The photo shows a window of a fashion store in Melbourne. I’ve loaded a high-res version so you can see the detail and in this why what it is so stunning.
The black and white backing is painted on a flat wall so as to give the illusion of shape.
Stunning. It’s an excellent example of terrific visual merchandising.
I love this display of fresh fruit in front of the sandwich bar at a cafe I was in earlier this week. It’s different to a usual sandwich display. Take the fruit away and you have a sandwich display. Add the fruit and your attention is grabbed by colour and freshness.
This terrific example of retail theatre underscores how presentation is everything in retail. Instead of an everyday sandwich display this retailer is telling a more compelling story.
Inspiring.
I love this sign I saw in a newsagency earlier this week with umbrellas and gumboots as it is smarter and smoother than a traditional retail sign that says buy me. This is not the type of sign I’d usually see in a newsagency for umbrellas. The products themselves are different too – more higher end, like fashion. Inspirational!
Every retailer wants unique products that no other retailers nearby have. I have heard plenty get upset when a nearby retailer sources the same product. Good visual merchandising can help you tell a different story with the same product, it can help you pitch to a different customer.
My experience is that investing time in purchasing merchandising props can deliver an equal or better outcome than in the stock itself.
Unusual props used creatively can give you a unique traffic-generating story that turns inventory investment into cash in the bank sooner.
We look far and wide for props with which we can create in-store theatre of which we can be proud.
The days of putting products on the shelves are over. We have excellent competitors and we need to do better than them.
I love this photo I took at the Home and Giving Fair at the show grounds in Melbourne yesterday as it is a reminder of the value of showing off a good product.
The donuts are soap. Left in the retail packaging they look good. Taken out and placed on a tray they look stunning. I’d expect a tray of donuts out on display like in the photo would sell far more product that boxes of the products on display.
Visual merchandising experience in the traditional newsagency has mainly been with magazine displays. What a modern newsagency sells today requires smarter and more creative engagement. Indeed, this is essential as we grow our gift, toy, plush, jewellery, fashion and other higher margin category sales.
This display of Coke and related product in a Coles supermarket in Melbourne is bold and eye-catching. The inflated Sherrin AFL football hanging above the boxes arranged as a stadium caps it off well. The display shows what can be done with creative placement of product on the shop floor. Sure in this Coles they have the space for the display. In fact, it’s good use of dead space toward the rear of the store.
Click on the image for a larger version.
I love the signage used in this Typo store for signposting their craft area. The sign reflects fun and connects with the younger shopper attracted to this store.
I watched as shoppers were drawn down to this display, at the back of the store. The sign worked.
We compete with this business but they are far ahead with their in-store messaging. It’s finely tuned to their typical shopper. Brilliant!
Check out how one retailer I visited recently is embracing the ceiling with the wallpaper going up the walls and onto the ceiling. The book theme is perfect for as they also sell books. The books on the ceiling help give you an impression that you are shoe where special, somewhere different to out there.
Success in retail depends on giving shoppers are unique experience. This shop certainly does that. The fixtures and merchandising sweep you away.
The latest window display being used by kikki.k looks terrific: it uses bold colours, an inspiring message … follow your path … and a sense of forward motion to attract.
I am sure this display, in all their stores, will drive good shopper traffic for the group – how could it not?
This is the type of window display we can use for inspiration in our newsagency businesses.
I was impressed with this visual merchandising display on the floor of David Jones in Sydney. From the required pyramid shape to the story of the product mix to the placement such that it disrupts traffic flow and therefore had to be noticed – it works well.
This display is a good one to remember when creating displays in-store because of the VM boxes it ticks.
The latest issue of Vogue Australia covers the title behind it with the card holding the St Tropez tan gift with purchase. I moved it after I took the photo so it was in the top pocket and not obscuring anything. In many newsagencies I suspect it would not be moved – thereby blocking the title behind. Publishers of the obscured would have every reason to be frustrated, especially if sales are impacted.
While a good gift can lift sales, publishers sending our packages like Vogue Australia with this issue of should ask for placement that respects other titles.
In a supermarket a few days ago I saw this World Cup themed display promoting beer. Whereas other retailers had displays of soccer balls and players, this retailers was focussed on the competition through products they sell. Very clever.
The display is also interesting because it adheres to the basics of good visual merchandising: pyramid in shape and telling a story.
While newsagencies don’t have the product range for this type of World Cup promotion, I am sure with some thought we could have done more to connect with this international event than just sell magazines, stickers and cards.
In a large book and clothing shop a couple of days ago I noticed a structural column in the middle of the shop that would otherwise be an eyesore was host to a beautiful garden with live plants shoppers were encouraged to touch.
Here, deep in the shopping mall and in the middle of a large busy shop, they had turned a challenge into an opportunity for left-field shopper engagement. Kids and adults stopped and touched the plants. Most smiled.
Using a structural column for this is unexpected. I found it made more interested in what else they were doing in the shop – kind of if they are smart enough to do this they must be doing some other cool things.
