Let’s face it: visual merchandising is an art form. In today’s ecommerce world, retail display shelving has become a lost art form. Or, if a store masters it, then they become stagnant and rely on the same old design every new season.
It takes dedication, creativity, and marketing know-how to perfect this concept.
In order to attract shoppers to your store, one way to do it is to have an incredible visual merchandising setup. Everything from simple pricing to unique shelving, there’s so many things you can do to not only bring customers into your brick-and-mortar outfit, but to also generate buzz for your brand.
You may not think it is worth investing in, but it’s something that pays dividends in the future.
Are you still not convinced?
Well, here are five things you must know about retail display shelving:
1. Pick a Style Based on Your Niche
For the most part, every store has its own niche. Some retail outlet brings in the young people. Another store thrives by the older demographic. Other stores want the game-obsessed consumers.
Whatever your niche is, you should pick a retail display shelving style that caters to your niche. Everything from contemporary to vintage to high-tech, the type of shelf you install should reflect the type of customers you serve.
2. Keep Displays Relevant to Modern Times
On one hand, you want a unique style. On the other hand, you want to keep displays relevant to modern times. You don’t want shoppers entering your store and thinking they have just walked into a 1950s shop in the middle of Biloxi, Mississippi.
Simply put: the shelving should be relevant to modern times. Clean, sturdy, and artistic.
3. Make Your Store Spacious, Don’t Clutter the Area
A common mistake that vendors make is that they want to cram their store with so much stuff. They think that the more items they have for sale, the more people will come in and buy it.
The laws of scarcity should apply to your store, too.
That said, when you’re coming up with the right style of retail display shelving, you should still aim for a spacious area, not cluttered from left to right, top to bottom. You want people to feel comfortable and have the ability to walk around without having to squeeze through aisles.
4. Where Do You Place Your Products Anyway?
Here comes the hard part: how and where do you place your products anyway?
It has become a science to park your products. The experts have come up with the best ways to please shoppers and make that cash register ring.
Here are a few ideas to take advantage of:
- The most consumable products should be at the front of the store.
- Line up the aisle to the back with high margin products.
- Seasonal items should be at the front of the store.
- For some reason, customers turn right when shopping – follow suit!
- Avoid placing expensive items at the back to prevent theft.
As time goes by, you will create your own methods. For now, use these!
5. There Might be Theft – the Right Shelving Helps
In today’s market, it has become pretty difficult to steal, thanks to security cameras, security staff, and social media. But there will always be one person who wants to get something for nothing – they belong to the SFN society.
So, what can you do to ensure your goods aren’t stolen? Here are a few ideas:
- Avoid placing expensive items at the back to prevent theft (see below).
- Place smaller, costly merchandise in locked cases.
- Gondola shelving produces dead-end aisles for every department.
- Have a central area so customers can’t exit a side door with an unpaid item.
And that is how you prevent theft!
Like we said, visual merchandising is a lost art form. Storeowners and clerks just don’t know how to install and design retail display shelving anymore. Perhaps it’s because we spend too much time on websites like Amazon and Walmart. But now you have an elementary idea as to how to put up these types of shelves. Let’s hope customers will swipe, tap, and insert all the time now!