Page 236 - DMGT550_RETAIL_MANAGEMENT

Unit 13: Store Design and Visual Merchandising

Once the display is finished, add appropriate signage. Take photos of the display and keep Notes
record of the product sales during the display’s existence. Save your information in a file folder
for easy reference. By documenting its success, you can recreate the display next year or if it
flops, you can make sure you don’t repeat the same mistakes.
Like any other aspect of retailing, creating an attractive display takes a little skill and lots of trial
and error. As your store changes, so will your opportunities for visual displays. Keep working
at designing eye-catching and innovative ways to make your retail store profitable through
visual merchandising.
‘Off-shelf’ or feature displays are used to create a visual impact with the merchandise, or to show
how the product might be used. They might also be used to introduce and promote new products
or to support supplier promotions or trade initiatives (such as Fair Trade). As they are not
intended to be used in the routine selling of the products they can be artistically arranged and
situated in parts of the store that are not useful for selling purposes, such as high up on walls or
within an alcove (although the closer to the selling stock the better, in order to encourage
customers to respond to the display). Often, more than one product is used in an off-shelf
display.

Example: To suggest complementary purchases or to show the depth of offer in a particular
product category; mannequins are used for displaying complementary or coordinate clothing
products in this way.

Feature displays often follow a theme to add interest within the selling environment. Themes
for displays include seasonal, color and lifestyle orientations. Within the calendar year, there
are a number of seasonal opportunities over and above the general ‘weather’-dictated seasons of
Spring, Summer, Autumn/Fall and Winter.

Example: New Year (celebrations and resolutions), Valentines Day, Mother’s Day, Easter,
Father’s Day, Holidays, Back to School, Halloween and Christmas. Lifestyle themes can take an
extensive variety of forms, and follow some kind of preference in terms of personal consumption or
time expenditure. Lifestyle themes that retailers could use include sporting interest or participation,
health interests, musical preference, home entertaining, hobbies, occupations, and so on.
Another type of off-shelf display is the promotional display. This is a technique frequently used
in grocery stores and features a display comprising a large amount of stock of one item, often
housed on a dedicated fixture. This type of display is often found at the end of the gondola (on
‘end caps’), where the sheer volume of one product item catches the shopper’s attention.
For many retailers, the most important display space is their windows, as they are the means by
which customers are attracted into the store. The window communicates the type of product the
retailer sells and is also used to indicate market positioning. Window displays can be open, where
the customer can see behind the merchandise into the store, or the window may have a closed back
which allows the retailer to create a more elaborate display. Destination stores like department
stores often use closed window displays, but many retailers are of the opinion that the backed
window can act as a barrier between customer and store, and therefore is less welcoming to
customers. Diamond and Diamond (1999) suggest that effective displays follow one or more of the
general principles of design, which are: balance, emphasis, proportion, rhythm and harmony.

Shelf Display Ideas

The way your living space is decorated can leave a lasting impression on your guests. Shelves
can provide a distinctive space to display your accessories and collections. Even if you’re just
using shelves for books, there are ways in which they can be artistically arranged. Change your

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