I saw this coffee-themed display is a supermarket a few days ago and stopped to take in everything they had done to make such a stunning display. I call it stunning because it stopped me in my tracks – it had everything: clear signage, a pyramid structure, an excellent range of products – from individual items to hampers – that combined told a story and additional information – see the blackboard. I’d say this is one of the best visual merchandising displays I’ve seen in a supermarket.
Go into a capital city shopping mall with major retailers and this is the type of display you see greeting shoppers at the entrance: pyramid in shape and telling a story, enticing shoppers to step into the business.
I’m posting this photo of an example of how a cake shop is using colour blocking to create a more visually effective display. We have many opportunities in our newsagencies to do this – to collect products together based on colour. The result should have a strong visual impact. It should also bring to the spotlight items that otherwise might not have had the opportunity.
I’ve added a new category of posts on the blog: colour blocking – to make it easier to see past posts about this.
At the Christchurch Gift and Homeware Fair at the start of this week I saw another excellent example of effective colour blocking that is as relevant to a retail newsagent as it is at a Gift Fair trade display.
This gift / homewares supplier laid out their stand by colour, taking care to place colours next to each other that enhanced the impact – following a chart. The result was a series of stunning displays that many stopped and looked at.
Taking time with product placement and placing items which complement each other enhances impact. By compliment, I mean the two colours are on the opposed of the colour spectrum. This is why the orange and the blue in the photo work so well when placed next to each other – far more effectively than blue and green together or orange and yellow.
Colour blocking for impact and drive shopper engagement and this can attract new shoppers to your newsagency as well as getting existing shoppers engaging more with what you sell.
If you have lottery and newspaper customers who purchase nothing else, could it be that you are not doing anything stunning with your displays to drive their engagement?
If you don’t get lottery shoppers purchasing anything else stand at your lottery counter and follow with your eyes their exit from the business. What are you doing to grab their attention – tactically or visually through, for example, a colour blocking strategy.
What we achieve in our newsagency businesses comes back to us. The more actively and thoughtfully we engage the better the outcomes for us and for our customers.
It would be easy to dismiss this blog post as being about homewares and not relevant to us. Rather, it is completely about how we manage our newsagency businesses and the current-day professionalism we bring to the retail stories we tell through our displays.
Check out the colour blocking of stationery that I saw at a newsagency-like Whitcoulls store in New Zealand earning this week. It looks good, very appealing. Their clever buying and in-store colour blocking helps them position paper clips, bulldog clips and rubber bands differently to what we see in the average Australian newsagency. This approach appeals to a broader audience.
Click on the image for a bigger picture.
I love this window display I saw in a home furnishings store Sunday night in Christchurch. I love it because it demonstrates the successful pyramid approach to building a display and because it uses seven tables, chairs and frames for the structure on which the products are placed – providing us with ideas we can easily follow. Click on the picture and see how easy it would be to recreate this type of window display in your newsagency.
I saw this display of cushions at the Gibson / Unity showroom in Melbourne earlier this week. While the cushions themselves are impressive and make a perfect gift offer for a newsagency, the display itself was even more stunning. Using a couch as the ‘stand’ is perfect. It’s the type of visual merchandising that is perfect for this item and perfect for a newsagency: casual, fun and visually impactful.
How we display what we sell is as important is the products we offer. Suppliers who offer visual merchandising inspiration – like on show at Gibson / Unity right now – are more valuable for us as more newsagents transition from the traditional newsagency offer to something more current.
While the space taken by the couch could be a challenge for some newsagents, I could see a reasonable impact being achieved with a chair or two as the ‘stand’ for the cushions – using the couch idea but finessing it to the space available.
Some products work better when not placed on regular shelves.
We purchased this wire frame of a female torso for a display we are creating in-store and another retailer saw it and purchased it at a nice margin. It’s cool when this happens, and surprising. It’s a reminder to not underestimate what we can sell in our businesses.
A newsagency selling a wire female torso – who’d have thought!
I love the way the Fisher Price brand owns this fixture housing its products.
This stand has more impact than if the products were on the same fixture without the Fisher price branding on the aisle end and on the shelves themselves.
I think a shopper looking at this stand will be more confident as it shows Fisher Price supporting the retailer – kind of like encouraging you to transfer your trust in the Fisher Price brand to the retailer.
This week I am running a series of simple moves you can make in your newsagency to increase sales. None requires you to spend any money, only time. Here is simple move to make more money by creating a dance floor.
In front of your counter, a in a space walked past by more customers that almost any other part of your shop, set aside space that is your swing space, your dance floor.
This is space is your key promo space – where you pitch with your best creativity items you want all your shoppers to see.
On the dance floor you display to sell – with flair, excitement and engagement.
The key is creating the space. I have never been in a newsagency where a dance floor cannot be created.
An approach of continuous movement is important on the newsagency shop floor. A dance floor is key to this continuous movement.
This stunning window display in Brisbane promoting Uppercut Hair Pomade caught my eye this morning.
The goal of any visual merchandising has to be to get you to notice a product. This display worked. I noticed and stopped to look.
The symmetrical placement of the hair pomade product is more impactful and noticeable than a traditional hair products window where products are placed without any wow factor.
We have plenty of products in our newsagencies we can create similarly impactful window displays with.
