The power of merchandising is incredible when you really stop to think about it. From your own consumer experience, you can probably remember a time when you were caught off guard and captivated by a display, a mannequin or another merchandising experience that literally stopped you in your tracks and hit pause to soak-in… and ultimately engage with and make a purchase as a result. This type of experience is exactly what you want to deliver in your own store… thus, capturing consumers during their visits to your store and increasing sales. The question remains, however, how do you do this?
Below, consider these three tips on how to leverage merchandising to increase stores sales while helping to strengthen your consumer experiences along the way.
- Incorporate Details from Local Tourist Attractions
As a tourist based retailer, shopping is part of the collective experience that many of your guests enjoy. Keeping this in mind, incorporate details of your local attractions into your merchandising and displays. You can do this through incorporating name-drop items from your inventory into your displays, as well as creating unique displays highlighting your local, tourist based attractions. Whether it’s a popular exhibit from a museum destination or a famous local attraction that brings tourists into your town, bring this “fame” into your store.
- Highlight Best-Selling Items Into Your Displays
Why shy away from highlighting your best-selling items? Take advantage of your top-performing items by incorporating them into your displays. Clearly they capture customer attention based on sales history, so use this to your advantage. Through merchandising, you can stop customers in their tracks by using these items to help get consumers to hit pause and enjoy your displays. Combined with other inventory that may not be as strong of sellers, you can highlight more inventory collectively. Overlap best-selling items and seasonal or trend based items in the same displays so that customers will consider buying them all. To explore items that might be right for your store assortment, attend the upcoming IGES Show in Tennessee from October 31 – November 4, 2017.
- Highlight Sales, Promotions & Other Incentives Into Displays
Offering a buy one get one free promotion? Providing a gift with purchase? Participating in an upcoming local event? Highlight these exciting opportunities through your displays! Incorporating signage is a great way to strengthen merchandising while also extending your store “voice”. This is a powerful yet simple way to increase sales, as well. Another factor to consider? Make sure when highlighting these details you make them bold so that they really stand out in your displays. Use large font, lettering and other strategies – such as neon lights, 3D letters and more – to truly help your store details stand out.
Finally, remember that customers interact in your store space based on how you create your store. This impacts not only how they shop your environment but how they can engage with your inventory and ultimately if they make purchases. To help, incorporate mirrors throughout your store for customers to see themselves with your inventory – such as name-drop sweatshirts, t-shirts and jewelry that they can buy as part of their trip experience – and don’t overlook the appreciation of how customers navigate your store. Are they able to easily move through it without frustration due to too tight of merchandising, for example? Collectively, all these details help shape their experience and ultimately impact if they make a purchase or not. Through merchandising and displays, help your store increase sales and strengthen the customer experience along the way!
By Nicole Leinbach Reyhle
