Page 232 - DMGT552_VISUAL_MERCHANDISING

Unit 12: Visual Merchandising – Hands On

Self Assessment Notes

Fill in the blanks:
1. The basic principles of merchandising start with ....................................
2. Product segmentation brings .................................... and simplicity both to the way stock is
bought and the way you present it.
3. Colour contributes significantly to people’s impression of a display as well as stores
overall ....................................

12.2 Display Calendar

Displays aren’t installed haphazardly, well professional ones aren’t! Just about everyone follows
a display calendar so you know when displays need to be changed according to the season,
trend, or sales event. This is especially true for the window team!
The calendar is an essential tool for the visual merchandiser, it helps you anticipate the upcoming
promotions, plan out your process, and make sure things go according to plan. It’s also a way to
communicate the fashion merchandising team, as they will want to make sure merchandise that
is to be promoted is in the store at the designated time.
Just as the world of business has a ”fiscal year” – and they don’t always start with January –
so can a display calendar. Choose when you want your ”year” to start. Most big retailers with
in-house crews use Christmas as the start of their year. Your calendar doesn’t even have to run
the traditional 12-months. Some retailers even use 18-months to really plan ahead! I would even
advocate for a six to eight month calendar. Why?
Fashion is a quickly evolving industry. Sometimes planning too far ahead and feeling as if you
are stuck with that plan doesn’t give you much room to adapt to the trends.
When planning your calendar be as creative as you want with it – hey that is what we do – but
make sure your team and everyone else who uses it can read and understand it!

1. Always put your big promotions on their first: major sales, Christmas, Back to School,
things you know are traditional and don’t change.
2. Next schedule your smaller promotions: Father’s Day, Thanksgiving Day, Valentine’s
Day, etc.
3. Once you have these on your calendar this allows you to see the weeks you need to fill in
with trends, promotions, or new collections set to arrive.
4. Don’t forget to have a discussion with your fashion merchandising department as they
may have special events they want displayed in the windows and store.

Now that you know what promotions and holidays are coming up you can look at your budget,
allocate accordingly, and order materials/props well in advance. Don’t forget to schedule time
to remove your old displays as well, this usually doesn’t take all day, but it’s still important to
give yourself time in the schedule for it.
In order to get the most out of your visual merchandising, a display calendar should be roughed
out a year in advance based on the previous year’s experience. If there is no history you can start
drafting a calendar per the example below. Remember: planning ahead, coordinating the retail
team’s efforts and implementing strong communication can go a long way. With these elements,
your goal of creating effective visual merchandising is much more likely to be a success.

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