a shop I visited last week. It makes the product the hero, makes them look appealing, pitches them as a gift.

With many photo processing shops now closed, good frames are hard to find. This is a category newsagents can do well in – from everyday frames, to occasion frames to high-end frames as gifts. It’s a category I think we can generate traffic with if done right.

The goal of this post is to say to newsagents selling photo frames – step back, create a completely different display making frames hero products. Reach beyond what you usually do and achieve more than usual.

This is a silver lining story. We’re short of space – who isn’t this time of the year?! We had nowhere to put the large Hallmark Mickey Itty Bitty stock. The team placed them above magazine at the back of the show. Now, more customers look at the back of the shop as a result.

Great stuff!

If ever I want inspiration for visual merchandising I go to The Works in hawthorn, on Burwood Road, newer my office. There you can see what their buying and VM experts consider to be best practice for the season.

Yellow is in. We have access to similar products – recreating this display or something like it is easy for newsagents in the gift and homewares spaces.

I’m posting the photo as inspiration.

Have a great day in-store today. Halloween is an opportunity for plenty of fun. We are very close to selling out. What little we have left will be discounted from late today.

Halloween is a perfect segue from Father’s Day into Christmas. It’s also a day to blow off steam if you’re into dress-ups in-store.

I get a kick out of displays I see in international airport duty free stores. They teach plenty about visual merchandising.

This Andy Warhol themed Absolute display is a good example. The detail in connecting the floor mat and the lamp cover, for example, is excellent. The layering of the elements on the display gives it a depth which works very well. The brand is the hero – as should be the case with any retail VM display.

Newsagents could say this type of display is not appropriate in our type of business. I know of newsagents who would disagree, newsagents who enjoy sales success from similarly stunning displays in-store and in their front windows.

A team member created this display of Halloween-themed Mickey and Minnie Hallmark Itty Bittys at the counter.

I love  Mickey and Minnie cascading out of a cauldron watched over by a spider, spilling across the front of the counter.

I call this retail theatre because it tells a story and represents movement. It is not your usual static counter display. It makes the products more noticeable and more appealing.

We need to create different displays like this if we want different outcomes at the sales counter. By different I mean better. By outcomes I mean sales.

sales come from grabbing shopper attention, interrupting their line of sight and through thoughts. This display is doing that. People are noticing the Itty Bittys, picking them up and purchasing them.

the products themselves provide a safe and fun way with engaging with halloween. The Disney theme is key here.

Average displays generate for us average results and that is not a win for our businesses. We have to lift our game, if we are to commuter effectively. Displays like this are a small part of what we have to do.

Next time a new display is done in your business, stand back, look at it and ask yourself – is this average or is it a fresh approach that will deliver an above-average outcome?

The days of the average traditional newsagency are over. We have to each play in areas that work for us in our own situation and we have to do this by being creative and playing outside the rules that have been traditional for our types of businesses.

I love this display and am proud to have it in my shop.

I have loaded a high res version of the photo so you can see how the display has been created.

This photo reflects the value value of detail in visual merchandising. In addition to careful product selection, thoughtful adjacencies and compelling displays, you need to entertain and surprise when shoppers are close to a display. That’s what is happening with this Halloween display.

Yesterday, I was thrilled when a kid was scared when he saw the spider. He thought it was real. That’s just what we wanted.

We get a kick out of seeing people surprised and scared at the display. We love the sales that result.

Our nearby competitors in the Halloween space don’t engage with the season in this theatrical way.  More fool them for not having fun with this season.

It’s amazing the different inserting a colour sheet in a fixture can make to bring focus to products. Without the backing sheet the products blend with colours from other shelves showing through. With the sheets you see the product on the shelf and not what is behind it.

This is a simple and effective VM tip.

The photo is from a Hallmark Gold Crown store I visited in the US earlier this year.