How Visual Merchandising is Driving the Retail Industry?

Before delving deeper into the main topic, let us gather some proper information and details on visual merchandising which will help us to understand the blog better. So, without any further ado, visual merchandising is the practice of developing floor plans and 3-D displays within the retail industry in order to make the industry perform better in all norms including sales and profit. Here in Visual Merchandising, both services and goods can be displayed to grab attention on their benefits and features. The purpose of such type of visual merchandising is to engage, attract, and entice a customer towards making a decision, which is to

The contribution of Visual Merchandising to Retail Industry

Generally, in the retail industry, visual merchandising contributes to a brand’s characteristics and personality identity associated with the brand. To attract any potential customer, the store’s design and aesthetics must reflect VM as a part of their retail brand strategy. This particularly includes the brand communications and in-store environment presence with the likes of signage and images displayed in-store.

These visual elements play a pivotal part in building a retail brand and as a result, they help a brand to easily differentiate itself from its contemporaries, create brand loyalty, and allows a brand to place premium pricing tags on their displayed products. A crucial part of the brand strategy is utilized in visual merchandising to research into the brand’s target market which helps it to find out what their customers’ needs, values, and self-images are! This important piece of information will allow the retailer to cater to the design of a store and their advertising tactics to match its consumers.

Now, if we talk about technology, it has indeed redefined the traditional visual merchandising norms and realm- which includes bringing about diametric changes in actual product launches, packaging, and presentation. It has for sure broke the monotony of the old-school retail sales strategies and added a surprise element of originality to it.

Nowadays, there are myriads of such technologies (like Augmented and Virtual Reality) which have come into the picture of marketing-tech, global fairs, and conferences, etc. They have made their way directly to a prospective buyer’s mind who usually flocks the market for getting a whiff of what’s trending and not; also a buyer will check if there are some items worth considering…

All these aforementioned technologies and trends are here to stay and will further skyrocket over time with more and more numbers of brands experimenting extensively in this niche. The extent of expertise and experimentation in the retail domain is what commands an impact on a buyer’s behavior and hence visual merchandising will always prevail. Here, the rules of the game are laid bare — utilizing this impact to leverage the impulse tendency of the prospect and eventually, converting a potential customer into an imminent buyer.

How VISUAL MERCHANDISING is Helping the Retail Industry Grow?

The true power of colors can be easily understood with this quote- “Color is a power which directly influences the soul.” — Wassily Kandinsky. All colors are powerful, and they can easily break or make your visual display preferences. A retailer might create an erratic display of colors, but if those are coordinated well, the display will create a magical moment and in turn, it’d be a success. All retailers must consider using contrasting, like black and white along with monochromatic colors for creating both intriguing and eye-catching displays.

Too many times we lose sight of the power of color and its ability to attract the wandering eyes. Consider your home for example! You’d probably have a solid brown or grey couch, but there is a of color from the throw pillows that you have placed on the edges (to make a striking contrast) . This is the same principle. Just remember, its human nature, wherever the eyes go, the feet will follow! So use appropriate colors to grab the eyes of your customers and draw them to your displays effectively.

Have you ever pondered where does your viewer’s eye focus on the display during window shopping? Have you ever noticed do their eyes move toward a particular location on the display? Or are they entirely confused about where to look? What can you do in such circumstances? Here’s the answer- create a hotspot or focal point. Why? Because hotspots have the untapped potential to increase your sales by 229%.

Just for the record, examine your display from the customer’s point of view: for the new customer to see! Without any miss, always check your displays to make sure the prospects can hassle-freely view merchandise and focal points. Don’t forget, the hotspot is the product, not just a visual element you use to add to the story. the top, the floor, and both sides. Generally, the focal point is kept too high (for distinguishing)

By this we mean, if you put sand and seashells on the table as a part of your sandal collection, make sure the sandals are the focal point and not the sand.

Yes, you thought it right- what’s in it for the potential customers? Tell them a story! Use impactful sales-enabling signages to display the advantages of buying a particular product. If you wish to be more intricate, present 3 bullet points that will tell and show the customers why they need the product or how will their life become easier by using the product.

Always remember, you’re not writing prose but rather a headline which consists of powerful bullet points and conceivably a price proposition for your customers. By telling a narrative or a story, you are actually helping the customer better understand the product and push the buying decision.

Did you know this earlier, you can use the empty space for numerous different things, like- signages which will provide information about the displayed brands or products. Here, show your ingenuity and you could display customer testimonials with the customer’s picture and name on it. For this, you could hire a prolific designer or supplier.

Let’s take a real-life example- a furniture store can display an image of a family cozied up on a couch; emitting those fuzzy and warm feelings which will put the shoppers in a good mood. Always remember that visual merchandising is multimodal and retailers can choose from thousands of ideas when designing signage and displays. Never have any misgiven thoughts or ideas; these tips will return the biggest bang for your extra-spend buck. Use them solemnly to make your retail store’s experience as memorable as possible.

helps you to set the tone for the best shopping experience for your customers by monitoring:

All types of Visual Merchandising work can be executed through centralized communications solution with Pazo which allows retailers to communicate with each store, and if necessary, each employee within the store. Keep a track of images of all your store’s displays, lighting, floor plans, product shelves, and digital signage boards, etc. in one dashboard. With PAZO, you can check your store interiors and exteriors to ensure the customers can easily view the hotspots and merchandise.

Originally published at https://www.gopazo.com on May 2, 2019.